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TV.app
- Thread starter etaleb
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Are the folders fixed and files have to be copied either into the Automatically Add To TV folder or Home Videos folder or is there an ability for me to specify different folders that TV.App would automatically pull from? If not I'll simply move everything to Automatically Add to TV folder and when I'm done watching, I'll just manually delete it
Thanks
Thanks
there are other options, that may be a little smoother.
with infuse, you just need to share the folder from the Mac. and then add it in the infuse app on the aTV. You can then browse the folders from the aTV, and just play directly that way. It will also browse your folders and grab meta-data, so you'll see "Jaws" staring Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfus with a poster, and not just a list of file names like "jaws.1975.1080p.ashshaoghakdjhg.mkv". As long as your Mac is awake you won't have to interact with it at all. If you have a NAS device, you can stream directly from that too, no need for your Mac.
slightly more advanced is plex, you do need to run a server on a computer (win, Mac, linux, and some NAS devices). It will do the same, browse your folders and pull metadata. Once the server is running your media is then available anywhere you have a plex client app (windows, Mac, linux, iOS, android, most smart TVs, most streaming boxes, or a web browser). As long as your upstream internet can handle the bandwidth, the clients will connect from anywhere. If your server has enough horsepower it can re-encode to a lower bandwidth on the fly. You can also stop watching on one device, and pick up in the same palace on another device. You can also have friends make their own plex accounts, and then share any of your libraries with them. With a subscription, you can even sync media to your mobile devices, so you can watch without a connection, very helpful for flights.
Plex lets you do "personal media" for your home movies. it will show file names, but you can edit them and add your own posters. or infuse will just let you browse the folder.
both are free, with paid options for extra features.
with infuse, you just need to share the folder from the Mac. and then add it in the infuse app on the aTV. You can then browse the folders from the aTV, and just play directly that way. It will also browse your folders and grab meta-data, so you'll see "Jaws" staring Roy Schneider and Richard Dreyfus with a poster, and not just a list of file names like "jaws.1975.1080p.ashshaoghakdjhg.mkv". As long as your Mac is awake you won't have to interact with it at all. If you have a NAS device, you can stream directly from that too, no need for your Mac.
slightly more advanced is plex, you do need to run a server on a computer (win, Mac, linux, and some NAS devices). It will do the same, browse your folders and pull metadata. Once the server is running your media is then available anywhere you have a plex client app (windows, Mac, linux, iOS, android, most smart TVs, most streaming boxes, or a web browser). As long as your upstream internet can handle the bandwidth, the clients will connect from anywhere. If your server has enough horsepower it can re-encode to a lower bandwidth on the fly. You can also stop watching on one device, and pick up in the same palace on another device. You can also have friends make their own plex accounts, and then share any of your libraries with them. With a subscription, you can even sync media to your mobile devices, so you can watch without a connection, very helpful for flights.
Plex lets you do "personal media" for your home movies. it will show file names, but you can edit them and add your own posters. or infuse will just let you browse the folder.
both are free, with paid options for extra features.
I tried Infuse and have to sign up for a trial as it won't play most of my files (guessing higher resolution). I also added some files to Automatically Add To TV folder and they don't show up for some reason. Any ideas to troubleshoot? Thanks
it's probably the audio, and not the video. That's usually what makes it not work for me.
I dont' use it regularly, but have played around with it.
Infuse can send audio formats that plex or other players on the aTV won't play. Plex will convert those before playing.
I dont' use it regularly, but have played around with it.
Infuse can send audio formats that plex or other players on the aTV won't play. Plex will convert those before playing.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
TV app seems to exist to try to sell you other stuff... not facilitate easy & effective access to stuff you already own... especially if it is not video purchased from the iTunes store.
For personal media like home movies, ripped movies, ripped TV shows, ripped music collection, photo libraries stored on Mac, etc, use the often overlooked Computers app that comes default on every AppleTV. It is much more like the original AppleTV interface... before Apple decided to maximize every nickel that could be extracted from users.
