What kind of files can you stream to an Apple TV?

[captain kaos]

Slightly different question...

Can you stream to the Apple TV if its not in iTunes?

What im looking to do is have a way of watching VPN'd UK TV in Australia. If i can watch this on my macbook pro, would i then be able to stream that to the ATV? I read there maybe a possibility to stream over Airplay?

Any ideas on this?

 

[DJinTX]

Can you stream to the Apple TV if its not in iTunes?

What im looking to do is have a way of watching VPN'd UK TV in Australia. If i can watch this on my macbook pro, would i then be able to stream that to the ATV? I read there maybe a possibility to stream over Airplay?

Any ideas on this?

I believe that if you are using the ATV remote to initiate streaming from the living room, then it will only find media in iTunes, and iTunes has to be running on the Mac it is streaming from.

If you initiate the stream from the other end (your Mac/iPhone/iPod/iPad) then right out of the box you can stream iTunes content to the ATV. Or, after the iOS 4.2 update in november you will be able to stream HTML5 content from Mac or iOS device to the ATV via Airplay. Although I have no idea what the limitations of AirPlay will be.

 

[GSX]

Yes, you can rip your own content (or download it) and have it play through the Apple TV as long as is in a format that Apple TV can handle.

Mainly up to 720p/30fps h.264 in .mp4, .mov, or .m4v format. If it's not in the required format there are many options to convert it like Handbrake or Quicktime. Most people who rip their content convert with Handbrake. Especially for content ripped using MakeMKV from Blu Rays.

I have some further questions to ask if I may.

If I rip content(movies/TV shows) and play it with the Apple TV will the Apple TV display all the meta data of the files? Such as plot, rating, etc. I assume so, but I'm not sure.

Can I make playlists of movies and TV shows or organize the files some how? For example could I make a section/folder of "Documentaries" or "Anime".

Also I have seen some videos of Apple TVs menus running. In all the videos it looks like on the top of the screen there are advertised movies, tv shows, music, etc. Are those really advertisements displaying new releases? It's kind of hard to tell. If so is there a way to turn them off? I really have no interest in being advertised to like that.

Thanks for the help.

 

[stoplis]

This might sound silly, but has anyone tried streaming a 1080p video from iTunes to their Apple TV? Seeing as the iPhone 4 and iPad are capable.
I might not even display at 1080p (i.e. it may downscale to 720p), but if it is capable of playing the files you could at least keep your existing files at 1080p for future proofing (e.g. when ATV V.3 comes out) and watching on other devices (e.g. your computer).

 

[tropic10]

This might sound silly, but has anyone tried streaming a 1080p video from iTunes to their Apple TV? Seeing as the iPhone 4 and iPad are capable.
I might not even display at 1080p (i.e. it may downscale to 720p), but if it is capable of playing the files you could at least keep your existing files at 1080p for future proofing (e.g. when ATV V.3 comes out) and watching on other devices (e.g. your computer).

Someone on the Handbrake forums was able to stream a 1080p file.

http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18102

Since he doesn't have a 1080p TV though, he doesn't know if Apple TV downscales to 720p.

 

[GreatDrok]

Someone on the Handbrake forums was able to stream a 1080p file.

http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=18102

Since he doesn't have a 1080p TV though, he doesn't know if Apple TV downscales to 720p.

It doesn't. The original ATV supported up to 1080p output but could only play 720p@25fps and 5Mbps max whereas the new one seems capable of decoding higher rates and full 1080p but it downscales it to 720p. Perverse huh?

Back to my earlier point though, 720p @ 5Mbps VBR (just so there is no claiming that I meant fixed bit rate) will be much better looking than 1080p @ 5Mbps VBR. 1080p needs to be at a higher rate to actually benefit from being 1080p since the actual picture will be softened by the low bit rate. I've done the comparisons and there is no point in having 1080p at rates low enough to stream reliably over a wireless network.

I have plenty of 1080p material - I have Blu Ray and HD DVD players and they look great but the compromise of space and quality means that 720p looks HD enough while not using as much space so it is good to have. I'm not interested in these low bit rate 1080p rips as they lack detail compared to 720p rips at the same rate since detail in digital video is a combination of the bit rate and the resolution you're trying to encode.