What is the best streaming app for Apple TV?

I'll try to keep this short as possible. New Apple user here, just bought an Air for mainly my son but I'll be using it as well, mostly for videos. I also bought a Lightning Digital AV Adapter and an Apple TV, I wanted to find the easiest way to stream videos from my PC or iPad to my TV. My videos are mainly MKV files (2-20GB) with DTS audio, etc. nothing that the Air can play on its own.

I tried the adapter first. At first I tried around 3-4 apps like AVPlayerHD, PlayerXtreme & Infuse to play my videos but I would sometimes get picture but no sound when playing a video or vice versa, a hit or miss really. They all said they could handle every codec, etc. I had to remux them into AC-3 audio or make it a mp4 file instead. I really didnt want to mess with all that. I just wanted to be able to put the movies on my PC and be able to watch them quickly on my TV. I've had bad experiences trying to stream videos from my PC to TV using my PS3 with Plex and so on. I could never get the video to play with out lagging.

I then tried the Apple TV tonight, got it all hooked up. I also downloaded an app called AirVideo HD and the AirVideo Server for my PC. It says it converts any video on the fly wireless. It seems to work pretty good, any video I've thrown at it so far has seem to play fine, I streamed a 12gb 1080p video tonight. I have to start AV Server app on my PC, the open the AV HD app on my iPad and use the mirroring feature or whatever. In AirVideo once I play the video in the app, it just pops up over the Apple TV main screen.

Now to my questions...
- Are there any other apps similar to AirVideo HD, I'm looking for the best out there, any other recommendations? I really would like to keep the best quality possible when streaming. I don't know how much the video downgrades while using this particular app.
- Is the Apple TV & streaming app my best option, I'm guessing to just return the adapter now? The adapter was just $40 less then the Apple TV. I won't really be using Netflix, Hulu, etc. so I didn't see the need for an Apple TV at first, all I wanted to was stream movies easily. I don't have many electronics at home, Just a few Android phones, a PS3, a Kindle Fire, a laptop/PC and the iPad/Apple TV. Out of those I guess I was trying to find the easiest solution for streaming.
- I was also wondering is there any to stream a video from my PC directly to the Apple TV without the need of the iPad, just use my PC? Is that even possible?

Thanks

ericavi8tor said:

Subler

Free and super fast. Convert MKV to m4v

Click to expand...

So just throw all my videos into Subler and covert them to m4v, then throw them into iTunes and the watch them on Apple TV?

linds15 said:

thats what i did (used ivi instead) but same thing, it sucks to make the initial switch, but long run is easier for the family

Click to expand...

ok gotcha. one real quick thing i just thought of.

does the apple tv even support 1080p mirroring? i also have the lightning adapter which says it can output 1080p? i downloaded an ios app called airvideo hd for my ipad and its airvideo server for my pc. all i did was hookup my ipad air to the lightning adapter and hdmi then to my tv. open up the airvideo hd app on my ipad and select whatever movie i wanted to play that was on my pc and it would play it on my tv(converting in on the fly) in 1080p. now i just use the apple tv and ipad. i turn or airplay mirroring and just play the video through airvideo hd and it pops up on my tv. just dont know if apple tv supports 1080p airplay or mirroring, whatever you call it.