Apple TV 720p

Luxo wrote on 5/21/2007, 9:20 PM

This is an informational post since there is currently no information on this forum about rendering to the Apple TV 720p compatible format. There may be others, like me, who looked here hoping for some advice on the subject.

As anyone who's tried to convert HD footage for the Apple TV knows, Quicktime Pro offers no options (and lazily converts 1080i to 960 x 540p), and the third party utilities offer few options and can produce jerky footage (due to the 24fps ceiling the Apple TV has at 720p).

The Apple TV is also notoriously picky about the files it accepts, and many of my renders from third party apps don't work.

Luckily, Vegas (only tried on 7.0e) and the MainConcept AVC/AAC codec work wonders. For highest quality, the settings you want to use with this file type are as follows:

Frame size: 1280x720
Profile: Main
Frame rate: 23.967
Field order: None (progressive scan)
Pixel aspect ratio: 1.0
Variable bit rate: 5,242,880 max / 4,194,304 average
Audio: 44,100 Hz / 160,000 bps

These settings can be tweaked, but do not exceed the frame rate or maximum video and audio bit rates. For instance, you can save quite a lot of disk space by reducing the Max and Average video bit rates by 1Mb, and you can get a quality boost by turning on 2-pass rendering. These are actually the settings I would use for most purposes.

Hope that's handy to someone. Personally I wanted a way for my wife to view archived footage from our Canon HV20 HDV camcorder, but there are also a few 720p video podcasts popping up which are pretty cool. Anyway, have fun!

Jeremy

Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 5/21/2007, 10:37 PM

Thanks!

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/22/2007, 3:41 AM

Okay, I'll bite. What's Apple TV?

rs170a wrote on 5/22/2007, 8:28 AM

Apple TV

Mike

michaelshive wrote on 5/22/2007, 11:15 AM

Thanks for the info! How does Apple TV handle HD stuff? Any problems if it's rendered correctly?

Luxo wrote on 5/22/2007, 1:32 PM

I honestly wouldn't recommend it purely for viewing HD material, and in fact it's extremely limited even in terms of the standard def codecs it supports. You can read the tech specs on Apple's site:

http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

The only HD format it supports (as indicated in my original post) is H.264, 24fps 720p with a max bitrate of 5Mb. This is Apple being Apple, forcing you into their idea of what's best. The hardware can actually handle higher frame rates and other codecs, and there are in fact cumbersome hacks (www.appletvhacks.net) that add this functionality, but Apple's software locks you into narrow constraints.

Still, it's great for getting video podcasts on the TV, iTunes purchased videos, as well as allowing the wife to easily pull up some HD home videos. To answer your question, playback of properly rendered files is flawless in my experience, and of course the UI is great.

If you're looking for a more flexible HD solution, look at the Mvix Wireless HD Media Center. I have no experience with it, but it looks pretty powerful (and is the same price as Apple TV).

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/8e50/

Jeremy