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[Vyer]

I've decided to start ripping my blus again in preparation for setting up something like Plex. I plan on buying an AppleTV within the next couple of weeks.

I know it's been talked about a bit in here, and I've used MakeMKV and Handbrake, which has worked mostly pretty well. But I can not get the subtitles right. MakeMKV pulls several subtitle tracks, but I can't quite get what is the correct setting in Handbrake (Forced? Burn In? Default?) so that the subtitles are present but are only turned on when I enable them in the player.

Any tips? My googling around hasn't found any real clear instructions.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Having finally gotten a computer to run as a media server again, I wish that Siri or the search function would allow me to search the contents of the computer.

 

[Quasar]

I've decided to start ripping my blus again in preparation for setting up something like Plex. I plan on buying an AppleTV within the next couple of weeks.

I know it's been talked about a bit in here, and I've used MakeMKV and Handbrake, which has worked mostly pretty well. But I can not get the subtitles right. MakeMKV pulls several subtitle tracks, but I can't quite get what is the correct setting in Handbrake (Forced? Burn In? Default?) so that the subtitles are present but are only turned on when I enable them in the player.

Any tips? My googling around hasn't found any real clear instructions.

As far as I knew Handbrake did not handle soft subs. Maybe I'm wrong though.

I just use makemkv and chosoe the right subs via plex clients.

 

[Quasar]

Having finally gotten a computer to run as a media server again, I wish that Siri or the search function would allow me to search the contents of the computer.

I do kind of wonder why they can not at least search existing itunes libraries. Seems like a very basic missing thing. But maybe thats just to encourage people to not manage local libraries.

 

[mmazurkiewicz]

so what are the popular ways of streaming mkv from OS X to apple tv?

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

I've decided to start ripping my blus again in preparation for setting up something like Plex. I plan on buying an AppleTV within the next couple of weeks.

I know it's been talked about a bit in here, and I've used MakeMKV and Handbrake, which has worked mostly pretty well. But I can not get the subtitles right. MakeMKV pulls several subtitle tracks, but I can't quite get what is the correct setting in Handbrake (Forced? Burn In? Default?) so that the subtitles are present but are only turned on when I enable them in the player.

Any tips? My googling around hasn't found any real clear instructions.

In Handbrake, make an MKV file. Add the subtitle and uncheck "forced only" (subtitles for just a part of the film, like alien languages in Star Wars) and "burned in" (literally becomes part of the video).

You can't add subtitles to an MP4 file in Handbrake without burning it in AFAIK.

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles

so what are the popular ways of streaming mkv from OS X to apple tv?

I like Plex.

 

[Vyer]

As far as I knew Handbrake did not handle soft subs. Maybe I'm wrong though.

I just use makemkv and chosoe the right subs via plex clients.

In Handbrake, make an MKV file. Add the subtitle and uncheck "forced only" (subtitles for just a part of the film, like alien languages in Star Wars) and "burned in" (literally becomes part of the video).

You can't add subtitles to an MP4 file in Handbrake without burning it in AFAIK.

https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/Subtitles



I like Plex.

ah, that explains the subtitle thing. Thanks for the information.


EDIT: Also, are there any settings I should change in Handbrake when converting to MP4? Or are Normal or High Profile defaults fine?

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

ah, that explains the subtitle thing. Thanks for the information.


EDIT: Also, are there any settings I should change in Handbrake when converting to MP4? Or are Normal or High Profile defaults fine?

My handy Handbrake tips:
-If you care about file size, in the Encoder Settings, set the preset to as slow as your computer can handle. The slower you set this, the smaller the file will be.
-I usually go with a Constant Quality of 21 for Blu-Rays and 19 for DVD's. The lower the Constant Quality, the less compression is applied. (Seems backwards to me)
-If there's a Blu-Ray I want an extra bit of quality for, I move the Constant Quality to 20.5. Small jumps make a big difference.
-High profile turns on a bunch of extra features in the x264 encoder that you should go with if your computer can handle it.
-I've never had the "tune" option help. Especially with animation. Just my experience.

EDIT: And if you have the space for it, don't use Handbrake. Just use the output of MakeMKV.

 

[Vyer]

My handy Handbrake tips:
-If you care about file size, in the Encoder Settings, set the preset to as slow as your computer can handle. The slower you set this, the smaller the file will be.
-I usually go with a Constant Quality of 21 for Blu-Rays and 19 for DVD's. The lower the Constant Quality, the less compression is applied. (Seems backwards to me)
-If there's a Blu-Ray I want an extra bit of quality for, I move the Constant Quality to 20.5. Small jumps make a big difference.
-High profile turns on a bunch of extra features in the x264 encoder that you should go with if your computer can handle it.
-I've never had the "tune" option help. Especially with animation. Just my experience.

