Does New AppleTV Still Have Photos Limit?

[TrueBlou]

Well, I have a little more info.

In iPhoto/Aperture library there is a "Apple TV Photo Cache" folder. Within that is the "Apple TV Photo Database". After selecting my 3000+ image album to share with the ATV, the database is created, but it's only 149.9mb. No matter how compressed the images are, there's no way to store very many in only 150mb.

Seems like a necessary limit for the ATV2/3, as they had only RAM, no onboard storage, but with the ATV4, there's no reason to set it to only use 150mb of photos for the screen saver.

I'm going to see if there's a hidden setting somewhere.

There's definitely some sort of archaic limit in there for the screensaver. I've just sat and watched through one, it got to just over 300 (ish, keeping count wasn't so easy) unique photos before it started to recycle them again.

Looking at the Photo Cache folder on my Mac it's total size is 4.8MB so opening them up and investigating, they are just database files storing the locations of the images. There's nothing but links to the image locations in my files.

Now, as I type this, the screensaver has started up again and it's using a completely different set of images to the last run through.

So my suspicion is that it does have access to the entire library (which is what I told it to set as the screensaver source) but limits each run-through of the screensaver to a batch of about 300 from the complete collection.

 

[MrTemple]

Is your screen saver "Type" to display via "Home Sharing" or via "My Photos"? It's the Home Sharing limit that's been sticky. And with Home Sharing, you don't get the screen saver refreshing requently at all (the tiny pool stays for days or weeks at a time, and it's difficult to refresh).

 

[TrueBlou]

Is your screen saver "Type" to display via "Home Sharing" or via "My Photos"? It's the Home Sharing limit that's been sticky. And with Home Sharing, you don't get the screen saver refreshing requently at all (the tiny pool stays for days or weeks at a time, and it's difficult to refresh).

In the settings app it's set to HomeShare. I just went into the Computers app, delved into my photos, into the full Library, which is 5817 photos apparently and clicked the Set as Screensaver button at the top of the screen.

In the space of 10 (or 20, I lose track of time when I'm working) minutes or so I've had two completely different sets of photos go through.

 

[MrTemple]

In the settings app it's set to HomeShare. I just went into the Computers app, delved into my photos, into the full Library, which is 5817 photos apparently and clicked the Set as Screensaver button at the top of the screen.

In the space of 10 (or 20, I lose track of time when I'm working) minutes or so I've had two completely different sets of photos go through.

Hmm, I've definitely not experienced this. The same few hundred images were persisting across reboots of the ATV even.

How are you sharing the images? Aperture/iPhoto/Photos?

 

[TrueBlou]

Hmm, I've definitely not experienced this. The same few hundred images were persisting across reboots of the ATV even.

How are you sharing the images? Aperture/iPhoto/Photos?

I'm using the Photos app on OS X El Capitan as the source for the images (which itself is using the iCloud Photo Library along with all of my other devices.) Then in iTunes I just set the HomeShare options for photos to, share all including videos.

 

[MrTemple]

That's the difference then. I'm using Aperture as my photos library.

Theoretically it should work, but I think it's got the vestigial 150mb limit in place for the "Apple TV Photo Database". Every time I manage to have it recreated (not easily reproducible), a new subset of images gets created for the ATV, but it's still always only 149.9mb.

I wish there was a hidden setting I could tweak.

 

[TrueBlou]

That's the difference then. I'm using Aperture as my photos library.

Theoretically it should work, but I think it's got the vestigial 150mb limit in place for the "Apple TV Photo Database". Every time I manage to have it recreated (not easily reproducible), a new subset of images gets created for the ATV, but it's still always only 149.9mb.

I wish there was a hidden setting I could tweak.

That would definitely make sense, I suppose Aperture would be geared up for ATV 3 with their focus on the Photos app now. Still, I wonder if there would be something buried away in there, though not something meant to be accessed, that could possibly be altered to change the limit.

 

[machpost]

Has anyone downloaded the Flickr app and tried setting a Flickr album as a screensaver? I have all my photos backed up on Flickr anyway, so I'm wondering if going that route will permit more photos to be displayed in the screensaver. I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but I did poke around in the Flickr app briefly, and it definitely has the option to use Flickr photos with the screensaver.