[swiz]

Today I had a few minutes so I took a 1 minute clip of 1920x1080 video into Quicktime and did an export of it using these settings:

Movie to MPEG-4

Video Options:
Video Format: H.264
Data Rate: 3500 kbits/sec
Image Size: 1280 x 720 HD
Frame Rate: 24
Keyframe: every 24 frames

Audio and Streaming Options were untouched

I pulled the file into iTunes and went to my tv and it showed up and played but I need to play with the settings because it looked like it needs de-interlacing or maybe just to switch to a single field.

Try it out.

[AppleGirl1990]

i tried the same thing as you. didn't show up in AppleTV for me.
I was able to select the clip in iTunes as a clip that i want to sync....but when i turn my AppleTV on, it isn't synced.

[swiz]

hmmmm.
Im sure it has nothing to do with it but I was streaming from my iTunes library as my source when I watched it instead of the tv.

I tried another export with the kbits/sec set to 5000 which is pretty high and it still has some horizontal line issues when the camera is panning.

Today Im gonna see if I can combat this issue with Handbrake or something.

[AppleGirl1990]

I wasn't streaming from my iTunes. I am attempting to copy the movie onto the AppleTV.

Please try that!

[Eug]

Originally Posted by swiz 

hmmmm.
Im sure it has nothing to do with it but I was streaming from my iTunes library as my source when I watched it instead of the tv.

I tried another export with the kbits/sec set to 5000 which is pretty high and it still has some horizontal line issues when the camera is panning.

Today Im gonna see if I can combat this issue with Handbrake or something.

Handbrake has a specific deinterlacing option you can use.

You don't really need to encode it at 5 Mbps though, unless space (and or streaming bandwidth) isn't an issue.

[Nexus5]

Originally Posted by AppleGirl1990 

i tried the same thing as you. didn't show up in AppleTV for me.
I was able to select the clip in iTunes as a clip that i want to sync....but when i turn my AppleTV on, it isn't synced.

What exactly does "but when i turn my AppleTV on, it isn't synced" mean? You are turning off your Apple TV?
iTunes gives you an error message when it is not able to sync an Video from its library to your Apple TV. Can you see the syncing process in iTunes?

nexus5.

[swiz]

[QUOTE=Eug;3594741]Handbrake has a specific deinterlacing option you can use.[/QUOTE

Cool that sounds like what Im looking for.

You don't really need to encode it at 5 Mbps though, unless space (and or streaming bandwidth) isn't an issue.

Yeah, I'll be sticking with 3.5Mbps for HD video, I was just trying out 5 to see if it would combat the interlacing issue at all.

[AppleGirl1990]

In iTunes it sync's as far as i can tell.
but when i go to my appleTV, the video doesn't show up. Does't exist so i cannot select it.

so it's a fake sync in iTunes.

[swiz]

Looking around for other options; the most streamlined solution I found was VisualHub.

I just launch it, add my full-res HD video file and load this setting file I created:
http://web.mac.com/swizcore/Snaps/tvHD.vhub.zip

Then drag the resulting file into iTunes and I can sync it to my tv and watch it or I can stream it from iTunes too.

See if it works for you.

Unfortunately VisualHub is not free but its not expensive either.

[AppleGirl1990]

Well, AppleTV take 2 is out.
I rented an HD movie last night and it looked awesome! Good job Apple!

But i still can't figure out how to get MY high definition video footage from iMovie to the AppleTV.
No new Export options exist in iMovie.

Need more guidance.

[Genemaster]

Did someone figured it out?

I have exactly the same issue. I tried to convert with several methods (VisualHub, HandBrake, iTunes convert to appleTV, quicktime MP4 and appleTv export) and always the same result: it can play in iTunes but iTunes reports that the file cannot be synced to AppleTV because it is unsupported.

I am wondering if this could be related to the connection between the AppleTV and the TV. I'm using component connection (YPbPr, green blue red video cables) and my TV is a couple year old (advertised at the time as HDTV-ready) and can only do 720p. My TV manual does not say whether I need to use the HDMI connection to get 720p (I assumed component should be able to). I also read in several places statements like this: "AppleTV is capable of 1280x720 (720p) HDMI/DVI". Hence I suspect that using an HDMI cable may help.
2 questions:
- Does anyone tried with an AppleTV connected with HDMI to a recent TV?
- Does anyone tried with HDMI connection to an older HDTV-ready TV?

