.mkv on Apple TV?

[Vlado]

Are there any plugins that can alow the AppleTv to play HD .mkv files?I'd like to buy an Apple Tv , but if it can't play this type of files i'l have to go for the Mac Mini Core Solo.

[mingistech]

The AppleTV can't playback .mkv files even though most are encoded using x264 or h264 encoders.

 

I have an AppleTV and download TONS of 720p.x247.mkv files. Mostly HDDVD and BluRay rips.

 

For playback I convert them over to .mp4 files with VisualHub.

 

The AppleTV can playback these 720p files beautifully. And there is no quality loss on the video. After conversion they look exactly like their .mkv originals. The biggest change on these files is the Stereo AAC audio after conversion.

[Vlado]

How much time dose it take to encode them to mp4?Let's say a 4GB movie?Are shure there aren't any codecs that would permit the Apple Tv to run .mkv?

[bxsci(macuser)]

hacks can make a machine do anything... the question is whether they are there yet or not - search it

[asap18]

Perian 1.0 should do just fine :pirate2:

[Carniphage]

Perian 1.0 should do just fine

 

 

If the MKV is 720p and the content is on a network drive then Perian 1.0 will not do fine.

Under these circumstances Perian struggles even on a Mac Pro.

 

Perhaps the next (optimized) version of Perian will improve things.

 

C.

[Novaoblivion]

I have a question along the same lines, I have a SD mkv file but when I try to play it through the aTV it says something like file format not recognized. Do I need to do anything special to make it play mkvs? I have perian 1.0 installed and use ATVfiles to try and play it, I have tried both over a NFS mount and from the local Movies folder.

[asap18]

@Camiphage

 

Perian has nothing to do with you're slow network, I've used 720p content mkv's on the lowest macbook without a sweat.

[Carniphage]

I'll describe what I see, and if you are getting a better outcome, I'd really like to hear.

 

I am currently able to play 720p MP4 content from a shared drive on my AppleTV. It works great, but means I have to transcode, and I lose Dolby Digital audio

I would like to be able to play 720p MKV files held on a shared network drive. These files are about a Gig for 45 mins. Which I reckon averages at 0.5 Megabytes per second.

That's easily within the speed of my network.

 

According to the Perian people - their forum and the to-do tickets in the project....

Perian needs to fully load the entire MKV file prior to playing. This is an acknowledged issue, and is scheduled to be improved in subsequent releases.

 

On a Mac Pro - with a 270mbs 802.11n network (which delivers 9megaBYTES per second) - VLC will play 720pMKV content flawlessly across the network.

 

But, if I use Quicktime/Perian 1.0 to load a 720p MKV file on a network drive, I see a loading bar in Quicktime. Perian has to pre-scan all MKV files.

For a 1GB file, it takes about 3-4 mins to load the file fully before playing. A wired gigabit ethernet link would be a bit faster.

If I press play *before* the loading completes, I get stuttering.

With the same file on a local drive, the loading is obviously faster (about a minute) and stuttering goes away if I press play early.

 

But on the AppleTV Perian's MKV implementation poses another problem.

 

The h264 module on the AppleTV only plays a subset of h264 content.

This means that only 50% of MKVs will play, the rest get a black screen.

 

Replacing the h264 component will result in that being fixed, but the replacement component is much less efficient on the Apple TV.

Not only is it not fast enough for 720p MKVs - it means that 720p MP4s will not play smoothly either.

 

So the choice is 50% of MKVs are black.

Or

No 720p content at all.

 

NitoTV uses Mplayer to play MKVs without Perian's pre-loading process.

However it drops a lot of frames, which would not be too bad, except that frame drops cause the audio and video to go out of sync.

 

If anyone has made more progress than this, I'd be pleased to hear.

 

C.

[replicant]

Carniphage,

 

I cannot believe that finally someone is having the exact same struggles that I am with their AppleTV and their mkv content. I am in the EXACT same boat and have been trying furiously to convert them to a usable format that will stream to the AppleTV, either it be by playing them through ATVFiles or nitoTV. So far my attempts have been futile, as it seems that all of my mkv files are the type that you mentioned that AppleTV just doesn't like (i.e. black screen in ATVFiles, massive studdering in nitoTV). Bottom line, I have too many mkv files and the time it takes to convert/transcode them is way too long. Though I'm willing to try to find the right conversion process/settings. I'm still thinking that I may have to go for a mac mini instead. A disappointment since the ATV is obviously MUCH cheaper. I'd really love to hear if you've had any other progress in this area.

 

Thanks!

[dhomi]

I guess still no solution to play 720p x264 files without having to convert them ?

