From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Daniele
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Not that IrCOm aware of. Home Sharing is the only way as far as I know. It is just a media streamer, much like many others out there, and only stores
apps and cached data.

You can probably use Plex from the Pi though, and possibly VLC too - but thatrCOs not really gaining much!
--
Andy H
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 26 Apr 2026 at 4:24:06rC>pm BST, "Andy H" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or >> so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Not that IrCOm aware of. Home Sharing is the only way as far as I know. It is just a media streamer, much like many others out there, and only stores
apps and cached data.

You can probably use Plex from the Pi though, and possibly VLC too - but thatrCOs not really gaining much!

Just to add that if Plex is an option, the Apple TV client works pretty smoothly. (I have the server running elsewhere.)
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:

On 26 Apr 2026 at 4:24:06rC>pm BST, "Andy H" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or
so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Not that IrCOm aware of. Home Sharing is the only way as far as I know. It is
just a media streamer, much like many others out there, and only stores
apps and cached data.

You can probably use Plex from the Pi though, and possibly VLC too - but
thatrCOs not really gaining much!

Just to add that if Plex is an option, the Apple TV client works pretty smoothly. (I have the server running elsewhere.)

I never really got on with Plex, it created a right mess of playlists for
me, and really screws up my metadata - many incorrect movie banners, and
titles in foreign languages, and wouldnrCOt bring across everything from my library.

I just stick with serving from my desktop and a media HDD, using Home
Share. If yourCOre not operating outside the Apple ecosystemrCOs, I donrCOt find
much in the way of third party systems that work any better.

Cheers.
--
Andy H
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 26 Apr 2026 at 16:52:26 BST, Andy H wrote:

TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:

On 26 Apr 2026 at 4:24:06rC>pm BST, "Andy H" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or
so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Not that IrCOm aware of. Home Sharing is the only way as far as I know. It is
just a media streamer, much like many others out there, and only stores
apps and cached data.

You can probably use Plex from the Pi though, and possibly VLC too - but >>> thatrCOs not really gaining much!

Just to add that if Plex is an option, the Apple TV client works pretty
smoothly. (I have the server running elsewhere.)

I never really got on with Plex, it created a right mess of playlists for
me, and really screws up my metadata - many incorrect movie banners, and titles in foreign languages, and wouldnrCOt bring across everything from my library.

Plex works fine for me on a 2010 Mac Mini/2024 LG TV - provided (of course) that file naming conventions are followed. But then most of my media is fairly mainstream, and while I have had issues in the past, it's been fairly solid
for the past few years.

I just stick with serving from my desktop and a media HDD, using Home
Share. If yourCOre not operating outside the Apple ecosystemrCOs, I donrCOt find
much in the way of third party systems that work any better.

For now, using an old computer tethered directly to the TV works fine. It's a little laggy scrolling through content, for example, and 4K is very hit/miss, but I've never been sure whether that's the Mac Mini or the LG TV.
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27/04/2026 04:39, RJH wrote:

On 26 Apr 2026 at 16:52:26 BST, Andy H wrote:

[..]

Just to add that if Plex is an option, the Apple TV client works pretty
smoothly. (I have the server running elsewhere.)

I never really got on with Plex, it created a right mess of playlists for
me, and really screws up my metadata - many incorrect movie banners, and
titles in foreign languages, and wouldnrCOt bring across everything from my >> library.

Plex works fine for me on a 2010 Mac Mini/2024 LG TV - provided (of course) that file naming conventions are followed. But then most of my media is fairly
mainstream, and while I have had issues in the past, it's been fairly solid for the past few years.

I just stick with serving from my desktop and a media HDD, using Home
Share. If yourCOre not operating outside the Apple ecosystemrCOs, I donrCOt find
much in the way of third party systems that work any better.

For now, using an old computer tethered directly to the TV works fine. It's a little laggy scrolling through content, for example, and 4K is very hit/miss, but I've never been sure whether that's the Mac Mini or the LG TV.

I'm sure I could get it to work, but it wasn't really doing anything for
me that wasn't working OK on the Apple only setup.

Plex TV was probably the only part that offered anything, but I found it
too intrusive with adverts, so that left not a lot of benefit to me.

It was a lot of fixing something that's not broken! ;-)
--
Andy H

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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27 Apr 2026, Andrew Hewitt wrote
(in article <10smq8d$2471b$1@dont-email.me>):

Plex TV was probably the only part that offered anything, but I found it
too intrusive with adverts, so that left not a lot of benefit to me.

It was a lot of fixing something that's not broken! ;-)

They annoyed me sufficiently that I moved to Jellyfin. Open source, didnrCOt take that long to move over, a few different clients around including the official one, Swiftfin and one in TestFlight on the AppleTV right now called Moonfin.

