Does the new Apple TV (3rd gen.) supports streaming .mkv?

[L4Leonard]

As the title says.

 

[chenks]

no, it's still the same formats as previous appletv.

 

[J@ffa]

Your MKV files will almost certainly contain H.264 video. If the audio is in DTS, you'll need to convert it to AC3 (Dolby Digital), but that's covered in this thread. No video re-encoding necessary!

 

[chenks]

but that's covered in this thread. No video re-encoding necessary!

my thread 😉

 

[khollister]

Your MKV files will almost certainly contain H.264 video. If the audio is in DTS, you'll need to convert it to AC3 (Dolby Digital), but that's covered in this thread. No video re-encoding necessary!

Not so fast. While most blu-rays now use the AVS codec which is H.264, many older titles are VC-1 or MPEG2 which will have to be transcoded.

 

[Space Moose]

There's a quick little AppleScript here for repackaging your MKV files into a format that the AppleTV will play.

http://www.tvmutiny.com/threads/watch-mkv-videos-on-appletv-without-re-encoding.5/

It works in no-time flat, as all it does is copy the videos into a new MOV container.

There's also instructions there for dealing with AC3 audio (which must be converted).

Overall, it's much, much faster than using Handbrake, because you only transcode what you need (the audio).

 

[chiefpavvy]

The problem with the script method is most MKV will not contain the proper audio which Apple TV requires. A lot of them will have DTS or AC3 only and you need an AAC track...as well as conversion of the DTS->AC3 if you want 5.1. Just moving the tracks from MKV to M4V will not do it.

Also I don't expect Apple will ever (officially) support MKV files.