Can Apple TV play movies stored on an external drive?

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Level 1

24 points

Can Apple TV play movies stored on an external drive?

I have a 64GB Apple TV and have been buying movies and tv show episodes from the iTunes store so I can play them on my tv through my Apple TV.

The tv episodes are HD and are roughly 1.67 or so in size, and I don't want to fill up my hard drive with them. I'm also thinking about maybe filling up my ATV's space with media.

I have a 1TB flash drive. Would I be able to store these on my flash drive, connect it to my Time Capsule and play them on my Apple TV?

They may be taken out of iTunes library when I do that, Apple TV ok with that?

Just looking for options here, I haven't tried using the Apple TV for anything I have that's not in iTunes.

Thanks in advance!

AppleTV 2, tvOS 9.0.1, tvOS 10.0.1

Posted on Feb 2, 2017 5:48 AM

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Answer 1

MrsSpooky Author

Level 1

24 points

Feb 2, 2017 6:27 PM in response to Phil0124

I like this! I have to test it out, to see if I can access files on the drive while it's connected to my time capsule. If so, then I can try it with what I have - as long as it's not destructive and can be moved back to my local hard drive should things go pear shaped. Much of my music was purchased from the iTunes store, much of it is from CDs I bought, some I got from amazon. Plus I have videos from various sources and movies and tv shows I got from the iTunes store or from DVDs I bought that give the option of downloading a copy to your computer.

As long as Time Machine will back up any changes too, that's kind of important.

I haven't gone the route of uploading my iTunes library to the cloud like I did with my photos. I'm thinking about that too. I just have a problem with not being able to access my media if there is an outage with my ISP and I want to watch something that's in the cloud.

Thank you, you've given me something to think about!

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Answer 2

Phil0124

Level 10

216,944 points

Feb 2, 2017 6:21 PM in response to MrsSpooky

MrsSpooky wrote:

I'm also thinking about maybe filling up my ATV's space with media.

The storage space on a 4th Generation Apple TV is only for Apps and their data. you cannot store any media on it.

MrsSpooky wrote:

I have a 1TB flash drive. Would I be able to store these on my flash drive, connect it to my Time Capsule and play them on my Apple TV?

No, not directly. The Apple Tv cannot naively access networked drives. There are apps in the store that may do this, but DRM protected media files from the iTunes store will not play outside of iTunes as they cannot validate the DRM lock.

MrsSpooky wrote:

Just looking for options here, I haven't tried using the Apple TV for anything I have that's not in iTunes.

Thanks in advance!

You can move your iTunes Library out onto the 1TB drive, so that all the movies are on the drive instead of your computer, but still be seen in iTunes on your computer. You can then use Home Sharing in iTunes to play your media on your Apple TV through the Computers App.

You want to aim for a portable library so you can move it to the external drive, but still be able to access it in iTunes

Make a split library portable

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Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

180,222 points

Feb 2, 2017 7:19 AM in response to MrsSpooky

it can't natively but there are apps like vlc and plex and the likes which can play media from network drives and the likes

and if it's drm protected media from iTunes store it will likely not run on other players

but your iTunes lib need not be on your macs local hd most my media is on a nas

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