Might be worth a look.

Ian

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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27 Apr 2026 at 10:15:31rC>am BST, "Ian McCall" <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:

On 27 Apr 2026, Andrew Hewitt wrote
(in article <10smq8d$2471b$1@dont-email.me>):

Plex TV was probably the only part that offered anything, but I found it
too intrusive with adverts, so that left not a lot of benefit to me.

It was a lot of fixing something that's not broken! ;-)

They annoyed me sufficiently that I moved to Jellyfin. Open source, didnrCOt take that long to move over, a few different clients around including the official one, Swiftfin and one in TestFlight on the AppleTV right now called Moonfin.

The streaming side is easily switched off though, isn't it? I only use it as a local server. Though all that stuff is probably a sign of oncoming enshittification, of course. (I'd probably investigate Jellyfin too if I
hadn't bought a lifetime licence in one of Plex's promotional offers a few years back.)
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27 Apr 2026, TimH wrote
(in article <n58r38FjopsU1@mid.individual.net>):

Though all that stuff is probably a sign of oncoming
enshittification, of course. (I'd probably investigate Jellyfin too if I hadn't bought a lifetime licence in one of Plex's promotional offers a few years back.)

Yep - exactly. This is why I did it - to get ahead of all that. I never used any commercial part of Plex anyway, Jellyfin I use purely for my own media on a NAS.

Ian

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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:

On 27 Apr 2026 at 10:15:31rC>am BST, "Ian McCall" <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:

On 27 Apr 2026, Andrew Hewitt wrote
(in article <10smq8d$2471b$1@dont-email.me>):

Plex TV was probably the only part that offered anything, but I found it >>> too intrusive with adverts, so that left not a lot of benefit to me.

It was a lot of fixing something that's not broken! ;-)

They annoyed me sufficiently that I moved to Jellyfin. Open source, didnrCOt >> take that long to move over, a few different clients around including the
official one, Swiftfin and one in TestFlight on the AppleTV right now called >> Moonfin.

The streaming side is easily switched off though, isn't it? I only use it as a
local server. Though all that stuff is probably a sign of oncoming enshittification, of course. (I'd probably investigate Jellyfin too if I hadn't bought a lifetime licence in one of Plex's promotional offers a few years back.)

Indeed so, I can ignore the streaming part for sure. However, whatrCOs left doesnrCOt offer anything that I donrCOt get already with Apple TV and Home Sharing. Other than loads of fiddling around trying to get it to display correct sets of episodes, the right screen shot, and the right titles.

Might have a look at Jellyfin though. IrCOm always seeing if I can get away from ApplerCOs ecosystem, but try as I might, itrCOs not actually easy, or even possible, in some parts.
--
Andy H
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27 Apr 2026 at 10:15:31 BST, Ian McCall wrote:

On 27 Apr 2026, Andrew Hewitt wrote
(in article <10smq8d$2471b$1@dont-email.me>):

Plex TV was probably the only part that offered anything, but I found it
too intrusive with adverts, so that left not a lot of benefit to me.

It was a lot of fixing something that's not broken! ;-)

They annoyed me sufficiently that I moved to Jellyfin. Open source, didnrCOt take that long to move over, a few different clients around including the official one, Swiftfin and one in TestFlight on the AppleTV right now called Moonfin.

Might be worth a look.

Just installed Jellyfin on the Mac Mini and LG TV. Needed an old (2021)
version of the server for the ancient (Catalina - already bumped it up a
couple of times with Opensource) Mac OS, but it seems to work well with the up to date LG client. So far so good. I'll try it over the next few weeks.
--
Cheers, Rob
Sheffield, UK
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27 Apr 2026 at 4:18:00rC>pm BST, "Andy H" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

Indeed so, I can ignore the streaming part for sure. However, whatrCOs left doesnrCOt offer anything that I donrCOt get already with Apple TV and Home Sharing. Other than loads of fiddling around trying to get it to display correct sets of episodes, the right screen shot, and the right titles.

Agree that file labelling can be a bit fiddly; apart from that I don't seem to have your problems!

You did prompt me to have a look at Home Sharing though, which I realised I know almost nothing about. Reading

https://support.apple.com/en-us/108958

left me puzzled though: does everyone *really* have to be signed in with the same AppleID to use a shared library?

Might have a look at Jellyfin though. IrCOm always seeing if I can get away from ApplerCOs ecosystem, but try as I might, itrCOs not actually easy, or even
possible, in some parts.

