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19 Comments
- cyberdork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12THIS WILL NOT WORK!
The AppleTV is decoding the video displayed on your TV. It will not be able to decode the formats which it doesn't have an codec for, that also includes avis put into an .mov container. You can play it on your Mac in iTunes because you have the codecs installed on your Mac. - doce, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Unfortunately ... no. Try copying your movie and reference file to another Mac that lacks the codec, and you'll see that it will not play back there (or, if you don't have another Mac, remove the codec, relaunch iTunes, and see if it still plays).
This method _will not work._
And, having worked for Apple, and knowing some of the people answering the chat line to an "Apple expert" you talked with... they don't know crap yet, and won't until release. - snowdog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Yep, Cyberdork is right.
It's the same thing with connecting from another Mac.
You still have to install the codecs on the machine where you are viewing the stuff. - UGM2099, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6In theory the Apple TV will pull the data from the reference movie (which is more than just an alias) but the Apple TV still does the decoding... your computer merely provides the data stream. I'm not convinced it will work or that the Apple expert fully understands codecs.
- wastern, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Just to reiterate once again, this won't work.
The only way it can work is if you can hack into the AppleTV somehow to install the codecs. As of now that doesn't seem possible. It is possible that someone could hack together a script to get the codecs moved in there over the network somehow, but that is a ways off, if its even possible.
Getting the file to play in iTunes on one machine doesn't make it play on another. Whoever wrote this article is a moron
For those that really want to play other formats on their TV they are going to have to invest a couple hundred extra dollars and get a Mac Mini, then they can add in the codecs and play whatever they want. For the power users that is the way to go - dzarkw, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Thanks for the info, this should be extremely useful. I just don't understand how this will work really-if you save the video file as a reference movie, it is really just an alias to the actual video file, right? And if the only file in iTunes is the reference movie, when it syncs with AppleTV, what files will be moved to the AppleTV that will allow it to actually play the movie, not just have the reference file?
- dbr_onix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Exactly, it's silly - the entire "hack" relies on the Mac hosting the content being the one to decode it, which it will not - The aTV device will do all the decoding, and simply read the compressed file over the network, if the device doesn't have the codecs, it can't decode the files, and thus it wont play..
What the device will do is just like transferring the video to another computer, then trying to play it back - If you don't have the codecs, it won't play.
It may be possible to do something similar to what Transcode360 does (For the new Xbox) - Do on the fly transcoding : Decode with codecs on main computer, encode with a codec the aTV can understand, then stream to the device. Although it's not quite as convenient, since transcoding if far more resource intensive than simply transferring the original file.
So, basically, before :
[Encoded in Xvid] ---> {aTV} : Can't play
After, with transcoding :
[Encoded in Xvid] [Decoded by computer, with Xvid codec]->[Encodes to "aTV format"] --> {aTV} : Plays back
There are problems with this, how ever. I'd guess you'd need to buffer the transcoding, so if the computer is encoding frame 2000, the aTV is playing frame 1000 - That way, if the computer is slowed down, it has a few seconds to speed up again so it doesn't stutter/freeze the video - This means if you want to skip half way into the video, you need to wait for it to re-buffer, which could be annoying. And as I said up a bit, it takes a lot more computer-power than just streaming the file, which could be annoying if someone else is watching a video with it, and your trying to use the computer.
- Ben - jsnell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm 99% sure that this will fail, because Apple TV simply doesn't play those formats. It doesn't matter if they're in iTunes. iPod is the analog here - you can drag any old QuickTime-playable file into iTunes. But try to drag it onto an iPod, and if it's not compatible... no dice.
Someone's going to have to come up with a clever transcoder that takes Divx files and the like and converts them into MPEG-4 on the fly. That might work. - danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You are both correct you will need to reencode the movie before adding it to aTV.
- theMcPatriot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Also, if I'm reading this right, it seems like this process still involves converting the files. Apple TV needs to be able to play other file formats without having to convert or "save as" for every file that gets downloaded.
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The screenshot of the chat with the Apple "Expert" doesn't fill me with confidence. It seems like she was just pasting in stock marketing phrases that most closely matched your questions, but not actually thinking about what you were asking.
This *could* work, but until someone gets their hands on an aTV and tries it out, I wouldn't count on the answer from a random Apple employee (even if she is supposed to be an 'expert') that may or may not have understood the implications of your query as she tried to hurry and get to the next customer. - danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Converting the file type is one thing, changing the encoding method is a different thing. Changing the file type like this is very quick. Re-encoding a movie will take multiple hours.
- filmnutdotorg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Update: I have added a screenshot to my post from my convo with Apple confirming that this will work (of course, the "apple expert" I spoke with could be wrong).
- atomicfuze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I tried this from PC iTunes to Mac iTunes and no worky worky. I created a reference file with Quicktime Pro. I added the reference file to iTunes and the MPEG1 file played in iTunes fine but never even shows up on the list of available movies on other machines running iTunes. I wanted this feature to play my Beyond TV recordings on my Apple TV. I guess I will have to convert them, bummer :-(
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, if this will work, then you can download a free tool from Apple to create the reference movie.
http://developer.apple.com/quicktime/quicktimeintro/tools/
It's in the WebMaster section of the site. - filmnutdotorg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Content does not need to be "moved to the AppleTV" in order for it to play on your TV. Instead, Apple TV simply streams the data from your computer to your TV. You can store data on the Apple TV if you want (it has a hard drive) but this is not a requirement.
- filmnutdotorg, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Well, assuming my methodology is correct. As the post says, "you should most certainly NOT base your purchasing decision on this guide. I could very well be overlooking something. And just because an Apple rep has told me that he thinks this will work, he could also be wrong, or even just an idiot."
- dzarkw, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Oh ok, I didn't realize it could stream content as well. Now I don't have to convert hundreds of gigs of video!
- norm78, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0I just tried this on my Intel Macbook Pro just to see how well that part worked. The framerate was horrible no matter what video size. Something close to 1 or 1.5 fps.
I've got a 2ghz core duo with 1 gig of ram...
These movies play fine in WMP for OSX
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