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Streaming my movie library on my mac to my ATV?

brinary001

brinary001

Suspended
Original poster
Sep 4, 2012
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1,135
Midwest, USA
I can't for the life of me remember if this is a thing, but does anyone know of a way to stream movie files from my mac to our Apple TV (without mirroring over AirPlay)? I have about 500 movies on an external hard drive that I want to be able to stream directly to the TV.
 
brinary001 said:
I can't for the life of me remember if this is a thing, but does anyone know of a way to stream movie files from my mac to our Apple TV (without mirroring over AirPlay)? I have about 500 movies on an external hard drive that I want to be able to stream directly to the TV.
Click to expand...

There is an app for that for your Mac.
Beamer.
 
Another option is to simply enable network sharing for the movie folder on the Mac and then use Infuse or MrMC on the Apple TV to stream them.
 
brinary001 said:
I can't for the life of me remember if this is a thing, but does anyone know of a way to stream movie files from my mac to our Apple TV (without mirroring over AirPlay)? I have about 500 movies on an external hard drive that I want to be able to stream directly to the TV.
Click to expand...

Or, if the hard drive is connected to your Mac and iTunes is open on the Mac, just click Computer on the AppleTV and play the movie from there. No need to install extra software or apps.
 
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Thank you all so much for your input! I'm going to try some of these things out and then I'll report back with what I ended up doing.
 
Javabird said:
Or, if the hard drive is connected to your Mac and iTunes is open on the Mac, just click Computer on the AppleTV and play the movie from there. No need to install extra software or apps.
Click to expand...
This is the method I use. 27" 2011 iMac is always on, its the family computer, and the kids know to leave my account open and running when using the iMac. This method streams more than 600 movies in my iTunes Library to 4 :apple:TV's at the same time. 2 are 4th Gen and 2 are 3rd Gen :apple:TV's. Never have had an issue, and it just works. 6Tb Thunderbolt External HD connected to my iTunes, HomeSharing is turned on and logged in in iTunes, HomeSharing is active and on on all 4 :apple:TV's, on the :apple:TV go to Computer App, goto Movies, search for the movie, press play. Buffer takes maybe 8 seconds for us. 2 current Gen Apple Time Capsules for our wifi routers.
 
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Javabird said:
Or, if the hard drive is connected to your Mac and iTunes is open on the Mac, just click Computer on the AppleTV and play the movie from there. No need to install extra software or apps.
Click to expand...

This is the method I used for years, until various AppleTV updates kept breaking my streaming ability this way. Luckily, around that time the ATV4 was released, and since then I've gone to Plex and never looked back. It's got a much more intuitive interface than the built in "Computer" option, and the library itself is handled much better through Plex than through iTunes.
 
So what I ended up doing was downloading Plex on my ATV and on my MacBook Pro, as many of you suggested. All I have to say is, wow! That service is awesome. I downloaded it on both devices, and boom. All my movies were instantly setup in a media server that I didn't have to lift a finger to create. I think my two favorite features so far are being able to remotely stream your content while not at home, and how it automatically updates your movie files with the poster art. However, I noticed it doesn't do that for all the movies. Has anyone else who is using Plex experienced this as well? Also since my content is on an external hard drive that connects to my MacBook, I can't stream things remotely if I have my MacBook on me while out and about. I think eventually I will have to maybe buy an somewhat old, cheap Mac Mini to use just as a media server, as some of you have said you've done with other Mac desktops.
 
brinary001 said:
So what I ended up doing was downloading Plex on my ATV and on my MacBook Pro, as many of you suggested. All I have to say is, wow! That service is awesome. I downloaded it on both devices, and boom. All my movies were instantly setup in a media server that I didn't have to lift a finger to create. I think my two favorite features so far are being able to remotely stream your content while not at home, and how it automatically updates your movie files with the poster art. However, I noticed it doesn't do that for all the movies. Has anyone else who is using Plex experienced this as well? Also since my content is on an external hard drive that connects to my MacBook, I can't stream things remotely if I have my MacBook on me while out and about. I think eventually I will have to maybe buy an somewhat old, cheap Mac Mini to use just as a media server, as some of you have said you've done with other Mac desktops.
Click to expand...
Check the names of those files that don't have movie posters. That likely means they didn't automatically match to a database, which means the filename is likely non-typically. Ideally your filenames should be "Movie Title (release year).file extension" You can also go through and manually fix any matches in Plex if they matched incorrectly, or not at all.
 
Before you spend money to macmini to be as a server, you can save alot money if you check if you can attach your external harddrive straight to your router as a kind of "network attach storage" and use e.g. smb to share your content with all devices. Most routers nowadays are capable to handle usb storages and you dont need to keep your computer on or as a media server all the time.

Unfortunately Plex app demands also server side app (which also does possible transcoding if needed) so you need to install something else to your apple tv. There are plex-kind apps like Infuse (paid) in appstore, or mrmc (kodi-style). But you can test your router with free vlc app also.

I store my stuff to the nas and for me plex doesnt do the job because i dont convert them but keep them as originals (mkv containers). Most nases (if any?) arent powerful enough to do transcoding while watching.
 
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mrex said:
Before you spend money to macmini to be as a server, you can save alot money if you check if you can attach your external harddrive straight to your router as a kind of "network attach storage" and use e.g. smb to share your content with all devices. Most routers nowadays are capable to handle usb storages and you dont need to keep your computer on or as a media server all the time.

Unfortunately Plex app demands also server side app (which also does possible transcoding if needed) so you need to install something else to your apple tv. There are plex-kind apps like Infuse (paid) in appstore, or mrmc (kodi-style). But you can test your router with free vlc app also.

I store my stuff to the nas and for me plex doesnt do the job because i dont convert them but keep them as originals (mkv containers). Most nases (if any?) arent powerful enough to do transcoding while watching.
Click to expand...
Most routers only support what you describe if the disk is formatted for windows.
 
brinary001 said:
I can't for the life of me remember if this is a thing, but does anyone know of a way to stream movie files from my mac to our Apple TV (without mirroring over AirPlay)? I have about 500 movies on an external hard drive that I want to be able to stream directly to the TV.
Click to expand...

Home sharing. If there in Apple TV format chances are u'r also using iTunes as well. Plex is good too, but sometimes it doesn't make sense of all those formats.
 
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Plex codes if necessary and then it uses the power of the server. Some other apps are hence better, imo. I dont understand why Plex doesnt let the client side to handle formats.
 
Well I would love to provide more feedback on my experience so far, but just a day or two after I installed Plex the guys who mow our lawn ran over our temporary Internet coax cable set up by our ISP (we just moved in, hence why it's temporary). It was a BRIGHT orange cable that only an idiot could miss. So once we get that back online hopefully I'll have more to say.
 
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