Apple TV3 vs .avi .mkv

[Giuanniello]

I know that ATV3 can't play both .avi and .mkv files which bothers me big time cos I have a nas where I store movies and I can't play any of the two on my Sony TV whilst my son's TV, a Panasonic, can play them natively.

Converting rips off a lot to space, say that a 3.9GB I was just attempting to convert to MP4 got to over 5GB and I don't want to waste so much space (and loosing the multi language and subtitle option during conversion).

Question, is there a hack to play these formats through an ATV3? Did anything change with the new ATV4?

I was thinking to get a media player with some storage to attach straight away to the TV but it would mean another box, other cables and noise (it bothers me big time to hear the HD spinning, yes, I have a very fine ear...).

Thanks for your input

 

[benjitek]

Plex -- though I'm not sure how you install it on an ATV3, it's possible -- there's info in the Plex user forums on how that all works.

 

[zen]

User subler to repack mkvs into m4vs. Takes seconds, no conversion, no loss of quality.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Solutions:
1. Get an AppleTV4 and install Plex, if your NAS can run Plex server. Then you can play anything.
2. Convert your movies to MP4. Since you yourself decide the encoding settings, your 5GB target is because you don't understand what you are doing, and should read up on it.
3. Mux your movies into MP4. This is likely your best shot.

 

[Giuanniello]

1 - The ATV4 is not on the way, not yet... My NAS can run Plex by the way

2 - That's what I do, I convert everything in MP4 but when I have a 3-4GB .mkv it usually gives me a bigger size when converted to MP4 with iMedia Converter

3 - This is what I am doing now, maybe I need a better converter with more options for the output

 

[Tech198]

I remember testing this at one stage on Apple TV 3 using my Mac mini on same network. but if you don't wanna jailbreak, u need another Mac, and use PLex Connect.

 

[2010mini]

Plex is not the only solution for the ATV 4. You can use Infuse which doesn't require a separate server running, just the files on a NAS.

https://firecore.com/infuse

 

[NameUndecided]

The difference with converting an mkv to mp4 or m4v with Subler, rather than something like iMedia Converter, I imagine, is that Subler only changes the "package" that an x264 video is housed in. So it doesn't increase or change the file size much at all, as it's not converting the video.
Shorter: Subler won't blow up your mkv file sizes like iMedia or Handbrake or something else will. Like zen said, it repacks, doesn't convert.

Also: Try the Mac software Beamer. Drag just about any video file on your Mac onto Beamer and it will airplay the avi or mkv to your Apple TV 3.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

1 - The ATV4 is not on the way, not yet... My NAS can run Plex by the way

2 - That's what I do, I convert everything in MP4 but when I have a 3-4GB .mkv it usually gives me a bigger size when converted to MP4 with iMedia Converter

3 - This is what I am doing now, maybe I need a better converter with more options for the output

2. As I said, thats because you dont know what you are doing.
3. If you are converting, then you arent muxing, so no, thats not what you are doing.

 

[Giuanniello]

The difference with converting an mkv to mp4 or m4v with Subler, rather than something like iMedia Converter, I imagine, is that Subler only changes the "package" that an x264 video is housed in. So it doesn't increase or change the file size much at all, as it's not converting the video.
Shorter: Subler won't blow up your mkv file sizes like iMedia or Handbrake or something else will. Like zen said, it repacks, doesn't convert.

Also: Try the Mac software Beamer. Drag just about any video file on your Mac onto Beamer and it will airplay the avi or mkv to your Apple TV 3.

I will give Subler a try whilst Beamer is a non sense, I can already stream whatever I want from the computer to the AppleTV and also from the NAS this is possible but I don't want to have the computer on or perform operations like it to watch a movie, I rather prefer to do it all from either the TV or ATV

Thank you for the suggestion

 

[swanseaboy]

I use Subler - you can also add subtitles, add itunes metadata, etc. Then import it into itunes, which makes it available to stream to the atv, or you can then add to ipads etc.

 

[tjwilliams25]

I will give Subler a try whilst Beamer is a non sense, I can already stream whatever I want from the computer to the AppleTV and also from the NAS this is possible but I don't want to have the computer on or perform operations like it to watch a movie, I rather prefer to do it all from either the TV or ATV

Thank you for the suggestion

I agree, the only step that you have to change is the conversion. It's unnecessary since the mkv already has an h.264 video stream in it. Just use the suggested Subler and it will "remux" the files, leaving everything intact, and just changing the mkv container to an m4v or mp4 that the Apple TV (and other tvs as well) can handle. Depending on what video streams are in the avi will dictate whether or not you can remux them. If the encoded video stream in the avi is DivX, XviD, or Windows Media, it will need to be converted to play on the Apple TV.

 

[mrex]

how do you use plex for mkv's if they need to be transcoded? what i have understood and seen in a real life, plex doesnt use atv for transcoding but it uses nas and most of them (if not all) cant transcode and stream at the same time - they arent powerful enough.

but if you use an app like infuse, doesnt it use atv for transcoding and you can stream without converting mkv's straight from the nas?