1080p or 720p with AppleTV 2?

[hahafunny]

AppleTV 2 only displays 720p even if i run a 1080p video through it...

as it can still play the 1080p movies do you guys still handbrake your .mkv files to 1080p or 720p?

when i play a movie on my 1080p mac screen i can tell the difference between them and i can live with 720p for saving hd space... but for the movies i really like i keep them at 1080p

here is the thing though, i was wondering if one has a big screen, like 50"? is the difference between the 1080p and 720p more noticeable?

i figure at some point i'll have bigger screen and AppleTV will be allowed to output 1080p and as HD space is pretty cheap i'd just rather run things through handbrake once and only once....

I quit buying HD movies from iTunes Store by the way because they looked so bad... even the DVD rips i do with handbrake look better than the 720p iTunes store downloads...

thanks!

[observer]

If you are a brave soul, you can install linux on your ATV, get a Broardcom Crystal HD card and swap it out with the internal WiFi Card (need to go wired) and you can get full 1080p support via XBMC.

I've been running it for a while and works great for all h.264 1080p content (mostly BluRay rips).

There is a supported distribution and tools to make a boot USB stick here: Crystalbuntu

[hahafunny]

If you are a brave soul, you can install linux on your ATV, get a Broardcom Crystal HD card and swap it out with the internal WiFi Card (need to go wired) and you can get full 1080p support via XBMC.

I've been running it for a while and works great for all h.264 1080p content (mostly BluRay rips).

There is a supported distribution and tools to make a boot USB stick here: Crystalbuntu

thanks for your reply... i briefly had xbmc installed on my AppleTV 2 but for some strange reason it wouldn't play any of the movie files... i tried various file types etc... didn't have much time to troubleshoot it so took it off so it wouldn't confuse the kids, they love the AppleTV interface...

will the solution you mention play the .mkv's or the 1080p handbrake processed files?

thanks again!

[Icanseestars]

The AppleTV2 is an iPhone in a box it doesn't and never will have the capability to output 1080p display signal until the hardware is updated.

I don't notice any difference between 1080p and 720p movies but just up the bitrate to compensate at 720p, try in Handbrake under the video tab setting RF=16 or lower and you will get higher quality videos.

[hahafunny]

The AppleTV2 is an iPhone in a box it doesn't and never will have the capability to output 1080p display signal until the hardware is updated.

I don't notice any difference between 1080p and 720p movies but just up the bitrate to compensate at 720p, try in Handbrake under the video tab setting RF=16 or lower and you will get higher quality videos.

yes, I understand it down converts 1080p to 720p on the fly but i'm just trying to encode my collection once so that when AppleTV 3 comes out or AppleTV 2 gets mod'd i'll be set for 1080p...

good idea to adjust the bitrate of the video as it is the artifacts that show up in shading and gradients that are the most annoying...

i take it the smaller the number the higher the quality? I think the default in handbrake is RF=20 ?

thanks!

[Icanseestars]

Well the rumors are the next variant of the AppleTV due at the end of the year will have 1080p display output.

Yes in constant quality mode the lower the value the higher the bitrate applied to the conversion in Handbrake, though do it in small increments at RF16 you may have a pretty large video on your hands.