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Downloaded movies appear in Apple TV the app but not on Apple TV the device

I have been downloading my purchased iTunes movies to my Mac in order to watch on my Apple TV (device) rather than stream. Some of the movies download in HLS Video rather than MPEG-4 Movie. As a result these movies will not show up in my Apple TV (device) library list. They do show up in my Apple TV (the app) and will play.


How can I make the movies download as MPEG-4 or at least make the HLS format play on the Apple TV (device)?


By the way pet peeve, Apple naming a device, an app, and a service Apple TV really really hoses google searches. Just saying.

Posted on Jan 7, 2020 5:23 AM

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Posted on Jan 7, 2020 9:38 AM

Apple TV has a specific set of parameters as to what it can play. The easiest thing to do would be to use something like handbrake, which has a preset for Apple TV


FYI: This is a user forum. No one here works for Apple nor are they reading this.

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11 replies

Jan 8, 2020 6:55 AM in response to Carl Hooker

I missed that they were purchased items, those will not be able to be read by Handbrake, or any other converter, as they are protected.


All downloaded movies would be streamed using home sharing and accessed using the Computers app on Apple TV. If you are having an issue with that then contact iTunes.


The Tv app on fire stick will only allow you to stream the purchased content. You cannot view iTunes purchases on an Xbox.

Jan 9, 2020 11:41 AM in response to vazandrew

I contacted Apple and the issue is the movies download in a format (HLS Video package) that the Apple TV device cannot play and Catalina seems unable to send the file to apple TV device to play. There is no work around and the engineers need to code this to work. Problem is you do not know what format the movie will download in prior to the download, so you have to monitor it to see what it is coming down as. Luckily I have a windows box and can download the m4v file there and then copy it over to my library for the Mac to use. Yes I could make my Windows box the media server, but no not interested in doing that. So while the one extra step sucks, it is what it is for now.

Thanks for your input

Mar 12, 2020 2:19 PM in response to emilio-lizardo

As I noted in my response above, I missed that they were purchased files and clarified that those cannot be read by Handbrake regardless.


I agree that this situation is not great but have also been in contact with Apple support and they are continuing to work on a solution. The more that continue to give feedback hopefully will expedite an update.

Mar 12, 2020 4:10 PM in response to Carl Hooker

I still use iTunes & Mojave on a Mac but I haven't purchased any movies via the Mac recently. The iTunes store gives me the option of downloading movies in HD or SD format. I guess SD is an MP4 but don't know if HD is MP4 or HLS. Obviously SD would be disappointing to watch on an ATV and, in any case, I think it would be treated as a new purchase so it is not a solution.


It would help if Apple recognised the issue and allowed a purchase to be downloaded in other formats.


I do regularly rent/buy movies directly from the Movie app on the ATV. Evidently these are in MP4 format. I will try downloading one of the purchases to my Mac and see what format it is in (and report back here). If it works then that could be an option for future movie purchases (buy via ATV and then download them to the Mac).

Mar 12, 2020 4:58 PM in response to Michael Paine

Unfortunately it's not quite that simple: when downloading movies via the TV app on Catalina, some movies arrive in the standard m4v format, while others arrive in the HLS format, identified in your file system as ".movpkg", which is actually a package containing many, perhaps 100s, of "frags" or fragments, that are tiny bits of the movie. So you may think you're home free on Catalina because you received an m4v file, but you've actually been lucky for that movie.


Ironically, you can download HLS videos from Apple from directly in the TV app on iPad, iPhone and Apple TV -- those devices have the software to process that format. It's Home Sharing that is not able to handle the format. We'll just have to wait for Apple to get Home Sharing up to snuff there -- I'd say more but Apple appears to be aggressively deleting comments that are too uncomplimentary.

Mar 13, 2020 12:43 PM in response to emilio-lizardo

I have an ATV 4 so maybe it does not "buy" HLS video (actually it streams a bought movie that is then available to download to a Mac or iPad). In any case it is clear that Homesharing is the limitation with HLS movies.

With each macOS or iTunes update I try to check that Homesharing still works for watching local content on my ATV. At the risk of being uncomplimentary., Homesharing seems to be a neglected feature of the Apple ecosystem.

Downloaded movies appear in Apple TV the app but not on Apple TV the device

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