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User profile for user: Hatrabbit
Hatrabbit Author
User level: Level 1
14 points

Lots of video formats, can Apple TV play them?

Considering buying an Apple TV, I'm trying to learn what it can & can't do. In addition to the seasons of shows I'd be buying from iTunes, and other services such as Netflix & Hulu Plus, I have tons of video files kept in an external drive. They're in every format you can think of... AVI, MP4, MKV, FLV & all the rest. What would I do to view these? Would I be able to add these to my iTunes library and view them that way?


Still trying to wrap my head around this, any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Posted on Dec 15, 2012 2:52 PM

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User profile for user: Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
User level: Level 10
122,493 points

Posted on Dec 15, 2012 3:04 PM

You'd need to convert them to a supported format.


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.

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User profile for user: Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
User level: Level 10
122,493 points

Dec 15, 2012 3:04 PM in response to Hatrabbit

You'd need to convert them to a supported format.


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.

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Lots of video formats, can Apple TV play them?

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