I would definitely fall for the ATV then ! If only they could put a newer processor into it, and a newer software as well

I think it's a bit of a waste to use the Mac Mini as a mere media player, but sure I would if I could afford it

[neologicspasm]

I play .mkv files on my ATV with perian, but firstly I transcode the .mkv with Visual Hub to an avi then use mkvmerge and select the avi video and the original .mkv audio to create a new .mkv file.

 

For best performance I select the movie and pause it whilst it caches up the whole movie.

 

neo

[dhomi]

I play .mkv files on my ATV with perian, but firstly I transcode the .mkv with Visual Hub to an avi then use mkvmerge and select the avi video and the original .mkv audio to create a new .mkv file.

 

For best performance I select the movie and pause it whilst it caches up the whole movie.

 

neo

Do you lose quality when u're doing that conversion, and more importantly can you do that with 720p x264 files. The ATV would be such a great machine if it could natively read 720p x264 files, I mean if you have a hdmi lcd TV, that's what you want, you don't want to upscale low resolution avi videos...

Unfortunately, ATV & Mac minis are far from top priority to Steve Jobs...

[prototype_sx]

I have a solution that may work On my hackintosh, I installed perian which allows me to playback alot of material, but it I still couldnt add mkv's or avi's to itunes (I could place an alias folder in the movies folder and I could browse to it from within frontrow but I wanted more

 

SO, I found a program that allows me to convert almost any file (except mpeg's) to mov. It's done without transcoding so it takes seconds. All it does it put the audio and video track in a mov container. I have since been able to add all my content to itunes an thus to appletv.

 

The program is mpeg steamclip 1.9 With mkv's you have to open it within the program from files, open files, then change it to all files then select your mkv then when it says unsupported format select open anyway and you will be able to open it. I have replaced all the media files I have with the ones wrapped in mov and couldnt be happier.

 

So, check it out and see if it helps you cause it helped me as I DREADED having to transcode my videos and messing up the quality as well as it takeing a WHILE to transcode, but with this method I didnt have to worry about any of that

[dhomi]

I have a solution that may work On my hackintosh, I installed perian which allows me to playback alot of material, but it I still couldnt add mkv's or avi's to itunes (I could place an alias folder in the movies folder and I could browse to it from within frontrow but I wanted more SO, I found a program that allows me to convert almost any file (except mpeg's) to mov. It's done without transcoding so it takes seconds. All it does it put the audio and video track in a mov container. I have since been able to add all my content to itunes an thus to appletv. The program is mpeg steamclip 1.9 With mkv's you have to open it within the program from files, open files, then change it to all files then select your mkv then when it says unsupported format select open anyway and you will be able to open it. I have replaced all the media files I have with the ones wrapped in mov and couldnt be happier.So, check it out and see if it helps you cause it helped me as I DREADED having to transcode my videos and messing up the quality as well as it takeing a WHILE to transcode, but with this method I didnt have to worry about any of that

No way, you're saying you are able to convert 720p x264 mkv files to mov files without any loss in terms of quality ? That would amazing, and I would definitely be tempted to buy an ATV then (I'm bringing my PC into living room just to be able to read those mkv files).

 

Just tried it. Couldn't open the mkv file. I get a "file open error: can't find video or audio tracks" message after I did "Open anyway".

[prototype_sx]

its not transcoded, the app jus takes the video feed no matter the type, and the audio, no matter the type, and puts them in a mov container so its the same audio and video so no change whatsoever except the container. You can then add the files to itunes One thing though, is that you will have to use the same program if you wish to go back to mkv or any other format, reason being is that clearly x264 and ac3 is not in the .mov container specs normally, so programs like mkvtoolnix try to use the standard mov reader and cant extract from it. Also, u can use visualhub to go to dvd

[Carniphage]

In the mean time...

 

NitoTV seems to have improved some.

NitoTV is an AppleTV app based on the open-source Unix media player: MPLAYER

 

The latest version will natively play 720p MKVs on the Apple TV but it is still dropping frames.

HOWEVER Audio seems to stay in sync, and the number of dropped frames seems a lot better.

 

Has anyone had success with the latest versions?

 

C.

[pbjr]

In the mean time...

 

NitoTV seems to have improved some.

NitoTV is an AppleTV app based on the open-source Unix media player: MPLAYER

 

The latest version will natively play 720p MKVs on the Apple TV but it is still dropping frames.

HOWEVER Audio seems to stay in sync, and the number of dropped frames seems a lot better.

 

Has anyone had success with the latest versions?

 

C.

 

Hello,

 

Mine seems better as well with the new update. Still needs work.

