This simple tutorial mainly shows you how to convert and rip DVD to 720p M4V with both AC3 and AAC audio so that you can stream and play DVD movies on Apple TV 3 with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through.



The lastest iteration of Apple TV 2012 (Apple TV 3rd generation) looks and acts exactly like the previous model. That difference is its support for native 1080p video which makes you get the capacity that streaming 1080p HD movies and TV shows your buy on the iTunes store for enjoying on your 65-inch HDTV. With prorer DVD Ripping software, you can even back up DVDs into Apple TV 3 optimized HD videos without much quality loss. While enjoying DVD rips on Apple TV 3 with stunning HD image quality, many folks are having problem with audio, in specific, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Don’t fret! The following guide aims to guide you through DVD to Apple TV 3 conversion with Dolby Digital AC3 5.1 sounds.

There are many programs out there that allow you to make copies of your DVDs and let you watch them the way you want to view them. If you’re looking for ease of use, and don’t mind spending $30 (they currently have a sale), I’ve had success using Pavtube’s Mac DVD Ripper for Apple TV (Available for 30% off discount during its offical Thanksgiving Special) to convert DVD discs to a format playable by Apple TV 3 and iTunes. I’ve found the quality to be excellent, and see no difference when compared to playing the discs themselves.

The app is a tool which makes you easy to either watch or encode DVD, DVD ISO/IFO to Apple TV format in an Apple-like way. It can help you rip and convert DVD to Apple TV 3 720p M4V video while maintaining 5.1 surround on Mac. Better off, the new preset exports HD video with 2 audio tracks- both Dolby Digital 5.1 and AAC stereo audio will be retained, so that Apple TV could pass-through Dolby Digital to A/V receiver for reproduction of surround sound, and export AAC stereo when going without surround sound system.

Free Download the Apple TV 3 DVD Ripper:



Rip & Convert DVD to Apple TV 3 compliant 720p M4V video with Dobly Digital 5.1 audio

The quick start guide below uses the movie converter Mac (Mountain Lion 10.8 included) screenshots. The way to converting DVD movies to Apple TV 3 under Windows (Windows 8 included) is almost the same. Just make sure you get the right version according to your computer operating system.

Step 1. Run the top Mac DVD Converter for Apple TV. Press “Load Disc” icon to import DVD movie. Choose “File > Load from ISO/IFO” if you’d like to import DVD ISO image file.



Step 2. Select main movie from file list. By default the main movie is checked exclusively. Other titles are extras and commercials, just leave them unchecked.

Step 3. Set subtitles and audio language for the main movie.

Step 4. Press on the “Format” bar, choose “Apple TV 2 Dolby Digital Pass-through (*.m4v)” preset which works best for the 2nd gen black Apple TV. For Apple TV 3, You can click “settings” to change the setting from the new default HD profile 4000 to 5000~8000 bitrate.



Step 5. Press “Convert” to get it start ripping DVD to Apple TV optimized 720 m4v video under Mac.

Step 6. Wait till conversion completes. Then Press “Open” to find the ripped movie.

Add DVD Rip to iTunes movie library for streaming to ATV 3:

You can then add the ripped DVD movie (.m4v video) into iTunes movie library. Open up iTunes and follow “File>> Add file to Library…” to sync video to iTunes.

For more information about how to stream HD videos to Apple TV 3 and connections for the Apple TV to pass-through AC-3 5.1 audio, please check Setting up Apple TV for Dolby Digital 5.1 pass-through.

Note: iTunes does not play video contents with AC3 audio, but the Apple TV pass-through presets create video with both AC3 and AAC, so iTunes will find and play the AAC track instead.

So there you have it. Pretty simple, After all workflow being done, you can start enjoying DVD movies on HDTV via Apple TV 3 with Dobly Digital 5.1 surround sound as you want. If you have any problems when enjoying videos on your Apple TV, you can check out the Apple TV column to get your solution.