HEVC (H.265) MKV videos on Apple TV 4

Video Playback
#1

So, recently I purchased the pro version of Infuse for TVOS.

So far I’ve been using it to play videos directly from my Apple Time Capsule.

Every video played just fine, until today, when I tried playing a (The) Grand Tour episode (1080p, 5.1 channels, MKV HEVC H.265, 1.6GB, 71 mins).

The video was stuttering to the point of being completely unwatchable. Even though the very same video plays completely fine in VLC for TVOS or in any other device I’ve tried so far (VLC in Windows, File Explorer on Android or PlayerXtreme on iOS)

Any other MKV video in H.264 (not H.265) also plays without any problem in Infuse.

Any idea how to make the video play on my Apple TV using the Infuse app?

#2

Improved HEVC playback is something we’re currently looking into. Stay tuned. :wink:

#3

New in tvOS 11.0 - Support for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is a new standard for video encoding that offers substantially better compression than H.264 at the same level of visual quality.
Use AV Foundation to playback movies containing HEVC encoded tracks, and to export videos.
VideoToolbox clients can encode and decode HEVC video bitstreams.

@James Does this mean hardware decoding of HEVC will work on Apple TV 4 running on iOS 11?

#4

iOS/tvOS 11 will support HW decode of HEVC, the only question is which devices will be supported.

We’ll be digging more into this soon. :wink:

1 Like
#5

Thanks for the quick response, James. I hope Apple TV 4 is supported. Have a ton of 1080p HEVC files that I would love to play on my ATV4 with infuse.

#6

dito.
I could test on tvOS 11 and iOS 11.

#7

Great! We’ll be adding an iOS 11 beta build track after the release of 5.5 in July.

Stay tuned. :wink:

#8

I have tested H.265 with TVOS 11 Beta 4 and Infuse 5.5.1. The video stutters on ATV4 only.
But what I have noticed is on TVOS11 the audio passthrough output does not work, you will get only MultiChannel Input.
Do you have the same problem?

Best regards from Germany

#9

Please try the new 5.5.2 update. :wink:

#10

Oh, there was a new release yesterday? I will try and keep you informed.
Olli

#11

Wow, it is working absolutly fine now, Great Job!
The Audio Passthrough is still not working. On TVOS 11 I hear only digital noise on my Denon Receiver. I can switch the Audio option to Auto and my receiver shows Multi Input. Now you can hear the Audio.
On TVOS10 there was no problem with passthrough.
Thanks again for fixing the H.265 Problem!!
BR
Olli

#12

Just tested it! It’s brilliant. HEVC 1080p files now work flawlessly. Thanks.

#13

Great to hear!

Passthrough is still on our radar to address for tvOS 11.

FWIW, you’ll get the same (if not better) quality when using Auto. More info here.

#14

Hi,
What about our existing devices?
My apple tv 4 has ios 10.2.2.
And , ı cannot watch my hevc files with infuse 5.5.2 . stuttering contınue…
Thanks

#15

Okay and thanks again for the great work.
BR
Olli

#16

Beta 6 is released and Audio Passthrough is working again. So everything is fine now :slight_smile:

Thanks for the link concerning the differences between Auto and Passthrough.

BR
Olli

1 Like
#17

You just have to wait until Apple’s general release of tvOS 11 (or if you really need it now, sign up to the tvOS 11 beta if you are willing to run beta software on your ATV4).

1 Like
#18

That’s great to hear! Thanks for following up.

#19

Working fine on my ATV4 (iOS 11 latest public beta) for x265 files: great job guys!:

#20

Hi,
How do you install the public beta firmwares to your ATV 4?
Via a mac pc with a cable or the standart update on device menu for ATV4 as usual

Thanks