Apple TV Airplay and Home Sharing without Internet

there has been debate on this issue before on this forum, from my experience, home sharing will not work without an internet connection, even with content ripped from home media. it does however, work when i go to my computer and airplay it to my atv, just not directly from the atv. others have reported that this is not the case for them and home sharing works fine without an internet connection for their own ripped content.

in this case it seems it may need an initial internet connection to get things up and running, try connecting all devices to a hotspot to get a jumpstart?

If you're willing to spend a little money and have hotspot capability on your phone, you can actually make it work.

When I moved, I set up my home network just like it had been at my previous apartment. Instead of connecting my wireless router to the internet, I connected it to a wireless bridge.

I connected the bridge to my iPhone hotspot, and just like that, my home network, including iTunes and Apple TV, thought it was back on the net. The actual internet usage for home sharing was pretty low, so I didn't have any data cap worries, just had to be careful of updates.

I used that setup for about two months before I finally got internet at my house. The ATV would sometimes work without an internet connection, but usually, it needed the connection. iTunes content wouldn't even AirPlay. I think non-DRMed content would AirPlay, not sure about Home Sharing.

Hope that helps!