With the introduction of only two new devices in Steve Job’s annual keynote at Macworld, the Apple TV and iPhone, I was a little disappointed when I realized that I probably won’t be able to use either products anytime soon. With speculations of the iPhone arriving in Canada no earlier than Q4 2007 and the lack of TV show or movie support in Canada’s iTunes store, I was pretty sure that I wasn’t going to be making any purchases from Apple anytime soon. That was until I read this.
Well, I asked an Apple rep working the Macworld floor and he was very quick to assure me that any video content that iTunes can play can be played on the Apple TV, it’s not restricted only to content bought at the iTunes Store. That’s good news for anyone who prefers alternate sources for video content.
– David Watanabe
I didn’t use iTunes to organize my video library; I just leave them in my Movies folder. Heck, I didn’t even know you could (I’ve always thought it was restricted to purchased content from the iTunes store). As soon as I read that the Apple TV could play any video content that iTunes could play, I started importing video files that I’ve collected but I encountered a problem. It turns out that despite the Quicktime integration with iTunes, you could only import certain video file types such as MOV and MP4. You’re not allowed to import AVI files. After a little research, I found an easy and fast solution to the problem without any encoding steps required (but you do require QuickTime Pro). Here’s a quick break down of how to import AVI files onto iTunes:
Open the AVI file with QuickTime
Click File from the menu and select Save As…
Save the file as a MOV reference movie; the reference file acts as an alias to the original source file and requires a mere meg or two. It will save instantly (there’s no encoding required for a reference file)
Import the reference movie you saved by dragging the .MOV file into iTunes
Voila, your AVI videos are now on iTunes and you can potentially play the file on Apple TV (assuming that the guy David asked was telling the truth). If you have troubles playing AVI or WMV files, download and install a codec pack (Quicktime component files). So if you were like me or my friend, Smaran where you thought the Apple TV was obsolete because you weren’t living in the US, you might want to reconsider. The only thing that’s holding me back now is the price.
Update: Turns out I’m wrong with this one. This method of enabling XviD/DivX support requires access to the QuickTime components. There’s a good chance Apple won’t include the components required to play DivX and XviD files in the Apple TV. This gets me wondering again, what is the Apple TV good for in Canada or anywhere else that doesn’t have video support in the iTunes store?
Update 2: I wanted to confirm this and so I called Apple Canada. They confirmed that only MPEG-4 and H.264 file formats will be recognized by the Apple TV. Well, I guess I’m back at square one - I won’t be buying any of Apple’s new products anytime soon.