Apple Home Sharing requires that the Mac (or PC) with the Library is on and running, regardless of the file location (might optionally be an external disk or network disk). It is okay if that computer is in sleep mode, as Apple TV can wake it from that state when needed. And being idle afterwards can bring it back to sleep again.
Other sharing methods (third party methods) may not always require a full computer. The approach by VLC for Apple TV for Local Network access is one such example. VLC can access network disks through SMB (or alternatively some other network transfer protocol), as long as the device supports that network protocol — other OS functions or apps not needed. If VLC can see the video/audio media file (or playlist file), then it should be able to play it. I haven’t seen much media files that it can’t play.
Other third party file sharing options are: Plex, Infuse, Jellyfin, MrMC, IIVA, Owlfiles, and several derivatives and more alternatives. Some of these have requirements for a server side component (i.e. computer or NAS that can run that software component), or highly recommend that.
The VLC method will come with its own limitations and drawbacks (it is a bit “bare bones”, not attempting to make the UI pretty), but as you are somewhat familiar with that, I will ignore the other methods for now.
- Open VLC on Apple TV.
- Verify that the ‘Local Network’ tab at the top of the screen is highlighted.
- Find the ‘Connect to Server’ tile, and click to open that.
- Verify that the ‘SMB’ tab at the top-left of the screen is highlighted.
- Below that, enter the local network IP address of the system of the disk to connect to.
- Below that, enter the SMB port that will be used. Almost certainly, that would be port ‘445’.
- Below that, enter the username for authentication for accessing that network disk.
- Below that, enter the password for authentication.
- Below that, enter the workgroup name. A default that works almost always on small home networks is just ‘WORKGROUP’.
- You can now (optionally) save that as remembered shortcut for a next time, so that you won’t have to do these steps in the near future. It will get listed on the right side of the screen, as a selectable autofill-and-connect option.
- You can click to Connect button to attempt to connect to that remote disk.
- When successfully connected, it would list readable files and folders. It would skip files that VLC can’t process (by suffix).
- Navigate to the wanted file. Select to play that.
- Enjoy the video.
