Best Temporary Apple TV 3 solution till jb

[shadowfox87]

Hi,

So I have bought Apple TV 3. I have all my media (movies, tv shows, music) on a external HD. What is the best way currently that I can watch my media on my apple tv?

This is the current solution I'm using:

Download Videora and convert all video files into apple tv format. Then put these video files into Itunes library. Access Itunes library via Apple TV.

This is cumbersome especially when it takes hours just to convert 1 video file. Ideally, I would just put XBMC on apple tv and have my media all in there, but since the jailbreak for Apple TV 3 hasn't come out yet, I can't do that. Furthermore, my external HD is not a network storage device, so I can't share it with my router. I have my external HD attached to my laptop which has Itunes running.

Any suggestions or is what I'm doing right now the best way?

[shadowfox87]

Bump, found an alternative solution:

appletv - Can I stream any video played with VLC player to Apple TV? - Ask Different

It uses AirFlick (Mac only) that allows you to watch anything on Apple tv by streaming the conversion in real time.
This way you don't have to wait hours to convert all your video files to mp4.

-The only disadvantage is that AirFlick is not for windows and I only have a laptop with Windows 7!

So I'm still looking for a better solution.

[Lucky Thompson]

Hmm with the new mac operating system you will be able to stream instantly. Since you use PC I would suggest taking a look at AirParrot. I have not tested it and I am not an expert in this area as I never really share media besides for mirroring with my iPad.

It's unfortunate you have a 3rd gen Apple TV because with XBMC installed you are able to hook your hard drive to your modem and share the media locally.

[umOuch]

Plus 1 on AirParrot option. That or get a hold of an iPhone 4s or iPad 2(or higher) use AirPlay Mirroring... Also, if desperate while waiting for the Jailbreak, Plug up a laptop or computer to your HD TV. it is a great TEMPORARY solution to the problem.

[shadowfox87]

Thx guys. I tried AirParrot, but wasn't too smooth. I'm still just streaming movies via itunes and using HandleBreak to convert. I also have Splashtop streamer that let's me mirror my laptop screen on ipad, then I can mirror the screen to Apple tv. Too slow though.

[jrimmer]

i use Avidemux it converts avi. to mp4 in about 4 minutes... all that is required of most avi's is to convert the audio to a supported format and repackage the container. Not sure of the availability of this on a mac. but for my old core duo pc laptop the entire process is less than 5 minutes

[Cortito]

Hi all, two days ago I bought the APTV3 and was proving several solutions to play from my APTV my MKVs with subtitle and DD 5.1, I tried first with airparriot and only transmits stereo as it can not transmit DD, I was sad and I kept looking resigned. Until searching found several freeware for Windows that made M4V/MP4 MKV with subtitles, I tried directly MkvToMp4 Web Developer and download here.
I found a simple way to convert mkv to m4v with subs without losing quality of video and sound, even lets you convert DD and DTS to ACC in stereo or multichannel, or with DD passthrough or DTS audio but convet to DD (very interesting).
You can also choose which tracks (audio, subs, tags and chapters) the desire to transfer MKV to m4v.
Thus I added it to itunes m4v file and from there to transmit video APTV3 1080p DD 5.1 audio and subtitle by wifi without cuts or lost.
I did some conversions and took between 40 minutes and 1 hour to convert.