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Tom25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
17
0
UK
Hey, i just orded a Apple TV and it came today,
I have a few downloaded movies in .AVI format how do i put them on the Apple TV to play on a Sony Bravia 40" TV?

I would be very grateful if someone could help me, thankyou,

MSN:eoe_soccer@hotmail.com < or instant message me
 

Tom25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
17
0
UK
so will the movie be good quality on the Sony Bravia when playing?
 

Tallest Skil

macrumors P6
Aug 13, 2006
16,044
4
1 Geostationary Tower Plaza
That depends on the compression and quality you choose when you encode it and is capped by the quality of the source video.

So if the source is DVD quality, it won't look any better than that. If the source is a 1080p Blu-ray rip, it won't look any better than that.
 

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
Sorry, Can you explain please?
Im new to this :p

Go here and download Handbrake. Its an app that lets you convert various video formats into various other formats. Its main function however is DVD ripping.

Until you get familiar with how it all works may I suggest you stick with the AppleTV preset. This will guarantee it will work on your AppleTV. The preset gives pretty much the best output for AppleTV anyway. I spent years perfecting my settings only to find Handbrakes preset was changed and was pretty much the same settings as I discovered for myself. :rolleyes:

VisualHub has been discontinued and even though it was a great app you may struggle to find a license for it to get the full benefit of the application.
 

Tom25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
17
0
UK
Go here and download Handbrake. Its an app that lets you convert various video formats into various other formats. Its main function however is DVD ripping.

Until you get familiar with how it all works may I suggest you stick with the AppleTV preset. This will guarantee it will work on your AppleTV. The preset gives pretty much the best output for AppleTV anyway. I spent years perfecting my settings only to find Handbrakes preset was changed and was pretty much the same settings as I discovered for myself. :rolleyes:

VisualHub has been discontinued and even though it was a great app you may struggle to find a license for it to get the full benefit of the application.

Cheers Dude, much appreciated
 

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
so will the movie be good quality on the Sony Bravia when playing?

That depends on the compression and quality you choose when you encode it and is capped by the quality of the source video.

So if the source is DVD quality, it won't look any better than that. If the source is a 1080p Blu-ray rip, it won't look any better than that.

As I said its best to use the presets until you know what you are doing but the preset for AppleTV (with a DVD as source) is pretty the best output you will get.

If you are transcoding .AVIs like you say it may be a good idea to open them in Quicktime and look at the movie inspector (or whatever its called) and try to match those settings in Handbrake. i.e. framerate, bitrate etc. and set the output in Handrake to .mp4 or .m4v.
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
So if the source is DVD quality, it won't look any better than that. If the source is a 1080p Blu-ray rip, it won't look any better than that.

If the source is 1080p then it'll have to be downscaled to 720p (adjust resolution in HandBrake's settings).

Not that you didn't know that Tallest Skil, the OP is new to this so best to point out the obvious things first ;)
 

Tom25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
17
0
UK
As I said its best to use the presets until you know what you are doing but the preset for AppleTV (with a DVD as source) is pretty the best output you will get.

If you are transcoding .AVIs like you say it may be a good idea to open them in Quicktime and look at the movie inspector (or whatever its called) and try to match those settings in Handbrake. i.e. framerate, bitrate etc. and set the output in Handrake to .mp4 or .m4v.

right, ive downloaded Handbrake, GUI (What ever that GUI Means :p)
anyway, i selected my source and choosed the destination, now on the presets panel do i select 'Apple TV' or leave it on 'Normal'.
And is their any other settings i have to select?
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
right, ive downloaded Handbrake, GUI (What ever that GUI Means :p)
anyway, i selected my source and choosed the destination, now on the presets panel do i select 'Apple TV' or leave it on 'Normal'.
And is their any other settings i have to select?

GUI stands for Graphical User Interface as opposed to a command based application ;)

Just select the Apple TV preset and click go. See how the quality turns out/what you expected. The Apple TV preset with constant quality of 59% is actually really good. You'd probably not be able to tell much if any difference between the DVD and the encoded file playing back on your Apple TV with the preset.
 

Tom25

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
17
0
UK
GUI stands for Graphical User Interface as opposed to a command based application ;)

Just select the Apple TV preset and click go. See how the quality turns out/what you expected. The Apple TV preset with constant quality of 59% is actually really good. You'd probably not be able to tell much if any difference between the DVD and the encoded file playing back on your Apple TV with the preset.

nice, cheers :p
 

hagar

macrumors 68000
Jan 19, 2008
1,959
4,838
I have just mentioned this in another thread: I also have a lot of AVI files, and you can play them on your ATV without reconverting them.

