AppleTV 2G apparently can't play a MPEG-4 file, even though iTunes can

After spending a couple of hours late at night struggling with this, I just wanted to share the fruits of my labors!
So, when trying to airplay some videos from iTunes to my AppleTV, I kept receiving the error message: "An error occurred loading this content. Try again Later." I tried so many things recommended on this board -- upgrading firmware, changing audio settings, changing HDMI settings and finally, resetting to factory defaults. Nothing helped.
Finally, I noticed that many of my videos did play. The difference between those that did and those that didn't? The ones that worked used the H.264 video codec. The ones that didn't indicated that they are MPEG-4's. Not sure why this is relevant, but there it is.
I should add that my iTunes library is on my NAS -- a Western Digital MyBook World II drive. Can't see why this would affect MPEG-4 versus H.264, but there it is.
By the way, I import all my videos into iPhoto and then have to move them all to iTunes -- an extra step and lots of copying time. Is there a better way to store videos and have them playable via iTunes and AppleTV?

You need to find the specs of the MPEG-4 videos to work out why.
AppleTV 2 has limited format support as detailed here:
H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
I would guess the MPEG-4 videos are higher resolution or worng profile.
http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html
AC

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