[alex_kac]

I do it all the time, but I have a recent TV and HDMI connection to that TV. I use Handbrake with the AppleTV profile. It works great.

[Wiskedjak]

I HDMI out to my 2006 HDTV. I used to use Handbrake and PSPVideo9 for converting. Now, I just run Boxee on the aTV so I'm not limited to Apple-blessed video formats.

[Genemaster]

Originally Posted by alex_kac 

I do it all the time, but I have a recent TV and HDMI connection to that TV. I use Handbrake with the AppleTV profile. It works great.

I did this and did not work for me but I do not use HDMI. Your answer reinforces that component connection is not the same than HDMI and I gonna get a cable to check it out.
I would curious to test this on your system:
- take a 1280x720 24fps movie that you can play with your set-up
- remove the movie from the iTunes library
- switch the AppleTV to component (with reboot)
- put the movie back in the library
- does it still sync to the appleTV and plays fine?

Can anyone get 1280x720 24fps to sync and play with component connection?

I know I could hack it and use Boxee or XBMC to get around this but I (and most importantly the wife and kids) prefer to use iTunes and front row (go explain the wife that movies are not in Movies but in XBMC or Boxee ).

[Genemaster]

OK, using HDMI does not solve the problem. Still cannot play 1280*720 24fps despite being supported according to Apple spec (upon sync Itunes alerts that this video format cannot be used by this AppleTV).
In the end the higher I can get is 1280x524 (file generated by VisualHub with the "optimize for Apple TV 5.1 + 2.0" option.
My AppleTV is currently using the 2.1 firmware and I avoided to update after reading issues people had. Does the 2.2 firmware necessary to deal with 1280*720? I have no idea what else could be causing my issue....

[Wiskedjak]

Originally Posted by Genemaster 

I have no idea what else could be causing my issue....

Honestly, I think the cause of the issue here is Apple and all of it's unreasonable media playback rules. Seems like you've got two options here:

1. Easy-to-use-interface that doesn't easily play your content.
2. Slightly-less-easy-to-use-interface that *will easily* play content in almost any format.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by Genemaster 

OK, using HDMI does not solve the problem. Still cannot play 1280*720 24fps despite being supported according to Apple spec (upon sync Itunes alerts that this video format cannot be used by this AppleTV).
In the end the higher I can get is 1280x524 (file generated by VisualHub with the "optimize for Apple TV 5.1 + 2.0" option.
My AppleTV is currently using the 2.1 firmware and I avoided to update after reading issues people had. Does the 2.2 firmware necessary to deal with 1280*720? I have no idea what else could be causing my issue....

I think you are taking the 720 horizontal lines thing too literally. Your 1280x524 resolution video is 720p. It's just that the aspect ratio of the video is ~ 2.39:1 which is one of the two common movie aspect ratios. The other being 1.85:1 which would encode to 720p as 1280x690. HDTV is 1.78:1 which would encode to 720p as 1280x720.

Download a 720p TV episode (which will be 1280x720) and encode it with VisualHub for your AppleTV. That should work just fine.

The only difficulty I've had with encoding HD for AppleTV is the video bitrate. It must be less that 5000 Kbps.

[Genemaster]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

I think you are taking the 720 horizontal lines thing too literally. Your 1280x524 resolution video is 720p. It's just that the aspect ratio of the video is ~ 2.39:1 which is one of the two common movie aspect ratios. The other being 1.85:1 which would encode to 720p as 1280x690. HDTV is 1.78:1 which would encode to 720p as 1280x720.

Download a 720p TV episode (which will be 1280x720) and encode it with VisualHub for your AppleTV. That should work just fine.

The only difficulty I've had with encoding HD for AppleTV is the video bitrate. It must be less that 5000 Kbps.

Now I'm confused... Why should I bother about the ratio, the video I try is 1280x720 (I did not convert it). Running out of ideas, I tried to convert it with VisualHub. The converted version shows the same spec in QuickTime inspector than the original (1280x720 24fps). Amazingly the converted file works! No idea what VisualHub did but it did something to make AppleTV happy although the video and audio spec remained the same.

[Atheist]

What's the video bitrate? If it's over 5000 it won't play on AppleTV.