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Thanks for the heads up on that. I hadn't noticed that option (since I had been using my custom presets and never even checked).

I assume its the "Auto Passthru" setting? That's a little different than before with MKV's as it was just DTS passthru (I think...)

DTS does not play on Apple TV, period. You need to convert it to AC3 to make it work. Apple TV only plays AAC and AC3 audio formats, period.

If Handbrake has a 'DTS Passthru' it will work on other devices which support it but not on the Apple TV.
 
DTS does not play on Apple TV, period. You need to convert it to AC3 to make it work. Apple TV only plays AAC and AC3 audio formats, period.

If Handbrake has a 'DTS Passthru' it will work on other devices which support it but not on the Apple TV.

I'm not saying it will support it either; I'm just interested in trying nonetheless:D

And scratch my question above about "Auto Passthru". Turns out I selected a blu-ray that had a TrueHD soundtrack with is DD still. Shows "DTS Passthru" with a DTS source.
 
As in my first post I tried blu-ray rips remuxed to m4v. So far Hugo and Star Trek, both of which go north of 25 Mbps, play smoothly on ATV2. Haven't watched the whole film, just a few minutes in a row. Both are Level 4.1 high profile 1080p.

Wow. Very impressive. Sorry to ask but could you flip through to one of the busiest parts of either film (like when the camera is panning and lots of on screen changes are occurring) and watch for any stutters there. That's where it's going to stutter if it's going to do so.

But I'm very encouraged by 25 Mbps on the A4 even if you do discover some stutter.
 
Definitely confirmed. I ripped a 1080p file last week in preparation for the new Apple TV, and when I tried to play it on the Apple TV 2 it played but was very choppy and blurry, almost in slow motion.

Updated the Apple TV software today and the same files play awesomely well. Bring on the 1080p next week!!
 
DTS does not play on Apple TV, period. You need to convert it to AC3 to make it work. Apple TV only plays AAC and AC3 audio formats, period.

If Handbrake has a 'DTS Passthru' it will work on other devices which support it but not on the Apple TV.

Thanks, period.
 
DTS does not play on Apple TV, period. You need to convert it to AC3 to make it work. Apple TV only plays AAC and AC3 audio formats, period.

If Handbrake has a 'DTS Passthru' it will work on other devices which support it but not on the Apple TV.

When I use Clownbd I ONLY take the DTS Master audio (no AAC or AC3), then use handbrake with that DTS audio. All my audio works fine on my Apple TV.
 
When I use Clownbd I ONLY take the DTS Master audio (no AAC or AC3), then use handbrake with that DTS audio. All my audio works fine on my Apple TV.

Agreed. With handbrake the DTS audio stream can be converted to AC3.
But you are also re-encoding the video stream once u use handbrake.
I need to figure out an easy way to extract the dts track from a mkv, convert to ac3 and then re-insert this ac3 into the mkv.
Then subler can be used for the mkv to mp4 remux
 
Buffering problem

I'm still having the occasional buffering problem with Netflix. I'm connected via Ethernet with Verizon FIOS as my internet provider. Anyone else? BTW, I like the new interface..

I have ATT UVERSE in Jax, FL. and went through that most of last month. Netflix just AWFUL, now here in March, it seems the problems have cured themselves ...... again.... only the shadow knows... This neighborhood runs on very old phone lines. Most likely the causes for the periodic jamming of capacity and then when the heat gets tooooo much ATT ups something or other and all is quiet for while. They are installing like gangbusters in this neighborhood.
 
When I use Clownbd I ONLY take the DTS Master audio (no AAC or AC3), then use handbrake with that DTS audio. All my audio works fine on my Apple TV.

Sure, that's because Handbrake is converting your DTS-MA track, downmixing it to AC3. You aren't playing back DTS (much less DTS-MA) on Apple TV.
 
Very much agreed! I've gone back and made MKV's of movies that I feel I need to have the DTS track for, but hate that I have to move to the mini to play them.

I know that "Subler" in it's latest Version 0.15 supports DTS tracks to be embedded into an MP4 container. Don't really know how the ATV or iTunes reacts to those files with DTS tracks but maybe you should give it a try.

Edit: Okay I've read that some of you guys tried to play .mp4 files with DTS tracks on the Apple TV. Well that will never work unless it's jailbroken I guess. The only surround sound format accepted by the Apple TV is AC3 and AAC (not sure about AAC, haven't tested it). The idea for now is just to store DTS tracks in the .mp4 files just like a backup and add AC3 5.1 and AAC Stereo Sound if needed. Then maybe on day when the Apple TV of the 12th generation supports DTS tracks we could delete the AC3 tracks with Subler or something.

And if anyone is interested, "ffmpeg" can be used to convert .dts files with just one simple command like

Code:
ffmpeg -i input.dts -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 640k -f ac3 output.dts

or even with the .mkv as the input without extracting the .dts file. The first number in the -map function indicates the input file and the second the Track ID of the track to be used. It starts with a count of 0 so this example here would use the 2nd track of the 1st input file.

