When viewing movies via Home Sharing from my iTunes library, my 1080p versions will sometimes buffer over wifi. I have the same movie in SD but can't figure out how to choose between the HD and SD versions on my 3rd gen Apple TV.
Apple TV
I'd obviously prefer to strea th HD versions to all of my Apple TVs (2 4th gens and 5 3rd gens). The only times I ever run into an issue are when streaming my 1080p rips to the kids bedrooms on the second floor. Streaming from Netflix or iTunes Store has never really been an issue as my wifi speeds are not that bad in the kids bedrooms. The wifi router is located in the center of the first floor. Below is the speed test results from one of the bedrooms on the second floor.
How to select video streaming resolution on 4th generation Apple TV
Step 1: Go to Settings → Apps → iTunes Movies and TV Shows → Video Resolution.
Step 2: Now choose High Definition (HD) or Standard Definition (SD).
Apple also recommends connecting to a 5GHz Wi-Fi network instead of 2.4GHz on the fourth-generation Apple TV. Another useful advice: check your HDMI Output settings to make sure your Apple TV’s output resolution matches your television’s native resolution in Settings → Audio and Video.
i don't understand. Metax adds the meta data to files - movie poster genre, description etc. However in this case you should have one file that's HD and one file that's SD Both would need to run through metax - one showing HD quality and one showing SD quality...
I don't believe it's possible to have a single file that includes both HD and SD versions of the same data. however, admittedly I am no technical guru...😝
Still not sure I understand. From my understanding, you need to add BOTH HD and SD files to iTunes then you would be able to choose between SD and HD via homeshare - not during a movie playback rather when you start the movie you choose HD or SD.
Both files exist in the the iTunes media folder where iTunes organizes all of my media. In iTunes itself only 1 line appears for the movie, let's say it's Minions. Next to the name of the movie is an HD-SD icon indicating I have both versions of the movie. When navigating my library on the Apple TV the movie shows an HD logo next to it and only plays the HD version.
I would suggest going into iTunes and adding the SD file - currently iTunes is not seeing your SD version. That tells me that only the HD has been added to the iTunes library. No matter that the line item is showing dual format it sounds like iTunes is not registering the SD version as an available file to play...
When I sync my sons iPad I have the box checked to prefer standard definition videos, and it syncs the SD version onto the iPad, so I know iTunes sees the file properly. But as I said earlier, on the Apple TV only the HD version shows up. I tried going into presences in iTunes and switching the preferred video resolution from 1080p to standard definition, but it didn't help.
As ProTodd says, the choice of which video resolution the Apple TV will play is either/or. It is not possible to choose which resolution you want to play. If you choose HD video in the settings, then as long at there is an HD version available (as in the case of your Star Trek example) then the HD version of the file will be played. If you choose SD then the standard definition file will be played, always. On the other hand, if you have SD chosen in the Apple TV setting and only an HD file is available then that file will be played.
The HD-SD badge is accomplished by iTunes inserting a randomly generated 9-digit "contentID" tag into both versions of a video file when they are downloaded. There are actually two files downloaded, but they appear as one file in the iTunes library with the HD-SD badge shown in the image above. As far as I know MetaX does not have the ability to add this "contentID" tag to ripped video files, but an app called Subler does.
TimmyHaines wrote:
I tried going into presences in iTunes and switching the preferred video resolution from 1080p to standard definition, but it didn't help.
Changing the Prefs in iTunes won't affect what video is played on the Apple TV. You need to change the Prefs on the Apple TV. Have you done that?
No, the instructions Protodd gave me are, I believe for the newest AppleTV. While I have that version, it is hardwired. The one I have upstairs on wifi is the previous generation and that is the one I need to change the settings on.
I can choose between the resolutions there, but will that change it on the Apple TV? And if so, will it change it across all of them? I have 7 of them in my house and only the ones that are on wifi are the ones that I want to stream the SD versions to.
TimmyHaines wrote:
No, lol. That's what I'm trying to figure out how to do. It's the previous generation AppleTV and I can't find in the menu where to do that.
I see. Heh. I'm afraid I don't have an Apple TV handy to help guide you. Although, If I remember correctly, it shouldn't be too difficult to find.
TimmyHaines wrote:
No, the instructions Protodd gave me are, I believe for the newest AppleTV. While I have that version, it is hardwired. The one I have upstairs on wifi is the previous generation and that is the one I need to change the settings on.
For the ATV3-
Go to Settings > Audio & Video > HDMI Output. You will see a menu: Auto, YCbCr, RGB High, RGB Low.
Use the arrow buttons to check out the options one by one. Give a few seconds after selecting an option for changes to get previewed.
Changing the video resolution only applies to content you stream from the store. Home shared SD-HD movies are played in HD. If you want to play them in SD create a separate SD file.
(You can do this by 'say' exporting a copy of the SD version to your desktop and opening it in a 3rd party tagging app (such as iFlicks), change the type to 'say' TV show and then import it back to iTunes, change the type back to 'Movie'. Your Apple TV will now see the SD-HD version and your newly created SD version.
"Home shared SD-HD movies are played in HD."
I was beginning to believe this was going to be the case.
On a side note, why would iTunes combine the two files if it limits access to it on the Apple TV? I'm sure no one has the answer to this...it just makes me wonder. I can still sync the SD version to all of my devices that sync to iTunes (iPads and iPhones) but I basically lose access to it through the Apple TV.
How do I choose between HD and SD versions of the same movie via Home Sharing?
