ATV2 jittery panning

[Rddl]

Alright so I have this video I want to watch on my Apple TV (and iPhone 4) through homesharing. It's a 1080p MKV, but with h264 and AAC, and I have 4.4.4 and iTunes 10.5.2.11. I'd prefer to not re-encode in handbrake because with my bad computer it would take days of raw computing for each video I have. So I pulled the video and audio out of the mkv and threw them into an mp4. Here's the media info:

General
Complete name : -snip-.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 718 MiB
Duration : 24mn 8s
Overall bit rate : 4 161 Kbps
Movie name : -snip-
Album : -snip-
Genre : -snip-
Recorded date : 2006-10-05
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-29 21:18:00
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-30 21:44:46
Writing application : My MP4Box GUI 0.5.6.0 <http://my-mp4box-gui.zymichost.com>
Cover : Yes
iTunEXTC : us-tv|TV-14|500|
iTunMOVI : -snip-
tvsh : -snip-
tvnn : -snip-
tven : 1
tvsn : 1
tves : 1
ldes : -snip-
stik : 10

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 24mn 8s
Bit rate : 4 000 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 22.6 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.080
Stream size : 691 MiB (96%)
Title : Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 5)
Writing library : x264 core 61 r949M 60c4f7e
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=tesa / subme=7 / psy_rd=0.0:0.0 / brdo=1 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=32 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=2 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=0 / threads=6 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=16 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / bime=1 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40(pre) / rc=2pass / bitrate=4000 / ratetol=1.0 / rceq='blurCplx^(1-qComp)' / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=38000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-29 21:18:00
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-29 21:18:11

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 24mn 7s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 150 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 233 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 25.8 MiB (4%)
Title : Imported with GPAC 0.4.6-DEV (internal rev. 5)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2011-12-29 21:18:09
Tagged date : UTC 2011-12-29 21:18:11


So I set up the homesharing, and was happy because it played perfectly and looked great when I played it off homesharing on my iPhone 4. But I mostly want to watch off my ATV2, and when I tried to play it on that, I get bad performance. The most notable problem is a jitter during camera pans that makes it painful to watch. I know this isn't a network issue because it will still jitter even with a large buffer.

This makes little to no sense to me, I don't understand why I can play it on my iPhone 4 but not my obviously similar ATV2. Does anyone have any insight on why this may be happening? Or do I just need to hunker down and run them through handbrake?

 

[almonde]

Jittery panning is more likely to be caused by the processing on your TV. What sort of TV do you have? If it has a game mode you can see if it jitters in that mode.

 

[Rddl]

Sorry, forgot to mention about that.

I have a Sony TV, I have turned off Motion Enhancer, Cinemaflow, and the rest of whatever those gimmicks are called. I have also tried game mode to no avail.

I unfortunately don't have another HDMI TV to test on, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't the problem, because no other movie or TV show I have watched has had this problem (although the rest of my collection is 720p ATV specific encodes for what it's worth).

 

[The General]

so you slopped together a pirated movie that's higher resolution than what's supported by the appletv and you're wondering why you're getting bad performance?

 

[Rddl]

so you slopped together a pirated movie that's higher resolution than what's supported by the appletv and you're wondering why you're getting bad performance?

Mind telling me where you read that I'm trying to play a pirated movie? Or did you just make that up? I suppose anyone trying to play videos they encoded themselves is a pirate?

 

[The General]

Mind telling me where you read that I'm trying to play a pirated movie? Or did you just make that up? I suppose anyone trying to play videos they encoded themselves is a pirate?

i didn't read it, it was obvious. however, let's assume you purchased this video from a store that sells videos as MKVs (there are no stores that sell mkvs) or used a video camera to record an mkv (there are no video cameras that do that). or maybe you ripped a bluray disc, a violation of the DMCA. okay, maybe you downloaded someone's free video project as an mkv. i suppose that's a possibility, but it is much more likely that you downloaded an HDTV rip. snipping out the name made it pretty obvious that you had something to hide. it doesn't really matter anyway.

so assuming it's not pirated, it's still a video slopped together from a container format that's not supported, at a resolution that's not supported, encoded with an h264 profile that's not really supported, at a nitrate nearly double the supported rate, yet you're still wondering why you're getting bad performance.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

transcode the video. it's only 24 minutes long, this will take an hour or two at most. you could have transcoded it a dozen times since making this thread. the hundreds of pirated movies i have in my library work great on the apple tv because i transcoded them to a supported format. the extra resolution your video has doesn't even make a difference in quality because the appletv only outputs 720.

 

[Rddl]

i didn't read it, it was obvious. however, let's assume you purchased this video from a store that sells videos as MKVs (there are no stores that sell mkvs) or used a video camera to record an mkv (there are no video cameras that do that). or maybe you ripped a bluray disc, a violation of the DMCA. okay, maybe you downloaded someone's free video project as an mkv. i suppose that's a possibility, but it is much more likely that you downloaded an HDTV rip. it doesn't really matter anyway.

Or maybe I didn't "download" anything. I ripped it from a Blu-ray. Ripping a Blu-ray is perfectly legal. Circumventing AACS or BD+ is questionably legal under fair use, but completely irrelevant to the subject of this thread.

so assuming it's not pirated, it's still a video slopped together from a container format that's not supported, at a resolution that's not supported, encoded with an h264 profile that's not really supported, probably at too high of a bitrate as well, yet you're still wondering why you're getting bad performance.

