Rendering to Apple TV

[Ron]

I am using Premier Elements 8 and am trying to edit and render video from my Panasonic SDR-H18 video camera to my Apple TV for widescreen (no letterbox or window box) display, using a .mp4 container with h.264 video at 720x480-30p. I am running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. The Apple TV can play h.264 video using the mail profile level 3.1. Here is a link from Apple on the renders specs for the Apple TV:

http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/ ... ml#TNTAG18
http://www.apple.com/appletv/

Just to be clear, the Apple TV is not a desktop computer or a TV, it is a box that brings iTunes and other content to your TV.

http://www2.panasonic.com/consumer-elec ... R-H18.T#ts

In widescreen mode, my camera puts out .mpg files with the following specs:

MPEG2
704x480 - 16x9 setting, this needs padded with 8 pixels on each side for 720x480
Interlaced, top field first
NTSC
AC3 audio

In PE8, I went into Share and Mobil and then made a custom preset using the following settings:

h.264 codec
NTCS
720x480 (I’ve also tried 704x480)
29.97 FPS
Progressive
Pixel aspect ratio: 16x9 (see note below, I’ve tried square and 2.21 as well)
Main profile, level 3.1
1pass VBR
2Mbps target, 5 max

For the PE8 project settings, I am using the NTSC-Hard disk, Flash Memory Camcorders-Widescreen 48kHz option, which matches the output of my video camera (widescreen, TFF, etc.).

My issue is that no matter what settings I use with 720x480 or 704x480, I do not get full widescreen with no letter boxing, I usually get large black bars.

If I render at 1280x720 24p (The Apple TV max FPS at 1280x720 is 24 fps), I get nice full screen video, but the video is very choppy.

Also, I tried going to Share and Personal Computer and using one of the h.264 settings over there, but it did not give me an option for .mp4 output, only for .ts, so that is not going to work.

Thanks to help from Steve Grisetti over on the Adobe support forum, I discovered that rendering with the same settings as above, but at 640x360 gives full wide screen, but it looks a bit soft.

How can I get good smooth widescreen (no letter/window boxing) rendering from PE8 at 720x480 using video from my camera? What are the best settings?

I downloaded the trial version of Sony Vegas Movie Studio and it is able to render correctly at 720x480 or 1280x720, so I know it can be done.

I've attached a short sample file from my camera. I use the PE8 settings to deinterlace it and to Interpret Footage as widescreen.
I've also used the SDCopy tool to set the widesreen flag and change it to mpg, bot options give the same result.
Thanks!

[Bobby]

Hi John and Welcome to Muvipix!

That is quite a lot of info to absorb, and I don't think anybody here has any direct experience with the Apple TV box judging by the lack of posts here. So we are shooting in the dark a bit.

What happens when you change the pixel aspect ratio? You said you tried various settings, but nothing gave you the correct output. But what did you see when you changed it?

[Paul LS]

Hi John, I took your sample clip into a NTSC Widescreen Harddrive camcorder project preset, used interpret footage and then exported via Share, to Mobile and created a custom export preset using your directions and it exported a nice 720x480 widescreen H.264 file. There were small black bars at the sides due to the missing pixels... I eliminated these on a second export by un-selecting scale to frame and by slighly increasing the video size to eliminate the narrow bars at the side.

How are you juding that the video is not widescreen? I used "Mediainfo" to analyze the file and it's properties are the same as those in PE7 export settings and it played back in MediaPlayer classic as widescreen.

[Steve Grisetti]

As John noted, I was able to figure out that Apple TV uses square pixels and that a 640x360 setting gave him a nice 16:9 widescreen.

The challenge is that we'd prefer not to down-sample the image but, rather, go to, say, 855x480 pixels. Unfortunately, Premiere Elements Share options (For Phone or Digital Device/iPhone/Advance settings for H.264) won't allow you to up the pixel width to 855!

Anybody got any ideas?

[Paul LS]

Steve, the Mobile export gives me 720x480 widescreen NTSC without issue with the sample clip. Or is it that the Apple TV will not play this correctly.

Also, if required, you can export as 855x480 square pixels by selecting the 3.1 "Level" in the export settings.

[Steve Grisetti]

That could be the ticket, Paul! Didn't see the 3.1 Level setting! 855x480 are the ideal square pixel settings for widescreen H.264!

I tried it at 720x480 (with non-square pixels) but, when I played it with Quicktime, I always got a letterboxed video.

[John Galt]

855x480 did the trick!

Thanks!!

[Steve Grisetti]

Told you you'll always find an answer at Muvipix! Is this a great community or what?