I have some iTunes purchased movies which refuse to be sync'd with my Apple TV (1st Gen). Storage for the ATV is external using FireCore (latest release), and I have added content since this issue began, but the same movies still will not sync.
I have tried syncing as 'Playlists' - my preferred, also ticking the 'boxes' for these items within the 'Movie List' on iTunes, finally selecting 'All Movies' - none work.
You should verify what is the format of the movies that doesn't sync (do a Get Info in iTunes and look under the General tab) and see if the match the supported format of the AppleTV 1st gen (look here http://support.apple.com/kb/SP19).
For exemple, AppleTV 1st gen doesn't support HD video and will not allow to sync unsupported format.
Hi SeaBeast,
Sadly I don't believe that this is the issue. The movies were dowbnloaded from iTunes Store as .m4v format, and I have many films in HD format, which Apple TV (Gen 1) does support. Plus the description for the films state that it is in both 720p and 1080p. I also have many other films of the same format sync'd to my Apple TV and will play.
Even if it were to be a resolution issue, I cannot see why it would fail to 'sync' ..... if the wrong format/resolution then not play yes, but to fail to sync doesn't seem to make sense to me.
Very perplexing :-(
Hi cefn,
The format doesn't gives you any indication of the resolution or many other settings that may prevent a movie to be played on AppleTV. You can compress a movie in .m4v using multiple resolution and fps which can only be see by using the Get Info screen.
It's a fact that AppleTV 1st doesn't support HD (HD mean 1080p) and you can see this if you look at the link I provided to you. Full HD is the feature that was added on the 3rd and last generation of AppleTV.
An AppleTV cannot play 720P nor 1080P. You also letting me perplex when you say that you can actually view these on your 1st gen AppleTV. A movie in .m4v cannot be in both 720 and 1080; it's one or the other.
And it would make sense that the AppleTV check if it can actually support the movie format before syncing it to then later not being able to play it like any iOS device will prevent you syncing unsupported format.
Take a look at the get info, it will gives you the exact setting of the .m4v. Compare with the supported format shown on the link I sent you.
From the link, the supported video format is described as follow: Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
See, max resolution is 1280x720 for your .m4v. Audio setting could also prevent your AppleTV to be able to playback a movie.
The fact that you have downloaded the movie from iTunes doesn't mean it will play on your AppleTV as you computer probably support the HD version.
OK ... well, I have re-built my ATV1 removed all media re-configured, ensured that my iTunes download option is set to 720p, but still no joy. This issue is not about what will, or will not play on my apple TV. The issue is this : there is some content - movies - that will not 'sync' from my iTunes Library to my Apple TV.
I use an external drive 500GB managed by FireCore.
During my 'rebuild' process I changed from external to internal storage, but still a number of my film media files will not sync.
My iTunes 'Movie Library' contains 102 items
My Apple TV 'Movies Listing' contains 86 items
Some of my movie collection on the ATV1 (historical) is at resolution 1080p - and plays(courtesy of FireCore). So it cannot be argued that the resolution prevents sync'ing from iTunes to ATV1, as this data has sync'd both previously, and over the past couple of days.
The films were purchased from iTunes, and the info clearly shows the download/purchase date and account (mine).
One of the films that steadfastly refuses to sync to ATV is currently syncing to my iPhone4
So you have a very special AppleTV HD 1st gen that is better than his official technical spec but your special AppleTV HD also have a bug that prevent it to work as a special HD.
Good luck with that but still if you don't want to believe what's written on the box (that it cannot play any 720 or 1080P movie) I suggest that before you take too much of your time that the latest AppleTV that was advertise with its new ability to play 1080P movie is at 99$.
To correct you on one point .... ATV1 does natively support 720p video format - the following is from the technical specifications sheet :
Video formats supported
Natively it does not support 1080p that is understood, but my media that will not sync is within the supported specs being an 'iTunes Store purchased video in HD 720p'. As can be seen by the 'Media File Info' below of a movie that will not sync
So, it does fit the supported formats
I apologize for the mistaken 720P supported format, you are right on this one.
The get info you made was the parameters to verify if the AppleTV could play the movie and yes, both audio and video seems to meet the requirements.
Since it is a protected movie purchased from iTunes, I would suggest you to report a problem with it to customer service. You can do that by going in your purchased history. Click the upper-right account name in iTunes, locate your purchase and report your problem. Usually, this would grant you to redownload the movie (not sure now with iCloud if you can simply redownload it without asking, you can also check if you can simply redownload).
This will simply check the hypothesis that there may have something wrong with the file itself since other seems to sync fine. It happen once to me with an Apple podcast; able to view it in iTunes, just can't on AppleTV 2nd gen. There may be other limiting factor like FPS.
That's all I can see for now.
Hi SeaBeast,
I appreciate the dialogue we have had on this topic. It helped me examine my file/data more closely, and I do find it very useful to 'bounce' things off others. I shall report the issue with iTunes Support, although it seems very weird that it has sync'd successfully to my iPhone4.
iCloud does allow a re-download without requesting, but if I am 'pulling' the same file I may simply be running in to an unresolvable issue. If there is an issue with the file itself a fresh download might resolve it for me, they would probably allocate me a 'redeem code'.
Wondering if you ever figured out how to resolve this cefn-y-coed?
I have a 1st gen Apple TV that is exhibiting the same characteristics (can sync the just purchased from iTunes Start Trek into Darkness 720p movie, but the extended edition 720p Lord of the Ring's series, purchases several days later, will not sync succussfully with non message associated - it seems to be syncing just fine - progress bar marching across iTunes, but then it just seems to stall and time out before completion at the end of the progress measure (with the Sync button going back to an enabled state since it wasn't successful) and its a wired ethernet connection.
I can of course stream it from my Mac, but that's not what I want with my 160GB Apple TV. ;-) I have tried disabling iTunes extras, but that didn't change things.
Some movie content not syncing between iTunes(Mac) and AppleTV(1st Generation)