Code:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:1 -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 640k -f ac3 output.ac3
 
Last edited:
Code:
ffmpeg -i input.dts -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 640k -f ac3 output.dts

or even with the .mkv as the input without extracting the .dts file. The first number in the -map function indicates the input file and the second the Track ID of the track to be used. It starts with a count of 0 so this example here would use the 2nd track of the 1st input file.

Code:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:1 -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 640k -f ac3 output.dts

So with the second command string the dts track is not removed from the mkv file, correct?
Is output.dts a copy of the dts track?
Does the ac3 track get inserted automatically here?

BTW, thanks for this
 
So with the second command string the dts track is not removed from the mkv file, correct?
Is output.dts a copy of the dts track?
Does the ac3 track get inserted automatically here?

BTW, thanks for this

Oh I'm sorry that was the wrong command. The output here should be output.ac3. But yes nothing gets removed. If you want just a copy of the .dts file (assuming it's the 2nd track in the .mkv) you can use the "-acodec copy" option like this:

Code:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:1 -acodec copy output.dts

But if you really just want the file extracted then "mkvextract" would do a much faster job with this command:

Code:
mkvextract tracks input.mkv 2:output.dts

And finally the corrected command from my earlier post which will produce a 6 channel (5.1) 640 KBit/s version of the DTS track:

Code:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -map 0:1 -acodec ac3 -ac 6 -ab 640 -f ac3 output.ac3
 
So I was pretty excited when I read that the AppleTV v2 seems to be able to playback 1080p video now, and started to download 1080p versions of my purchases. However, I'm running into another issue this morning...

I am unable to copy 1080p iTunes purchased content to my iPad 2. This makes absolutely no sense to me (as the iPad 2 is more capable than the AppleTV v2), which makes me think that Apple is preventing this transfer in software for no apparent reason. Has anyone else tried this and had a different experience?

Unless this changes, I guess I'll continue to encode my movies using 720p anamorphic until I buy a new iPad (likely next model). While I have 8+ TB of storage available for my iTunes library, I'm not about to start filling it up with multiple versions of the same video. I worked hard to determine a HB preset that optimized 720p quality and size for playback on all of my devices to avoid this issue in the first place; having two copies would be a step backward IMO.
 
So I was pretty excited when I read that the AppleTV v2 seems to be able to playback 1080p video now, and started to download 1080p versions of my purchases. However, I'm running into another issue this morning...

I am unable to copy 1080p iTunes purchased content to my iPad 2. This makes absolutely no sense to me (as the iPad 2 is more capable than the AppleTV v2), which makes me think that Apple is preventing this transfer in software for no apparent reason. Has anyone else tried this and had a different experience?

Unless this changes, I guess I'll continue to encode my movies using 720p anamorphic until I buy a new iPad (likely next model). While I have 8+ TB of storage available for my iTunes library, I'm not about to start filling it up with multiple versions of the same video. I worked hard to determine a HB preset that optimized 720p quality and size for playback on all of my devices to avoid this issue in the first place; having two copies would be a step backward IMO.

That's interesting information. I've had no issues transferring 1080p content that I've created to the iPad 2 since I've had it. These are m4v files converted from Handbrake from my blu-rays.

On the topic of DTS audio through AppleTV, nope, not working. When holding down the Enter button on the remote I only get the chapters and the audio section can't be accessed when there is just a DTS and stereo track. Will try and triple sound track and see if I can at least still access DD or if it locks it out completely.

Additionally, I'm not able to get DTS audio out of VLC when I select the track from the m4v file. MplayerX appears to be able to play the m4v with DTS, but VLC doesn't seem to do it (for me at least). Thought that was interesting.
 
I can also confirm the 1080p playback on the ATV2 has improved with the most recent update.

I have lots of 1080p home videos I have taken with my Canon T2i DSLR. Those videos get automatically imported into iPhoto and organized in iPhoto events. The videos have been available to select in the Photos section on my ATV for many months now, but they are so high in bit rate ( >40 Mbps .mov files) that, up until now, the ATV would start buffering the video, play a few seconds of it, and then the ATV would reboot or display the error message. In order to make them playable, I'd have to export each of them using quicktime to a lower bitrate or make an "ipad" version of them in iTunes. And all that is such a hassle and I never have time to do it, so those videos go largely unwatched.

Last night I tried the same thing on my ATV2 after having updated the interface software: I navigated to Computers --> My Library --> Photos --> events and found an event with a video and played it. Now the video plays just fine, without erroring out or rebooting the ATV. I tried this with several of them to confirm it wasn't a fluke.

Of course, with such a high bit-rate, the video does take a long time to buffer. But at least we can enjoy them now without having to do anything beyond plugging the camera into our mac and getting all the photos and videos into iphoto.

Was not expecting this! And it pretty much eliminates my previously perceived need to upgrade to the new 1080p ATV, since my ATV2 can handle the videos just fine.
 
