iPod Apple TV playing different video formats

[mnahawi]

from cnet au
"Another big question mark was the file formats that Apple TV would support, and here we have some clear answers. It goes without saying that Apple TV will work with any standard iTunes format. Audio formats include AAC, protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 and variable bit rate MP3, Apple Lossless, AIFF and WAV. But the bigger news is that it supports wide-screen, high-definition video, more specifically 1,280x720 at 24 frames per second, aka 720p. That means you will be able to view movies and TV shows at better-than-DVD quality -- as long as you can get them from iTunes Store. Other video formats include H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store), 640x480 at 30 frames per second; 320x240 at 30 frames per second; and MPEG-4, 640x480 at 30 frames per second. Finally, Apple TV supports all standard photo formats, including JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG; you can view photos in slide shows on your TV"

SO DOES THIS MEAN ... that those formats will play even from non itunes downloads ??? can i download a movie from a non itunes source and play it on apple tv ??

 

[iW00t]

If it is of the 2 file formats supported. Yes.

 

[displaced]

That article seems to go around in circles...

The resolution and frame-rate of a file is really just a side-issue. The real kicker is what format that video has to be in. You're not going to see DivX, WMV, RealVideo (yuck), etc. working on the Apple TV it seems. Which is a bit of a shame.

 

[odedia]

I don't get this: can't I playback ANY quicktime-supported format on AppleTV? If i update Quicktime with the DivX component, doesn't this mean that I can add that file to iTunes and then play that file back on AppleTV?

 

[mduser63]

I don't get this: can't I playback ANY quicktime-supported format on AppleTV? If i update Quicktime with the DivX component, doesn't this mean that I can add that file to iTunes and then play that file back on AppleTV?

No. According to the currently published AppleTV specs, it only supports two video formats, just like the iPod. It's possible for Apple to support more formats with a firmware update in the future, but of course nothing like that has been announced.

 

[mkrishnan]

No. According to the currently published AppleTV specs, it only supports two video formats, just like the iPod. It's possible for Apple to support more formats with a firmware update in the future, but of course nothing like that has been announced.

Better save $1.99 just in case.

 

[odedia]

No. According to the currently published AppleTV specs, it only supports two video formats, just like the iPod. It's possible for Apple to support more formats with a firmware update in the future, but of course nothing like that has been announced.

If apple are serious about this product, they better do it soon, cause there's ALOT of other great products out there that support these features. This is a tough market.

 

[mduser63]

Better save $1.99 just in case.

Yeah, I still don't quite believe the whole "accounting reasons" explanation. After all, they provide free iPod firmware updates that introduce new features reasonably often...

 

[Maxwell Smart]

I'm most likely gonna be purchasing one of these things, and the one thing I really hope Apple will include is DivX / Xvid. I don't even want WMV, just those two formats and this little unit will be perfect. Come on apple, don't make me convert all of my media

 

[Krevnik]

I'm most likely gonna be purchasing one of these things, and the one thing I really hope Apple will include is DivX / Xvid. I don't even want WMV, just those two formats and this little unit will be perfect. Come on apple, don't make me convert all of my media

DivX/XviD is MPEG-4 compliant... just that everyone loves putting it into the royalty-free, and hacked-to-no-end-so-it-only-plays-with-our-codec-packs AVI container. If someone could work on an app like DivX doctor that extracted the streams into an MP4 container, a lot of them would work just fine with iTunes/aTV.