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epoke · 2011-12-10, 08:48

In Korea, many HD video files are being released in avi format. All files are encoded with H264 codec. I don't know why they using avi container, but these files are not played so well in ATV2 or iPad. MKV files remuxed with mkvmerge from the same avi files are have no problem at all in ATV2 or iPad.

XBMC can't hw decode h264 video in avi containers?

debug log files and mediainfo files are here:
AVI file mediainfo
MKV file mediainfo
ipad xbmc debug log (avi playing)
ipad xbmc debug log (mkv playing)
win7 xbmc debug log (avi playing)
win7 xbmc debug log (mkv playing)

**jabba_29** · 2011-12-10, 13:45

Known issue. Atv2 is not powerful enough to handle the trans-coding(?).
I just convert them to mkv files.

Torrent sites are seeing the light though. More and more rips are encoded In a way that atv can handle without having to convert the files again yourself.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2011-12-10, 18:13

jabba_29 Wrote:Known issue. Atv2 is not powerful enough to handle the trans-coding(?).
I just convert them to mkv files.

Torrent sites are seeing the light though. More and more rips are encoded In a way that atv can handle without having to convert the files again yourself.

Wrong. No transcoding goes on here (XBMC, on any platform, does not transcode anything). AVI is just a container, and the video is in h.264. It should work.

**jabba_29** · 2011-12-11, 09:47

Thanks for the clarification, terminology wrong Undecided

I have never been able to get any avi's in this format to play smoothly.
Handbraking the files to mkv container has allowed me to stream successfully.

mcpish · 2011-12-13, 00:32

yeah, I've noticed this problem long ago too. From my experience you need to use either the .mp4 or .mkv container with h264 encoded video to get smooth playback on AppleTV. In handbrake I transcode everything recorded from my MythTV box to .mp4 format, this works well on not only the AppleTV but also the PS3 and XBOX 360.

yabbiman · 2011-12-14, 23:24

It also depends on what YOU find acceptable as far as dropped frames/stuttering.
Some peeps just don't seem to bother.

I hate it, so almost exclusively use my ATV2 for music playback now.

dieselboy27 · 2011-12-14, 23:29

For price/performance ratio the apple tv is admirable. Sure it'd be nice to have more power but overall it's very serviceable. I'm personally hoping that aTV3G will have enough power to take on avi 720p.

~~Ned Scott~~ · 2011-12-15, 03:37

You're all wrong. This is a bug. AVI or MKV, it doesn't matter. The codec (h.264) matters, and it should play just fine on the ATV2.

mcpish · 2011-12-15, 04:51

Ned Scott Wrote:You're all wrong. This is a bug. AVI or MKV, it doesn't matter. The codec (h.264) matters, and it should play just fine on the ATV2.

I agree in theory yes. It should make no difference since it's all h264. I'm just saying that in practice it does make a difference as we've obviously noticed. Again, for some odd reason (legitimate or not) the AppleTV2 only seems to play back h264 video "properly" if it's in an mkv or mp4 container. I don't know why, and yes, this is probably a bug. But then again, why bother using such an archaic container like avi anyhow? You don't need to even transcode, just remux your files to something more modern like mp4 or mkv, it takes 2 seconds.

davilla · 2011-12-15, 05:37

I keep saying AVI is a crappy container, does not matter what's in it, it's still crap. Why do you ask... because avi encoders do stupid things like totally messing up pts so much that we cannot depends on it and force to dts when we detect an AVI.

Bellu · 2011-12-16, 04:07

yabbiman Wrote:It also depends on what YOU find acceptable as far as dropped frames/stuttering.
Some peeps just don't seem to bother.

I hate it, so almost exclusively use my ATV2 for music playback now.

well, you can certainly use the Apple TV to be a home media centre with Handbraking.
Think you could get more ideas to enjoy with ATV from this tips sites:
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/AppleTV_2
http://www.appletvhacks.net/2011/03/02/h...pple-tv-2/