Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

jajohns8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
237
0
I've been trying to playback a few bluray encodes (encoded with handbrake nightly build with traditional Atv preset using nightly build downloaded Friday morning) and my results are not nearly as good as all the hype.

Every 5 or 10 minutes (varies) during playback, there is a slightly noticeable jump/stutter. I have tried wired connection and wireless, with the same results. I use a linksys wrt 320 n router with cat 5 cable that I crimp myself.

The picture 'quality' is pristine, however.

The stutter seems random and not connected with a graphically intense scene. (the 'birds' scene from planet earth played back fine.)

This issue doesn't crop up right away. I would encourage people who are doing testing to also include several long clips in their testing.
Trying a few trailers or small (even grahically complex) scenes may not reproduce my bugs. You need to sit down and watch a longer length clip or a full length bluray encode.
 

HT Guy

macrumors member
Feb 15, 2009
36
0
I have streamed movies and TV shows from iTunes and streamed two HD tv shows through homeshare and have had no stumbles, stuttering or audio dropouts. Maybe I am just lucky so far.

I wonder if your problem may be w/Handbrake.
 

ugp

macrumors 65816
Jan 7, 2008
1,223
4
Inverness, Florida
I haven't seen any issues like this. I encoded a 720p copy of Clash of the Titans from a 1080p using the AppleTV preset but sliding the quality down to 18 for a hight bitrate and it came out to be around 3.7MB/s on the video side and no stutter issues for me. Quality looks amazing on a 52" Sharp TV even at 720p.
 

BlackMangoTree

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2010
896
2
The issue you are seeing sounds more like a bug in the software as there are people on the Handbrake forums and Apple forums experiencing the same issue.

For me it happens sometimes and other times it doesn't

Many are saying it only happens once the movie is fully cached onto the Apple TV.
 

jajohns8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
237
0
The issue you are seeing sounds more like a bug in the software as there are people on the Handbrake forums and Apple forums experiencing the same issue.

For me it happens sometimes and other times it doesn't

Many are saying it only happens once the movie is fully cached onto the Apple TV.

Yes, my experience too.

Some of my blu ray encodes come out just fine and do not have this occasional jump during playback.

This caching issue sounds right as the issue takes a while to show itself.
 

BlackMangoTree

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2010
896
2
I haven't seen any issues like this. I encoded a 720p copy of Clash of the Titans from a 1080p using the AppleTV preset but sliding the quality down to 18 for a hight bitrate and it came out to be around 3.7MB/s on the video side and no stutter issues for me. Quality looks amazing on a 52" Sharp TV even at 720p.

For the Apple TV 2 you can actually use the High Profile preset and get an even smaller file size with the same quality.

Regarding the issue i think once the video has fully loaded the Apple Tv startes to do some background tasks that causes the video to jump. This could be fixed with a software update.

What amazes me is that Apple let this bug through. Did they actuallt test the unit with their eyes open ?
 

jajohns8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
237
0
For the Apple TV 2 you can actually use the High Profile preset and get an even smaller file size with the same quality.

Regarding the issue i think once the video has fully loaded the Apple Tv startes to do some background tasks that causes the video to jump. This could be fixed with a software update.

What amazes me is that Apple let this bug through. Did they actuallt test the unit with their eyes open ?

I'm following a thread in the apple support discussion about this. One poster said it happened during playback of an iTunes store HD rental as well as other encodes, so the background task interfering theory sounds good to me.

Wondering if homesharing has anything to do with it? It has been a huge headache by itself.
 

jajohns8

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
237
0
I have streamed movies and TV shows from iTunes and streamed two HD tv shows through homeshare and have had no stumbles, stuttering or audio dropouts. Maybe I am just lucky so far.

I wonder if your problem may be w/Handbrake.

Watching the same encode of Iron Man 2 on Apple Tv 1 with no issues.
This is related to the Atv 2.

Other users on apple support and handbrake forums experiencing the same issue.

One user described it happening during playback of an Itunes HD rental as well.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.