Q: Slide shows on ATV 4 plays semi random

If, as you say iCloud isn't involved in the process at all, why does

an iCloud logout instantly result in essentially a blank screen (on the

wall) and return me to the splash screen for the radio station I'm

listening to - and upon re-signing to iCloud the radio station screen

re-appears, after 5 minutes or so unattended is replaced - as the

"Whole Library" photos re-appear, begin scrolling - as screen saver?

Allow me to add that as further test, I turned WiFi off for several

minutes - with no effect on the screen saver's use of said album.

Tom

I don't really know what you mean by wall or what radio has to do with any of this.

I can only assume you are confused about something here. After creating your 'whole library' album, where do you then navigate to on the Apple TV to select them as your screensaver.

Tom Meade1 wrote:

 

Allow me to add that as further test, I turned WiFi off for several

minutes - with no effect on the screen saver's use of said album.

Tom

That's exactly what I would expect to happen, the photos are stored on the Apple TV.

On tv - Settings: Computers (the icon). My Library comes up with the usual

options: Music, etc. Photos. Select Photos, loading, Photos: Photos, loading;

then the array of photos comes up. Two small icons appear top R. One is

Slideshow, the other is Screen Saver. Selecting Screen Saver icon produces

"Use "Tom meade's Library" as Screen Saver and below that this question:

Would you like to use "Tom Meade's Library" as your screen saver?

Yes

No

After selecting yes, am returned to the array of photos.

One icon remains top R: Slideshow

This leads to a list of Settings: shuffle, Repeat, Default music, etc. AND below that

a list of theme options.

Atop all is the option Start Slideshow. loading

When the SS starts now, it continues as a screen saver. e.g. leaving the display

on a page for 5 minutes invokes the screen saver - no intervention req'd.

Whew.

"That's exactly what I would expect to happen, the photos are stored on the Apple TV."

How is that possible? My tv 3 has no storage - especially not the massive amount

of media being displayed - I'm under the impression that it's only a streaming device.

On tv - Settings: Computers (the icon).

That's home sharing, it has nothing to do with iCloud. I believe the fact that it's the "Computer" app makes it reasonably obvious. The photos are the ones on your computer, they are accessed via your local network using home sharing.

Photos from iCloud can be found in the Photos app.

Tom Meade1 wrote:

 

My tv 3 has no storage...

It has 8 GB for storage, a hundred or so photos won't take up a huge proportion of room.

Then how does the random display of dozens of photos continue

for fully five minutes with the only connection to Mac turned off?

Are you suggesting that the buffer is that big? I haven't tried running

it for an hour - maybe I should.

Then how does the random display of dozens of photos continue

for fully five minutes with the only connection to Mac turned off?

A hundred photos with a duration of just 3 seconds takes up all of your 5 minutes.

I stand corrected on the storage.

Am now running an hour screen saver test with Home Sharing off

and watching for re-cycling as best I can. I don't know what this

will tell me if it does produce fresh material over that time but

it would seem to infer that the source is iCloud.

The source is the flash storage on the Apple TV itself.

9 images every 17 sec

a screen of 9 images rotates 3.5 times per minute

times 30 minutes = 952 images

or times 60 minutes = 1,905 images.

Admittedly they're displayed at varying sizes. One image

is about 3MB - so assume 1.5MB on average, that's

about 1.5GB each 30 minutes, or 3GB/hour.

I donno how much space is allocated to this buffer

but if it runs all day with fresh stuff and Home Sharing

still off I'm going to call flash at least a draw with iCloud.

It's difficult to say what you are doing, but screensavers are played from the Apple TV.

Please don't take it the wrong way, but you do seem to have a few questionable observations about photos.

When the SS starts now, it continues as a screen saver. e.g. leaving the display

on a page for 5 minutes invokes the screen saver - no intervention req'd.

Whew.

A slideshow doesn't become a screensaver, unless it ends, goes back to the slideshow menu and the Apple TV remains idle for the required time.

And as I've said before your album is a library album therefore if it's in iCloud it's in iCloud as part of your iCloud library, not photo stream or shared albums, the Apple TV doesn't have access to your iCloud photo library, otherwise you'd be able to call it up from your photos app.