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iMovie for iPhone Videos Not Working in Apple TV

Hey Gary I went on a family vacation this Fourth of July and tried out the iMovie app and was pleased. However, when I got home and pulled it off my iPhone (I exported as 720 HD) and dragged into iTunes and tried to sync to the Apple TV I got a warning that Apple TV could not play back. When I looked at the file in finder I noticed it was a .MOV file 1280 x 720. And I do not think that the Apple TV supports .MOV files in that dimension. Is this true on you experience? Another reason Apple needs to update the Apple TV. So I guess now I will have to use handbrake for this to playback on Apple TV. What are your thoughts?

— Michael

Comments: 6 Responses to “iMovie for iPhone Videos Not Working in Apple TV”

    14 years ago

    Right. Apple TV doesn't currently support 720p. It supports the equivalent of iMovie "Large" video -- 960x540. But you don't need to go to another program for the conversion. Just select the video in iTunes on your Mac and use the menu command: Advanced, Create iPad or Apple TV Version. This will convert it for Apple TV.

      Jason Hendriks
      13 years ago

      This isn't true.. 1st gen Apple TV supports 1280x720 @ 24 fps just fine. See http://support.apple.com/kb/sp19.

      If you click the "inspect" icon for HD in the iMovie Share -> Export window, you'll notice it is generating 1280x720 @ 30 fps. THAT'S your problem. The solution is to iMovie Share -> Export Using Quicktime -> Options and set it to 1280x720 @ 24 fps. Or use a program like Handbrake to convert the original exported file.

        13 years ago

        Interesting. So it supports 720p as long as it is 24fps. Odd that it would do that. Thanks for the info.

    Michael
    14 years ago

    Yea what I did was open in QuickTime and exported to iTunes and it worked. No big deal just an unneeded extra step. Funny how I can play back on my iPhone but not Apple TV:)

    Michael
    14 years ago

    Hey do you think it's a Hardware limit or software limit that the Apple TV does not support these formats?

      14 years ago

      Software. Because you can rent/buy 720p movies on AppleTV.

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