In my prior review, I neglected to compare VideoDrive's options to CONVERT videos to an Apple TV-compatible format. In that review, I was referring to the option to COPY videos into an Apple TV-compatible container, which is a different beast entirely.

In actual conversions of video material, VideoDrive actually doesn't do anything but pass the video to Quicktime and Quicktime does the actual conversion. What VD does do extra is allow you to set up batch conversions by monitoring a designated folder for new videos that need converting and auto-queueing them up. Very handy for mass processing!

As for the quality of the conversion.... I converted a XviD AVI file using VideoDrive and Handbrake, resulting in files sized about 500mb and 700mb respectively. The two videos were very similar in quality, the most obvious difference when directly compared was that the one acquired using VideoDrive had less color... it seemed a bit more washed out. It should be noted that Handbrake has available presets that are considered optimal for use with Apple TV... you could probably get identical results using VideoDrive by modifying Quicktime's settings for MPEG conversions (Quicktime Pro required, I do believe).

VideoDrive did fail to convert (ok.. pass to Quicktime) an mkv video, even though I can play those and convert them using Quicktime. In the case of the mkv files I've worked with though, Handbrake is easily my choice. While Quicktime technically can pass through the video in mkv files for a perfect conversion to m4v format, the 720p files I've used don't play well on the Apple TV (too choppy). Additionally, Quicktime will not pass through AC3 (Dolby Digital) sound tracks since they are not technically supported in the mp4 standard. In practice, I've found that using Handbrake's Apple TV preset along with using its own AC3 passthrough option allows me to convert to an m4v video that Apple TV can play with very minimal loss of video quality while keeping the AC3 track.

Bottom line? VideoDrive can do mass conversions a bit more easily than Handbrake can, but will require some manual tweaking of the settings in Quicktime to get comparable results to Handbrake's optimized presets. And you'll have to stick to Handbrake instead if you have an AC3 sound track and want to keep that for surround sound.