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hpman247 · 2011-04-05, 00:50

I have some Korean Dramas and for some reason they encode h264 in AVI's. It is literally impossible to re-mux into a .mkv or .mp4 without terrible stuttering even on the PC. I am not sure why this is the case.

However the AVI plays fine in XMBC, VLC, etc on my PC. I assumed once I got Apple TV 2 XBMC that it would also play fine on there. It doesn't. It stutters like when I've tried to remux the files in the past.

I don't understand why the files play fine on XBMC on windows, but on Apple TV it stutters. All of my other files play perfectly fine on Apple TV in XBMC. Any ideas? here is a pic with some info on the AVI file.

vagabondking · 2011-04-05, 04:52

Test with 1 video and change the container from avi to mkv. Search for mkvtools, there's a windows binary. See if that makes a difference.

**dazex** · 2011-04-05, 07:21

Because that's a high def xvid/divx file. Those types of encoded files are decoded by the ATV2's CPU. Which doesn't have the horsepower to decode high def xvid/divx.

If the file was encoded in h264, videotoolbox will be able to decode it...using the GPU to do so. Therefore, you get smooth playback.

It's just the limitation of the CPU. You computer's CPU is vastly more powerful and has no problem decoding high def xvid/divx.

bircoe · 2011-04-05, 07:32

dazex, that file was encoded with x264, x264 is a h264 encoding library/application as far as i know it can't encode to divx/xvid...

hpman247, use mediainfo to get info about your media files, it is far more detailed.

**dazex** · 2011-04-05, 07:39

Sorry, my bad. For some reason, I read it as xvid. :|

Been looking at my screen too long. Smile

Hopefully someone else can chime in and help. Smile

**dazex** · 2011-04-05, 07:50

BTW, if you map one of your buttons to bring up the "CodecInfo" screen. (search for joystick.AppleRemote.xml) You can see what is using to decode the video file. If it's ff-h264, then you'll likely get stutter. If it shows vtb-h264, then it's the VideoToolbox doing the decoding....which means that it's accelerated by the GPU.

From my testing, VideoToolbox can handle 1080p content in anamorphic 2.39:1 and 1.85:1. But 1080p at full 16:9 can drop frame on panning shots.

hpman247 · 2011-04-05, 09:30

Don't ask me how, but somehow I found the program that does the job without causing crazy stutters. I was using AVIDeMux to try to create an MKV from the AVI because I read that MKV is better supported on Apple TV.

Well however it muxes is messed up and it caused dropped frames and stutters on all of my korean dramas. BUT, then i decided to try MKV Merge which is part of the MKVToolNix package. Well, to my joy, it created an MKV from the AVI that did not stutter/drop frames on my PC at all!

So I hoped this would work in XBMC on Apple Tv 2. Mind you I have a Core i7 so the stutters on my PC were not because I don't have the power, it was because the programs i was using did not mux correctly. I tried Yamb, AviDeMux, Super C, among others and they all produced the same result. I'm not sure what Mkvmerge does, but it does the job correctly.

All of the shows are now playing PERFECTLY in XBMC on ATV 2! They are all roughtly 1.7GB files in 720p. I'm a delighted!

**Starstream** · 2011-04-05, 10:58

Mkvmerge would have been the correct program to use from the start. GDSmux is another tool that will re-package video into mkv (install Haali mkv splitter to get it).

AVIdemux has very poor mkv support and is meant for only avi files really.

**dazex** · 2011-04-06, 07:33

I like mkvmerge as well. And the GUI version makes it easy. Glad you figured it out. Thanks for the followup too.