How to Play DVDs through Apple TV on HD TV

Blake Sullivan Updated on Apr 15, 2022 2:52 PM

See more about: All-in-one Blu-ray Converter to convert Blu-ray & DVD & Video for Apple TV

Can I use AirPlay to stream from DVD movie on flat screen HD TV with Apple TV in my living room? A guy told me just play the DVD on my Mac using its internal DVD player and turn on AirPlay Mirroring, but it won't work. If this is not possible, can you guys tell me which kind of formats can it play?

Let's say you own a large collection of movie DVDs, and want to use AirPlay to stream a DVD to Apple TV without any 3rd-party program. But Apple's DVD player software doesn't support Airplay Mirroring, while Apple TV only reads H.264 and MPEG-4 videos. Today we are highlighting a DVD ripping program that's handy for backing up your purchased DVD collection and freeing up your movies so that can rip to Apple TV friendly formats and enjoy on a TV in the best possible quality. It's pretty simple to use and straightforward, and available on both PC/Mac.

Working as a Swiss army knife in DVD ripping field, DVD Ripper for Mac removes the copy protection from your DVD and convert to just about any movie type.

It offers a wealth of tweaking options to get the best possible file as a result, and even has pre-configured profiles built in that make things easier for you to rip DVDs in the right format for a variety of portable media devices like Apple TV, iPad, PS4, Xbox One. Plus, the app provides additional features including video enhancement and audio extraction capabilities.

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for Windows | for MacOS

If you're on a PC and want to get DVD to play on Apple TV, please refer to DVD Ripper for Windows to handle the task.

Now, we'll show you exactly how to get the DVD into the format you want for Apple TV to playback on TV. — the fast and easy way even for a first time DVD ripping with a basic knowledge of computer.

Step 1: Select a source

Insert your DVD, launch DVD Ripper. Now head to "Load Disc" to import the DVD file (DVD-9/5, IFO and .dvdmedia files). Alternatively, Drag the DVD files and drop into the program window.

This DVD to Apple TV converter will start scanning titles in DVD, In the case of movies, it's usually the longest title.

After the files imported, you'll see an interface looks something like screenshot above. All of the major functions are shown in front of you, including the options to check DVD property, choose output format, edit the files, and preview the movie and several other options.

Step 2: Choose Apple TV Preset and tweak video/audio settings

Next you need to decide what format the resulting file will be in. Click on the "Profile" drop-down menu (see No.2 section) on the right side of the video, it will bring up format panel.

For the purpose of this tutorial, we just want to convert DVD to Apple TV file exclusively, so we pick "Apple TV" or "Apple TV 2" or "Apple TV 3" (according to the generation of your device) model under "Apple TV" column on the left list.

Alternatively, you can set a specific format under "Video" column as output file. According to Apple TV's tech specifications, it will read .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats with h.264 / mpeg-4 codec, or .avi file format with Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) codec. So here you are able to pick the correct file format as you like.

Then, you might tweak the output parameter settings to get better video/audio quality before the Mac DVD to Apple TV process. You can do this by clicking the "Settings" button next to "Profile" menu. For the most part you can leave this alone, the default optimized settings should be fine as is.

Please keep in mind, the bit rate setting for any iOS devices can't be up to 160kps.

Step 3: Start Ripping DVD to Apple TV file

Now you can go ahead and rip that DVD. Simply hit the "Convert" button at the lower right corner of the window to begin ripping DVD movie to Apple TV format. This will take awhile, depends on the encoding settings, hardware of your Mac computer and the length of the DVD file.

That's it!

Step 4: iTunes stream the converted DVD movie to Apple TV

The last step, after the conversion completed successfully, drop the file into iTunes' left sidebar, sync your Apple TV, and stream the movie on your HD TV!

Happy enjoying!