Every time I put a mkv or mp4 file on my aTV it will start playing then about 2 seconds in it freezes. Sometimes the audio will continue but not the picture. It then locks up my aTV for a very long time or I have to unplug it and then replug it back it to get it working again. I have tried playing it through nitro tv and sapphire as well as just selecting the file and playing that. I have the newest version of everything so its not that. Any other ideas or what I could do to get it working?
Apple TV only support mp4, m4v and mov format, not mkv. However, not all mp4 videos can be played well on Apple TV. It seems that the codec of your mp4 is not normal mpeg4 or h.264. I think you should encode the videos to AppleTV more supported file type. Here is a tip i found from Google：MP4 can’t play on Apple TV solution. Hope it will solve your issue.
If you can’t add or play a movie in iTunes or QuickTime Player, then you won’t be able to convert it to play on Apple TV. Some examples of movies you can’t add or play include WMV, AVI, DivX, RealMedia (rm), and Flash format files. Some third-party utilities may be able to convert these types of movies to a format compatible with iTunes and Apple TV.
I had the same problem with some recently encoded mp4 and m4v files on my original ATV. The video played for a second or two. Then stopped, with the audio track continuing. The files play well on the 2nd gen black ATV and iOS devices.
It was these claims that persuaded me to try Firecore and NitoTV. I’m wondering what bits I need to install to make the necessary CODECs available for NitoTV. I installed Perian from the Firecore maintenance menu.
I tried the Smart Install option for NitoTV, but this just gave me a black screen with no menus when it finished. I had to reset the ATV to recover from it. If that’s the only way to make NitoTV run with more CODEC support I guess I’ll just have to give it another go.
Just seen this post that deals with one example of this problem.
Before I spotted Firecore & NitoTV I used Handbrake to convert files to a mp4/m4v format that plays on all the devices I have. I’m eager to get Firecore & NitoTV working to avoid having to reencode mp4s.
In order to solve Apple TV won’t play MP4/MKV files issue, a recommended solution is to convert Apple TV unsupported MP4 or MKV to Apple TV more compatible MP4.
iDealshare VideoGo is just the ideal Apple TV Converter! It can convert all kinds of MP4, MKV, AVCHD, VOB, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, RMVB, WTV, MXF, MOD, TOD, WMV, AVI, DivX, Xvid, RealMedia (rm), Flash format, GIF, SWF, FLV, ASF, MPG, 3GP, WebM, and etc to Apple TV video format.
Thanks for all the help everyone. I have been converting files if have problems with MacX Video Converter Pro. It works well. Thanks again for your interest and help.