Apple TV 2 + 1080p

[mattpreston11]

Thinking of getting an apple tv for streaming media from my windows server to my tv.

Will it play my 1080p MKV's flawlessly (jailbroken using XMBA, boxee or that other one..)??

This would be the sole use for it so it obviously needs to achieve this.

 

[TwinCities Dan]

Dynaflash said the TV cannot do 1080 at all, no matter how you hack it. The first generation is apparently a different story?

 

[DefBref]

XBMC on JB'd ATV2 will playback decode 1080p but only playback in 720p.

 

[roidy]

Thinking of getting an apple tv for streaming media from my windows server to my tv.

Will it play my 1080p MKV's flawlessly (jailbroken using XMBA, boxee or that other one..)??

This would be the sole use for it so it obviously needs to achieve this.

XBMC:-
Simple answer, No. I can bearly get the ATV2 version of XBMC to play 720p content without stuttering and massive frame drops.

Boxee:-
Not available on ATV2.

PLEX(that other one..):-
PLEX on the ATV2 is still far from perfect but it plays files a lot better than XBMC. It will automaticaly transcode your 1080p media to a format that will play on the ATV2, and while you will lose some quality at least it will play.

I wouldn't buy an ATV2 just for the sole purpose of running XBMC or PLEX as neither are quite ready yet. If you really want to run XBMC then I'd suggest a cheap ATOM/ION nettop coupled with the linux version of XBMC, which will then play anything you can throw at it.

 

[ssgrif]

XBMC:-
Simple answer, No. I can bearly get the ATV2 version of XBMC to play 720p content without stuttering and massive frame drops.

I disagree, I have a 1080p plasma hooked up to my aptv2 running xbmc and it plays all my content, including 1080p (albeit streamed at 720p as previously mentioned) off of my NAS flawlessly, no stutter or anything. Granted I do have it wired.

 

[hwojtek]

The point is - OP wanted to have 1080p signal to his HDTV. ATV2 doesn't do that and won't.

 

[roidy]

I disagree, I have a 1080p plasma hooked up to my aptv2 running xbmc and it plays all my content, including 1080p (albeit streamed at 720p as previously mentioned) off of my NAS flawlessly, no stutter or anything. Granted I do have it wired.

Well I've had no luck with the ATV2 version of XBMC. I have an LG NAS hardwired to my router which is in turn hardwired to both a ATOM/ION PC running XBMC and a ATV2 running XBMC. The ATOM box plays everything I throw at it whereas the ATV2 plays SD video fine but drops frames at an alarming rate with anything 720p or over.

Which version of XBMC for the ATV2 are you using?

 

[MonkeyCookie]

I hear that people who jailbreak the Apple TV 2 and install Plex can play 1080p videos, but the Apple TV 2 will not play them reliably. They'll sometimes play smoothly and start having issues at other times. I hear some people can play most of their 1080p videos while others can hardly play any at all. The Apple TV hardware simply isn't quite powerful enough to decode 1080p video without some playback issues.

The ideal conditions would to have a gigabit wired connection playing h.264-encoded mp4 files (since Apple hardware and software seems to like that video format the best). You may be able to play 1080p videos under those conditions, but don't expect it to work reliably.

There will be a future Apple TV 2 (probably in 2012) that has the hardware to play 1080p videos, but you will have to wait patiently for that one.

The Roku XPS is about the same price as the Apple TV can play 1080p video, and I know there is a version of the Plex client for the Roku, so perhaps you might want to try that. You would still need a Plex server to do the streaming to the device, but that's the same deal with Plex for the Apple TV. I do believe, however, that Plex for the Roku is fairly recent and is in a beta stage, so do your research if you decide to go with that.

 

[waw74]

I hear that people who jailbreak the Apple TV 2 and install Plex can play 1080p videos

they aren't playing 1080p videos on the appletv, the computer running the media server is converting them on the fly to something the appletv can handle. the same thing is probably happening with the roku, but i'm not sure.

The ideal conditions would to have a gigabit wired connection

the appletv only has a 10/100 port

i'm hoping for an appletv update in september with the all of the iThings that are due to be updated, maybe i'll get one if it gets a beefier processor.