Streaming video from shared Mac folder to AppleTV?

[PXL Creations]

I just bought a new AppleTV and will be getting it soon, and I want to know how I can stream my movies which are located on a shared drive to it?

Right now, my videos are in a folder which is shared by my MBP (which is running SL) and have various formats. I've been trying to find a way to show these on my ATV without having to convert them.

I've heard about AirFlick, but I'm running Lion and apparently it doesn't work (someone tell me I'm wrong). I also vaguely remember a way to stream it to my iPhone4, and then stream that to AirPlay on the ATV?

 

[marc11]

Plex to your iPhone and AirPlay to apple tv. If they play in iTunes you can AirPlay from your Mac or jb the apple tv and install Flash Black Media Player, or Plex to access the shared folder and play the movies directly.

 

[PXL Creations]

Plex to your iPhone and AirPlay to apple tv. If they play in iTunes you can AirPlay from your Mac or jb the apple tv and install Flash Black Media Player, or Plex to access the shared folder and play the movies directly.

What's Flash Back Media Player?

 

[Rogue.]

Air Video works great also.

 

[PXL Creations]

Air Video works great also.

How does AirVideo work?

 

[Rogue.]

How does AirVideo work?

It streams non itunes media files and converts them on-the-fly to your ipad/pod/phone, you can then airplay to ATV2.

Air Video website

 

[YanniDepp]

I'm not sure about the second gen, but there was an app for the first generation called NitoTV that could read a remote network share, either SMB (Windows share), AFP (Apple share) or NFS (Linux share). It did involve jailbreaking though.

 

[maturola]

I just bought a new AppleTV and will be getting it soon, and I want to know how I can stream my movies which are located on a shared drive to it?

Right now, my videos are in a folder which is shared by my MBP (which is running SL) and have various formats. I've been trying to find a way to show these on my ATV without having to convert them.

I've heard about AirFlick, but I'm running Lion and apparently it doesn't work (someone tell me I'm wrong). I also vaguely remember a way to stream it to my iPhone4, and then stream that to AirPlay on the ATV?

You can Jailbreak your Apple TV, run Plex server on you MBP and you will be able to play any format that you have your videos in. The MBP will do any transcoding needed (if any). It is pretty easy setup. By the way this way will stream your media to any device running Plex client, iPhones, ipads, other Computers, Roku boxes, Boxees, LG smart TVS, Google TVs, etc.

 

[fabian9]

I just bought a new AppleTV and will be getting it soon, and I want to know how I can stream my movies which are located on a shared drive to it?

Right now, my videos are in a folder which is shared by my MBP (which is running SL) and have various formats. I've been trying to find a way to show these on my ATV without having to convert them.

I've heard about AirFlick, but I'm running Lion and apparently it doesn't work (someone tell me I'm wrong). I also vaguely remember a way to stream it to my iPhone4, and then stream that to AirPlay on the ATV?

To summarise the above posts and make a few additions, these are the ways you can tackle this.

Without Jailbreaking your Apple TV:
- Convert all media to iTunes compatible format and use AirPlay through iTunes
- Use Air Video Server running on your i/Pad/Pod/Phone to convert to a compatible format on the fly - then use AirPlay from your i/Pad/Pod/Phone to beam it to the Apple TV

With Jailbreaking your Apple TV:
- Install Plex (free) on your computer and Apple TV to stream your media from your computer/NAS drive
- Install XBMC (free) on your Apple TV to access all media from your computer/NAS drive
- Install Firecore's Media Player ($30) to access all media from your computer/NAS drive

I much prefer the last option, because it keeps you within the familiar Apple TV user interface, whereas XBMC is completely different. XBMC is the more powerful of the two apps though, and it's free.

 

[maturola]

I much prefer the last option, because it keeps you within the familiar Apple TV user interface, whereas XBMC is completely different. XBMC is the more powerful of the two apps though, and it's free.

For the records Plex Client interface is just like Default Apple tv or Firecore's MP. =)

Plex (free)

Firecore ($30)

 

[fabian9]

For the records Plex Client interface is just like Default Apple tv or Firecore's MP. =)

You're right, but Plex requires you to run a server on your computer, XMBC and Firecore's solution don't - probably should have made that clearer in my original post.

Not a problem if you're planning to stream from your computer anyways, but if you're streaming from NAS then you don't want to have to turn on a computer for it to work.

 

[maturola]

You're right, but Plex requires you to run a server on your computer, XMBC and Firecore's solution don't - probably should have made that clearer in my original post.

Not a problem if you're planning to stream from your computer anyways, but if you're streaming from NAS then you don't want to have to turn on a computer for it to work.

The OP stated that his Videos are on his Macbook Pro thats why i said it, so he already got a computer running. it will also help him stream to other devices if he have them (iOS devices), if not just be ready when he get them =)