I used to use N, and it worked before, but now I'm wired... sorry can't help you on G. My files are on an external drive connected to the Airport Extreme router. G is definitely slower though... how big are your encoded files? What bitrate are they?
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Convert mkv movies into mp4
- Thread starter Aegelward
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I used to use N, and it worked before, but now I'm wired... sorry can't help you on G. My files are on an external drive connected to the Airport Extreme router. G is definitely slower though... how big are your encoded files? What bitrate are they?
I watch HD content on my Wired network. Although recently it has start to pause every now and then. I'm thinking of getting Time Capsule and move into 802.11n
Idgit, i dont think anybody's answered ure question. i dont know why theres two ratios, i have a couple of mkv's like this. i think the actual ratio is 1280 x 528. the best option is as follows...
open the mkv file in quicktime using perian. and let the bar load to the end.
go to window and select show movie properties. click on the video track and visual settings. enter 1280 x 528 as the new scaled size. then file, save (as a .mov file).
you can then convert the mov file in visualhub and the end result should be in the correct ratio. dont know why theres a second ratio (960 x 528).
hope this helps, if you have any other questions gimme a holla.
peace.
open the mkv file in quicktime using perian. and let the bar load to the end.
go to window and select show movie properties. click on the video track and visual settings. enter 1280 x 528 as the new scaled size. then file, save (as a .mov file).
you can then convert the mov file in visualhub and the end result should be in the correct ratio. dont know why theres a second ratio (960 x 528).
hope this helps, if you have any other questions gimme a holla.
peace.
Alright, I've downloaded various MKV HD files from the net and not a single one was ready to be converted to MP4 and have it play on the Apple TV. Best case scenario it played in iTunes only.
Variations from bitrate (over 5000kbps and Apple TV refuses to play it) or FPS (over 24 and it won't work) make it impossible to convert without re-encoding. Not to mention that the h.264 has to be encoded in some specific way or it won't play.
Anyway, if the mkv audio is AAC, and the video is within the Apple TV limits, it's worth giving the mkvextract/mp4box technique a shot. But there's no guarantees. Otherwise, just encode it with VisualHub and you'll save yourself the headache of non-working files.
I really just wish there was a standard for encoding these things that guarantees playback in any device that has the power to play it. Not some stupid codec limitation.
Variations from bitrate (over 5000kbps and Apple TV refuses to play it) or FPS (over 24 and it won't work) make it impossible to convert without re-encoding. Not to mention that the h.264 has to be encoded in some specific way or it won't play.
Anyway, if the mkv audio is AAC, and the video is within the Apple TV limits, it's worth giving the mkvextract/mp4box technique a shot. But there's no guarantees. Otherwise, just encode it with VisualHub and you'll save yourself the headache of non-working files.
I really just wish there was a standard for encoding these things that guarantees playback in any device that has the power to play it. Not some stupid codec limitation.
MKV is a container for audio and video information (the advantage of MKV is it supports many different audio and video codecs/formats). The AppleTV cannot play MKV files natively so they need to be converted into MP4 format.
I couldn't even get it to work on a modified ATV. I enabled AC3 passthrough and only got clicking noises and the DD logo did not show up on my receiver. I tried DTS as well and got nothing (not sure how to pass that through).
Perian 1.1 has been released so I'm going to try installing that on my ATV. I suspect all it's going to do is allow me to play dts tracks without transcoding but I still won't be able to pass through ac3 or dts.
heres something interesting for you all...
new version of perian is out version 1.1 get it here:
http://perian.org
had a little play, you can now play mkv files in quicktime with sound and subtitles... brilliant!
- sKells
new version of perian is out version 1.1 get it here:
http://perian.org
had a little play, you can now play mkv files in quicktime with sound and subtitles... brilliant!
- sKells
Bumping this to see if anyone has any success with converting a h264 mkv to the new ATV with 5.1 AC3 established.
I would have to re-encode the file and risk losing quality.
I would have to re-encode the file and risk losing quality.
MKV to 5.1 AC3 Apple TV
I've converted a few MKVs using VisualHub's Apple TV 5.1 preset - works a treat - my amp detects the surround sound and works really well.
Jason
I've converted a few MKVs using VisualHub's Apple TV 5.1 preset - works a treat - my amp detects the surround sound and works really well.
Jason
MKV Conversion problem
Hi Carlos E,
If its already in 720p MKV, it might be using a different profile than Quicktime can actually support, so you can't copy the video track straight through. I just leave everything off in the advanced panel, put it on Go Nuts and leave it for 2-3 hours and I get a movie that works.
Another thing I noticed is that the MKV file you're trying has an AAC 5.1 soundtrack, using the Apple TV 5.1 preset, its not going to convert it to AC3 - what you'll end up with is a stereo file. That preset looks for an AC3 track to copy through, if it doesn't find one, it makes the new file stereo. If you want to use the Apple TV 5.1 preset, you'll need to have something that has AC3 in it to begin with.
Jason
Hi Carlos E,
If its already in 720p MKV, it might be using a different profile than Quicktime can actually support, so you can't copy the video track straight through. I just leave everything off in the advanced panel, put it on Go Nuts and leave it for 2-3 hours and I get a movie that works.
Another thing I noticed is that the MKV file you're trying has an AAC 5.1 soundtrack, using the Apple TV 5.1 preset, its not going to convert it to AC3 - what you'll end up with is a stereo file. That preset looks for an AC3 track to copy through, if it doesn't find one, it makes the new file stereo. If you want to use the Apple TV 5.1 preset, you'll need to have something that has AC3 in it to begin with.