Agreed. With handbrake the DTS audio stream can be converted to AC3.
But you are also re-encoding the video stream once u use handbrake.
I need to figure out an easy way to extract the dts track from a mkv, convert to ac3 and then re-insert this ac3 into the mkv.
Then subler can be used for the mkv to mp4 remux

MP4Tools will do everything one needs.
 
Wow. Very impressive. Sorry to ask but could you flip through to one of the busiest parts of either film (like when the camera is panning and lots of on screen changes are occurring) and watch for any stutters there. That's where it's going to stutter if it's going to do so.

But I'm very encouraged by 25 Mbps on the A4 even if you do discover some stutter.

The first few minutes of star trek are intense and high bitrate and it plays smoothly. The bluray and the remuxed file i played goes north of 32 mbps in the initial action. I got the atv to fall down though if i did some fast seeking and exceeded the buffer it errored out. But playback itself was smooth.

I think though that i will still get the atv 3. The few purchases i made from itunes in hd i redownloaded in 1080 and they are noticeably better quality. They also play absolutley fine on atv2 through homeshare BUT of course if you try to stream them from "purchases" it knows you have the atv2 and it streams the lower quality 720p to me. Also, while i think netflix 720 is often decent, maybe their 1080 is also bettter? Dunno. Finally, though it seems atv2 will handle my bluray rips the atv3 should provide more breathing room.

----------

So I was pretty excited when I read that the AppleTV v2 seems to be able to playback 1080p video now, and started to download 1080p versions of my purchases. However, I'm running into another issue this morning...

I am unable to copy 1080p iTunes purchased content to my iPad 2. This makes absolutely no sense to me (as the iPad 2 is more capable than the AppleTV v2), which makes me think that Apple is preventing this transfer in software for no apparent reason. Has anyone else tried this and had a different experience?

Unless this changes, I guess I'll continue to encode my movies using 720p anamorphic until I buy a new iPad (likely next model). While I have 8+ TB of storage available for my iTunes library, I'm not about to start filling it up with multiple versions of the same video. I worked hard to determine a HB preset that optimized 720p quality and size for playback on all of my devices to avoid this issue in the first place; having two copies would be a step backward IMO.

Wait, what? I thought you could sync 1080 files to ipad2 in prior version of itunes. Do your own 1080 encodes sync? Uggh that makes no sense. I'm also trying to figure out if i really want to keep full bluray remuxes or handbrake down to 1080 or anamorphic 720 for universal playback across devices.
 
The first few minutes of star trek are intense and high bitrate and it plays smoothly. The bluray and the remuxed file i played goes north of 32 mbps in the initial action. I got the atv to fall down though if i did some fast seeking and exceeded the buffer it errored out. But playback itself was smooth.

I think though that i will still get the atv 3. The few purchases i made from itunes in hd i redownloaded in 1080 and they are noticeably better quality. They also play absolutley fine on atv2 through homeshare BUT of course if you try to stream them from "purchases" it knows you have the atv2 and it streams the lower quality 720p to me. Also, while i think netflix 720 is often decent, maybe their 1080 is also bettter? Dunno. Finally, though it seems atv2 will handle my bluray rips the atv3 should provide more breathing room.

----------



Wait, what? I thought you could sync 1080 files to ipad2 in prior version of itunes. Do your own 1080 encodes sync? Uggh that makes no sense. I'm also trying to figure out if i really want to keep full bluray remuxes or handbrake down to 1080 or anamorphic 720 for universal playback across devices.
Unfortunately I did not have a 1080p handbrake encode to test before I left the house for a weekend vacation, but iTunes gave me errors trying to sync 2 different 1080p iTunes purchases (one tv show, one movie). It wouldn't surprise me if they are not allowing files with the HD tag set to 2 (1080p) instead of 1 (720p). I plan on testing this theory if no one else does before I get home on Sunday.
 
Strange how Apple have done this but fixed output at 720p. I guess they want people to upgrade from ATV2 to ATV3. At least now we can just have one 1080p file that will play on pretty much anything.

Regarding DTS in m4v - I made a sample file as soon as Handbrake started supporting it. iTunes imports and plays the file fine (but no mention of the DTS track), syncs it the iPhone4, but my current ATV1 doesn't like it. One day...
 
Can you guys post a little more detail how you are remuxing Star Trek? I have the blu ray - ripped it with MakeMKV. Load the MKV into subler and save it as a new .m4v. I've tried passing the audio through and converting it - but i end up with a weird file that quicktime and vlc have no idea what to do with.
 
Load the MKV into subler and save it as a new .m4v... i end up with a weird file that quicktime and vlc have no idea what to do with.

I have similar problems with some of my own ripped BDs. Subler seems to choke on something, but not on every title. My solution is to just use MP4Tools instead, which has the added benefit of converting DTS to AC3 5.1 as well as the option of simultaneously adding a 2-channel AAC track.
 
Can't we confirm that now? Isn't that the whole point of the new device?

It should. But I am mysleft not conviced that they change the hardware, just slapped a new SKU on the box and change packaging. I hope that someone will tear it apart to see if they changed the internals...
 
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