VLC and Plex Apps Coming to New Apple TV

[aaronvan]

ATV could be the 'killer app' [sic] which redefines television.

 

[hauntvictim]

Was already gonna purchase, but this is some GREAT news. October cant come soon enough, hopefully Ocotber 1 realese date.

 

[H2SO4]

If only you could Siri search Plex it would be amazing - but looks like Siri is locked down to certain partners.

At the moment there's no point in getting an Apple TV over my Mac mini that I run Plex on.

I have an ATV3 but I also use my old 1,1 MacPro as a dedicated media server so I can do virtually anything with it.
Is there any reason the ATV3 wouldn't get an AppStore other than Apple doing us the dis-service of a few lines of strategically placed code in a plist?

 

[RickInHouston]

I am so desperately hoping that at least one of these will play DVD .iso images off the network. It's possible that remote code executions restrictions for the menus, or a codec licensing issue, or just what kind of network access is allowed will make this impossible, but I sure hope it isn't.

Thing is, I have a collection of hundreds of DVDs ripped to a network volume as ISOs (so I can get at menus and extra features for the full effect), but I haven't yet come up with a solution other than a full computer that will actually play them smoothly on a TV. I got a WDTV box expressly for this purpose, because it's one of the few that will play an ISO over the network, but it's so unstable while playing DVDs it's literally unusable.

C'mon, VLC or PLEX--make this work. Please.

Intel NUC / OpenElec Kodi (XBMC) / BOOM.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Would be more excited if I could trade in my Blu-Ray collection for iTunes digital codes.

 

[MH01]

Expected this was a given when the TV os was announced with access to the App Store.

Now getting kodi onto the Apple TV would be huge news given development has stopped on Apple TV 2nd gen.

 

[ZubaZ]

Plex is awesome and you can use it on Apple TV even if not jailbroken.
It's all about DNS

 

[MH01]

I believe XBMC/Kodi had licensing issues that kept it from being compatible with the App Store.

That's why it's not on iPhone/iPad at all.

I cannot see apple allowing kodi in the App Store , ever, it's one of these apps associated with jailbrolen devices

 

[nostaws]

The reason is that they are different products with different purposes. Yeah, I can see a lot of restrictions happening on the Apple TV to keep their licenses with content providers happy.

I can't see why not. They allow the Plex App on the iOS app stores. Unless Apple puts in place some additional restrictions on TvOS for some reason

 

[gkarris]

Snooze....

Wake me up when there's decent games and a reasonably priced game controller...

(those $99 Mifi controllers don't cut it...)

 

[cycomiko]

Now just awaiting the Synology apps for video/audio and I will be happy.

Plus a MotoGP app that does live video streams rather than the audio out of the current app.

 

[hkenneth]

Yes! My entire library is ready!

 

[keyzone72]

Now it's only a matter of time Sling TV, Amazon Video, Vudu, Disney Movies Anywhere, Flixster / Ultraviolet, etc. begins to surface.

Disney Movies Anywhere is already supported via iTunes. But as for the others, I would not hold my breath for apple to support any video services that stream content that directly complete with iTunes. While Netflix and Hulu are supported, they don't offer the first run movies and tv shows as soon as such content is immediately available to consumers. VUDU/Flixster /Ultraviolet, and Amazon Video all directly complete with iTunes.

I personally hope you are right, but I just don't think it'll be likely anytime soon.

 

[lex22]

Would either of these support flac files on the Apple TV? How about gapless playback of flac files?

 

[hkenneth]

Would either of these support flac files on the Apple TV? How about gapless playback of flac files?

Both can play but I think Plex would transcode them into mp3 or aac. Apple TV should be able to play ALAC natively if that is acceptable to you.

 

[tgwaste]

Thank you VLC! Now Apple TV will be useful. Cant wait till the end of Oct.

 

[patseguin]

Yes! My entire library is ready!

Nice! I have a Synology NAS with 30TB of storage. 473 movies (around 50 or so 3D) and 100 TV shows. I was going to get the new Apple TV anyways but this just sweetens the deal. I can finally get rid of my HTPC and just have one device. The only thing that Plex doesn't do for me (or at least it didn't last time I tried it) was HD audio and 3D movies. I always thought it seemed to really be limited in skins.

 

[rfahey79]

Cannot wait for this. Currently using Plex on my appleTV using a non-jailbreak method but it's having an adverse affect on my ATV performance. Would be much better if the app was native and required less hoops to jump through.

 

[garylapointe]

YES! That seals the deal for me.

If I can replace my old WDtv streaming box with an app on my AppleTV, I'm in!
Otherwise, I'm not in much of a hurry for it (I've got all the functionality I need in my old AppleTV and the WDtv box).

Gary

 

[gugy]

If Plex can ready a VideoTS folder on ATV that would be fantastic. I much rather keep that structure than rip all the content on a friendly ATV format like in the past.

 

[DotCom2]

Was already gonna purchase, but this is some GREAT news. October cant come soon enough, hopefully Ocotber 1 realese date.

I think they said *end of October.

 

[paulbart]

Disney Movies Anywhere is already supported via iTunes. But as for the others, I would not hold my breath for apple to support any video services that stream content that directly complete with iTunes. While Netflix and Hulu are supported, they don't offer the first run movies and tv shows as soon as such content is immediately available to consumers. VUDU/Flixster /Ultraviolet, and Amazon Video all directly complete with iTunes.

I personally hope you are right, but I just don't think it'll be likely anytime soon.

I agree that Apple may reject such competing services.

On the other hand, if these other providers release a tvOS app that allows you to purchase/rent movies directly on the Apple TV, then (presumably) Apple will get their 30% cut (or whatever they decide to take for tvOS apps/purchases).

So, a first-run movie on (for example) VUDU, purchased through the tvOS app, would need to be more expensive than the same movie through iTunes (assuming VUDU wants to make the same profit that they do for purchases made on their website). Annual subscription services like Amazon may not have to pay the 30% to Apple, though (if the subscription is purchased on the website/not through the tvOS app).

Of course, Apple may completely change all rules for tvOS apps - I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[bommai]

Would be more excited if I could trade in my Blu-Ray collection for iTunes digital codes.

I hope this was sarcasm. Many Blurays come with iTunes digital copy. If your movie did not, then use MakeMKV and rip your bluray to a mkv file. Will work great with AppleTV once Plex is released. Bluray has far superior video and audio compared to anything iTunes can put out! AppleTV still cannot support lossless surround audio. The spec says it supports Dolby Digital Plus 7.1. No support for TrueHD or DTS-HD-Ma.

 

[eekcat]

Can't wait for Plex to lock it down behind a plexpass wall forever, like they have with the Xbox one and ps4 Plex apps.

 

[Imory]

VLC on iOS is a bit crippled; it uses software decoding because Apple doesn't allow hardware decoding anything that is not an .mp4 file. (aka, no MKV, etc.)

How are they going to get around this on the Apple TV, I wonder?

Which is strange, given that apps such as Infuse actually uses hardware decoding and supports DTS (although that's limited to the Pro-version = licensing cost).