What's The Best File Conversion tool in Mac OS X?

[alexreich]

I recently moved some videos to my Mac Mini (just got it a week ago ) and I wanted to stream them to my AppleTV2. I tried to drag and drop them into iTunes so I could use 'Home Sharing' to stream the videos to my AppleTV, but iTunes would not accept them. After a lot of searching, I kept reading that iTunes doesn't accept .avi files. After realizing this, I've been on the search for a great media-conversion tool. I've tried Handbrake (converted to .mp4), and it worked, but the streaming quality was pretty bad (the video was pixelated).

Anyway, my question is, what file type should I convert to so that I should be able to stream with 'Home Sharing' via iTunes with good quality? or better yet, what program should I use to do the converting?

(I don't mind paying up to $30)

 

[EmmEff]

Did you use the AppleTV2 profile on HandBrake? It's worked perfectly for my DIVX conversion needs to M4V.

Keep in mind that low resolution AVI files will look horrendous when blown up much larger. It's impossible for any conversion tool to make marginal 640x480 (or lower) video look good at 1280x720

 

[alexreich]

Thanks for the reply EmmEff, so you're saying .avi files are pretty bad quality anyway? (I'm not very good with video formats, only audio and photo) Should I make sure to get .MOV, .MP4, and .M4A?

What would you consider the best file type for streaming video to AppleTV from iTunes?

 

[Mackilroy]

It's not so much the container itself - I've had decent .avi files.

You really should check out using the ATV2 profile, you should get better quality with that.

 

[EmmEff]

Thanks for the reply EmmEff, so you're saying .avi files are pretty bad quality anyway? (I'm not very good with video formats, only audio and photo) Should I make sure to get .MOV, .MP4, and .M4A?

What would you consider the best file type for streaming video to AppleTV from iTunes?

As Mackilroy, you probably want to try the ATV2 profile in HandBrake.

But... if the source material is not of great quality, it certainly won't be any better when you blow it up to 720p resolution.

M4V is what you want for the AppleTV. Preferably 720p or 1080p source material (the latter downscaled to 720p by HandBrake)

 

[alexreich]

Thanks for the help you all!