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MKV to Apple TV format

C

Croatian

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 14, 2006
260
0
Ontario, Canada
Hi guys

I have few movies in MKV format and was looking at the application called MP4Tools, I have a question about audio and which audio to select. I currently have AppleTV 3rd Gen.

For video I know I select pass thru as it is x.264 as for audio do I also go pass thru (as it is in DTS) and then select AAC 2.1 and AAC 5.1 ?

Any help with what option for audio to select would be appreciated and my Apple TV is connected to 5.1 surround sound.
 
C

cardsdoc

macrumors 6502
Jun 9, 2007
359
58
Shaker Hts, OH
Croatian said:
Hi guys

I have few movies in MKV format and was looking at the application called MP4Tools, I have a question about audio and which audio to select. I currently have AppleTV 3rd Gen.

For video I know I select pass thru as it is x.264 as for audio do I also go pass thru (as it is in DTS) and then select AAC 2.1 and AAC 5.1 ?

Any help with what option for audio to select would be appreciated and my Apple TV is connected to 5.1 surround sound.
Click to expand...

AppleTV unfortunately does not play or pass through DTS. It should be converted to AAC stereo and AC3 (dolby digital) 5.1 audio tracks.
 
J

JackieInCo

Suspended
Jul 18, 2013
5,178
1,601
Colorado
Why not just use Subler? MKV is just a package and Subler simply repackages to .MV4. I have not had any of the 100 MKV movies that I converted from MKV to .MV4 not play on my Apple TV.
 
JeffPerrin

JeffPerrin

macrumors 6502a
Jul 21, 2014
621
641
Hi JackieInCo,

"Re-packing" (remuxing) the files to .m4v may work for the video and stereo files, but this process alone cannot re-encode DTS 5.1 audio to Apple TV-compatible Dolby Digital 5.1.
 
M

MagicMacMan

macrumors newbie
May 12, 2009
9
0
Croatian said:
Hi guys

I have few movies in MKV format and was looking at the application called MP4Tools, I have a question about audio and which audio to select. I currently have AppleTV 3rd Gen.

For video I know I select pass thru as it is x.264 as for audio do I also go pass thru (as it is in DTS) and then select AAC 2.1 and AAC 5.1 ?

Any help with what option for audio to select would be appreciated and my Apple TV is connected to 5.1 surround sound.
Click to expand...

Hey there! So I use my Apple TV more than cable and import a lot of video into very frequently. Everything I do is generally .mkv. So MKV is a Motroska video file and really just a container. They are still h.264 video files in a .mkv container. That means certain apps can strip away the container, and repackage it with a more usable format such as mp4/m4v (same thing). I've tried a lot of apps but the best one I've been using lately to do this is iFlicks. It simply repackages it and makes it iTunes compatible without having to deal with loss of quality or changing audio video preferences. You can look on the app store for it and I would recommend it. It can change the container, add meta data, and import to iTunes in a minute or two.

There are others beyond iFlicks, this is just the one I personally prefer at the moment. There has been continuous active development and new features added that make it work well for me.
 
C

Croatian

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 14, 2006
260
0
Ontario, Canada
MagicMacMan said:
Hey there! So I use my Apple TV more than cable and import a lot of video into very frequently. Everything I do is generally .mkv. So MKV is a Motroska video file and really just a container. They are still h.264 video files in a .mkv container. That means certain apps can strip away the container, and repackage it with a more usable format such as mp4/m4v (same thing). I've tried a lot of apps but the best one I've been using lately to do this is iFlicks. It simply repackages it and makes it iTunes compatible without having to deal with loss of quality or changing audio video preferences. You can look on the app store for it and I would recommend it. It can change the container, add meta data, and import to iTunes in a minute or two.

There are others beyond iFlicks, this is just the one I personally prefer at the moment. There has been continuous active development and new features added that make it work well for me.
Click to expand...

Thank you, all the .mkv files are x.264 and I understand about being same container and such. My biggest confusion is for sound. I guess keeping acc 2ch and ac3 5.1 will be sufficient to play the file on my iPad as well as on appleTV in surround sound right?
 
P

priitv8

macrumors 601
Jan 13, 2011
4,037
640
Estonia
Croatian said:
I guess keeping acc 2ch and ac3 5.1 will be sufficient to play the file on my iPad as well as on appleTV in surround sound right?
Click to expand...
Yes. And that is also the best you can have on :apple:TV.
Actually, unless you have the 2ch AAC soundtrack, the audio will not play on iPad at all.
It was discussed here some time ago, imho you can keep DTS track in the m4v file, it will not do much more than consume space at the moment.
 
H

hagar

macrumors 68000
Jan 19, 2008
1,961
4,866
I use VideoDrive, which uses Subler under the hood for remuxing, and HandBrake for conversions. It’s the best of two worlds. Adds metadata and artwork too, and is much cheaper than iFlicks.
 
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