Streaming question......I think

[Dont42Panic]

Ok I am having a weird problem with my apple tv and was wondering if anyone has an idea of how to fix it. I have a Mac with a 1TB external hard drive where I store all of movies. The Mac is connected to the apple tv through a wireless network, and all the movies stream fine. I have almost filled the hard drive, so I went and bought another hard drive, same brand, same size and started putting tv shows on that one. The problem is when I am trying to watch some of the tv shows on the apple tv the picture will all of a sudden freeze and the apple tv will restart itself. Not every episode does it though. Only happens with tv shows, not movies.

Is this a streaming problem with the new hard drive? Is there some different way to convert tv shows that I just don't know about? I use Handbrake and tag everything with MetaX. Any ideas?

 

[omni]

My guess is that this is going to end up being a handbrake question but...

Does it restart the appleTV at the same spot in the tv show? Can you ever watch the whole tv show without it restarting?

How are you encoding them? what preset are you using? what tv show is it specifically?

The tv shows that are restarting the appleTV - have you put them on the old hard drive?

There are so many variables to this problem that it would help to eliminate some of them first.

 

[MikieMikie]

As omni said, too many variables make seeing the problem more difficult.

Try eliminating some issues by removing one of the drives and seeing if the problem is with the files.

Move a movie to the new drive, eject the movie drive, etc. Do some more testing to determine where the problem lives.

Oh, and, if you encoded with the Apple TV preset, Handbrake shouldn't be the issue.

 

[Dont42Panic]

Ok props to Omni, you were right about streaming not being an issue. I moved the tv shows to the working hard drive and I still got the freeze issue. I also moved a movie over to the new hard drive and it worked fine.

The tv shows that I have put on are Frisky Dingo and Dexter. With Frisky Dingo I put the first 3 episodes of season 1, I can watch the 2nd and 3rd episode, but the 1st will freeze after 1 second. With Dexter I put the first 4 episodes of season 1, and all 4 will freeze pretty early on.

I am encoding them using the apple tv preset, using the same options on the 400+ movies I've done. 2 pass encoding, turbo first pass, forced subtitles only, and detelecine checked and deinterlace on slow if needed.

Thinking back I did a batch convert for all four episodes of Dexter, and detelecine and deinterlace were selected. On Frisky Dingo I was experimenting and the files were not ran through Handbrake at the same time, and while watching the two episodes that work on my apple tv I noticed the lines you get when you don't detelecine and deinterlace. Would using those two cause a problem? I am about to take off for work, so I'll test it when I get home this evening.

 

[omni]

What version of Handbrake are you using?

Using the snapshot build myself I had a weird issue with detelecine on, deinterlace set to slow but VFR not selected. This caused the file to play perfectly fine in quicktime, but would cause my appleTV to reset during specific parts of the show.

Here is the discussion and solution for that...although I really don't know if you are having the same problem as I had or not.

http://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=6135

The only ting I can think of is maybe with 1 particular episode that you know resets the AppleTV - try re-encoding it with just the default appleTV preset in Handbrake and see if it plays fine. Don't check anything else - detelecine, deinterlace, etc - just do the default appleTV preset. If it still resets the appleTV then I'm out of ideas to be honest.

 

[Dont42Panic]

I came home and reran one of the episodes that was freezing with nothing checked and it worked like a charm on my apple tv. God bless you Omni I would not have figured that out, if you are ever in Louisville, Kentucky I owe you a beer.

With that VFR selected have you noticed in difference with the different settings on the deinterlace speed?

 

[Dont42Panic]

Answered my own question by playing around. Using the slow speed was noticeably better than the fast speed. Everything is working great now. Thanks again for the help.

 

[omni]

Glad to hear it helped!!

The only reason why I sort of had a clue is because I ran into the same sort of problem and to be honest it's the only thing I've ever seen that caused the AppleTV to reboot.

Not only that but I am from Indpls originally and I figured I should help out a fellow Hoosier. But now I see you are from Loulville so I'm not so sure ...haha! Just kidding. And I may be back in the midwest around July so who knows - I might take you up on your offer. (I live in Los Angeles right now)

Using slow - are you just using Deinterlace Slow or are you using Detelecine also? And VFR? Even though I should I still haven't tested all the variables to see how they all look. I'd love to hear your results on quality.

 

[Dont42Panic]

Glad you were able to decipher it from my original ramblings. All I knew was the file worked on my computer, but not on the apple tv, so I assumed it was a problem with the newest thing, the hard drive. I cringe to think how long I would have messed around with the hard drive if you hadn't thrown out that suggestion.

Saved by a Hoosier, outstanding! I don't like to claim Kentucky, but usually when I mention Jeffersonville I get 1 of 2 reactions, confusion because they've never heard of the place, or sympathy because they've been there. So I just say Louisville since it's right across the bridge. Plus figured most people would rather hit up a bar in Louisville than Jeffersonville, The Double T and Third Base are nice and everything.....but you still look over your shoulder all night.

Here were my results

Detelecine checked and Deinterlace set to slow and no VFR - crash

No Detelecine and no deinterlace and no VFR - worked, but produced lines

Detelecine checked and Deinterlace set to fast and VFR checked - worked, but the show seemed to have a jumpiness to it, not bad and could possibly be simple paranoia on my part.

Detelecine checked and Deinterlace set to slow and VFR checked - worked great and gave the results I am used to with Handbrake.

Sadly I've never actually researched what any of this stuff means, I just read these boards and see what works well for everyone else and try their settings. Might be a goal for this weekend, try to read up on it and get a better understanding.