 

- Mike

[Oyinko]

any update about this features ?

[krrr]

@Oyinko, I can play this files by using Boxee on my AppleTV

[viccy]

its not transcoded, the app jus takes the video feed no matter the type, and the audio, no matter the type, and puts them in a mov container so its the same audio and video so no change whatsoever except the container. You can then add the files to itunes One thing though, is that you will have to use the same program if you wish to go back to mkv or any other format, reason being is that clearly x264 and ac3 is not in the .mov container specs normally, so programs like mkvtoolnix try to use the standard mov reader and cant extract from it. Also, u can use visualhub to go to dvd

 

 

hi

 

PROTOTYPE_SX

 

I have atleast 3 TB of .mkv files and hope to get more

 

 

to convert them to ATV format , I have dedicated one of mine intel mac to visual Hub because thats the only program which work with .mkv files to ATV

infect I have all the program including apple's compressor to sorenson to elgato turbo .264

 

but the best and the most reliable is visual hub

and to day i was searching and found your thread about mpeg stream clip and i tried the way you said and I almost screamed, why ??? because I was able to change .mkv to MOV in few minute and the transfer the same to itune while keeping my finger crossed and YES it was playing in my itune

 

now the reason I am writing all this stupid detail is BECAUSE when i open my ATV and connect

that shared lib under Movie it is not showing the movie i saved as MOV with mpeg streamclip

 

can you tell me why or just tell me the way to do it please

 

 

thanks and please reply to my request

[nostra]

hi guys,

 

i am running into the same issue, i tried it with nito, sapphire and also boxee - the ATV is simply to slow.

it consumes a 100% CPU if i watch MKV files. M4V runs fine with all applications...

 

so what i want to ask - atm i am using HANDBREAK to convert those movies which works great. it also has a preset for appletv and a smooth de-interlacing feature - it also converts 5.1 perfectly.

 

anyhow it takes something like 3 hours with my macbook pro to convert a mkv to m4v - is this faster with virtual dub??

i have somehting like 50 MKV files around here.. so this would be 150 hours just decoding time .. :-(

 

whats your experience?

[rampar]

Wow, I can't believe how easy it is to get MKV's to play on aTV after reading these posts. Here's what I did to get it all to work.

 

Download Perian 1.1.3

Download MPEG Streamclip (you can find it on Apple's downloads and it's Freeware!)

 

You need Perian, because MPEG Streamclip won't open up MKV files without it. Apparently it hooks into the framework somehow to allow Streamclip to open it up.

 

So, after you open up MPEG Streamclip, you click File -> Open... and select your MKV file. It takes about 5minutes on my 1.6 Macbook Air. I'm assuming it has to read the complete file before actually opening it up (oh, and these files average about 4.3GB). Afterwards, I just click File -> Save As... and then select MP4 format. It takes about 3-4 minutes on mine to save it as an MP4, but after that it's good to go. You can import it in to iTunes and it plays. I don't know if you can stream it from another computer to aTV though, I just copy all my stuff over to an external HDD and run it from ATVFiles on there.

 

Hope this helps somebody out. The quality looks to be amazing, and I haven't had any problems with it yet. The file size is about 1GB smaller than the MKV, but I haven't noticed it being because of a quality issue (hopefully just better compression).

 

Thanks!

[shurakai]

Wow, I can't believe how easy it is to get MKV's to play on aTV after reading these posts. Here's what I did to get it all to work.

 

So, after you open up MPEG Streamclip, you click File -> Open... and select your MKV file. It takes about 5minutes on my 1.6 Macbook Air. I'm assuming it has to read the complete file before actually opening it up (oh, and these files average about 4.3GB). Afterwards, I just click File -> Save As... and then select MP4 format. It takes about 3-4 minutes on mine to save it as an MP4, but after that it's good to go. You can import it in to iTunes and it plays.

 

I gave Streamclip a try, as well as someone else's suggestion of simply re-saving the file in a .MOV container from within QT Pro. The .MOV file will load in iTunes and plays just fine there, but won't download to my aTV. QT doesn't give the option of saving out as an MP4, only exporting as such, which, even with an Elgato Turbo.264 and a dual 2-GHz G5 takes 10+ hours for a 1-hour 720p movie. Streamclip, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem saving the video track in an MP4 container, but didn't understand or couldn't read the audio track, which was encoded in AC3 format, and so stripped it out entirely. iTunes won't pass the MP4 file over to the aTV either.

 

Did you do something else with your aTV? Hack it in any way? What codecs were the audio and video streams in originally in the file you converted?

[Guest luwen]

How to convert MKV video to Apple TV on Mac.