I have a bunch of digital movies that I want to load to a google drive and then be able to stream those from any device I have like Apple TV, iPad, or iPhone. I saw that Plex had an option for this, but they will be taking down their cloud device option. I wanted to see if there was any other ways people have been able to do this.
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Is there a way to use google drive or some other cloud service to stream movies to your Apple TV?
- Thread starter Jrott46
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Infuse does it. I never tested it myself, but I have read it works fine. The only downside is that you need an "iDevice" to set it up the first time (well, I've read it now that you should have plenty of them!). After that it works fine with the ATV. Oh yeah, and also that one must pay, being Infuse a premium app.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OP, I'm guessing your want involves some of this streaming when away from home. Else, you can store the collection on a hard drive and "home share" them with all devices... or on a NAS and grant access to all who wants access to them around the home.
You could also set up your own "cloud"- that YOU control with a NAS drive in your home. Then streaming around the home would not burn any broadband bandwidth and streaming away from home would work just like you are using a service like Google or similar. If you have a big collection, it will be much faster to load up a NAS locally then some remote drive in some cloud service. And such devices are relatively cheap these days for pretty large storage.
You could also set up your own "cloud"- that YOU control with a NAS drive in your home. Then streaming around the home would not burn any broadband bandwidth and streaming away from home would work just like you are using a service like Google or similar. If you have a big collection, it will be much faster to load up a NAS locally then some remote drive in some cloud service. And such devices are relatively cheap these days for pretty large storage.
Set up a Plex Media Server on NAS or computer locally... stream to any device, anywhere running Plex player...
VLC for AppleTV has no such cloud option in its Network settings. Their iOS apps do. But the AppleTV app does NOT.
Infuse Pro claims to have an option, but it's so geeky to setup that it's basically pointless. Plex is for geeks too. None of them is a simple mom-friendly app that will connect to GDrive and pull in files as a simple listing to watch from.
AppleTV is becoming less and less relevant by the day. The TVs themselves have better ways to pull in data. If you're stuck with an old TV and therefore need AppleTV as a medium, you're stuck. Sad but true. Just connect laptop via HDMI cable.
Infuse Pro claims to have an option, but it's so geeky to setup that it's basically pointless. Plex is for geeks too. None of them is a simple mom-friendly app that will connect to GDrive and pull in files as a simple listing to watch from.
AppleTV is becoming less and less relevant by the day. The TVs themselves have better ways to pull in data. If you're stuck with an old TV and therefore need AppleTV as a medium, you're stuck. Sad but true. Just connect laptop via HDMI cable.
Highly incorrect information. Smart TVs and their platforms DO NOT in ANY WAY compare to the Apple TV.
Apple TV uses the world's BEST operating system that gets updated monthly. History is constantly showing that smart TVs do not receive regular updates and completely stop receiving updates usually within two years. They are a huge security risk and are basically aimed at the ignorant user. They are cheaply made with no long term thought.
It is incredibly wrong to compare the two and highly misleading. In fact, it's like saying that the Amazon Kindle replaces the MacBook Pro for every reason.
In fact it's extremely simple. On any iOS device, you select "add files", then "add service", select the cloud service you want (options are Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive and Box), log in and done. The new share will automatically be synced to your Apple TVs via iCloud.
Spoken like someone who has never used an Apple TV.
I've been using Infuse Pro to stream from Google Drive for a good while now. There a reasonably lengthy initial buffering period (much more than Netflix etc), but once it's playing it works fine. Infuse plays pretty much everything too and handles soft subtitles. It can even find subtitles for you online. Plus it finds metadata too, including cover art.
Basically, Infuse is great.
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Geeky? Took me about 30 seconds to set up Google Drive in Infuse. It's incredibly simple to do.
I agree that the ATV (same with Roku etc) are becoming less relevant though. Most people really only need two or three streaming apps, which they're almost certain to find on any modern TV.
Basically, Infuse is great.
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Geeky? Took me about 30 seconds to set up Google Drive in Infuse. It's incredibly simple to do.
I agree that the ATV (same with Roku etc) are becoming less relevant though. Most people really only need two or three streaming apps, which they're almost certain to find on any modern TV.
Been using Infuse Pro linked to a Google Drive and it's great! Setup was very easy, though I'd say compared to Plex the GUI isn't as efficient and the content matching can be hit-or-miss. I've found streaming HEVC content to my Apple TV 4 tends to stutter unless I let it buffer for a minute, while my Apple TV 4K (which has HEVC decoding) never has issues.
And to add to the smart TVs vs boxes debate, I've found 5.1, 7.1, and Atmos output from smart TVs can be spotty, and usually having a box plugged directly into a receiver gets the best result.
And to add to the smart TVs vs boxes debate, I've found 5.1, 7.1, and Atmos output from smart TVs can be spotty, and usually having a box plugged directly into a receiver gets the best result.
I don't have any initial buffering with my setup. Using a Plex media server on my shield and my infuse player linked to my Plex account. Starts instantly even 4k big 30 gig files.
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Geeks or people that can follow directions like a grown up? Seriously if you can use a computer and post on social media I think you can watch a YouTube video to setup a Plex media server.
How else would I stream my 1500+ movie collection to all my tv's. Infuse has no problems playing my 4k 10 bit files. Quality difference is basically disc quality and its simple to setup. Can a tv transcode h.265 files? Can a tv be upgraded with new hardware and new software after it ages a few years? Smart tv's are for dumb people sorry its just the truth. Most tv's apps can't stream Atmos either. Tv's onboard apps aren't for anyone that cares about audio and video its for people that have tv speakers and don't care about performance much.
The appletv and other streaming boxes is the way to go if you want performance and players that can actually play back your media and handle all the higher audio from streaming services.