256 kbps aac in m4v music video

[vaskokvas]

Hello everyone,

As far as I understand, Apple for years offer increased quality 256kbps audio and video clips containing 256 kbps aac audio inside (correct me if I'm wrong). But Apple TV, as well as all iPads and iPods (except Nano?!) still have in their specs a limit of 160 kbps aac audio for video files. Could not find clear answer anywhere. Some people say videofiles with 256 audio play OK on ATV, but still not clear - when it 'plays OK' it plays 256 or just downsample on the fly to 160? And what in this case is the reason of higher quality audio inside music video if ATV's hardware limits it to 160 kbps?

Never thought of this before because used WDTV, which doesn't have any limitations. But now want to use ATV for some reasons, but want higher audio quality in videoclips, as I have good enough home theater system to resolve much more than 160 kbps, so want to use highest possible setting for audio converting with Handbrake.

Can anyone advice?

Thanks

P.S. Please, let's not open discussion if anyone can hear the difference between 160 and 256 kbps 🙂

 

[priitv8]

I've never experienced any problems with 256kbps AAC audio on AppleTV 3.

 

[blackNBUK]

Reading the Apple TV specs page it looks like it can playback h.264 video with 160 kbps of AAC audio per channel. Bitrates for audio are normally given for both stereo channels so that means that the Apple TV should be able to playback up to 320 kbps stereo AAC. It should comfortably be able to playback iTunes Plus quality music along with a music video.

For MPEG-4 video the specs page just says 160 kbps AAC audio without the 'per channel' qualifier. I don't know if this is a limitation of the format or a mistake by the authors.

 

[vaskokvas]

Thanks. So still the question - is it a mistake or limitation? 🙂