EDIT: And if you have the space for it, don't use Handbrake. Just use the output of MakeMKV.

awesome tips, thanks hardcastle.

About roughly how long does it take for Handbrake to covert a 2 hour movie?

 

[PhoncipleBone]

If you want to edit metadata on the MP4s you make from Handbrake, I would suggest MetaZ.

It is very handy when doing batch metadata editing as well, like TV shows. When I ripped my whole DVD collection the other year it was a godsend.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

awesome tips, thanks hardcastle.

About roughly how long does it take for Handbrake to covert a 2 hour movie?

Depends on your CPU and GPU. My development Macbook Pro (some sort of i7 and nVidia 600 series something) can chew through a film on heftier settings in about the time it takes to watch the movie. My older personal Macbook Pro (i5 and an Intel GPU) takes 12 hours for a 2 hour movie. I don't use that machine for Handbrake.

Honestly my next step is to probably get some storage so I can just store the MakeMKV output of the Blu-Rays. I like my compressed versions, but it'd be nice to have them raw. The whole point of Plex is that it will transcode it for you on the fly, so those MKV files would be nice.

 

[Vyer]

Thanks Phon, I'll check it out.

Depends on your CPU and GPU. My development Macbook Pro (some sort of i7 and nVidia 600 series something) can chew through a film on heftier settings in about the time it takes to watch the movie. My older personal Macbook Pro (i5 and an Intel GPU) takes 12 hours for a 2 hour movie. I don't use that machine for Handbrake.

Honestly my next step is to probably get some storage so I can just store the MakeMKV output of the Blu-Rays. I like my compressed versions, but it'd be nice to have them raw. The whole point of Plex is that it will transcode it for you on the fly, so those MKV files would be nice.

yeah, definitely. but man....that storage would start getting eat up quick

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

Thanks Phon, I'll check it out.

yeah, definitely. but man....that storage would start getting eat up quick

Depending on the settings you set up in Handbrake you're still looking at a lot of space. Some movies compress really well (I got a nice rip of Laurence of Arabia at under 10 GB) but some have a lot of problems. Pacific Rim is always like 15 GB. Any blu-ray with film jitter or grain is going to be well over 10 GB.

If you just rip the movie, most blu-rays are only 20-40 GB. Sometimes they're as low as 15 GB. It's not that big of a size difference.

 

[infiniteloop]

Apple TV Universal Search Feature Expands to FOX NOW, FXNOW, and NAT GEO

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/02/04/apple-tv-universal-search-expands/

 

[Quasar]

Universal? Heh. Wish they would just open the api rather than choosing favourites.

 

[kuppy]

Oh wow, if you are using Chrome I highly recommend ChromePlay. Works incredibly well from the little testing I've done.
This is really cool, I just switched from Safari to Chrome and was hoping to find a way to AirPlay YouTube videos like before, this is so much better. Only change I made to it is giving it the standard AirPlay icon.

Was also looking through the App Store again, yeah, Mickey Video is nice.

Edit: And btw, I have been noticing that DNS filtering works for YouTube ads. Blockless has it as part of it's region switching service for example, I like it.

 

[nullref]

Universal? Heh. Wish they would just open the api rather than choosing favourites.

Maybe they could just "open the api" any time, and are just doing it this way for strategic reasons.

But it's also very easy for me to imagine that their search backend/API is in a technical state where it's practical to work together with individual partners to get their content into the index (and adjust the system as necessary to accommodate it), but not ready for general purpose use.

 

[infiniteloop]

9.3 beta 3 includes ability to dictate into search fields and username/pw boxes

https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/696759818523115520

Also:

App Store Siri Search - Siri is now able to search for App Store apps, improving the app discovery process in the App Store. It's now possible to ask Siri to search for an app or to search for a category of apps, such as games and bring up a listing.

 

[SmackCrackleNPop]

^
That's a much requested feature. Hated typing in searches in YouTube

 

[Quasar]

9.3 beta 3 includes ability to dictate into search fields and username/pw boxes

I wonder how awkward that will turn out to be. Siri has enough trouble with words, me using lastpass generated passwords that include symbols and such sounds like it will be a challenge.

I like the idea though.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Still waiting for a search function for local libraries.

 

[dock]

I keep running into an issue with Infuse and my Synology Diskstation NAS thing.
Sometimes I'll go to 'All Movies' and it'll get stuck on the spinning wheel.

When this happens, it manages to crash the media streaming on the Diskstation entirely, so I have to either restart the media services (Media Indexing and Video Station) or I have to reboot the NAS entirely... and even then it's a crapshoot whether using Infuse will crash it again. Does anyone know what's going on?

