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Convert MKV files for Apple TV

N

Nickb

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 27, 2007
127
0
Hello everyone.

First time on here, after having problems with my ATV i came on here to find the answer - and find it i did, so thanks for everyone posting comments, it helped me figure out a really annoying problem.

What id really like to know is if there is a program i can get to convert MKV files to use on ATV as i want to put high def films on there but most seem to be MKV files.

Any help would be great.

Nick
 
p.s i use viddy up to convert my avi files - is this a good program to use, or is there a better one that i could use?
 
speakerwizard said:
visual hub will covert mkv to appletv as a preset, its a great app
Click to expand...

yeah i read about visual hub on another thread - good app then, might have to buy that. Does it take a long time to process.

Also what is the best app to use for ripping dvd's, as i tried one app and i took 24hours to convert 8% which cant be right, so what should i use?
 
Nickb said:
yeah i read about visual hub on another thread - good app then, might have to buy that. Does it take a long time to process.

Also what is the best app to use for ripping dvd's, as i tried one app and i took 24hours to convert 8% which cant be right, so what should i use?
Click to expand...

Mactheripper is a popluar app to rip DVD's.
 
Nickb said:
yeah i read about visual hub on another thread - good app then, might have to buy that. Does it take a long time to process.

Also what is the best app to use for ripping dvd's, as i tried one app and i took 24hours to convert 8% which cant be right, so what should i use?
Click to expand...

Use handbrake to convert dvd's to apple tv compatible mp4's. It works great and best of all it's free.
 
ok cool ill try those. But how do people rip HD dvd's? as ive been downloading some 720p torrents but takes ages.
 
I tried using VH to convert a multichannel mkv and it says it cannot convert from multi channel. Do I need to do something different? I tried going into the advanced and choosing 2 channel and no go. Ideas?
 
I just bought and am using visualhub now. Nice program. Wish it was faster, but oh well. Also, use meta x to tag your movies. Another nice, free program.
 
A little off topic but what can I use to tag movies in the PC world? I have been doing the Amazon thing but takes for ever with all the movies I have.
 
VH seems to work for everything accept multichannel mkv files. Well at least ones from 720P rips that I have found. It works fine for the TV Rip HD downloads I have found but not sure if they were multichannel to begin with. I would really like to play some of these HD 720p movie rips without hacking the aTV. Im sure in time but I guess now its a no go.
 
peeaanuut said:
VH seems to work for everything accept multichannel mkv files. Well at least ones from 720P rips that I have found. It works fine for the TV Rip HD downloads I have found but not sure if they were multichannel to begin with. I would really like to play some of these HD 720p movie rips without hacking the aTV. Im sure in time but I guess now its a no go.
Click to expand...

Haven't had any problems with multichannel stuff, it has worked with DTS & Dolby 5.1 stuff...
 
Script based on Visual Hub

I got the demo from Visual Hub, transcoded a 720p H264 AC3 file and ended up with a 2 minute file that played great on the Apple TV. So then I viewed the log and pulled the ffmpeg command and options from that. Below is a script based on exactly that but stripping out the 2 minute restriction and the stuff visual hub uses to save the output to a file instead of the stderr screen.

Code: 
### Transcode 720p H264 mkv files for the Apple TV

# Get the beginning time from the date cmd.
START=$(date)

# ffmpeg cmd
ffmpeg -y -i $1 -threads 4 -s 1280x720 -aspect 1280:720 -r ntsc-film -vcodec h264 -g 150 -qmin 8 -b 4500k -level 31 -loop 1 -sc_threshold 40 -partp4x4 1 -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -refs 2 -qmax 51 -maxrate 4500k -bf 1 -keyint_min 40 -async 50 -acodec aac -ar 48000 -ac 2 -ab 128k  $1.mp4

# Get the ending time of the transcode process from the date cmd.
END=$(date)

# Inform us with an email
echo "Transcoding of $1 was started on $START and completed on $END." > /tmp/emailmessage.txt
/usr/local/bin/email.sh


My script also gives me an email using another script I set up on my linux box so I can be notified by email when it is done. I'm running this on Ubuntu Hardy Heron with the ffmpeg installed from the medibuntu repository. As long as your ffmpeg binary can handle x264, ac3, and aac it should work perfectly. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the trick of not transcoding to work because the files I have are high profile H264 and the Apple TV can only play up to Main Profile H264. The transcoding process takes a long time, but at least you can do it with free tools.

I run the script by putting the file in the same directory as the script and executing it this way:

./appletv.sh file.mkv

Have fun! And remember to only use legal material, as copyright infringement is illegal!!
 
A lot of times the video stream in the MKV is actually compatible with the ATV, and you'll just need to transcode the audio. So I would open the MKV in Quicktime and check the movie inspector first. The ATV can play up to 1280x720 @ 24fps, 5mbps for h.264 and 3mbps simple profile mpeg4. Just check here and make sure the stream is compatible: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

If so, I would use VisualHub and set the video to passthrough. That way you lose no quality when transcoding, only in audio. Plus it goes wayyyy faster. I did this for a 720P Battlestar Galactica episode and it took 3 minutes and it was done and played fine on the ATV.
 
Cave Man said:
Eddy and Dyna - any chance of handling DTS, DTS-HD and True HD transcoding to AC3? How about VC-1? It seems with those then you'd have all the Blu-Ray formats covered as well (other than encryption and de-HDCP'ing).
Click to expand...
Of course theres a chance :)

But, as you already know ... rome wasn't built in a day ( apologizes for the stupid analogy ).

There is so much on the HB plate now. Some pretty neat stuff. But, like all things open source, it depends on how much time volunteers have to commit to the project. van already has a handle on vc-1 but it hasn't been tested. It's both the good and bad of open source software.
 
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