This app leans on home sharing and there are plenty of tutorials for turning home sharing on and using it.
In my household- which heavily leans on AppleTVs hooked to every TV- Computers is the second most-used app, right behind the wonderful Channels DVR app. We hardly ever use the TV app for anything.
Computers (app) is ideal for home movie collections... and it is free, made by Apple. Give it a try and you may find it ideal in your household too.
One good tip: if you have a LOT of home movie files (I have hundreds from decades of family home movie accumulation), use a tagging app like Meta-Z or Subler and tag them as TV shows instead of home movies? Why? Because tagging them as TV shows will organize them by season (year), so that- for example- if you have the last 20 years of "Christmas" home movies, you can know exactly where to find Christmas 2018... because it will be in Season 2018... instead of having to flip through them hunting for the right home movie named Christmas.
To do this, in the tagging app name your season for the year, 2021, 2022, 2023, etc and insert your Episode ID as month and day 1126 (for Nov 26), 1225 (for Dec 25), and Episode (tags) numbered accordingly so that Episode ID & Episode will sort them into the proper order within each season (regardless of how they are named). This will get "episodes" shot later in the "season" showing towards the bottom of the list and those shot earlier in the year higher in the list. A busy year with lots of home videos will be nicely organized so you can quickly get to the one you want to watch when they are tagged like this.
For personal media like home movies, ripped movies, ripped TV shows, ripped music collection, photo libraries stored on Mac, etc, use the often overlooked Computers app that comes default on every AppleTV. It is much more like the original AppleTV interface... before Apple decided to maximize every nickel that could be extracted from users.
This app leans on home sharing and there are plenty of tutorials for turning home sharing on and using it.
In my household- which heavily leans on AppleTVs hooked to every TV- Computers is the second most-used app, right behind the wonderful Channels DVR app. We hardly ever use the TV app for anything.
Computers (app) is ideal for home movie collections... and it is free, made by Apple. Give it a try and you may find it ideal in your household too.
One good tip: if you have a LOT of home movie files (I have hundreds from decades of family home movie accumulation), use a tagging app like Meta-Z or Subler and tag them as TV shows instead of home movies? Why? Because tagging them as TV shows will organize them by season (year), so that- for example- if you have the last 20 years of "Christmas" home movies, you can know exactly where to find Christmas 2018... because it will be in Season 2018... instead of having to flip through them hunting for the right home movie named Christmas.
To do this, in the tagging app name your season for the year, 2021, 2022, 2023, etc and insert your Episode ID as month and day 1126 (for Nov 26), 1225 (for Dec 25), and Episode (tags) numbered accordingly so that Episode ID & Episode will sort them into the proper order within each season (regardless of how they are named). This will get "episodes" shot later in the "season" showing towards the bottom of the list and those shot earlier in the year higher in the list. A busy year with lots of home videos will be nicely organized so you can quickly get to the one you want to watch when they are tagged like this.
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That’s a great idea and I’ll give this a shot. How are you adding your videos to the library? That’s where I’m getting stuckTV app seems to exist to try to sell you other stuff... not facilitate easy & effective access to stuff you already own... especially if it is not video purchased from the iTunes store.
For personal media like home movies, ripped movies, ripped TV shows, ripped music collection, photo libraries stored on Mac, etc, use the often overlooked Computers app that comes default on every AppleTV. It is much more like the original AppleTV interface... before Apple decided to maximize every nickel that could be extracted from users.
This app leans on home sharing and there are plenty of tutorials for turning home sharing on and using it.
In my household- which heavily leans on AppleTVs hooked to every TV- Computers is the second most-used app, right behind the wonderful Channels DVR app. We hardly ever use the TV app for anything.
Computers (app) is ideal for home movie collections... and it is free, made by Apple. Give it a try and you may find it ideal in your household too.
One good tip: if you have a LOT of home movie files (I have hundreds from decades of family home movie accumulation), use a tagging app like Meta-Z or Subler and tag them as TV shows instead of home movies? Why? Because tagging them as TV shows will organize them by season (year), so that- for example- if you have the last 20 years of "Christmas" home movies, you can know exactly where to find Christmas 2018... because it will be in Season 2018... instead of having to flip through them hunting for the right home movie named Christmas.
