I know this issue has been discussed earlier but I can’t find an answer though…
Is it possible (and how) to play HEVC / 4K movies as a Direct steam to Apple TV without transcoding?
It seems impossible for me to get it to work, and I’m getting nuts here…
Do you know witch tool can be used for Mac? If I had Windows I would use Kirara.
trumpy81 I can’t use Handbrake or the other you mention - because I don’t want to re-encode… only change container 
@trumpy81 said:
I would not use Kirara, I would use XMedia Recode, Avidemux or HandBrake on the PC.The only encoder I know of for Mac is HandBrake. I’m sure there are others, but I’m not a Mac user.
It actually went well instaling ffmpeg on my Mac…! 
Thanks
I can’t get it running though. It says: ffmpeg: command not found. I properly is in the wrong directory, or there is something else I haven’t thought of…
There is actually an app for the Mac that creates a GUI for ffmpeg called iFFmpeg (now called ffworks). I’ve used this many times and it really works well. Not free but makes it easy for anyone to use the power of ffmpeg. Of course one does have to go through the homebrew route to make it all work.
audiomixer this actually works! 
But what does this means - it shows a lot…
Users/henrikspangpoulsen/Library/Application\ Support/FFmpegTools/ffmpeg -probesize 50M -analyzeduration 100M -i /Users/henrikspangpoulsen/Downloads/Ferdinand.2017.2160p.UHD.Bluray.NORDIC.REMUX.TrueHD.7.1/Ferdinand\ (2017)/Ferdinand\ (2017).mkv -map 0:0 -map 0:1 -c:a aac_at -ab 96k -ac 6 -strict -2 -async 1 -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -r 24000/1001 -s 1920x1080 -aspect 16:9 -pix_fmt yuv420p -profile:v high -level 40 -partitions partb8x8+partp4x4+partp8x8+parti8x8 -b-pyramid 1 -weightb 1 -8x8dct 1 -fast-pskip 1 -direct-pred 1 -coder ac -trellis 1 -motion-est hex -flags +loop -sws_flags fast_bilinear -sc_threshold 40 -keyint_min 24 -g 240 -qmin 3 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4 -metadata creation_time=now -sn -y /Users/henrikspangpoulsen/Downloads/Ferdinand.2017.2160p.UHD.Bluray.NORDIC.REMUX.TrueHD.7.1/Ferdinand\ (2017)/Ferdinand\ (2017).mp4
ffmpeg version 3.4.2-tessus Copyright (c) 2000-2018 the FFmpeg developers
built with Apple LLVM version 9.0.0 (clang-900.0.39.2)
configuration: --cc=/usr/bin/clang --prefix=/opt/ffmpeg --extra-version=tessus --enable-avisynth --enable-fontconfig --enable-gpl --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libfreetype --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopencore-amrnb --enable-libopencore-amrwb --enable-libopus --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libtheora --enable-libvidstab --enable-libvo-amrwbenc --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxavs --enable-libxvid --enable-libzmq --enable-libzvbi --enable-version3 --pkg-config-flags=–static --disable-ffplay
@audiomixer said:
There is actually an app for the Mac that creates a GUI for ffmpeg called iFFmpeg (now called ffworks). I’ve used this many times and it really works well. Not free but makes it easy for anyone to use the power of ffmpeg. Of course one does have to go through the homebrew route to make it all work.
Is this problem only with HEVC in mkv container or with AVC (x264) in mkv container also? My whole collection of movies/TV in Terabytes is in mkv and just ordered Apple TV 4K 2 days back. 
The nice thing about ffworks is that you should be able to simply have it change the container (remuxing) without transcoding.
ffmpeg -i filename.ext -c copy filename.new_ext
It’s only do this with HEVC movies - but with all of them.
A problem is that all 4K movies comes with high quality sound such as TrueHD or DTS or whatever. Apple TV (also 4K) cannot play those audio codecs - it only plays ACC. So unless you recode to Apples much worse audio quality ACC (perhaps on the fly) AppleTV-4K cannot play the movie…
If its a 1080p movie theres no problem at all and you not even need to change container for ATV to play it. If it’s a 4K movie, then you have alle the problems. However, Apple TV gen. 4 cannot play those anyway.
All in all it seems to me that Apple doesen’t want customers to play 4K movies with high quality audio codecs + theres some bug regarded to Alex / ATV-4K… 
It’s difficult get a grib of the whole thing.
@akhil7j said:
Is this problem only with HEVC in mkv container or with AVC (x264) in mkv container also? My whole collection of movies/TV in Terabytes is in mkv and just ordered Apple TV 4K 2 days back.
But I can’t get Apple TV 4K to play the movies - and I can’t get reworks to make passthrough from MKV to MP4 when it comes to high quality audio codecs such as TrueHD 5.1 / 7.1.
@audiomixer said:
The nice thing about ffworks is that you should be able to simply have it change the container (remuxing) without transcoding.
@trumpy81 said:
I assume you mean ffmpeg, but yes you can use ffmpeg to remux the container without re-encoding the entire video.
Yes it is ffmpeg. Ffworks is the Mac GUI for ffmpeg dummies so even I can do it.
@stampeh said:
But I can’t get Apple TV 4K to play the movies - and I can’t get reworks to make passthrough from MKV to MP4 when it comes to high quality audio codecs such as TrueHD 5.1 / 7.1.@audiomixer said:
The nice thing about ffworks is that you should be able to simply have it change the container (remuxing) without transcoding.
Seems that Apple TV suffers from the same limitations as Mac OS in that it cannot passthrough HD audio such as Atmos/True HD/DTS Master and so on, just DD and DTS (although it’s not listed in specs either).
Frankly I thought the latest version of the Apple TV device was outdated before it was even released and I’m an Apple guy! Kinda why I went with the shield. It just seems to play anything I throw at it including HD audio.
Apple doesn’t have a ‘bit streaming’ license. That’s what’s needed for passthrough.
I’m sure it’s NOT a tech issue in any way. I’m positive it’s politics and money
Oh the hardware such as on my 2015 MacBook pro is quite capable as evidenced by installing windows via boot camp on the machine. Passthrough works then. It’s just that Apple chooses not to implement it in software and as you say, it’s probably politics and or money. As far as media server and client connected to my TV, it’s driven me away from Apple products. Actually very much like the 918+ and shield combo.
So okay… I guess I need to twrow away the ATV… :#
So IF I buy nvidia shield, can I then stream Plex movies from my NAS - and without trancode/encode ?
@stampeh said:
So okay… I guess I need to twrow away the ATV… :#So IF I buy nvidia shield, can I then stream Plex movies from my NAS - and without trancode/encode ?
What generation ATV? I have the ATV 4K and it’s flawless with Plex
Apple TV 4K.
Chuck: Apple TV 4K. But it cannot passthrough HD audio such as Atmos/True HD/DTS Master and so on, just DD and DTS
That’s an Apple limitation. Apple and the Dolby/DTS licensing people have not yet come to an agreement which permits bit-streaming (passthrough). It’s a politics and money issue above any of our pay grades.
If you look carefully, you’ll find that 5.1, what Apple has always supported, is there. It reports as 5.1 PCM. The difference is, you don’t see the Dolby/DTS light up on your receiver. That’s the only thing you’re not getting (the indicator light). The audio is there… I have an Onkyo RZ and Polk Signature Series 5.1. It’s definitely there.
If the 7.1 is decoded to 7.1 PCM, the ATV 4K WILL push it through to the receiver. Again, it’s the indicator light you’re missing