 

[infiniteloop]

Veto has an apple tv app out:

http://www.vevo.com/c/EN/US/news/vevo-unveils-new-apple-tv-application

 

[dock]

The creators of the Infuse App replied on Twitter saying there's a new update coming this week that will fix some issues with crashing UPNP servers! Fingers crossed, as I've taken to using Airplay instead of risking another NAS crash.

 

[jts]

Ahhh, Infuse's latest update finally lets you click on a thumbnail of a show episode to play it. Megaton.

I love Infuse, although in a way I wish the paid version offered something more than it does compared to the free one. It's almost literally just AC3 support? Most people don't even need AC3 I reckon.

Oh well it's still nice to support the devs.

One thing I hope they introduce at some point is markers that show if you have watched a certain movie/show episode or not.

 

[Quasar]

Ahhh, Infuse's latest update finally lets you click on a thumbnail of a show episode to play it. Megaton.

I love Infuse, although in a way I wish the paid version offered something more than it does compared to the free one. It's almost literally just AC3 support? Most people don't even need AC3 I reckon.

Well dts support was the only reason I tried it. And if it passed through the full dts stream I probably would still use it. I tried out the kodi fork out for the same reason. I guess its just not technically possible due to os or sdk limits or something.

 

[dock]

Urrrrgh. Even after the update, Infuse sometimes crashes my UPNP service entirely, and I have to reset this on the NAS. Anyone else run into this?

 

[DrForester]

So I've been using Apple TV (the first Apple TV, not the new one) for a little while, like it, but have one problem and I have a feeling it's a really stupid question.

I'm watching netflix and I hit the back button to exit, I have to back out of every menu. Is there a quick way to just get back to the main Apple TV menu?

 

[infiniteloop]

So I've been using Apple TV (the first Apple TV, not the new one) for a little while, like it, but have one problem and I have a feeling it's a really stupid question.

I'm watching netflix and I hit the back button to exit, I have to back out of every menu. Is there a quick way to just get back to the main Apple TV menu?

hold down the menu button.

 

[DrForester]

hold down the menu button.

Figured it would be something insanely simple. Thanks!

 

[Enzom21]

They finally added "Not on this Apple TV" in the purchased section of the app store.
Makes it a lot easier to know if an app you own gets a TVos version.

 

[Kabuki Quantum Lover]

They finally added "Not on this Apple TV" in the purchased section of the app store.
Makes it a lot easier to know if an app you own gets a TVos version.

I swear that was around for a long time.

 

[infiniteloop]

They finally added "Not on this Apple TV" in the purchased section of the app store.
Makes it a lot easier to know if an app you own gets a TVos version.

Yeah, noticed that recently too.

 

[infiniteloop]

Crossing posting from the MFI controllers thread, great deal if you want an MFi controller for your Apple TV:

9to5Toys notes that the Steelseries Nimbus is $37.46 shipped for Steelseries:

SteelSeries offers its Nimbus Wireless Apple TV game controller for $49.99. Apply coupon code MADCITYGG during checkout to drop your final price down to $37.46 shipped. That’s a savings of nearly $13 and the lowest price we’ve ever seen. In addition to being designed for the 4th generation Apple TV, the Nimbus Wireless Controller also works with iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac. It features Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity, rechargeable batteries that last at least 40 hours and pressure-sensitive buttons. Rated 4 out of 5 stars from Apple shoppers.

http://9to5toys.com/2016/02/22/steelseries-nimbus-wireless-controller/

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Having finally gotten a computer to work as a server again, all my movies and tv shows can be viewed.

And I forgot that even though Siri won't search local libraries, they still do not have a search function for movies or tv shows on your computer. They have a search function for music, I don't see why they can't add that function under movies or tv shows too.

 

[infiniteloop]

Apple are changing the behavior of the remote in the forthcoming 9.2 update.
Basically, you have click the trackpad once during video playback to bring up the scrubber.

Video here:

http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/23/tvos-9-2-beta-4-apple-tv-siri-remote/

 

[SmackCrackleNPop]

^
That solves one headache. Currently it's too easy to swipe accidentally. You can hit menu to go back where you were from but it ruins the flow. Clicking first to pause makes it more deliberate to scrub through a video so this is welcomed.

also, lol: http://mobile.twitter.com/danimal/status/702579231989960704

 

[Vyer]

Picked up one today, enjoying it so far. since it uses BT to pair devices, does that mean you can use wireless headphones?

Also, what's the best thing for managing my blu rips on my external? Does Plex require manager software installed? My desktop is wireless, I'd rather plug the external into my wired network.

 

[jts]

Picked up one today, enjoying it so far. since it uses BT to pair devices, does that mean you can use wireless headphones?

Also, what's the best thing for managing my blu rips on my external? Does Plex require manager software installed? My desktop is wireless, I'd rather plug the external into my wired network.