As soon as our broadband reaches non-glacial speeds I'll be doing more investigating of iCloud alternatives.
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email
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TimH <thnews@poboxmolar.com.invalid> wrote:

On 27 Apr 2026 at 4:18:00rC>pm BST, "Andy H" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

Indeed so, I can ignore the streaming part for sure. However, whatrCOs left >> doesnrCOt offer anything that I donrCOt get already with Apple TV and Home >> Sharing. Other than loads of fiddling around trying to get it to display
correct sets of episodes, the right screen shot, and the right titles.

Agree that file labelling can be a bit fiddly; apart from that I don't seem to
have your problems!

You did prompt me to have a look at Home Sharing though, which I realised I know almost nothing about. Reading

https://support.apple.com/en-us/108958

left me puzzled though: does everyone *really* have to be signed in with the same AppleID to use a shared library?

Yes, but only for the Home Sharing feature, they still remain logged into
their own accounts otherwise. I guess there has to be a consistent link to
the source media.

Might have a look at Jellyfin though. IrCOm always seeing if I can get away >> from ApplerCOs ecosystem, but try as I might, itrCOs not actually easy, or even
possible, in some parts.

As soon as our broadband reaches non-glacial speeds I'll be doing more investigating of iCloud alternatives.

ItrCOs harder than I expected, you can do most of it, the rest IrCOd have to completely rethink how I do things. Photos is hard, as itrCOs a
nondestructive workflow, with a link to Nitro for editing, thererCOs nothing else that can do that - at least not for any kind of reasonable effort and cost.

The media is doable for my locally stored stuff, but I have invested myself into the Music and TV ecosystems. Again, it can be done, but not without
much effort, and pretty much no cost saving.

When you add up the cost of various subscriptions needed to replace
functions I use a lot now and for something that is realistically as
reliable, secure and private, thererCOs nothing else that comes close.

IrCOm just trying to plan for a time when circumstances might dictate my choices - hopefully it wonrCOt, but IrCOd like to have at least an escape plan ready!
--
Andy H
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 27 Apr 2026, RJH wrote
(in article <10so38h$2hea5$1@dont-email.me>):

Just installed Jellyfin on the Mac Mini and LG TV. Needed an old (2021) version of the server for the ancient (Catalina - already bumped it up a couple of times with Opensource) Mac OS, but it seems to work well with the up
to date LG client. So far so good. I'll try it over the next few weeks.

Sounds good. I run my server off a Synology NAS in a Docker image, Atom CPU, and have clients on the phone, AppleTV and smart TV. Works well, though
IrCOve noticed the odd rotation issue on the phone occasionally. Nothing killer.

Obviously with the Atom it means I donrCOt do any transcoding, I just prepare everything in mp4 beforehand.

Ian

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On 27 Apr 2026 at 10:55:57rC>pm BST, "Andy H" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

ItrCOs harder than I expected, you can do most of it, the rest IrCOd have to completely rethink how I do things. Photos is hard, as itrCOs a nondestructive workflow, with a link to Nitro for editing, thererCOs nothing else that can do that - at least not for any kind of reasonable effort and cost.

Immich seems to be the alternative most often mentioned. Looks interesting, except of course now is not a great time to buying loads of HD storage. And of course an off-site backup would be nice...
--
TimH
pull tooth to reply by email
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 26/04/2026 14:29, D.M. Procida wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Daniele

I have everything (music/Audiobooks/video etc) on NAS so it's always available for any device.
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 4 May 2026 at 09:02:56 BST, David Kennedy wrote:

On 26/04/2026 14:29, D.M. Procida wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or >> so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Daniele

I have everything (music/Audiobooks/video etc) on NAS so it's always available
for any device.

That works with Apple TV?

I was under the impression that Home Sharing using 3rd party storage (like a NAS) was tricky.
--
Cheers, Rob
Sheffield, UK
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From Newsgroup: uk.comp.sys.mac

On 04/05/2026 09:50, RJH wrote:

On 4 May 2026 at 09:02:56 BST, David Kennedy wrote:

On 26/04/2026 14:29, D.M. Procida wrote:

I got fed up of messing about with Raspberry Pis and unfathamable media/player
systems, so I bought an Apple TV (the Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen model from 2021 or
so).

Very nice. Is there some way I can transfer video files to its storage to play
from there? Or is that not the Apple way?

Daniele

I have everything (music/Audiobooks/video etc) on NAS so it's always available
for any device.

That works with Apple TV?

I was under the impression that Home Sharing using 3rd party storage (like a NAS) was tricky.

Well, it seems to give me my videos etc as and when I need them. No problems so far. I am running a 2014 Apple TV so not up to date with the latest OS etc but would have thought newer would be better unless they've decided to remove the facility. I have a stack of old movies ripped from DVD which work fine.
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