Jason
So even though the file is already 720p there is no way around having to process the file?
Does the 'go nuts' setting compress the file at all? I'd hate the files to end up less than 720p, since that's the source quality.
EDIT: The technique mentioned earlier — to use Perian to "…passthrough the video and convert to a MP4 container. Go to export> movie to MP4> Options> MP4 (not MP4 isma)> passthrough." — will this carry AC3 5.1 to the resulting MP4 file? And also, will that play on the new Apple TV software?
720p MKV
Ok.... the term '720p' means 1280x720 resolution.
Next there are two more things we need to clarify...
The Apple TV setting in Visualhub - what this does it convert a file to a format the Apple TV supports. So if you give it a 1080p file, it'll make sure it plays (in that example, it halves it to 960x540 @ 30fps as thats the highest res it can play at the frame rate). If you give it a VIDEO_TS folder or VOB file, those are 720x576, so it leaves it at that size. If you give it a 1280x720 file at 24fps, it leaves it at the size and framerate as the Apple TV supports that.
The 'Go Nuts' bit - what this means is the quality of the exported movie - not the resolution - the quality is based around the bitrate, a higher bitrate, more data per second, better picture. What Go Nuts does is choose the highest bit rate, based on the duration of the file and still makes it legal to fit within the Apple TV's 4Gb file limit.
So, if you give VisualHub a 720 MKV with AC3 and put it on the Apple TV 5.1 preset, Go Nuts, you'll get a big file (although less than 4Gb), 1280x720 res with an AC3 soundtrack ready to be decoded by a Dolby amplifier.
If you try an open a MKV file in Quicktime using Perian, you'll be able to choose the option to pass-through the video, but not the audio as MP4s created by Quicktime Pro don't let you create anything but an AAC soundtrack.
Jason
Ok.... the term '720p' means 1280x720 resolution.
Next there are two more things we need to clarify...
The Apple TV setting in Visualhub - what this does it convert a file to a format the Apple TV supports. So if you give it a 1080p file, it'll make sure it plays (in that example, it halves it to 960x540 @ 30fps as thats the highest res it can play at the frame rate). If you give it a VIDEO_TS folder or VOB file, those are 720x576, so it leaves it at that size. If you give it a 1280x720 file at 24fps, it leaves it at the size and framerate as the Apple TV supports that.
The 'Go Nuts' bit - what this means is the quality of the exported movie - not the resolution - the quality is based around the bitrate, a higher bitrate, more data per second, better picture. What Go Nuts does is choose the highest bit rate, based on the duration of the file and still makes it legal to fit within the Apple TV's 4Gb file limit.
So, if you give VisualHub a 720 MKV with AC3 and put it on the Apple TV 5.1 preset, Go Nuts, you'll get a big file (although less than 4Gb), 1280x720 res with an AC3 soundtrack ready to be decoded by a Dolby amplifier.
If you try an open a MKV file in Quicktime using Perian, you'll be able to choose the option to pass-through the video, but not the audio as MP4s created by Quicktime Pro don't let you create anything but an AAC soundtrack.
Jason
I have a wired media center (mac mini) and all my apple tv'(s) are all wireless - I have no problem streaming HD 720p content
ok I've got a special case I need help with. I have an mkv of Pan's Labyrinth. Video is h264 1280x688, audio is 5.1 AC3. I would like to convert this to an 5.1 ch m4v for the 
TV. Tried exporting to mpeg-4 with quicktime but it won't let me do video passthrough nor will it keep the audio 5.1. Was thinking about using VisualHub but since this is a foreign language film I need the subtitles and VisualHub doesn't seem to do that. Anyone have any ideas?
TV. Tried exporting to mpeg-4 with quicktime but it won't let me do video passthrough nor will it keep the audio 5.1. Was thinking about using VisualHub but since this is a foreign language film I need the subtitles and VisualHub doesn't seem to do that. Anyone have any ideas?OK this is so frustrating.
I still cannot find a tool to transcode an HD .MKV file to Apple TV on Windows!
VLC will transcode but max 3072 bitrate on H.264 and downsamples the audio to 2-channel.
I've tried dozens of 'Apple TV Video Converters' and none of them work. If they do make a file, it doesn't play.
I also tried 'SUPER' which won't even open the MKV files.
Isn't there a program ala VisualHub on the Mac for WINDOWS?
I still cannot find a tool to transcode an HD .MKV file to Apple TV on Windows!
VLC will transcode but max 3072 bitrate on H.264 and downsamples the audio to 2-channel.
I've tried dozens of 'Apple TV Video Converters' and none of them work. If they do make a file, it doesn't play.
I also tried 'SUPER' which won't even open the MKV files.
Isn't there a program ala VisualHub on the Mac for WINDOWS?
I'd love to test this for you
I've tried about 5 different methods of converting mkv to mp4 to play on my ps3 with no joy.M
I'd love to test this for you
M
There is an app for PC that I run in Parallels that re-wraps the mkv's in an mpg or vob wrapper for the ps3. The whole process takes about 10 minutes (for a 1080p/DTS file!!!) The DTS is converted to ac3. These files play great via MediaLink. The app is called mkv2vob
Does anyone know why I'm able to pass through some .mkv and not others? I have passed through many mkv files, bother 720p and 1080p , with no problem what so ever, but then I have like 3 or 4 that I cannot pass through no matter what I try. I've tried to mess with the settings in Perian and everything. Nothing. And I can't figure out what's different from these videos from the other ones that did work.