Sharing TV/media libraries to Computer app in AppleTV

Hi all. I have a few AppleTV units around the house, and I have been using home sharing from a computer, which works great to stream my large home-grown library of TV shows and movies. But I'd prefer not to have to always have the computer switched on in order to access the library.


Does an Airport Extreme Base Station (which I see has a USB port for a hard drive) allow me to make that drive available for the Computer app and does it support home sharing?


If not, does any Apple device? Time Capsule? Or do I have to go to non-Apple NAS devices, then use Plex instead of Computer?

Apple TV 4K (3rd generation)

Posted on Jan 14, 2024 4:10 PM

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Posted on Jan 14, 2024 11:15 PM

The Apple Home Sharing requires that the computer with the library is active on the home network, regardless of where the media files are located (computer, external disk, NAS, etc.).

To share media files without this computer, third party apps like Plex, VLC, Infuse, etc. can offer alternative methods. That is basically having a different computer (NAS) always on.


Home Sharing and non-Apple alternatives can wake from sleep mode from network access attempts, so the computer or NAS can be in sleep mode/low power mode when not using these services.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 14, 2024 11:15 PM in response to David Das

The Apple Home Sharing requires that the computer with the library is active on the home network, regardless of where the media files are located (computer, external disk, NAS, etc.).

To share media files without this computer, third party apps like Plex, VLC, Infuse, etc. can offer alternative methods. That is basically having a different computer (NAS) always on.


Home Sharing and non-Apple alternatives can wake from sleep mode from network access attempts, so the computer or NAS can be in sleep mode/low power mode when not using these services.

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Sharing TV/media libraries to Computer app in AppleTV

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