I’m a new ATV (1st gen) and ATV Flash user. I’ve installed ATV Flash and synced over a couple of my DVD’s that I ripped using handbreak (M4V files). I can see the files in NitoTV ok and when I click to play them I can hear the audio of the movie playing but i only get a black screen for the video. Then if I try to back out to the menu, the ATV just freezes and I have to power cycle it. Can anyone help explain what might be going on? My normal iTunes movies play ok through the Apple player.
Many thanks in advance.
[edit] I’ve just tried the same video files using the XBMC player and they both play fine so the problem is somewhere with NitoTV. Again, any ideas are greatly appreciated.
After lots of digging I discovered the issue (for me at least). Try going to Maintenance > settings, and disable the Apple H.264 codec. After I did so, all my own movies played fine without a problem.
For a softhack that’s advertised as “just plug it in and install”, it really isn’t. Hope this helps you… because Firecore’s support hasn’t.
By slow motion, do you mean a slight stuttering? If so, then you’re probably finding that the movie you’re playing has been ripped at too high a bit rate/quality. I noticed this on some of my earlier ripped movies. It tended to be during scenes of high activity.
Are you using Handbrake to convert your movies? If you are then make sure to use the “AppleTV” preset in the device list. It will rip movies using the Constant Quality setting and at an RF value of 20 (0 = highest quality). At first, I tried setting the slider to around the 11 mark and noticed the stuttering but after a few trail/error attempts, I settled on a value of 19.
yes this is exactly my issue, I’ll avoid those films for now seems like too much work going back over them but going forward I’ll try the settings you gave.
thanks.!
Also as I have installed the Firecore Software, can I still use the ATV with iTunes and add films that way if I want to?
And is there any way where I can get all the Film Art and synopsis etc like I had with the iTunes Films?
Yes, you can still use iTunes to sync movies like you would normally. You just copy/drag your ripped movies into iTunes and it will automatically add it to “Movies” in iTunes. Once they’re in iTunes, you’re then free to add in any other metadata like year, genre, cover art etc, before syncing to the ATV. The downside is that you need to keep your movies stored in iTunes as well as on your ATV, where as with Nito/XBMC, you only need to have them stored on the ATV itself. The obvious downside is that those movies are taking up massive space on whatever hard drive your iTunes library is located.
Personally, I’m using the iTunes route myself as I’ve moved my iTunes library to an external 2TB hard drive. I’ve then also got a 2TB drive attached to the ATV and use that for the ATV storage (rather than the internal). I think it works well and I have ALL my movies under the one main Movies menu on the ATV (rather than split between two different apps)
The best way to do this I have found its to join the files prior to uploading them onto an external hard drive or directly onto ATV. I use a program called D-vision 3 which is free of cost and it allows you to join AVI files together. Open the program and then click on the tools icon, you will then see the option for joining AVI files.
