Home Sharing photos with HEIF/HEIC on ATV4K?

[smithrh]

I've wound up with about 6,000 HEIF photos in my Photos library.

One of my main Apple TV uses is to watch slideshows of my entire library as I relax, listen to tunes and watch past trips go by.

What I've found is that if I serve my library via my 2012-era Mac mini, it completely ignores the new HEIF photos. If I serve my library with my 2016 MBP, iTunes (or Photos) transcodes the HEIF photos and I see the entire library.

But I'd prefer to use my mini as the server, as that's why I bought it.

Which leads to my question - can anyone confirm that the ATV4K can view HEIF photos shared via Home Sharing without transcoding?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

You might like this video comparison between HEIF and JPEG. Worrying as the findings suggest a quality loss compared to JPEG which is super worrying as JPEG is highly compressed as it is! Also shows how it converts to JPEG on the desktop.
Have a watch of it...

 

[smithrh]

Thanks for the video, that encapsulates the issue very well.

I thought I was shooting in JPG, but I was not. In any case, I now have thousands of HEIF files that don't play well outside of the ecosystem, and don't play well with older ATVs either.

Not sure if I'll convert them to JPG, or if the new ATV4K (which I'll pick up today) will handle them out-of-the-box.

I like the video's tips on how to convert to JPG quickly, I didn't know about many of them.

 

[smithrh]

....and the brand-new shiny ATV4K does NOT show HEIF through Home Sharing.

That's nuts. That, along with the fact that I can no longer spool up music to play during the slide show makes this a candidate for a very quick return to the store.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

....and the brand-new shiny ATV4K does NOT show HEIF through Home Sharing.

That's nuts. That, along with the fact that I can no longer spool up music to play during the slide show makes this a candidate for a very quick return to the store.

DAMN it certainly should play HEIF as it's listed - maybe an update like the 4K HEVC Airplay will be coming to it. This is from the website tech spec. Might be worth asking Apple.

Photo Formats
HEIF, JPEG, GIF, TIFF

 

[smithrh]

I tried the available beta, doesn't work there either.

 

[Danger_Man]

I tried the available beta, doesn't work there either.

What version of iTunes are you using?

 

[ViktorEvil]

didn't think home sharing of a Photos library was possible over a local network to an Apple TV. If it is how is it done?

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

didn't think home sharing of a Photos library was possible over a local network to an Apple TV. If it is how is it done?

It certainly is buddy and has been since my ATV2 way back I love it. In iTunes go in FILE then HOME SHARING and then the second line say choose photos to share with Apple TV. You can have selected photo albums appear or everything in your photos library
It's one of my favourite features on the ATV. The quality of your photos on the big screen is incredible!!!

 

[ViktorEvil]

It certainly is buddy and has been since my ATV2 way back I love it. In iTunes go in FILE then HOME SHARING and then the second line say choose photos to share with Apple TV. You can have selected photo albums appear or everything in your photos library
It's one of my favourite features on the ATV. The quality of your photos on the big screen is incredible!!!

Wow never spotted home sharing in the file menu before, I always set it up in preferences
thanks for the info

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Wow never spotted home sharing in the file menu before, I always set it up in preferences
thanks for the info

You're welcome buddy! It's a great feature!