Can the Apple TV play anything Quicktime/iTunes can?

[TaKashMoney]

I apologize if this information is readily available, I simply havent gotten any concrete answers and would like to hear from owners of the aTV.

I have been using handbrake to convert DVDs I own to .mp4 and .m4v files for about a year now (before aTV was released) and these files play wonderfully in Quicktime, iTunes and FrontRow. I always rip at native resolution usually around the 1000 kb/s mark. Will I need to re-rip or convert these to play on an aTV or iPhone?

 

[Totalshock]

I apologize if this information is readily available, I simply havent gotten any concrete answers and would like to hear from owners of the aTV.

I have been using handbrake to convert DVDs I own to .mp4 and .m4v files for about a year now (before aTV was released) and these files play wonderfully in Quicktime, iTunes and FrontRow. I always rip at native resolution usually around the 1000 kb/s mark. Will I need to re-rip or convert these to play on an aTV or iPhone?

I'm also interested in knowing this, and particularly whether or not QT movies with Chapters (as done using Apple's guide for adding chapters, or using an app like Metadata Hootenanny or Movie Chapterizer) are supported on aTV.

I'm a big fight fan, and I've ripped all my fight DVDs, etc., with chapters for each bout, so I can quickly get to a fight I want to watch at a given moment. But I've been holding back on doing the AppleTV thing until:
a) I know that those types of files are supported; and
b) I actually get myself a TV that's not 4:3.

If someone could test a file with chapters on an aTV and let me know if the remote handles jumping from chapter to chapter properly, I'd appreciate it.

It works fine in FrontRow on my Mac mini, but that doesn't mean it'll work on the aTV.

 

[pavloskgr]

Apple TV plays all mp4 all m4v but not every .mov files(strangely some kind of .mov files could play in itunes but not in Apple TV)!!!!!!! As far as this chapter thing you mentioned i didn't actually understand what u want to do! If u want give further explanation , and i can try it and tell u (if possible)....

 

[Totalshock]

Apple TV plays all mp4 all m4v but not every .mov files(strangely some kind of .mov files could play in itunes but not in Apple TV)!!!!!!! As far as this chapter thing you mentioned i didn't actually understand what u want to do! If u want give further explanation , and i can try it and tell u (if possible)....

Quicktime allows you to create a "chapters" track in Quicktime movies. Then, you can pick them from a pulldown list in QT player, or alternately, in FrontRow, you can hit Fast Forward and go instantly to the start of the next chapter. Very handy. See http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/chaptertracks.html for a description of what they are, and how to make one.

I'm curious whether or not these are supported on the AppleTV as they are in FrontRow. I know that at least thus far, FrontRow will play anything that QT can play, through QuickTime or whatever. Whereas I believe aTV will only play supported Codecs.

If you'd be interested in doing some testing, I could easily encode a video with a few chapters and leave it somewhere where you could download it and test it out on your aTV. Just let me know.

 

[Jasoco]

From what I've seen, chapters aren't acknowledged by the AppleTV.. yet. Also, it can't play everything. iTunes can play everything QuickTime can. But AppleTV has stricter rules. Files that can't be played simply won't show up in the AppleTV list.

 

[neven]

AppleTV supports a narrower set of formats and codecs than QT itself. Also, if you've ever installed any QT plugins (I think many people have), you can play, for instance, DivX movies in QT (and consequently in iTunes), but those plugins aren't on AppleTV.

 

[banjomamo]

chapters seem to work if you have use the m4v file type. i haven't thoroughly tested this but it seems to be working correctly so far.

 

[pavloskgr]

Quicktime allows you to create a "chapters" track in Quicktime movies. Then, you can pick them from a pulldown list in QT player, or alternately, in FrontRow, you can hit Fast Forward and go instantly to the start of the next chapter. Very handy. See http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/chaptertracks.html for a description of what they are, and how to make one.

I'm curious whether or not these are supported on the AppleTV as they are in FrontRow. I know that at least thus far, FrontRow will play anything that QT can play, through QuickTime or whatever. Whereas I believe aTV will only play supported Codecs.

If you'd be interested in doing some testing, I could easily encode a video with a few chapters and leave it somewhere where you could download it and test it out on your aTV. Just let me know.

Oh i was totally unaware of this! Go on, send me the link and i can try it!

 

[williedigital]

I have some h.264 files that will play perfectly in quicktime and itunes, but display artifacts (macroblocking mostly) when played on the AppleTV. I think that they were created using nero recode's avc encoder, which supports some codec features that the gpu of the appletv can't handle. I thought it was interesting that this hasn't been mentioned more.