like i'm retarded (itunes works)
#1
somebody explain this to me like i'm retarded. when i purchase a movie on itunes it plays in HD on my apple tv 2 perfectly. but any file from my computer that i attempt to play in HD with xbmc on my apple tv 2 works like shit. it constantly stops and has to catch up.

there has to be some more elegant way of knowing which files are going to play, and which video parameters are needed (does my video need this bitrate or that?) than spending 3 hours handbraking a file only to find out it still doesn't work.

where do i begin? it is my network? are my video files not in the correct frames per second (for example)? again, there has to be some more elegant solution than trial and error. isn't there a way with xbmc, that i know a file will playback correctly without constantly trying this and that?

i barely know how to make this whole thing work, in fact i don't even know how to do that. in the last couple weeks i've learned how to jailbreak, ssh, install repositories from zip files, etc...all things i never knew about before, so if this sounds unappreciated to all you xbmc devs, i'd just like you to know i have an incredible amount of respect for your talents. i'm well aware that i'm not contributing much. i'm just saying: i don't know a whole lot other than just how to get xbmc on my atv2, and playing my videos does not work. i thought that was the whole point of xbmc for apple tv? why is it so hard? how do i get this figured? am i missing something? i probably am. :confused2:

i feel like i can put all the effort i want in this and still won't find anything, because i am simply looking in the wrong place, and i need a "no, like this dumbass!"

if anybody wants i made a pastebin site and all my pastebin posts are related to xbmc HD playback issues.
http://pastebin.com/u/qrlos
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#2
qrlos Wrote:somebody explain this to me like i'm retarded. when i purchase a movie on itunes it plays in HD on my apple tv 2 perfectly. but any file from my computer that i attempt to play in HD with xbmc on my apple tv 2 works like shit. it constantly stops and has to catch up.
http://pastebin.com/u/qrlos

Movies purchased via iTunes have DRM, neither XBMC nor any other non-apple video player can play them.
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#3
i didn't mean i'm stupid enough to try and play itunes content on xbmc/atv2, which by my post is understandable why you thought that Smile

what i meant was, itunes/atv2 plays movies in HD perfectly fine with no stuttering, etc. why is it that when i try to play a seperate file (non itunes file) on xbmc/atv2, it stutters and buffers and hiccups? i'm guessing itunes knows how to use the correct settings (frames per second, bitrate, passthru...) for their movies to play on apple tv2. it just seems it's possible to play stutter free HD on atv2, itunes lets me know it's possible.

how do i find out what the correct settings are for movies to play in xbmc/atv2? i know how to google, but not what to google for...are these called video parameters? movies settings? video settings info?

i'm thinking that my problem is my videos have too high of a bitrate, way too many FPS, how do i learn whether or not my files will play in xbmc/atv2 without spending 3 hours handbraking before i find out if it even works?

does everyone who plays a movie in xbmc/atv2 really spend hours handbraking each movie file before it can play in xbmc/atv2?
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#4
It depends.
Try using mediainfo (google the tool yourself) on both the video files and compare to see for yourself what you're actually trying to play on that device. Also, the iDevices/ATVs only support H264 acceleration, so let's say you wanted to play an HD XviD, well... it will lag.
Another thing is: does the video you want to play have ssa/ass subtitles? Having them have drastical impact on the CPU resources used by XBMC. Since iTunes does not even support these subtitle formats, apple has ruled that out. And on which iOS firmware are you? This is also important due to the fact that iOS 4.4.4 takes way more resources than the previous iOS version on ATV (like iOS 5.0.1 on iPhone/Pad/Pod vs iOS 4.3.X).
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#5
are you using a wireless network? xbmc doesn't work very well with wireless. i got lots of buffering until a ran a cat5 cable to it. once i ran the cable i can play 1080p mkv files fine with no buffering.
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#6
Th3avatar Wrote:It depends.
Also, the iDevices/ATVs only support H264 acceleration, so let's say you wanted to play an HD XviD, well... it will lag.

I recently stumbled into a VP8 video on youtube (720p). Itunes / ATV seems to play it fine. XBMC stuttered. Is VP8 a H264 variant?
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#7
newatv2user Wrote:I recently stumbled into a VP8 video on youtube (720p). Itunes / ATV seems to play it fine. XBMC stuttered. Is VP8 a H264 variant?

I'd like a sample or url ref to it please.
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#8
Ok. Maybe I am wrong on this. Initially I was using an addon in XBMC to watch this and it said
Quote: NOTICE: CDVDVideoCodecFFmpeg::Open() Using codec: On2 VP8

But when I downloaded the video through browse on PC, maybe I downloaded the H264 one. I assumed that when I downloaded, it was the same video that I was trying to watch. But, I could be wrong. Sorry about that.

In case you still want to investigate, it's this video http://www.youtube.com/v/z4NCPgzLHOs
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