Quickest way to put movies into container?

Can you clarify what you mean by "Container"

Do you mean External Hard Drive?

are you on a Mac or PC?

musio said:

Big Mac

Click to expand...

Apple never made a Big Mac, sorry.

musio said:

Is there a quicker way than converting video files with handbreak? Any way to punt them into some sort of container so atv2 can read them?

ps. Still can't log into YouTube but I'm loving the atv. Does what the tin says

Thankies!

Click to expand...

Not really, as the container is not the only important part in being readable.
The videos for the TV need to adhere to specific codecs for video and audio, and many other containers use other codecs.
You are stuck with transcoding your library via Handbrake (not handbreak, it puts a brake on the CPU, it does not break a hand) or maybe AirPlay or AirVideo (?).

saving107 said:

Can you clarify what you mean by "Container"

Do you mean External Hard Drive?

Click to expand...

Some MKV's contain content playable bt the Apple TV you can just pass it all through into a Mp4 container with MkvTools much much quicker than converting.

This method wont work for everything though so far my strike rate is pretty bad.

Worth a shot.

Blackmango,

You seem to have this down so ill ask you...

I had been using w7MC as my front end because it was the only front end capable of playing my ripped blu rays which i store in bit perfect ISOs (technically it was powerdvd but that has a plugin into W7mc). I have a 6TB server and about 1TB of space left. However, the netflix integration which i use alot is just eh and it never gave me good iphoto and itunes integration with my main mac.

So I got the new ATV2 when it came out for our bedroom but also as a test to see if it could become my new front end. Love the ease with which it integrates itunes, iphoto and netflix. The big question is the movies/tvshows. After converting a few of my movies using handbrake, using the basic ipad setting and into 720P from 1080P, I just cannot tell the difference. I mean maybe its slight but I mean it has no affect on my enjoyment (this on a 55" LED).

Thus to my question. Converting the movies via handbrake is very problematic. On my PC which is a simple Core2 2.8GHZ 4GB RAM win 7 machine, the conversions are taking 4-10 hours depending on the movie which seems like an awfully long time. I have been using the nightly builds as they come out but so far nothing helps. Based on your experience, is this normal? The movies are pre-ripped, i am not going from Blu Ray drive to handbrake but mounting the ISO from my server. Just for good measure to make sure it wasnt the network, i copied an ISO to my internal drive and used Handbrake from there. Same result. I even moved the ISO to a different internal drive (I have 2 HDs in my computer) and used Handbrake to convert it to the other drive. Again same results. I dont remember if any of my movies were in dolby but i have been converting most of the movies from DTSMA to AC3 using the nightly builds as well as adding a stereo track. You think the added time is from the DTS conversion? I wouldnt think so but you never no....

Be curious on your thoughts because if it takes thing long then i will have to rethink this...

dhy8386 said:

Talking about Blu-Ray transcoding...

Click to expand...

Hi,

I don't have any Blu-Rays, thus no real experience with them being transcoded, but as my 2.8 C2D Mac will take an hour or two to transcode a video DVD movie to an .mkv using the H264 codec, I imagine 4-10 hours can be a normal time, as Blu-Rays have four times the information (SD is a quarter of HD) to transcode, even though Blu-Rays already use an MPEG-4 codec.

Can you see, if Handbrake does use both cores to work its cocktail?

@dhy8386, I would use the High Profile preset as it will keep the same quality at a slightly lower file size. Turning off all filters will speed up the encoding. speed.

4 - 10 hours seems about right, moving them onto your local HDD should improve speed slightly, the only real thing that will speed encoding up is a faster computer. Unfortunately there is not much more that one can do other than buying a faster computer. Maybe just encode them over night or while at work.

This is one of the reasons why i hate the Apple Tv for video virtually everything needs to encoded.

I ended up buying an Acer Revo to use with XBMC for video and everything else i do with the Apple TV.

I've been having pretty good success with mkvtools. Have only run about 15 or so through (mostly tv shows, 2 movies I think), but all have converted and played back fine. certainly worth a try since it only takes a few minutes compared to a few hours for a handbrake conversion.

