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VLC

PepperPad

PepperPad

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 8, 2020
31
1
Hello everyone,

I have just bought a new Apple TV 4k (128GB) and discovered that you can add videos (in any format) directly to the Apple TV using VLC.

Would you have other experiences of this kind without conversion or streaming?

Thanks
 
PepperPad said:
discovered that you can add videos (in any format) directly to the Apple TV using VLC.
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand. "add videos" implies that you are storing videos on the Apple TV and playing them from there. How are you doing that?

The most common way to play your own videos is via streaming, from your Apple video library, or using Plex or Infuse to stream files from your local disk.
 
Remote Playback - Drag and drop file playback via VLC :

Simply navigate to the Apple TV's IP address in a web browser.

Then, drop a file, and VLC saves it to the Apple TV.

Of course, these files take up space on your Apple TV.

The file is there and ready to be played.

remoteplayback.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Since the Apple TV storage is very limited, I'm not sure how useful a feature that is. I'm happy using Infuse and pointing it a NAS where I keep all my 4K media.
 
Entering the Apple TV URL in a browser didn't work - dropped connection. You have to have installed VLC on the Apple TV and have it listening for it to work.

Spent an hour or so trying to download a file. Unsuccessful as my storage was full (57GB of 59GB). As far as I can tell there is no way to figure out where the storage is being used. The largest app I have only takes ~500 Mb and adding them all up comes to less than 2 GB.

Don't understand why you want to go through all of this hassle - uploading to Apple TV, dealing with out of space problems when Apple doesn't provide you with the tools to tell where space is being used, deleting the files when you are done then starting everything all over again.

In my case downloading makes no sense since my .mkv files (if they will play - could not test) for 4K movies can run ~90 GB each so I could download 1 movie on a 128 GB Apple TV.

After several hours of work I came to the conclusion that VLC downloading to the Apple TV is way too much work. I much prefer using Plex or Infuse to browse through all of the 4K movies that I bought during the Black Friday deals.
 
Thanks for your reply.

I understand, it is surely not interesting for everyone....

In my case, I don't have a server and don't want to use my Mac for that.

I watch videos of up to 10GB and benefit from the 128GB of the Apple TV without any problems for the moment with several videos added.
 
I used the VLC remote playback a couple of times for mkv files but since I have the 32gb model it was a challenge to have more than one movie, if that. Then I accidentally stumbled upon QuickTime players ability to AirPlay to my ATV with perfect audio/sound as opposed to something like screen mirroring. Obvious problem was getting mkv files to mov but then I realized VLC can convert them so now I just do that instead. It renders by MacBook useless when I AirPlay but I have multiple devices so it's not a concern.

Now if I had a 128gb ATV then I would probably do the VLC remote playback.
 
HDFan said:
Entering the Apple TV URL in a browser didn't work - dropped connection. You have to have installed VLC on the Apple TV and have it listening for it to work.

Spent an hour or so trying to download a file. Unsuccessful as my storage was full (57GB of 59GB). As far as I can tell there is no way to figure out where the storage is being used. The largest app I have only takes ~500 Mb and adding them all up comes to less than 2 GB.

Don't understand why you want to go through all of this hassle - uploading to Apple TV, dealing with out of space problems when Apple doesn't provide you with the tools to tell where space is being used, deleting the files when you are done then starting everything all over again.

In my case downloading makes no sense since my .mkv files (if they will play - could not test) for 4K movies can run ~90 GB each so I could download 1 movie on a 128 GB Apple TV.

After several hours of work I came to the conclusion that VLC downloading to the Apple TV is way too much work. I much prefer using Plex or Infuse to browse through all of the 4K movies that I bought during the Black Friday deals.
Click to expand...
Infuse : $ 95 ?
 
There are several ways to view movies using the VLC player app on Apple TV. It's free but it has its downsides.

If all you want to do is click on a movie and just watch it, it does the job. Now if you are a power movie type, it's not for you, because it will not playback certain audio formats since they are licensed, nor does it give you a fancy movie synopsis or the ability to use playlists (speaking of the Apple TV app version regarding playlists).

VLC won't play DTS audio, it needs to be AC3, which means you have to re-encode (aka downgrade the audio). That's why most of the other alternatives aren't free... licensing fees. Pretty much every Blu-Ray Disc uses DTS audio and perhaps some modern DVDs.

If you're not an audiophile and don't care about snazzy menus, VLC is a respectable free player.

The ideal way to store your movies is on a media server such as a NAS, in the cloud (if you have money to burn), or on a hard drive with remote access. The Apple TV itself is a poor storage location as movies can easily eat up TBs of space.
 
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PepperPad said:
Infuse : $ 95 ?
Click to expand...

pmiles said:
VLC won't play DTS audio, it needs to be AC3, which means you have to re-encode (aka downgrade the audio). That's why most of the other alternatives aren't free... licensing fees. Pretty much every Blu-Ray Disc uses DTS audio and perhaps some modern DVDs.
Click to expand...

So it's a tradeoff between your time, audio quality and video formats supported. Its free if you don't want all of the features.

firecore.com

Infuse 8 - An Elegant Video Player

Ignite your video content with Infuse – the beautiful way to watch almost any video format on your iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, and Vision. Free download!
firecore.com firecore.com

Personally I use Plex due to its advanced (and complicated) features.
 
PepperPad said:
Would you have other experiences of this kind without conversion or streaming?
Click to expand...
I think if you search these forums you’ll find many threads on this topic going back several years. The whole VLC, Plex, Infuse debate has been going on for years. Since you’re new to this party you may find it useful to review them. Even at 128gb the ATV was never meant to store content on board. If that works for you that’s great but the more experienced you become, and the larger your library grows, I think you’ll eventually outgrow VLC too. It’s a good starter app but eventually you’ll want to take the training wheels off.
 
I thought I'd throw my $0.02 in here about this issue. The AppleTV's onboard storage is intended for apps and cache; if you start putting very many media files on there you'll fill it up quickly, and anyway tvOS will delete those files when it runs low on space for apps and cache. As far as VLC, Plex, and Infuse are concerned - I was a long-time Infuse user, but I finally decided to try Plex, in part because of its library-sharing features. Once I got Plex set up (not the easiest task, and I'm sure I still have things that could be tweaked a little, it really is a complex piece of software) and tried it out for a while, I cancelled my subscription for Infuse (which was up for renewal soon - it's great software, but overpriced for what it is) and switched to Plex. As for VLC, I've never used it on my AppleTV. I've used it sometimes on various Macs I've owned, but I've started to have some serious issues with it on my MacBook Pro (M2) - both the current Apple Silicon and Universal builds of VLC have started having problems playing videos for me. I've seen a lot of praise for IINA here, so I'm going to try that.
 
Huh. I recently installed VLC to stream video from one of my security cameras - I never even thought about putting other media on it like I do ALL the time with my iPhone. This would make for a great solution for our camper van and not having to rely on data. Thanks!

EDIT: I have the 128GB model so storage isn't a concern for me.
 
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