ATV4 not playing movies played by ATV2 and ATV3 Help

[Tigger11]

My wife got me an ATV4 for my birthday, and I hooked it up, Netflix is playing fine, I downloaded some games and they are working, the apps I have installed are working fine. However last night we found its not playing most of the movies from our Itunes library. It gives us a message that says it is the wrong format for Apple TV. The movies play fine on both the AppleTV 2's elsewhere in the house, plays fine on the Apple TV 3 in the Master Bedroom, but I get the error message on the ATV4. My best guess is that the audio options are configured differently on the ATV4 by default and thats why it wont pay my videos, but does anyone have suggestions on how to change the settings so that it will play my videos?
Thanks,
Tig

 

[benjitek]

Where the iTunes library vids purchased or imported? If imported, you probably need to check the encoding -- possibly earlier models 'forgave' something the ATV4 more strongly enforces.

 

[Tigger11]

Where the iTunes library vids purchased or imported? If imported, you probably need to check the encoding -- possibly earlier models 'forgave' something the ATV4 more strongly enforces.

Hopefully that isn't correct it's not worth reencoding 1000s of videos so I can play them on the Atv4.
-tig

 

[Che Castro]

Give plex a try
Is 100 times better

 

[benjitek]

Hopefully that isn't correct it's not worth reencoding 1000s of videos so I can play them on the Atv4.

So they are vids you imported into iTunes, but didn't purchase via iTunes. Use Plex, or AirPlay them instead.

 

[Tigger11]

So they are vids you imported into iTunes, but didn't purchase via iTunes. Use Plex, or AirPlay them instead.

You are the second to suggest Plex, wouldn't it take a really long time to move a massive itunes library over to Plex? And what is that gaining me over just going back to ATV3 and everything working? And Airplay isnt a convenient option. Though I originally considered it possibly a configuration issue with the ATV4, after several hours last night, I'm afraid that may not be the case. Of the 1st 15 movies I tried, 12 didnt play, put those in a genere called dont play, loaded all 12 onto the 3 iphones, 2 ipads, the daughters ipod touch and through the other 3 AppleTVs (two 2s and the 3 the ATV4 is replacing) in the house and they all play fine. I'm pretty sure that ATV4 now with App Store, may require reencoding of all videos isnt the intention of Apple.
-Tig

 

[rolsskk]

You are the second to suggest Plex, wouldn't it take a really long time to move a massive itunes library over to Plex? And what is that gaining me over just going back to ATV3 and everything working? And Airplay isnt a convenient option. Though I originally considered it possibly a configuration issue with the ATV4, after several hours last night, I'm afraid that may not be the case. Of the 1st 15 movies I tried, 12 didnt play, put those in a genere called dont play, loaded all 12 onto the 3 iphones, 2 ipads, the daughters ipod touch and through the other 3 AppleTVs (two 2s and the 3 the ATV4 is replacing) in the house and they all play fine. I'm pretty sure that ATV4 now with App Store, may require reencoding of all videos isnt the intention of Apple.
-Tig

You don't "move" anything. Just point the Plex server to your movie folder, tell it that there's movies in there (and assuming that the movies are named accordingly to the naming convention of Moviename (YYYY) ), Plex will do all of the heavy lifting.

 

[rjjacobson]

You don't "move" anything. Just point the Plex server to your movie folder, tell it that there's movies in there (and assuming that the movies are named accordingly to the naming convention of Moviename (YYYY) ), Plex will do all of the heavy lifting.

Looking at Plex support info it sounds though if your itunes library are DRM movies for example Plex cannot play them so then you do need to move or at least alter all your video files something I have not the skill, time or software to do. Does not look like an alternative I could use.

 

[rolsskk]

Looking at Plex support info it sounds though if your itunes library are DRM movies for example Plex cannot play them so then you do need to move or at least alter all your video files something I have not the skill, time or software to do. Does not look like an alternative I could use.

But the OP didn't post about DRM movies.

 

[benjitek]

You are the second to suggest Plex, wouldn't it take a really long time to move a massive itunes library over to Plex? And what is that gaining me over just going back to ATV3 and everything working? And Airplay isnt a convenient option. Though I originally considered it possibly a configuration issue with the ATV4, after several hours last night, I'm afraid that may not be the case. Of the 1st 15 movies I tried, 12 didnt play, put those in a genere called dont play, loaded all 12 onto the 3 iphones, 2 ipads, the daughters ipod touch and through the other 3 AppleTVs (two 2s and the 3 the ATV4 is replacing) in the house and they all play fine. I'm pretty sure that ATV4 now with App Store, may require reencoding of all videos isnt the intention of Apple.
-Tig

You still haven't mentioned where the videos that won't play came from -- but it doesn't sound likely you purchased them from iTunes. While Plex offers a paid-tier product, the free-tier will likely be all you need. Just try it -- add your iTunes video folder as a library to Plex and see if it works.

 

[Tigger11]

You still haven't mentioned where the videos that won't play came from -- but it doesn't sound likely you purchased them from iTunes. While Plex offers a paid-tier product, the free-tier will likely be all you need. Just try it -- add your iTunes video folder as a library to Plex and see if it works.

Actually I did say I'd encoded them Benjitek, thats why you made the response you did in Message 5. The problem I am seeing with Plex, is that everything I have bought from Itunes, won't play on it, so 293 items will play in Itunes, but not the other 1000s that work fine elsewhere in the house but not on the Front TV. While Plex will play all the rest of the files to the ATV4, but not the files I bought from Apple. From the threads on other sites, apparently the ATV4 is not supporting about 3 different Audio options on the ATV4 currently that they support in all there other products, which apparently is the issue with the message I and a bunch of others are seeing. Also is it true ATV4 really not playing the Special Features for movies bought on Itunes once again? The issue with them changing the audio support for videos I've encoded, is I have to think when are they going to do it again, its not practical to redo a large video collection with every iteration of the Apple TV, or every software build because Apple is reducing the the video types its playing.

 

[benjitek]

...The problem I am seeing with Plex, is that everything I have bought from Itunes, won't play on it, so 293 items will play in Itunes, but not the other 1000s that work fine elsewhere in the house but not on the Front TV. While Plex will play all the rest of the files to the ATV4, but not the files I bought from Apple...

Best of luck to you then...

 

[rjjacobson]

TVOS 9.1 today fixes the buffering issues in home share completely for me, great to have the issue resolved!