You've purchased a movie on DVD, and you want to watch it on your Apple TV. You could buy a computer-friendly copy from the iTunes Store—if it's available. You download batch videos from internet, or you get many videos such as MKV, AVI from your friend. You want to play the videos on Apple TV.

Apple doesn't exactly make it simple to watch content that's not purchased from iTunes, and the Apple TV was clearly meant to be an iTunes portal for the living room. The Apple TV's spec page indicates that it supports a very limited number of file formats: anything from the iTunes store, H.264/AVC movies, and MPEG-4 video. For the average user, these will likely be fine, and it's not hard encoding one's own movies to fit one of these formats.

This is a tutorial on how to convert DVD and videos to Apple TV format so that they can be played on Apple TV. This is only for Mac users.

How to convert DVD to Apple TV on Mac?

1Start by downloading Handbrake

Handbrake gives you an easy way to turn your collection of DVDs into Apple TV files.

Insert your DVD, launch Handbrake; by default, the app will show the name of the DVD in the pop-up menu next to the Detected Volume. Click on Open to scan the disc, then choose the longest title on the disc from the Title pop-up menu. To make it easier for iTunes to accept your file, you may also want to open Handbrake's preferences and select the Use iPod/iTunes Friendly (.m4v) File Extension For MP4 Output Files option.

If you see the message "No Valid Title Found," that means Handbrake can't read the disc. (This sometimes occurs with recent DVDs that have special copy protection.) If that happens, download a copy of MacTheRipper, which is also free and more adept at bypassing DVD copy protection. Once you've used MacTheRipper to rip an unencrypted version of your DVD to your hard drive, launch Handbrake. In the sheet that appears, choose the DVD Folder / Image option. Navigate to the VIDEO_TS folder of the disc you've extracted and click on Open to continue as above. If Mac the Ripper also can not rip the DVD, you can use iMedia Converter to rip your DVD Though it is not free, it is worth. It can convert dvd and videos such as MKV, MTS/M2TS, AVI, etc. to Apple TV with only three clicks.

2Output settings

According to Apple's specifications, Apple TV-compatible files have different limits based on the encoder used. H.264 files can be up to 5 Mbps using the Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps. The maximum resolution is 1,280-by-720 pixels at 24 fps, and 960-by-540 pixels at 30 fps. MPEG-4 files can be up to 3 Mbps using the Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps. The maximum resolution is 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps. (In our tests, we've gotten files with even higher specs to play on the Apple TV, so use the following as a guideline.) Although you're unlikely to come up against the resolution limit for MPEG-4 files, you should choose H.264, since it gives you more flexibility in terms of data rate and generally looks better than MPEG-4. So set Handbrake's File Format pop-up menu to MP4 File and its Codecs menu to AVC/H.264 Video / AAC Audio.

With the Video tab selected, you'll see several video options. Framerate (FPS) should default to Same As Source, and Encoder should default to x264 (H.264 Main)—if not, set those option as such. In the Average Bitrate (KBPS) field, enter 2500. You shouldn't need to adjust the output settings.

Now click on the Audio tab and select your language from the Language 1 pop-up menu. The other audio should be fine as is.

3Start converting DVD to apple TV

convert DVD to apple TV. You're now ready to rip. Enter a file destination and name in the File field near the top, and click on Rip. Depending on the length of the movie and the speed of your computer, this can take a few hours. If you're not satisfied with the quality when it's done, you can increase the bit rate, or you can enable 2-Pass Encoding, which analyzes the video and adjusts data rates according to the complexity of particular scenes. If you'd like to try out several different settings without encoding an entire movie each time, test them on just one chapter. To do so, pick the same number in the Chapters area—for example, Chapters: 3 to 3. You'll even see the duration of the chapter so you know how long of a section you're encoding.

Convert TV episodes from DVD

If you want to rip several elements from one DVD—TV show episodes, for example—select the Enable Queue option in the bottom left corner of Handbrake. Now adjust your settings as you'll want them for all episodes and find all of the titles that are similar in length (around 22 minutes for a half-hour show and 43 minutes for a one-hour show). Then pick the first title you want, name the file, and click on the Add To Queue button at the bottom; repeat this for each episode. When you're done adding them all, click on Start (the name of the Rip button changes when you enable the queue).

How to convert Videos to Apple TV on Mac?

Of course, videos aren't just limited to DVDs. If you can open a file in QuickTime, you can use the Movie To Apple TV export command in QuickTime Pro 7.1 or later to create a video that will play on an Apple TV.

But such a conversion can be extremely slow. Another option is for Mac users is iSkysoft iMedia Converter (Convert DVD to Apple TV $49), which includes an option for Apple TV encoding.

Launch iMedia Converter, load the videos you want to convert, Select "Apple TV (MP4)" as the output format, then click "Convert". It can also convert AVCHD video files from HD camcorders.

It is free to try.

HD video and music

On an HDTV, the currently-available content from iTunes is obviously not going to take advantage of the TV's capabilities. All that can be done is to encode your own HD videos—with iMedia Converter—or wait for Apple to add HD content to iTunes.

Streaming music to the Apple TV is as simple as streaming video. You can navigate through your playlists easily from any computer that's set up as a source, or through whatever has been synced to the Apple TV's hard drive. The Apple TV supports AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV audio formats—practically anything that iTunes can play. The user can play podcasts and audio books that are bought from iTunes, but not audiobooks that have been purchased through other iTunes-compatible sources like Audible.com. This has enraged many an audiobook fan, and it's not entirely clear what the reason for this limitation is. The iMedia Converter can also make your movie to audio format so that you might listen on Apple TV easily.