VLC For Apple TV: Fixing 3 Common Problem.
A few weeks ago, we talked about the best apps for Apple TV and even showed you how to install a web browser on Apple TV. But beyond that, you also expect the Apple TV to be one step ahead in streaming, right? If you want to play any video on your Apple TV without using iPhone or iPad. Well, you all know the answer to this question. Yes, it’s a VLC media player for Apple TV. But have you ever managed to use it without problems? VLC for Apple TV, while a powerful app, is not very intuitive and often buggy. So, we made this guide to help you get the most out of it.
VLC for Apple TV primarily offers three ways to stream both local and online media.
1. The local network
Local network media support in VLC for Apple TV lets you stream media from a Mac or Windows computer connected to the same Wi-Fi network. All you have to do is select any local device in the Local Network section in the upper left corner of the VLC app interface and enter your login credentials for the selected device. Then you can just browse the device disc and play any media file. VLC can even play file formats that cannot be played on your Mac or PC.
Problems encountered:
- The device is not displayed on the local network.
- Unable to view files even after using correct credentials on Mac.
Solutions:
- Make sure your Mac or Windows is connected to the same Wi-Fi or LAN as your Apple TV.
- After logging in with your Mac credentials on your Apple TV, go to the Sharing option under Preferences on your Mac and check if File Sharing is turned on in the menu on the left. Alternatively, click on the options under File Sharing on the right and check both boxes inside. This ensures that your Mac is accessible from your Apple TV and that all media on your Mac can be played on your Apple TV.
2. Remote operation
The remote play option on VLC gives you access to videos stored on your other devices without having to use your Mac as a server. Just swipe up to “Remote Play” in the VLC app on Apple TV and click “Enable Remote Play”. You will see two links displayed on the screen, one is the local IP address and the other is the local network address. You just need to enter any of them in your web browser on Mac, which is connected to the same Wi-Fi or LAN network.
Once you open any of the links, you will see a page that offers two modes of media access, i.e. drag and drop and a file selection dialog. This is a dialog box labeled “Enter URL here” and should not be confused with a network URL. It is rather the local address that is required. All you have to do is drag and drop the media, which will then start downloading to your Apple TV’s local storage. Alternatively, you can click on the “+” sign to view your Mac’s memory drive and select a file to download.
Your downloaded files will be temporarily saved to your Apple TV’s local storage and will be visible on the Remote Play screen at the bottom. You can simply click the file and your video will start playing on the Apple TV screen. The reason we say the term “temporarily saved” is because these files can be automatically deleted by your Apple TV if it requires space for yourself, but until then, you can view the saved files multiple times without having to face buffering problem or connection to your Mac.
Problem encountered:
- Clicking the “+” sign does nothing.
- Copy and Paste URL does not trigger the video.
Solutions:
- There are two “+” icons on the screen, you must select the top right one. Clicking on the “+” sign in the center of the screen will not help.
- You are probably copying a “web url” into a dialog that is not recognized by remote playback. feature. The url here means your Mac’s local address, not the web url. The easiest option is to drag the media into this window, and it will be automatically downloaded to your local Apple TV media.
3. Network streaming
The network flow option is the most difficult of all. This setting allows you to play media using a network URL and support network streams including HLS, MMS, or RTSP. This means that if you have an FTP or web server on your network, you can simply use the URL of the media file stored on that server and play it on your Apple TV. And from what we’ve heard, it can support the URL of one of your cloud storage locations like Dropbox, OneDrive, etc., which didn’t really work for us, but you can try. Maybe VLC support can help too.
To paste the url, just go to the network stream parameter and enter the url in the dialog box. The remote Apple TV app on your iPhone or iPad will be very helpful for typing that tedious and long url. Alternatively, you can also copy – paste the URL using the Apple TV remote app. In addition, VLC will also help you get subtitles for the media you are playing through online sources like OpenSubtitles.org
The great thing about this feature is that after using the URL, it will always be displayed on the screen unless you delete it. This means that if you want to watch your favorite movie or personal video over and over again, you just have to click the URL and it will appear on the Apple TV screen.
Problem encountered:
- After pasting the URL, only the buffer icon is displayed on the screen and the video does not play.
- Too many invalid URLs saved on screen that you want to get rid of.
Solutions:
- The reason your video does not appear on the screen after you have checked it in a web browser means that you paste the web url whereas VLC for tvOS only supports media specific url which is very hard to find. This particular media url can be found on the original page and will likely have the media file extension as a suffix. As for your server, you’ll also have to use the exact media-specific URL to do this. While the VLC support team hasn’t come up with an absolute solution to this problem, we hope it can be done more easily, otherwise VLC will lose its charm on Apple TV.
- To delete a previously used URL, simply scroll down to it and press the play-pause button on your Apple TV Siri remote to get the options, and then press delete. You will have to enter them one by one if there are many invalid URLs in the list.