The container format it "was" in is irrelevant, as they are valid h264 and AAC tracks. And the average bitrate is 4000 kbps, well within the spec. 1080p and h264 profile High@L4.1 are beyond the listed specs but that's the whole purpose of this topic. I have read reports of people successfully playing 1080p and high profile videos on ATV2. It is certainly not unprecedented to play videos of this specification as Apple are known to be conservative with their specs.

transcode the video. it's only 24 minutes long, this will take an hour or two at most. you could have transcoded it a dozen times since making this thread. the hundreds of pirated movies i have in my library work great on the apple tv because i transcoded them to a supported format. the extra resolution your video has doesn't even make a difference in quality because the appletv only outputs 720.

This video is one of many videos with the same specifications. I'm not interested in spending hundreds of hours encoding videos that are already close to working. However since I have exhausted all my ideas, and this appears to be a problem with the file itself and not my ATV2 or TV, I've decided to abandon this option and just use my PS3 to play the files.

 

[blueroom]

Try re-encoding a troublesome video using Handbrake to the ATV2 setting, if it's a blu-ray set the quality to RF:23 else you'll probably still get stuttering in high bitrate scenes.

How did you manage to play those .mkvs anyway? Was it jailbroken?

 

[The General]

Or maybe I didn't "download" anything. I ripped it from a Blu-ray. Ripping a Blu-ray is perfectly legal. Circumventing AACS or BD+ is questionably legal under fair use, but completely irrelevant to the subject of this thread.

Yeah, maybe you ripped a bluray, just like I suggested in my post that you quoted.

It's not legal in the US, though you may live elsewhere. It's a violation of the DMCA because one must circumvent copy protection do it. Fair use doesn't negate the copy protection clauses. Either, that's not the point. Where the video is from makes no difference. Like I said, my hundreds of pirated movies work great with my Apple TV. Let's read on. ;-)

The container format it "was" in is irrelevant, as they are valid h264 and AAC tracks. And the average bitrate is 4000 kbps, well within the spec. 1080p and h264 profile High@L4.1 are beyond the listed specs but that's the whole purpose of this topic. I have read reports of people successfully playing 1080p and high profile videos on ATV2. It is certainly not unprecedented to play videos of this specification as Apple are known to be conservative with their specs.

Beyond the listed specs. Almost twice the supported bitrate. More than double the number of pixels. Unsupported profile. Jittery results. Expected.

This video is one of many videos with the same specifications. I'm not interested in spending hundreds of hours encoding videos that are already close to working. However since I have exhausted all my ideas, and this appears to be a problem with the file itself and not my ATV2 or TV, I've decided to abandon this option and just use my PS3 to play the files.

Good idea. Use a device that supports what you're trying to play. I don't know what you expected out of this thread, it's not like there's some setting on the AppleTV that makes it not jittery or something.

 

[bp1000]

Interestingly, has anyone every been prosecuted for backing up their own DVDs / Films / BD Discs?

Yes they have copy protection which personally i think is pointless because all good rippers can bypass it.

The copy protection was originally intended to stop piracy by ripping and sharing on torrents or the old p2p networks. This is totally don't agree with.

I purchase all of my DVD's and having a small child that wrecks them..... you see...

 

[cp2222]

I actually have this exact same experience with my ATV2, connected via ethernet cable to my Mac Pro. However all of my content is from the iTunes store (Tv shows, movies, etc). The ATV2 is running into my Denon receiver which is going into my brand new Samsung LED TV. Interestingly, this phenomena never used to happen 3-6 months ago, but sometime a few months back there was an ATV update (or maybe iTunes?) which introduced this. It happens 100% of the time playing content, but does not occur 100% of the time through the show. So for example, you browse to computers (or rent a movie) and click Play and the show starts buffering. It will quickly reach 1/4 buffered (10 seconds maybe for a 40 min HD tv show) and then the show starts playing. Typically a couple seconds in you will already see the slight jutter. It is somewhat not noticeable, but if you pay attention you can clearly see it is like it is slightly freezing on a frame, creating a weird hesitancy. Really sucks, but I haven't found any solution. Oh, I mentioned this TV was new, this same thing happened with my last tv, that I just replaced a month ago.

 

[jamesvdm]

Are you sure you're not just seeing typical 24fps panning jitters?

 

[The General]

Interestingly, has anyone every been prosecuted for backing up their own DVDs / Films / BD Discs?

Yes they have copy protection which personally i think is pointless because all good rippers can bypass it.

The copy protection was originally intended to stop piracy by ripping and sharing on torrents or the old p2p networks. This is totally don't agree with.

I purchase all of my DVD's and having a small child that wrecks them..... you see...

I don't think anyone was persecuted here. The main point I was making was that his video is beyond almost every spec support by the Apple TV. Seems like he got upset about that and singled out the least important word in my first post and argued with that.

You don't have to agree with it, we're talking about facts here, not opinions. I don't agree with a lot of laws. The bottom line here is that the video he wants to play can't be played smoothly on an Apple TV because it doesn't conform to the supported specifications of the Apple TV.