Video_TS to MP4 h.264 Conversion - Does Anything Create Decent Quality????

Did you use these settings:

Encoder: H.264 (iPod) LC Baseline Profile
Video Bit rate: 1500 Kbps
Audio: 48khz/160 Kbps
Resolution: 640 x 480

That's as "high" as you can go and still have it fit within aTV (unless you have access to some high def 720p or higher content, like an EyeTV recording, then you could encode using the H.264 720p "Main" progressive profile.)

Of course, the real issue is that with a dvd, you are starting with something that's already compressed to begin with, then converting it to another constrained format, then blowing that back up on a big high def display which tends to reveal flaws (rather than CRTs, EDTVs, iPods and small computer LCDs, which tend to hide them.)

I have imported a H.264 movie that is 720x480 at 4mbps with 5.1 into itunes and played it on my desktop. I used Nero 7 to do this. It will take a while to do it so I let my encoding go over night. No matter what program you use its going to take hours.
I think the are going to be giving us an updated Itunes too, but I can be wrong.
I'm waiting till the AppleTv comes out before I start my full time job of encoding movies.

kneedragger...what computer and processor are you using? Thanks in advance..

Sorry guys forgot most of you guys use macs.

I have a P4 2.6 GHz with 1 gig ram running Windows media center 2005.

Hmmmm, funny how that works in a Mac forum.

I've used Handbrake/MediaFork to convert DVD's to mp4/avi/h264/x264 with fairly decent results. You can either use the quality slider and set it to 80%+ or try a bitrate of 3000kb/s with audio @ 320kb/s. Either will produce something that's watchable on my 720p DLP. The quality slider set to 90% is probably as good as you can get at about the same file size. Setting any higher usually produces a file that is 2x as large as the original DVD with no noticeable increase in quality.

You have to remember that re-encoding a DVD is always going to introduce more artifacts and compression issues. So nothing will be perfect.

Is there no way to play .TS files through AppleTV or Front Row? That'd be a real bummer, as I really don't relish having to transcode scores of movies (hours turning into days, I'd assume). You'd think that there would be some resourceful soul that would devise a plug-in for FrontRow akin to the HDTVdump plug-in for Media Center that allows direct .TS playback/streaming. Apple really needs to get up to speed on what folks want as far as file flexibility in their home theater front-end jukeboxing. We're NOT going to get all our content from iTunes, Steve, so wake up and give us the kind of software we need.

I might have to stick with MCE if that's the case, Mac Mini or not.

I can't believe I just typed that--I've been using Apple computers since 1983. They need to catch up in these regards, though, no question.

Relish it.

Shane, if you're already using MCE, frankly you're not the target audience for aTV. And there already is a video_ts solution for Front Row, with a big thread here about it.


Now you're starting to sound like Ryan. Apple doesn't really need "to do" anything: it's profitable, selling powerful stylish computers for a fair price, especially at the low end, it didn't need to put 3.5" drives in the mini, it didn't need a do-it-all STB DVR with multiple TV tuners, it didn't need a "maxi mini" with HDMI and cableCARD, it's quite happy to be just where it is, with all sorts of new goodies rolling out very soon, Leopard, iLife '07, a Boot Camp improvement, Time machine, a new iteration of Front Row, etc.

What makes you think that Apple even cares about file flexibility? Apple offers its users a supportive, but controlled end to end experience. Again, their customer base couldn't care less about the subtleties of "front-end jukeboxing" and wouldn't know where to start. It also knows Windows, MCE and Vista aren't going to keep people from switching to Macs with Leopard, unless they're already pre-disposed not to. (And within that group "home theater issues" is a minute subset.)


A whole lot of people will, though, enough for Apple to make even more money, sell even more hardware and open even more stores, and Apple knows there already are plenty of free options for taking the content you do already have and making it conform.

Whether that's actually worth it now while we wait for 720p content from iTMS, is a whole other question.

But Apple is saying in no uncertain terms: conform, or find your own solutions, but don't complain.

Seems reasonable to me.

This could get tricky... I'm looking at AppleTV and most of my content would come from my PC...

Not really, the Mods and majority of users here seem to agree:

If you want to talk about how aTV works, its codecs, getting it connected, how it performs, that kind of talk belongs here in "HTPC Mac Chat."

If you want to discuss how best to use Windows software on your PC to get content ready for aTV (and this includes those few running a Mac mini as a Windows PC)--all that really belongs over in the regular Windows HTPC forum. And I'm sure a lot of folks with PCs and Windows will buy the aTV just like you're thinking of doing, just like they buy iPods, because a simple solution that just works has universal appeal.

I think Shane is talking about .ts files, not video_ts folders. .ts files are transport streams, mainly from a Motorola HD STB to Virtual DVHS. I, too, would love to have a plug-in for Fronttow that would allow these to play. Even without 5.1 given the current Quicktime limitation, being able to play all of the HD movies I have sitting here would be a huge improvement.

my bad, (sorry Shane) I replied in haste, but, yeah, I don't know of a clean solution either, and I've had a SA3250 with an active firewire out port for years and hardly ever use it anymore. My larger point, though, at least in terms of what we can reasonably expect Apple to provide, still applies: someone who is even aware of VirtualDVHS is not the customer Apple is addressing with Front Row or aTV, and whether it's a .ts or a divx, we got it from some other source. They'll want us all to re-purchase 720p content from iTMS, once the infrastructure improves, and keep their system as closed as possible to boost sales.