How to watch movies from my external drive at Apple TV without iTunes running?

LaCie Fuel can be accessed by the iPad and iPhone with its app and you can AirPlay it to the Apple TV. So I need a solution that works similarly. I know the Apple TV can't access external drives. But the iOS App can.

Now is there such an App? Anybody? :)

Oh man, I thought I would find somebody with a clue in this place... 😢

Of course there are 3rd party apps besides the apps made by the drive manufacturers... How about 8player? It plays from drives like the WD My Cloud without the need to use the WD app.

I could buy the WD My Cloud or the LaCie Fuel but it would be a waste of money since I have an external drive already attached to my Airport Extreme base station. So again just to make my question clear:

Is there a way (an app maybe) that will let me access my music and movies sitting on my already existing extermal drive attached to my Airport Extreme base station from my iPhone or iPad without the need for iTunes or my MacBook to run? I would like to Airplay the movies to my Apple TV and the music to my Airport Express.

Can somebody confirm 8player or alternatives can access Airport Etxreme drives as well?

Ok, I solved this after a few days of search on all kind of forums!

Airport Extreme does not support the DLNA standards which most external drives like LaCie Fule or DW My Cloud use. I found out it supports the SMB standard though. So a quick search on the App Store with SMB as the keyword showed up a few file managment apps and the first I tried worked!

It's called FileExplorer Free and can access files on your external drive attached to your Airport Extreme. There were more hits but since the first app I found worked I didn't bother to check out the other apps.

I tried FileExplorer with songs first and it worked. You can listen to your songs with your iPhone or iPad or Airplay them to your Airport Express and listen to them at your home audio system. I couldn't hear any loss of quality.

It also works with yorur movies. Just select the movie and watch it on your iDevice or Airplay it to your Apple TV. Works with HD movies as well with no problems. Only downside was that the Apple TV can only display .mp4 files. Even the movies bought on iTunes won't work with the app and the Apple TV. So I had to convert a few movies using the free converter HandBrake.

FileExplorer works with other types of files like photos or documenst too. Oh and as a bonus: The FileExplorer app can also access your library from the DropBox or Google Drive. Works with NAS drives as well. Looks like you need the paid version though for those extras.

So finally I can move my big movie collection to my external drive ans still watch it without the need for the Mac or iTunes to run. Hope this helps other people too.