To do this, in the tagging app name your season for the year, 2021, 2022, 2023, etc and insert your Episode ID as month and day 1126 (for Nov 26), 1225 (for Dec 25), and Episode (tags) numbered accordingly so that Episode ID & Episode will sort them into the proper order within each season (regardless of how they are named). This will get "episodes" shot later in the "season" showing towards the bottom of the list and those shot earlier in the year higher in the list. A busy year with lots of home videos will be nicely organized so you can quickly get to the one you want to watch when they are tagged like this.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Ironically (after just soft criticizing the TV app on AppleTV for it's marketing-heavy approach): the TV app on Mac. You put them in there like you add ripped songs from CDs to the Music app and then the Computers App on AppleTVs can "see" them with home sharing turned on.
Another tip: since most people don't have much internal storage space for big video collections, their home movies, ripped movies, etc are usually stored on an EXTERNAL drive. So a good tip is to uncheck one box in the TV app to leave media where it is vs. import it into the internal drive...
With that TV app, Settings box unchecked, the TV app still handles organizing all of your home movies but leaves them on the external drive so they don't eat up internal drive space. And this works the same with ripped movies from discs too. I have my entire collection on a big 20TB drive with plenty of room to add more video in the future.
That also means the storage must ALWAYS be accessible to the Mac acting as the home video server, so this is all typically best set up on a stationary desktop Mac or PC vs. using a laptop that will sometimes leave the home.
Then you need to leave either the Music or TV app OPEN on that Mac so that AppleTVs via home sharing can "see" what you want to share from them. I usually just leave the Music app open on my desktop Mac managing all of my media I want accessible on AppleTVs around the home.
One MORE tip: be sure you back up your collection, ideally with one recent copy of all precious media stored OFFSITE to protect against fire/flood/theft scenarios. Don't trust just one drive to never crash/die. And don't trust just one backup at the same location as the originals. One more backup stored offsite (I use a bank safe deposit box and regularly rotate it with the backup drive at home) significantly increases the chances of never losing your media libraries in just about any scenario.
Big storage is cheap. Get a couple of drives if you don't already have a backup system like this in place and take advantage of backup tools like Time Machine, CCC or SuperDuper or use great tools like Chronosync to easily keep fresh backups of your media collection on site and off.
Another tip: since most people don't have much internal storage space for big video collections, their home movies, ripped movies, etc are usually stored on an EXTERNAL drive. So a good tip is to uncheck one box in the TV app to leave media where it is vs. import it into the internal drive...
With that TV app, Settings box unchecked, the TV app still handles organizing all of your home movies but leaves them on the external drive so they don't eat up internal drive space. And this works the same with ripped movies from discs too. I have my entire collection on a big 20TB drive with plenty of room to add more video in the future.
That also means the storage must ALWAYS be accessible to the Mac acting as the home video server, so this is all typically best set up on a stationary desktop Mac or PC vs. using a laptop that will sometimes leave the home.
Then you need to leave either the Music or TV app OPEN on that Mac so that AppleTVs via home sharing can "see" what you want to share from them. I usually just leave the Music app open on my desktop Mac managing all of my media I want accessible on AppleTVs around the home.
One MORE tip: be sure you back up your collection, ideally with one recent copy of all precious media stored OFFSITE to protect against fire/flood/theft scenarios. Don't trust just one drive to never crash/die. And don't trust just one backup at the same location as the originals. One more backup stored offsite (I use a bank safe deposit box and regularly rotate it with the backup drive at home) significantly increases the chances of never losing your media libraries in just about any scenario.
Big storage is cheap. Get a couple of drives if you don't already have a backup system like this in place and take advantage of backup tools like Time Machine, CCC or SuperDuper or use great tools like Chronosync to easily keep fresh backups of your media collection on site and off.
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That sounds right. I've changed mine, but I think that's probably the default location.