Playing 16:9 dvd from a TS folder on Apple TV

Question

Lets say for the sake of argument I have an unprotected DVD. Want to load it on to a network drive connected to a 10/100 port on the new Airport Extreme. Can this be played back on the Apple TV in the native 16;9 format?
Do you have to import it into iTunes first?
If so, how does it look? As nice as it would if played on a DVD player or not?

Answer 1

The movie has to be streamed from iTunes or actually on the AppleTv.
While you can stream movies from iTunes that reside on an external drive or network drive (linked files not stored in the iTunes library), they have to be in a format that AppleTV supports:
Video formats supported
* H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
* iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels or 640 by 480 pixels
* MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4 and .mov file formats
Audio formats supported
* AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV
You would basically need to convert the DVD to one of these formats using something like Handbrake or MPEGStreamclip. Encoding is rarely real time speed, and often much slower.
Some movie files will play in iTunes but not AppleTV and you can do a convert to iTunes format via iTunes but it takes a long time.
Also, digital surround is not implemented on AppleTV so you can kiss goodbye any 5 channel soundtracks for now. Some audio only 5.1 channel files will work but I've not yet seen a movie that does.
With regards to network drive, some people use them and they work, others have bandwidth problems. USB/Firewire drives linked to a Mac/PC are better but it all depends on what sort of computer you have as some older ones just can't keep up.
With regards to network drives being slow, you have to think of the data path - the more steps the slower:
- on AppleTV = fastest
- computer > Apple TV via ethernet next best in general
- computer > Apple TV via wireless next (assume same wireless speeds)
- computer > router > AppleTV ethernet or wireless
- network drive > router > computer iTunes> router > AppleTv
and so forth.
Depending on what kit you have there are other media centres available. Freecom have some nice looking offerings from barebones to 500GB storage.
AC