DVD Rip -> Original Apple TV -> Help

G’day,

Précis - Can an original Apple TV, running NitoTV, comfortably play MPEG2 files (Handbraked) via external USB drive?

Detailed Summary Last year I gave my Gen1 to my brother, and am now looking at upgrading some of the content on it for him from crappy AVIs to DVD Rips. I have a 2TB drive to put the content onto, but I can’t test files from 400km away… I do recall having a few straight DVD rips (ie VOB files) that worked fine on the ATV, but just thought I’d check about actual plain MPEG2 files, as I did read on one website that you’d need a Gen2 to handle them.

Detail - Let me introduce you to my brother, Jason. He turns 45 in a few weeks, still lives with my parents, has an even more unhealthy obsession with Doctor Who than myself, which can probably also be said of his predilection for Coca Cola, and he has Down Syndrome.

Back in the olden days, the moment a VCR entered our house, I was using it to record Doctor Who off the telly (and slowly collect the official releases, too). Whilst Jaso may not read, he could still tell exactly what tape he needed to pop in the old VCR to watch whichever episode he happened to want to see - be it BBC original or my hand written scrawl.

Then came DVDs… or, in his view - coasters… plates… back scratchers… frisbees… Whilst he can use DVDs to enjoy Doctor Who, he destroys them faster than my mother can buy them, or I can run off copies for him.

As a solution to this problem, some time ago I suggested setting up my old AppleTV for Jaso to use, but my mother scuttled the idea no matter how many times I suggested it. It’ll be too hard for him to learn… It’ll be too hard for me to learn… she’d say… (My dad doesn’t even enter this equation, partly due to his feelings toward Doctor Who, partly due to his ability to adapt to technology…)

Then, about 2 years ago we learned that Jason was in the early stages of dementia. Apparently Down Syndrome doubles the odds… Deciding it was now or never, I just dived in, set up the AppleTV with about 30 Doctor Who stories (with cover art based on DVD covers) and took it with me next visit to Mum n Dad’s B&B. Before I’d even set it up, he’d mosied into my room and come out with it, asking me what it was for, almost as if he knew it was for him. By the time I left, 3 days later, he was navigating up and down the list of episodes, choosing which one to play, stopping playback if he so desired… (And yes, he did manage to end up in the Settings menu now and then, and all kinds of other screens… But he knows how to fix it… Bang the remote on the AppleTV a few times til mum comes running… I think he’s on his 3rd remote now…)

The movie files that I used for him were all just approx 330MB AVIs/MOVs, many of them off-air recordings, that I merged together for ease of playback. (Classic Era Doctor Who was episodic, so best to join them into 1 story, rather than the original 1 - 14 episodes!). Thing is, given that this has actually worked out better than anyone (except me) expected, I’d now like to upgrade the content to better quality copies - namely rips of my DVDs.

I considered ripped the DVDs “intact”, but this means his User Interface would change - instead of finding the story he wants and pressing PLAY, he’d have to then negotiate to the PLAY ALL disc menu option… So, I was then thinking of using Handbrake to just rip the main content. The default for AppleTV (1) is mp4… but that takes 3-4 hours per DVD to encode… MPEG2 however will encode in 30min… and produce a better quality image…

Will the AppleTV, cracked with NitoTV, handle MPEG2 files that are on an external USB drive?

cheers and thanks for listening.

cosmic

Well, if I have any advice for you, it’s that there’s only one way to find out!

Encode a test video first and see what happens?

I understand that change of any kind might be a big ask, but considering you’re already on a bit of a dead technology path, when do you bit the bullet and try the change??

I had a Gen 1 ATV and used it for a long while running XBMC playing off a network connected NAS. When that started to not cut it, I installed a Broadcom CrystalHD (which removes the WiFi) to give it some more hardware decoding power. I’m not sure if NitoTV can use that or not (or if you can even get the cards anymore).
http://www.mactalk.com.au/28/81432-apple-tv-1080p-support-w-crystal-hd-xbmc.html

If you’re only running SD content the ATV should be able to keep up, but I found that even with the CrystalHD encoding with different options would have big impacts. As bennyling said, give it a bash and see what happens (although I get that being 400km away without a willing participant on the other end makes that a very long process).

Have you considered setting up a RaspberryPi instead? Far more modern and capable and it would give you the chance to set it all up at home then either ship it over or hand deliver it next time you visit.

(An ATV2 is also an option, but even they are getting on a bit these days).

Thanks for the thoughts, guys.

My mum did comment that she figured a new AppleTV may be on the cards eventually… So yes, I may start looking into that option… As long as the stories can be listed together, with cover art…

Hi, Back again…

Handbreak only offers MP4… But for keeping loss down, I’m thinking MPEG2 will be better… (also plays better on my Cube…)

But, I’m struggling to find a 1 stop shop… rip from disc, to MPEG2…

Any suggestions?

DVDs are encoded in MPEG2. MPEG4 is superior and you can setup HandBrake to use higher bitrates if you’re worried about loss.

To the best of my knowledge, MPEG-4 really only beats MPEG-2 in having a reduced file size. MPEG-2 compresses video images by removing duplicate information, whereas MPEG-4 removes more data to achieve the smaller file size.

I already have 300-350mb MP4/etc files for every Doctor Who… Many which are DVD rips… But all of them clearly are far from “perfect”. (Not that DVD is, of course, but for an original source of 405/625 lines, DVD is pretty good!)

Think I’m just gonna have to gulp pay for Aimer DVD Ripper, as it appears to be able to rip to MPEG-2 direct from disc…
– Scratch that idea - image appears poorly deinterlaced (?) - movement results in horrible lines…

New plan - even if there is a fee to be paid, I’ll consider it… If it can rip right from Disc, isn’t too picky about err copy protection, and will result in MPEG2’s that don’t have interlace issues…

Well, if you’re generating 300-350 MB mp4 files for every episode, then the bitrate is too low.

Although it’s old, this article explains it better than I can about using Handbrake’s quality options…

Will good old divx help?