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
iTunes doesn't convert for me, says it's already in ATV format. But ATV4 won't play it.
IiTunes doesn't convert movies say from a dvd. That would make thing a **** of a lot easier. they are talking about if you have a downloaded movie already converted in iTunes.
So, I got a response to my bug report from Apple. This is not something that they are going to fix. It simply said that the Leawo and Mac DVD ripper were generating 'incompatible file formats', and they were taking no action, it was up to the Ripper vendors to fix. That's hard to understand since every other piece of apple hardware (Macs, iPads, iPhones, and older Apple TVs) can play this 'incompatible file format', but that's the answer I got. I will be returning mine, as I have no intention of re-ripping my 800 movie collection.
Brett
Hey Brett. Someone suggested that i rip them using m4v format with MacX Ripper Pro. I have done this for 3 movies so far and the new Apple TV plays it just fine. I'm keeping my old Apple TV and when I play the older movies I'll just hook it up. No way I'm reripping my movies.
Brifly33, yea, H.264 files (in Mpeg4 format) from Leawo work fine too, but that doesn't fix the nearly 1,000 movies I already have (that aren't in H.264 format). I can create as many new files as I want, but is anyone really going to spend months fixing a video collection that they can play with their old hardware? I doubt it.
Botton line....very didisappointing new box from Apple for us loyal returning customers.
I can understand your frustration. But there are also plenty of loyal Apple users (like me) who's libraries play on the new just as good as the old and who find the new ATV meets/exceeds expectations. My 10,000 file collection from years of collecting plays just fine. It sounds like the video software you chose is questionable rather than it being Apples fault...
Sorry but you have it wrong, Apple have decided to drop support from some converted formats despite saying on the tech specs that it will and SHOULD still work.
If people knew this upfront then like myself I would have held off buying the new ATV as my 2000+ films now don't play.
Well, that response may mean that it won't be fixed in the short term, but I have a hard time believing that it won't eventually be fixed. Like you said, there's no reason for tvOS to reject a file format that is compatible with the latest versions of OS X and iOS, as well as the older ATV operating systems. I can understand why it wouldn't be a priority at this point, but It's probably an easy fix for Apple.
It sounds pretty definitive to me, quote
Engineering has the following feedback for you:
It looks the utilized tool creates incompatible video streams.
Looks like invalid values for profile/level.
We are now closing this bug report.
That doesn't sound like maybe we'll get to fixing it to me.
Hi, I expect to have the same problem.. Long time AppleTV user with large collection of movies I converted myself.
I bumped into this article with more info about what formats play and don't play on the ATV 4
http://www.mcelhearn.com/new-apple-tv-unable-to-play-certain-videos/
I might not be right, but I don't think that response sounds entirely definitive. "Looks like" is a wiggle room type of comment, and we both know that the same files that supposedly have "invalid values" do work with OS X and iOS, so there's something missing from tvOS that OS X and iOS both have.
I feel like it may be the original issue report may not be specific/detailed enough. The issue being described isn't incompatible streams overall, which I could understand them not being interested in addressing. Rather, it's files DO play on desktops, laptops, mobile devices, and older ATVs. It's just the files don't play on the one new device (and won't even AirPlay, based on my experience). This definitely seems like something they would want to address, since they are touting the seamlessness of their entire ecosystem for content.
I can assure you I was very definitive in my bug report, describing exactly this situation, that they all play fine on my Mac Mini, MacBook air, 2 Gen 3 aTVs, iPhone and iPad, but will not on either of the 2 aTV 4's that I had purchased, nor AirPlay. I was assured by phone support that they wanted to, and was asked to create a Developer account and enter it as a bug, which I did, and the above was the repsonse.
You hit the nail on the head: a file that is 100% compatible with Quicktime/iTunes in OS X, streams to iOS from OS X without issue, and is compatible when played from hardware in iOS with the Videos app SHOULD work with Apple TV. It has in the past, but now is "incompatible" with the ATV 4. Apple should have an interest in having it work seamlessly across all their platforms. There isn't a good reason for the ATV 4 to reject it when El Capitan and iOS 9 accept it without issue.
Apple TV (4th Gen) won't play iTunes content from library