1) Put your videos in iTunes using VideoDrive
2) Use the VideoDrive import method "Copy videos into compatible container"
3) In VideoDrive Preferences, check the box "Make compatible with Enhanced AppleTV"
4) Done, all videos you put in iTunes will sync and stream to your AppleTV!

Make sure you install Perian on your ATV to play them! That's actually a bit harder to accomplish. If you are not into that, you can use VideoDrive with the import option "Convert videos for AppleTV". Then, they will play on your basic ATV.

I prefer VideoDrive over HandBrake and VisualHub because it puts the videos in iTunes in addition to searching for metadata and cover art. It works without a hassle. You can download it here: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27326/videodrive
 

rasputin666

macrumors regular
Mar 1, 2009
166
28
Question for you

I have just mentioned this in another thread: I also have a lot of AVI files, and you can play them on your ATV without reconverting them.

1) Put your videos in iTunes using VideoDrive
2) Use the VideoDrive import method "Copy videos into compatible container"
3) In VideoDrive Preferences, check the box "Make compatible with Enhanced AppleTV"
4) Done, all videos you put in iTunes will sync and stream to your AppleTV!

Make sure you install Perian on your ATV to play them! That's actually a bit harder to accomplish. If you are not into that, you can use VideoDrive with the import option "Convert videos for AppleTV". Then, they will play on your basic ATV.

I prefer VideoDrive over HandBrake and VisualHub because it puts the videos in iTunes in addition to searching for metadata and cover art. It works without a hassle. You can download it here: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27326/videodrive


i'm a little confused on process, right now i have a dvd that i use handbrake to rip. i then import to itunes so i can sync to any apple device (i have all 3, iphone/ipod/appletv). i like VideoDrive but how do i go about going from dvd to itunes w/o ripping using handbrake?
Thx
 

Wiska

macrumors member
Jan 22, 2009
58
0
All the responses so far involve transcoding .AVI to Apple TV-compatible files. Too much work and a waste of time!

Just buy ATV Flash or use a patchstick. Follow the instructions to install it on your Apple TV. Then you'll be able to play .AVI files on your Apple TV with no requirement to needlessly waste time transcoding.
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
All the responses so far involve transcoding .AVI to Apple TV-compatible files. Too much work and a waste of time!

Just buy ATV Flash or use a patchstick. Follow the instructions to install it on your Apple TV. Then you'll be able to play .AVI files on your Apple TV with no requirement to needlessly waste time transcoding.

But majority of these people will probably at some point watch this stuff on their iPod, so reencoding to MPEG4 isn't a waste of time..
 

KitsBeach

macrumors newbie
Apr 2, 2011
2
0
Converting is a waste of time

I'm looking for something so that I can take my newly downloaded movies to my cabin on the weekends.

Converting takes over an hour per movie.

Can ATV Flash play .avi files from an external harddrive..?

That way I'll just pack up my movies harddrive and my Apple TV and take them with me....
 

Sparky9292

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2004
831
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

rasputin666 said:
I have just mentioned this in another thread: I also have a lot of AVI files, and you can play them on your ATV without reconverting them.

1) Put your videos in iTunes using VideoDrive
2) Use the VideoDrive import method "Copy videos into compatible container"
3) In VideoDrive Preferences, check the box "Make compatible with Enhanced AppleTV"
4) Done, all videos you put in iTunes will sync and stream to your AppleTV!

Make sure you install Perian on your ATV to play them! That's actually a bit harder to accomplish. If you are not into that, you can use VideoDrive with the import option "Convert videos for AppleTV". Then, they will play on your basic ATV.

I prefer VideoDrive over HandBrake and VisualHub because it puts the videos in iTunes in addition to searching for metadata and cover art. It works without a hassle. You can download it here: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27326/videodrive


i'm a little confused on process, right now i have a dvd that i use handbrake to rip. i then import to itunes so i can sync to any apple device (i have all 3, iphone/ipod/appletv). i like VideoDrive but how do i go about going from dvd to itunes w/o ripping using handbrake?
Thx

ATV can't play mpeg vob files. Also there is no slot to put the DVD in a version 2 apple tv.
 

Sparky9292

macrumors 6502a
Aug 1, 2004
831
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Tom25 said:
Hey, i just orded a Apple TV and it came today,
I have a few downloaded movies in .AVI format how do i put them on the Apple TV to play on a Sony Bravia 40" TV?

I would be very grateful if someone could help me, thankyou,

MSN:eoe_soccer@hotmail.com < or instant message me

Do a search for iPod/AppleTV formatted movies. AVI's are not the only format on thePirat errrrrrrrr www.familymovietorrents.com
 
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