BlueRay rip @ H264

**antsantangelo** · April 15th, 2009, 10:06 AM

Hi

when i play back movies that have been ripped to this my apple tv just skips/stuttering all the time

what is hte problem can apple tv/ boxee not handle these files?

p.s i have these files on my appletv hard drive an not streaming

any help

**sfsmiley** · April 15th, 2009, 10:03 PM

never used an apple tv but according to the specs on their site it has a 1ghz pentium M. i would say your lucky you even got it to play at all with that little power. im using a 3.2 ghz x2 here on linux and i have no problem playing hd or br rips (mkv), but id say probably a low ghz core 2 or x2 would be the minimum to play br.

**antsantangelo** · April 17th, 2009, 06:04 AM

So what format is best to play on the appleTV?

I thought it could handle Blueray/ HD as u can watch HD via iTunes with it

**weiser880** · April 17th, 2009, 08:16 AM

You're best to watch HD movies on the actual software that came with the Apple TV, because it utilizes the Graphics chip as well as the processor, giving you a much better performance. It's typical of Apple to not be very friendly to third parties, and the ATV doesn't support a wide range of formats out of the box. So, you have to do a bit of tweaking...

Personally, I use a program called "Handbrake" to convert all of my HD rips (including BluRay), and convert them using the default "Apple TV" setting. When that's done, you can sync it to the ATV using iTunes the normal way.

As for the MKV files, I don't think they will ever play well on the Apple TV.

**ShakeBobWillis** · April 17th, 2009, 01:43 PM

Originally Posted by weiser880

You're best to watch HD movies on the actual software that came with the Apple TV, because it utilizes the Graphics chip as well as the processor, giving you a much better performance. It's typical of Apple to not be very friendly to third parties, and the ATV doesn't support a wide range of formats out of the box. So, you have to do a bit of tweaking...

Personally, I use a program called "Handbrake" to convert all of my HD rips (including BluRay), and convert them using the default "Apple TV" setting. When that's done, you can sync it to the ATV using iTunes the normal way.

As for the MKV files, I don't think they will ever play well on the Apple TV.

What is the point of converting BluRay to a lower quality? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having BluRay?

**dan1son** · April 17th, 2009, 01:47 PM

Originally Posted by ShakeBobWillis

What is the point of converting BluRay to a lower quality? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having BluRay?

The point is to get it to play on an AppleTV. Also the better the source material the better the encode. If you take a 1080p blu-ray and convert it to 720p it'll still look much better than a DVD encoded.

**weiser880** · April 18th, 2009, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by ShakeBobWillis

What is the point of converting BluRay to a lower quality? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having BluRay?

The Apple TV, unfortunately, was designed to work with the iTunes store, which uses 720p HD movies and TV shows that are heavily compressed. So, you're looking at about a 2-3 GB file for an HD movie, which only works with the formats stated here.

You can use software such as XMBC to support other file types, but as I said before, it won't use the onboard graphics chip, and so will look "choppy" if the file is of a high quality rip.

Your best choice, therefore, is to convert the BluRay rips to the supported format. If you're not happy with that option, then you will need to exchange your Apple TV for another piece of hardware.