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ess54

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2008
5
0
I have ripped several movies using the PQ DVD software. Most DVD's work just fine on the ATV. Other work fine on my PC in iTunes or Quicktime, but when I select the title on the ATV it LOCKS the ATV. I can do a reset or power cycle it to get it back but each time I go to a particular title it locks the unit. Any ideas as to why that might happen?
 

err404

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2007
2,525
623
iTunes and QT playback in Stereo. Is your ATV connected to a DD receiver? If so, the AC3 track may be bad. Try disabling the 5.1 output to force the file to use the Stereo/Prologic track.
If the file plays in Stereo, try ripping the disk again with MTR and re-encode you file.
BTW - I generally have good luck using Handbrake for encoding file. It's good quality and it's free.
 

ayale99

macrumors 6502
Dec 6, 2007
345
159
Never had that problem. I use Handbrake. It works beautifully and it's free.
 

ess54

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2008
5
0
iTunes and QT playback in Stereo. Is your ATV connected to a DD receiver? If so, the AC3 track may be bad. Try disabling the 5.1 output to force the file to use the Stereo/Prologic track.
If the file plays in Stereo, try ripping the disk again with MTR and re-encode you file.
BTW - I generally have good luck using Handbrake for encoding file. It's good quality and it's free.

Interesting, it also plays on my 5g ipod. I am converting the file in question from .avi to .mp4 and only using two channels, it is plugging into my receiver though. Not sure what the issue is.
 

err404

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2007
2,525
623
I'd suggest handbrake also. And try using the H.264 codec.

It looks like OP is actually transcoding, not ripping a physical DVD. It sounds like the generated file just doesn't conform to the ATV specifications. Maybe it's a bug in the encode, or a bug in the ATV codec. Either way, I'd suggest trying VisualHub. It's not free, but I've never had trouble with the encodes created by it.
 

ess54

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2008
5
0
It looks like OP is actually transcoding, not ripping a physical DVD. It sounds like the generated file just doesn't conform to the ATV specifications. Maybe it's a bug in the encode, or a bug in the ATV codec. Either way, I'd suggest trying VisualHub. It's not free, but I've never had trouble with the encodes created by it.

I have both transcoded and ripped a physical DVD (all of which I own). If I rip with PQ DVD the file works fine on my 5g ipod, itunes, and quicktime. When I scroll over the title though it locks up ATV. Very strange. I have used both the h.264 codec and mpeg4 codec within pqdvd - same thing each time. I am ripping/transcoding everything from an XP Pro machine.
 

err404

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2007
2,525
623
Video encoding is a finicky process. Especially with h.264 and its myriad of options. The full h.264 feature set is not supported by any appliance device. A quick google search shows a number of people having issues with PQ DVD and the Apple TV. It sounds like it just sometimes creates files that the ATV doesn't like (there are differences in the decoding for the iPod and ATV). That doesn't mean it's a bad app, and is more of a problem with h.264 (this is why I wish DivX was support by Apple. It just works). You should contact the vendor with your problem.

For the time being, there is a Windows version of Handbrake that you may have better luck using. You can use DVD43(free) or AnyDVD(retail) for dealing with the disc copy protection in real time.
This will work for ripping DVDs, but I'm not sure what to recommend for transcoding videos in windows... maybe ffmpeg.
 

ess54

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2008
5
0
HandBrake is where it's at.....free and honestly, the best thing I've found.

Does handbrake do the trans coding of existing avi's? Also, if it matters I just used PQDVD to rip another dvd and it seemed to work fine. The problems I am having are with the Baby Einstein dvd's I own. I just want an easy way to have all of these things in one location. Not sure why the BE stuff is so finicky...
 

err404

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2007
2,525
623
It doesn't sound like copy protection is causing your issue since it works on other devices. Still try running DVD43 in the background to clean up the data before PQ does it's thing.

Handbrake is for DVDs only, but it's great for that task.
 

ess54

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 1, 2008
5
0
It doesn't sound like copy protection is causing your issue since it works on other devices. Still try running DVD43 in the background to clean up the data before PQ does it's thing.

Handbrake is for DVDs only, but it's great for that task.

Per your recommendation I used DVD43 and PQ, works just fine on my ATV! Thanks for the heads up.

I also used DVD43 and Handbrake on a Baby einstein DVD, when I try to run it in Quicktime I get "Error -2041: an invalid sample description was found in the movie". Kind of strange, any thoughts? Now that PQDVD is working (in combination with DVD43) this is less of an issue but I am curious.

thanks for all the help.
 

err404

macrumors 68030
Mar 4, 2007
2,525
623
Sounds like a bug in Handbrake. I haven't used the Windows version in a while, but back then I had similar issues with some disks.

I was always able to get around these problems by using DVDDecryiter and DVD Shrink to pull out just the raw main movie before sending it to Handbrake, but it's a very time consuming process.

edit - I recall the that most of the disks that I had issues with contained intentional bad sectors in addition to CSS... These read errors caused Handbrake to "freak-out". Using DVDDecryiter and DVD Shrink created a clean VOB with the errors removed.
 
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