Any way to get show/movie thumbnails on Home Screen now?

[Gator5000e]

I have had the Movies and TV Shows apps in the top row of my ATV for a long time. And I understand that access to the movies and shows have been moved to the store. But even with that change initially, I used to get the show and movie thumbnails on the Home Screen when I highlighted the movie or show app. I didn’t mind if I clicked on them that the message came up about the stuff moving to the store. Now when I highlight the apps, all I get are the words Movies or TV Shows..no thumbnails. Is there any way to get those thumbnails back? I am on 17.5,1, unfortunately. Thanks in advance.

 

[-Gonzo-]

Not possible as those apps have been discontinued, they should be gone completely with tvOS 18.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Actually, there IS a way: download the movies to local Mac storage (which is a very good idea anyway so that you possess your movies instead of trusting complete strangers in the cloud). Get them organized in the TV app. With one minor checkbox unchecked...

...they can be stored on an external drive so they don't use up the precious internal drive space.

Turn on Home Sharing and put the Computers App up in the dock. Then use the Computers app instead of the TV app for this content...

This gets owned movie thumbnails to appear up there and basically escapes the complete dependency on the cloud or even a cloud connection at all.

This will work for sure, my latest movies show on my Home Screen now. If I last watched shows in the Computers app, then thumbnails for the latest added shows show on the Home Screen. If I last enjoyed my music library, music albums show on the Home Screen. Basically, with Computers App it is "pick up where you last left off." If I only wanted movies to show up there, the last step before I exit the computers app would be to select a movie in my collection, start it for a few seconds then exit... effectively leaving off as last act with a movie playing.

 

[Gator5000e]

Thanks, I don't own a Mac but it sounds like sound advice to download what I have purchased...it isn't that much to begin with. I just liked seeing the purchased and newly available movies on the home screen. I wonder if I put the Movies Anywhere app in the top row if it will show anything? I may try that tonight.

But thanks for all the replies.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I believe it works with PC too, though I've seen some notes about the very latest tvOS update "breaking" the connection with iTunes on PC. If true, that may not work until the next update... or two... or seven. But worth a try since it is very easy to try.

 

[-Gonzo-]

Only issue with downloading and watching via Computers instead is everything’s then limited to a maximum of HD.

If you change the Top Row function of the TV app to Up Next then you’ll get your newly purchased movies show up tha way, well at least until you’ve watched them anyway but they will of course share that up next list with anything else you may be watching.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

HDDs are dirt cheap- as in 20TB for about $250 (only checking Amazon). Average iTunes Store movie size is probably around 6GB to maybe 12GB. Let's imagine OPs favorites are all the latter. 20,000GB/12GB = 1,666 movies. If OP has happened to accumulate that many as owned, he could spend another $250 to store another 1,666 movies. IMO: better to possess them than trust for profit strangers in the cloud. See countless tales of a favorite movie or three going missing. They can't get deleted from local storage.

Local storage + Computers (app) is also a great place to store the home movie collections, TV shows, podcasts, etc too. Load it up and it's all in one place from which anyone on the same network can have easy access even if the internet is down.

 

[ChrisN718]

Noticed this on mine this morning, no longer showing the thumbnails for TV Shows and Movies on the homescreen. Was about to go through the process of resetting before finding this thread. Glad to know it wasn't on my end.

 

[Gator5000e]

I moved Movies Anywhere to the top row and now it shows a couple of thumbnails for my purchases. So it's not blank any longer. Now I just need to find an app for TV shows.

 

[Biro]

I don’t browse by show or film title in Apple TV. I go to my channel/app of choice and browse in there. I don’t know who these changes benefit - other than Apple. And they come at a bad time. I just turned off the hateful “smart” section of my miserable Google TV.