ATV near useless without internet connection

[mpainesyd]

Due to the severe storms that hit Sydney I have just been through a week without broadband internet connection. I was unable to download any movies or TV from iTunes, of course, but thought it would be good to watch some iTunes-purchased and downloaded videos, stored on my iMac.

No such luck - the ATV refused to play them without an internet connection.

The only way I could watch purchased content was to hotspot my iPad to the iMac to give it internet connection, then start the TV show and use Airplay to send it to the ATV. I found that I could disconnect the iPad once the video started.

The need for an internet connection to watch purchased, downloaded content is a real nuisance. When I first set up the ATV several years ago I don't think the connection was necessary - it seems to be something that snuck in recently.

(copied from Apple discussions, where criticism is not encouraged!)

 

[prss14]

I haven't needed the internet with my ATV. When we moved a few months ago it took several weeks for the company to get me a modem that worked. We just set up a wireless network and watched from our iMac. I'm in US but wouldn't see why it would be any different elsewhere. Would the movies play on the iMac?

 

[paulrbeers]

Due to the severe storms that hit Sydney I have just been through a week without broadband internet connection. I was unable to download any movies or TV from iTunes, of course, but thought it would be good to watch some iTunes-purchased and downloaded videos, stored on my iMac.

No such luck - the ATV refused to play them without an internet connection.

The only way I could watch purchased content was to hotspot my iPad to the iMac to give it internet connection, then start the TV show and use Airplay to send it to the ATV. I found that I could disconnect the iPad once the video started.

The need for an internet connection to watch purchased, downloaded content is a real nuisance. When I first set up the ATV several years ago I don't think the connection was necessary - it seems to be something that snuck in recently.

(copied from Apple discussions, where criticism is not encouraged!)

This has been the case for several years (probably always). When you start a DRM'd movie (i.e. purchased from iTunes), iTunes "phones home" to validate that you did purchase the movie (and didn't just "borrow" a buddy's copy).

This is why I choose to stay away from iTunes movies/tv shows as much as possible. All of my movies in iTunes have been personally ripped by me, so no DRM. There is no "phoning home" then to validate I purchased it and can work whether I have internet or not.

 

[prss14]

Hasn't been the case for me. I watch both iTunes movies and personal dvd's I imported into iTunes with no problem. Not sure why, but just my experience.

 

[benji888]

Due to the severe storms that hit Sydney I have just been through a week without broadband internet connection. I was unable to download any movies or TV from iTunes, of course, but thought it would be good to watch some iTunes-purchased and downloaded videos, stored on my iMac.

No such luck - the ATV refused to play them without an internet connection.

The only way I could watch purchased content was to hotspot my iPad to the iMac to give it internet connection, then start the TV show and use Airplay to send it to the ATV. I found that I could disconnect the iPad once the video started.

The need for an internet connection to watch purchased, downloaded content is a real nuisance. When I first set up the ATV several years ago I don't think the connection was necessary - it seems to be something that snuck in recently.

(copied from Apple discussions, where criticism is not encouraged!)

Check this ATV setting:

Settings>AirPlay>Play from iTunes in the Cloud>OFF

If you have your iMac on the same home network, turned on and iTunes open (with Home Sharing turned on), this will play any downloaded content off the iMac (from "Computers" in ATV). If it's set to AUTO it will attempt to play off iCloud, using your internet connection.

However, some things, for some unknown reason, it has to get approval before playing (I think this is stupid, if it's in iTunes downloaded on one of your devices it should play without checking first.), but, this might help?

 

[mpainesyd]

Check this ATV setting:

Settings>AirPlay>Play from iTunes in the Cloud>OFF

If you have your iMac on the same home network, turned on and iTunes open (with Home Sharing turned on), this will play any downloaded content off the iMac (from "Computers" in ATV). If it's set to AUTO it will attempt to play off iCloud, using your internet connection.

However, some things, for some unknown reason, it has to get approval before playing (I think this is stupid, if it's in iTunes downloaded on one of your devices it should play without checking first.), but, this might help?

Thank you - will try this out.

The iMac also insisted on "phoning home" before playing DRM content. As I said, I had to hotspot my iPad - just to get the iMac to Airplay to the ATV

 

[oneMadRssn]

Is the iMac already an "authorized" device per your iTunes account? If so, I don't think it even needs to phone home when playing from previously authorized devices. I could be wrong though.

 

[priitv8]

My understanding is this - if you attempt anything via Home Sharing (e.g. browsing and playing your library on iMac via TV's UI), a call home is inevitable (iTunes Store authentication via your AppleID).
However, if you have the movie on your mac, start the playback on iTunes and switch to AirPlay, it should not call home.
I can not say anything about DRM-ed movies though, I don't have any. But as I have understood it, iTunes is able to decrypt them also offline from Internet.

 

[westrock2000]

My understanding is this - if you attempt anything via Home Sharing (e.g. browsing and playing your library on iMac via TV's UI), a call home is inevitable (iTunes Store authentication via your AppleID).

Correct, even if it's movies that you yourself ripped. It's not the "content" that is being authorized. It's the authorization to connect to the computer doing the steaming that is being verified. So the AppleTV verifies that the accounts on each end are valid.

As a result, if you have no Internet connection then you will not be able to watch ANY movies on the iTunes host, regardless if you bought or ripped them. Music however will continue to function correctly, since it does not use Home Sharing.

My experience with this
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1701033/

 

[mpainesyd]

Thank you for the link to the other discussion. I didn't realise the problem went beyond the ATV (ie home sharing).
A pity it contains no good news.

 

[Sasparilla]

...As a result, if you have no Internet connection then you will not be able to watch ANY movies on the iTunes host, regardless if you bought or ripped them. ….

This is something that the ATV Gen 1 could do (no internet connection to play content) since it could host the content locally - I'm hoping the new ATV has storage (rumors are it will) and allows us to host content locally with the functionality (play without phoning home for authorization each time).

 

[PsyOpWarlord]

I ran into the same issue during a prolonged internet outage.

I wound up just going and removing the DRM from all my media so I wouldn't have to go through that again.

 

[westrock2000]

This is something that the ATV Gen 1 could do (no internet connection to play content) since it could host the content locally - I'm hoping the new ATV has storage (rumors are it will) and allows us to host content locally with the functionality (play without phoning home for authorization each time).

Ideally you just let the two devices do the handshake between themselves. Or maybe set a key so that if the devices do go offline they can only negotiate with each other...sort of like if the Apple TV looses internet connection it becomes "locked" to the last server it was authorized to.