JeffLebowski41 said:

I've been having pretty good success with mkvtools. Have only run about 15 or so through (mostly tv shows, 2 movies I think), but all have converted and played back fine. certainly worth a try since it only takes a few minutes compared to a few hours for a handbrake conversion.

Click to expand...

I have had the totally opposite, i have maybe tried just over 20 films only one worked.

Some video is just encoded in a too high profile for the Apple TV to play back. Seems i have them all lol

BlackMangoTree said:

@dhy8386, I would use the High Profile preset as it will keep the same quality at a slightly lower file size. Turning off all filters will speed up the encoding. speed.

4 - 10 hours seems about right, moving them onto your local HDD should improve speed slightly, the only real thing that will speed encoding up is a faster computer. Unfortunately there is not much more that one can do other than buying a faster computer. Maybe just encode them over night or while at work.

This is one of the reasons why i hate the Apple Tv for video virtually everything needs to encoded.

I ended up buying an Acer Revo to use with XBMC for video and everything else i do with the Apple TV.

Click to expand...

So i feared. Only option really then would be to build a PC with say an i5/i7 to really speed up the times. And just dont think its worth it. I guess ill wait to see if and when ATV2 is hacked with some actual apps that can playback MKVs. If that works, then that is what ill do.

As an aside, I like Plex but again just average at best music/photo integration. Likely ill just end up waiting and waiting...

What one can do is buy an Acer Revo PC they are cheap, small, quiet and look nice.

Run XBMC and experience trouble free movie watching with virtually zero limitations. Never having to re encode anything ever again.

Another option is buy a Western Digital TV Live they are only a couple more $$ than the Apple Tv and they can play back virtually anything.

Seriously the Apple TV for video playback is a turd.

There is no one box does all thats why i use an Acer Revo with XBMC for all video playback and an Apple Tv for Music and Photos.

Yeh I know and the boxee box will be another option.

Im just tied to my apple stuff since im a big iphoto user and itunes user. I have used the WD, Plex, xBox, w7mc and like i said, integration is not great with my stuff. The XMBC/Boxee/Plex option is probably the best i have found and with Plex, their iphoto and itunes integration is a little better than the other two.

But am going to give some serious thought about being all Apple and/or getting a Mini to be the new front end.

Thanks for your input...

Side note: My favorite option would be to build a hackintosh with a mini itx board and i7 but just dont feel like having the headache of 1) setting it all up and 2) worrying about OS updates...

Keep the APple TV for Music and Photos and XBMC fo Videos.

Every mkv 720p file that I have put through mkvtools, has worked perfectly. I even add a 2ch track so the files are compatible with my atv2, ipad and iphone.

One movie (toy story 3) popped up a box saying it has something on it that might not make it work and to go to another screen and turn off something. Once I did that it reencoded the file. I then put the file back into mkvtools and pass it thru and it worked. So I'm guessing files that don't work it lets you know so you can reencode it and then pass it thru... that has been the only one so far.. my regular tv shows such as dexter, boardwalk empire, how I met your mother, house, glee, modern family, fringe, SGU, etc all have worked perfectly and only takes a few mins. I then put the files through iflicks to add the metadata and adds to itunes.

I've tried mkv tools, put prefer subler for this personally.

I'd really like to automate this process- any ideas?

I've found that Subler doesn't work for me. All the .mkv files I try to swap over to mp4 end up being Protected MPEG-4 movie files. They play just fine on iTunes, but not on the TV. Using MKVtools, on the other hand, has worked very well. The process only takes a few minutes, it saves the file as a normal .mp4, and they all play on my TV2.

I have tried mkvtools on over 20 files 1 worked.

The Apple tv is only good for low quality video.

BlackMangoTree said:

I have tried mkvtools on over 20 files 1 worked.

The Apple tv is only good for low quality video.

Click to expand...

New version works great for me.

MKVtools works perfect for me. You just gotta know which containers support what formats. Use this table: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/what_will_xbox_360_play.cfm

For example MP4 doesn't support AC3 sound so you to convert the soundtrack into AAC when muxing MKVs into MP4s.