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Apple TV (4th Gen) won't play iTunes content from library

Is anyone else seeing this behavior? My new gen4 aTV won't play some movies from my library - it says "this content cannot be played because it's format is not compatible with this device", but it plays fine on my Mac and my gen III aTVs whether I stream it or airplay it. The gen IV won't even let me airplay it which seems really crazy. What's going on? Otherwise I'm loving this box, but this is insane.

Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Oct 30, 2015 4:20 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 2, 2017 3:32 PM

ghostgrafik wrote:

We may not be talking about the same function per the TV app in iOS. In the old Video app, it allowed you to connect to your iTunes library on a desktop/laptop and stream both ripped video files and video files purchased through iTunes. In the new TV app, it appears to only support streaming of iTunes purchases. Ripped files don't appear as playable unless you actually copy the file directly onto your iPad.

That's not what I'm finding. Here's a view of the TV app on my iPad. It shows the 2 computers (iTunes Libraries):

User uploaded file

If I then select one of the computers shown, I then see the recorded shows in that computer's iTunes Library:

User uploaded file

I have not copied these videos onto the iPad; they play (stream) from the computer.

144 replies

Nov 5, 2015 11:55 AM in response to blondieblue227

To me it definitely is a media format issue. Video plays fine on my iMac, iPhone & iPad through Home Sharing. But will not play on ATV4, and any attempts to AirPlay the content fail (and actually briefly remove Home Share Library from visibility on my mobile device).


No software has been updated on my iMac since well before I installed the ATV4. Content loads on ATV3.

Nov 5, 2015 12:09 PM in response to SweetSilverSong

ah... no, but here's what I think the deal is (I could be wrong of course). My gen III sometimes had issues with playback of my larger bluray files, 1) it had not nearly as much memory, and it 2) I suspect it was doing software decoding. My gen IV is blazingly fast at everything - the scrubbing speed (finger fast forward and rewind) is amazing. I think this might be do to hardware decoding of H.264. So.... if they decided to only support hardware decode of H.264, and reject high res other encodings, it could explain it. Now, if you compare the specs (below), it doesn't say that (they seem to support the same formats), but it's my theory based on what I'm seeing.


http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-tv/apple-tv-3rd-gen

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

http://www.apple.com/tv/specs/

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

Nov 5, 2015 1:44 PM in response to hollowspy

Same issue. The folks who produce Mac X Ripper also have a video converter. I'm running a lot of my video thru their converter to their "New Apple TV" profile. My issue with that is that it takes time to set up having to navigate back & forth through directory structures to add file to the GUI interface. I've been conversing with them via email to see if I can do it via scripting instead.

Apple TV (4th Gen) won't play iTunes content from library

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