Apple TV Best Video Format & Converter

Question

Level 1

8 points

Apple TV Best Video Format & Converter

Hi, I'm considering getting myself an AppleTV instead of building an HTPC type box just to stream TV & my movies.

Basically I will have the always-on PC upstairs hardwired into my gigabit network, which will store all of my movies, TV shows, music etc. as well as hosting my printer. That PC is also the one I'll be using to sync my iPad & iPhones to.

Currently I use VLC streamer to play videos on my iDevices; and I could just Airpay the stream through to an AppleTV, but this ties up a device (to a extent), slows it down & drains its battery. Plus it would mean that if I started something, then wanted to go out with my device, it would screw up playback for my wife. Therefore I plan to get all of my library into h.264 format & imported into iTunes so the AppleTV can play it via home sharing.

So what I would like to know is what is my best option for conversion? Is there a format I would be best off downloading it in in the first place to make conversion easier/faster? I only have a 32" 720p TV, so full HD is unnecessary, but I would like to include the surround sound info so that in the future I can output the AppleTV's HDMI through a home theatre processor. Hopefully can keep the filesize up to around 1GB, maybe 1.5 max?

AppleTV 2, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Aug 20, 2012 2:46 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 20, 2012 2:56 AM in response to Naf623

Video formats supported

H.264 video up to 1080p, 30 frames per second, High or Main Profile level 4.0 or lower, Baseline profile level 3.0 or lower with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Audio formats supported

HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through

Photo formats

JPEG, GIF, TIFF.

It's impossible to suggest a converter without knowing the compression type used for audio and video in the source material, perhaps you can provide that information.

We cannot provide information to help circumvent any copy protected content.

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Answer 2

Naf623 Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 20, 2012 4:20 AM in response to Winston Churchill

I'm pretty sure its practically all in xvid. Some is .mkv, but I'm not certain of the contents of the wrapper in those cases. But I'll probably want to reconsider even the source if I want to include the surround sound. So I think I'll be looking at starting with .mkv files containing .x264 or h.264.

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Answer 3

Aug 20, 2012 7:21 AM in response to Naf623

Handbrake will handle .mkv with .x264/.h264.

Note however, many .mkv files from the internet are corrupt, they may appear to play just fine in their unconverted state but may fail to convert without error.

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Answer 4

Rudegar

Level 10

186,630 points

Aug 20, 2012 8:21 AM in response to Winston Churchill

if one dislike handbrake a friend said it could not do batch jobs so he wanted an alternativ so if that is the case then http://www.videora.com/en-us/Converter/ does batch jobs (not saying that handbrake don't haven't messed around with that part)

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