Not all MP4s play on AppleTV

jimml · Post by **jimml** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:27 pm

Has anyone else come across this ? I have converted a number of Movies and TV shows to MP4, however AppleTV will not stream or sync some of them. There does'nt seem to be any pattern to which will work and which will not work. Yet All of the Movies and TV shows play fine in iTunes, FrontRow and Quicktime.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 10:32 pm

No, they don't.

If you go read the Apple TV Tech Specs it will give you a clue as to what specific settings need to be made to be ATV compatible. Also, read the sticky about this at the top of this forum, there is some good info in there.

jimml · Post by **jimml** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:26 am

I read the stickies and did'nt find anything there that helped. All of the conversions I did were using the same settings. What is interesting is that some TV episodes from the same disk will work and others will not.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 1:45 am

What settings are you using?

hawkman · Post by **hawkman** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 12:25 pm

Even with the same settings you may not get similar files out each time - for instance, constant quality settings will make a different decision about bitrate. If you had this on too high, it's possible some would fall just either side of the line of compatibility.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Sat Apr 07, 2007 5:03 pm

Exactly Hawkman. That's why I asked the OP what specific settings were being used.

jimml · Post by **jimml** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:17 am

I can make the ones that will no stream to the AppleTV work by changing the encoding to H.264, using VisualHub, The only problem the file size doubles.
If I watch the AppleTV when I add shows to iTunes, I can see the titles appear on the AppleTV. The titles of the ones that don't work just flash on then off. And of course the ones that work stay on. It seems that the AppleTV is looking at the header of the show, accecpting some and rejecting others.

baggss · Post by **baggss** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 1:51 am

Are you planning on sharing your specific settings or just continuing to complain?

jimml · Post by **jimml** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 2:13 am

File Format: MP4
Codecs: Mpeg-4 Video / AAC Audio
Framerate: Same as source
Encoder: FFmpeg
Aveerage Bitrate: 1000
TV Shows: Deinterlaced

petvas · Post by **petvas** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 5:35 am

Your settings should definitely work!
You have a relative low bit rate but that should only affect the quality and size of the movies.

I recommend enabling Deinterlace for TV Shows.

cbud · Post by **cbud** » Sun Apr 08, 2007 6:32 pm

I can only suggest that you determine your fps and set it yourself, don't use ‘same as source’.

A long time ago (Sep '06) I encoded some South Park for my iPod using ‘same as source’ and they would not transfer. Went back and set the fps myself and they transferred. The problem is that it was so long ago and I was new at encoding, so I could of changed another setting that was the actual problem. But give it a shot, it might work.

Remember also, when you are testing, you don't need to encode the entire movie, just do one chapter.