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MightyWhite

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 29, 2012
97
0
Oxford UK
Hello....

So I have been backing up my bluray on a PC (I know....) using the nightly build of handbrake so I can burn subtitles etc... Using the apple tv3 setting only change is select burn forced subtitles.

It takes forever so have been doing 1 a day (ranges from 6 hours to 17)...

I watched Harry Potter 1 (Shhhhhhh) with my boy last night and 3 or 4 times I got the spinney Loading ring... Are the files too big to stream at around 5-6 gb?

Questions..

1. Could it be my old laptop streams slow (dell 4 years old) if so no probs as will be buying a new mac when available.
2. Should I run them through handbrake again? Will that shrink them?
3. Should I start again with web optimised ticked? And change the 20 to a 21?

4. Should I stop moaning and let them load up for 10 mins before starting to watch them......

Cheers all any advice would be appreciated
 

roidy

macrumors 65816
Dec 30, 2008
1,027
22
Nottingham, UK
First if you're streaming them over a wireless connection that could be the problem, try a wired connection, your wireless could be crap.

On to your questions:-

1. The spec of the serving computer dosen't need to be that good, I stream all my media from an Atom based server with no problems.

2. No, your file size is fine, I've got encodes at twice that size that stream fine.

3. It is best if you use web optimize on your files however you don't need to re-encode them to optimize them, if you've got access to a Mac you can use subler to optimize them. If you're stuck on PC like me then give me sometime and I'll post a little program I wrote for PC to optimize a file, it only takes about 10 minutes.

4. No comment on the moaning.
 

MightyWhite

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 29, 2012
97
0
Oxford UK
I am stuck on pc at the moment but soon on a mac and i plan to get iflicks to get all the metadata for my prepared films so can run it through subler too... Thanks for your reply though

Cheers
 

lessismo

macrumors newbie
Aug 15, 2011
27
0
Paris
Yep as roidy mentionned web optimisation is key. Dont know a program with such function (without transcoding) for windows though (I use subler on mac).

Another thing: you may cable connect your aTV to your local network, not just via WiFi.
I watch successfully remuxed blu-ray that way (20 to 30Gb per file).
 

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
Does web optimized reduce size or quality? Or is it just a snazzy tweak for streaming?

It's just a "snazzy tweak for streaming". :D

No impact on quality.

Is your router "n" and in proximity to the aTV? I suspect your wifi as I also have no buffering issues with large, web optimized, files. My aTV is within 20-30ft of my Time Capsule (with attached HDD holding all my movies) and my Mac (running iTunes) is on the next floor up. So I suspect it's more important what type of router you have and that the aTV is closer to it than your PC.
 

Menneisyys2

macrumors 603
Jun 7, 2011
5,997
1,101
If you're stuck on PC like me then give me sometime and I'll post a little program I wrote for PC to optimize a file, it only takes about 10 minutes.

Do you have any plans to make this app public? (I would like to evaluate & link to it in my next, Apple TV and/or MP4 handling-specific article.)

----------

It's just a "snazzy tweak for streaming". :D

No impact on quality.

Is your router "n" and in proximity to the aTV? I suspect your wifi as I also have no buffering issues with large, web optimized, files. My aTV is within 20-30ft of my Time Capsule (with attached HDD holding all my movies) and my Mac (running iTunes) is on the next floor up. So I suspect it's more important what type of router you have and that the aTV is closer to it than your PC.

BTW, today, I've made some serious benchmarks with Subler-optimized and unoptimized (the direct remux of the 20 Mbps "Iron Sky" direct BD rip) files. I haven't noticed any difference in loading times in either case:

- over Wi-Fi, playback hasn't started in either case, not even after 15 minutes of the ATV's starting to load the file. The ATV3 buffered the 16 Gbyte movie to around 15-20% in both cases but still was unwilling to start playback.

- over a cabled connection (direct connection of both my MBP and my ATV3 to my router), playback started in about 10 seconds in both cases, immediately after starting buffering. (I've tested this with skipping to surely-not-pre-buffered chapters too.)

What have I done wrong? The two files in question are indeed optimized and unoptimized.

EDIT: as opposed to ATV3 streaming, Web streaming indeed does profit from accessing an optimized file. I've tested two different sets of MP4 files (with an optimized and an unoptimized video in both) and consistently measured about 33% shorter loading times for low-bitrate and 9% for high-bitrate ones.
 
Last edited:

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
Do you have any plans to make this app public? (I would like to evaluate & link to it in my next, Apple TV and/or MP4 handling-specific article.)

----------



BTW, today, I've made some serious benchmarks with Subler-optimized and unoptimized (the direct remux of the 20 Mbps "Iron Sky" direct BD rip) files. I haven't noticed any difference in loading times in either case:

- over Wi-Fi, playback hasn't started in either case, not even after 15 minutes of the ATV's starting to load the file. The ATV3 buffered the 16 Gbyte movie to around 15-20% in both cases but still was unwilling to start playback.

- over a cabled connection (direct connection of both my MBP and my ATV3 to my router), playback started in about 10 seconds in both cases, immediately after starting buffering. (I've tested this with skipping to surely-not-pre-buffered chapters too.)

What have I done wrong? The two files in question are indeed optimized and unoptimized.

EDIT: as opposed to ATV3 streaming, Web streaming indeed does profit from accessing an optimized file. I've tested two different sets of MP4 files (with an optimized and an unoptimized video in both) and consistently measured about 33% shorter loading times for low-bitrate and 9% for high-bitrate ones.
Something is not right. My LOTR EE BR m4v which is 16GB, using wifi, starts playing in less than a minute and my other BR rips of smaller file size start within a few seconds. When I first got the aTV and was not optimizing, I was getting erratic starting. Sometimes a movie would just sit there at 1% for over 30 minutes. Since, using optimization, I have not had one instance of that. I know that's all anecdotal, though.
 
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