ATV says "Format Not Recognised" even though it's in the right format.

[ss957916]

I hate my Apple TV.

I'm sitting ready to watch a programme I've downloaded but, when trying to stream to the ATV, nothing happens. It just hangs on a black screen.

So I've sync'd the programme to its internal drive. But now when I try to play it it just says the format is not recognised.

It plays fine in iTunes and Quicktime player.

Can anyone offer some help? Thanks.

 

[spice weasel]

Was this purchased content from the iTMS? I'm guessing not.

The ATV plays an even more restricted subset of files than does iTunes on your computer, so it could be an issue with the exact method of encoding.

It could also be a framerate issue. This has happened to me when ripping some movies from DVD, especially older foreign films. If the framerate of the transcode doesn't match that of the movie from which it was created, it can cause problems for the ATV.

Just a guess.

 

[jaw04005]

Open the file in QuickTime and post a screen shot of what inspector says. We can’t help you without the proper information.

 

[ftaok]

It says it's a "protected" MPEG-4 file. Doesn't that mean it's from the iTS? If so, shouldn't the aTV play a file from the iTunes Store?

 

[jaw04005]

It says it's a "protected" MPEG-4 file. Doesn't that mean it's from the iTS? If so, shouldn't the aTV play a file from the iTunes Store?

Not necessarily. It may have the wrong file extension, be corrupted to the point where OS X is labeling it incorrectly or have some other weird tag issue that’s making it appear as a protected file.

That’s why we need the QuickTime inspector data.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Its usually down to lag on the network. Stop downloading, surfing etc then try the movie again. If it still doesnt work reboot the ATV. Its my biggest pet hate (and there are loads) on the ATV.

 

[spice weasel]

It says it's a "protected" MPEG-4 file. Doesn't that mean it's from the iTS? If so, shouldn't the aTV play a file from the iTunes Store?

I missed that. And yes it should play if it's from iTMS.

 

[Rich1963]

I encounter this occasionally when my external storage attached to my mac spins up the hard drives too slowly when called upon by the AppleTV over the network. Usually simply selecting the movie again clears the problem.

However, I don't think that's the case here...

 

[ftaok]

Not necessarily. It may have the wrong file extension, be corrupted to the point where OS X is labeling it incorrectly or have some other weird tag issue that’s making it appear as a protected file.

That’s why we need the QuickTime inspector data.

OK, I understand now. I didn't think Mac OS used the extension to determine the file type.

Its usually down to lag on the network. Stop downloading, surfing etc then try the movie again. If it still doesnt work reboot the ATV. Its my biggest pet hate (and there are loads) on the ATV.

The OP mentioned that he sync the file to the aTV HDD and it comes up with "unsupported format".

 

[ss957916]

Was this purchased content from the iTMS? I'm guessing not.

I don't know what iTMS is but it's from the BBC iPlayer. Odd that it syncs to ATV if iTunes knows ATV won't play it.

Here's the inspector from Quicktime:

 

[jaw04005]

I don't know what iTMS is but it's from the BBC iPlayer. Odd that it syncs to ATV if iTunes knows ATV won't play it.

Here's the inspector from Quicktime:

iTMS = iTunes Music Store

Did you purchase this from the iTunes Store? I thought the iPlayer only had Flash content? Or did you capture it in MPEG-4 h.264 using some program?

 

[soup4you2]

I get this error pretty often on all sorts of media. it's a weird bug but normally closing and restarting iTunes resolves it for me.

 

[zedsdead]

I get this error pretty often on all sorts of media. it's a weird bug but normally closing and restarting iTunes resolves it for me.

Try this first, if that does not work, then try restarting the Apple TV. It is a VERY common glitch that has nothing to do with format support.

 

[jaw04005]

I get this error pretty often on all sorts of media. it's a weird bug but normally closing and restarting iTunes resolves it for me.

If that doesn’t work, the file’s header is probably damaged. Open and export it out to MPEG-4 with passthrough options for audio and video using QuickTime 7 Pro.

This happens sometimes if you open a file to tag with MetaX or Lostify and something goes wrong. It damages the header information and Apple TV can’t understand it.

 

[rickfil]

It's not your apple TV. What you need to do is get info. (command I) on your movie file and make sure your movie file is set to open with itunes. If it says open with Quicktime switch right away cause that is the problem. I noticed this exact thing happened to me about a month ago with the new version of quicktime. It changes it to protected mpeg-4 and apple TV can't read these files.

 

[The Phazer]

It's from iPlayer, hence the DRM is Adobe AIR, not Quicktime, and Apple TV won't play it as it lacks any sort of Flash support.

Phazer