Yes, Plex requires server software running.

Infuse is great for that, except for the detail of not keeping track of stuff that has been seen or not. You can try the free version.

edit: and yes I'm pretty sure BT headphones are fair game and likely the main use case for that feature.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

Bluetooth headphones do work when paired with the AppleTV. I used them a few times, but since I have them paired to my phone as well it was a few extra steps to link to the AppleTV and not auto link to the phone when I turned them on.

 

[Vyer]

Does everybody just use the Apple TV 3 preset in Handbrake?


Also, today I realized XBOX One doesn't support HDMI-CEC?

 

[The Elite]

Apple are changing the behavior of the remote in the forthcoming 9.2 update.
Basically, you have click the trackpad once during video playback to bring up the scrubber.

Video here:

http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/23/tvos-9-2-beta-4-apple-tv-siri-remote/

Good.

 

[rcl66]

Veto has an apple tv app out:

http://www.vevo.com/c/EN/US/news/vevo-unveils-new-apple-tv-application

This is the worst app update I've seen in a long, long time. It makes you sign in with your phone using the Vevo app on the phone - every time. It plays commercials, the same ones usually, between every video now. And they re-organized the UI and it's not as easy to use. And you can't exit the app using the menu button to just go back. It's so bad I stopped using itl

 

[mrklaw]

Is there a way to wake up the Apple TV when it's in standby, without using the remote? I'm trying to play Spotify via AirPlay from my iPad but the app,e tv never shows up if it's sleeping, don't know if it's a bug with Spotify because I think I've had other apps show the ATV before

 

[Vyer]

Apple are changing the behavior of the remote in the forthcoming 9.2 update.
Basically, you have click the trackpad once during video playback to bring up the scrubber.

Video here:

http://9to5mac.com/2016/02/23/tvos-9-2-beta-4-apple-tv-siri-remote/

There isn't always a preview window though, is there? Seems like I've seen it in some apps but not all.

Honestly I kind of like the instant scrubbing on videos (especially when there's no preview window). Feels very smooth and like how it flows instantly. I haven't really had a problem with accidentally triggering it, though that may be just because I haven't spent enough time with it.

 

[holygeesus]

Is there a way to wake up the Apple TV when it's in standby, without using the remote? I'm trying to play Spotify via AirPlay from my iPad but the app,e tv never shows up if it's sleeping, don't know if it's a bug with Spotify because I think I've had other apps show the ATV before

The only way I solved my issues with sleep mode is to turn sleep-mode off and just leave the device running 24/7. I worked out it was going to cost me an extra like £2 a year in electricity or something, which is worth the cost for the lack of headaches.

 

[mrklaw]

The only way I solved my issues with sleep mode is to turn sleep-mode off and just leave the device running 24/7. I worked out it was going to cost me an extra like £2 a year in electricity or something, which is worth the cost for the lack of headaches.

I guess. But then I'd lose out on it shutting my TV and receiver off when I've finished with it. I might turn HDMI CEC off then, so I can use it through just the receiver for audio without turning the TV on. Or I could just buy a cheap used appleTV purely as an AirPlay audio destination?

 

[dock]

Is there any way to make my Apple TV remote turn on my soundbar, or control it other than just volume? My soundbar is a slightly crappy optical only thing (Sony HT-CT60BT) so it can't be powered on/off by my TV, and requires its own remote to do anything (no buttons on it either).

I guess. But then I'd lose out on it shutting my TV and receiver off when I've finished with it. I might turn HDMI CEC off then, so I can use it through just the receiver for audio without turning the TV on. Or I could just buy a cheap used appleTV purely as an AirPlay audio destination?

I've been considering turning off HDMI-CEC too, because it causes me more headaches than it's worth. Turning off sleep mode for the Apple TV might solve my problems too.

 

[mrklaw]

Is there any way to make my Apple TV remote turn on my soundbar, or control it other than just volume? My soundbar is a slightly crappy optical only thing (Sony HT-CT60BT) so it can't be powered on/off by my TV, and requires its own remote to do anything (no buttons on it either

No. Harmony remote could possibly turn on both Apple TV and soundbar, but the Apple TV doesn't have an IR blaster and your soundbar doesn't have HDMI

Does your soundbar not have any 'auto on' if it detects a signal?

 

[dock]

No. Harmony remote could possibly turn on both Apple TV and soundbar, but the Apple TV doesn't have an IR blaster and your soundbar doesn't have HDMI.

Does your soundbar not have any 'auto on' if it detects a signal?

The Siri Remote has IR on it! This is how it is able to learn other devices!
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205225
Sadly, this feature is limited to volume only, relying entirely on HDMI-CEC to power up/down other devices.

My soundbar doesn't wake up at all, despite me having a modern Sony TV.