VLC comes to Apple TV with wide format support, 'Remote Playback' feature
VideoLAN on Tuesday released a tvOS version of VLC, making the video playback app native to the Apple TV for the first time.
As on desktop and mobile devices, the new app lets users play formats that aren't natively supported by Apple. It also enables things like chapter selection, and choosing between multiple audio and subtitle tracks where available. Subtitles can be rendered in text or bitmap format, and downloaded on the fly if they're not present locally.
Video files can be accessed from several sources, such as DLNA/UPnP, SMB, FTP, and even Plex. Where needed login credentials can be entered and saved, syncing with VLC for iOS. Credentials already saved in iOS can be synced in the opposite direction.
One of the most unique features in the app is Remote Playback, which lets people employ another app or a Web browser to push media. The Web interface involves dragging and dropping files or stream URLs onto a special page, where users can also do basic playback control.
Another distinct option is variable playback speed, which VideoLAN says is missing from any other Apple TV playback apps.
Although not its main purpose, the app also supports Web radio and music, with artist and album art sourced from Hatchet.
VLC for Apple TV is a free download, accessible through the device's App Store. VideoLAN is already preparing new features, such as integration with cloud storage services like OneDrive and Dropbox.
As on desktop and mobile devices, the new app lets users play formats that aren't natively supported by Apple. It also enables things like chapter selection, and choosing between multiple audio and subtitle tracks where available. Subtitles can be rendered in text or bitmap format, and downloaded on the fly if they're not present locally.
Video files can be accessed from several sources, such as DLNA/UPnP, SMB, FTP, and even Plex. Where needed login credentials can be entered and saved, syncing with VLC for iOS. Credentials already saved in iOS can be synced in the opposite direction.
One of the most unique features in the app is Remote Playback, which lets people employ another app or a Web browser to push media. The Web interface involves dragging and dropping files or stream URLs onto a special page, where users can also do basic playback control.
Another distinct option is variable playback speed, which VideoLAN says is missing from any other Apple TV playback apps.
Although not its main purpose, the app also supports Web radio and music, with artist and album art sourced from Hatchet.
VLC for Apple TV is a free download, accessible through the device's App Store. VideoLAN is already preparing new features, such as integration with cloud storage services like OneDrive and Dropbox.
Comments
I'm not sure why anybody would want to play formats that are not approved by Apple, or why Apple would even allow it.
On my Mac, I regularly fire up VLC for that older content - this is awesome! And I personally prefer VLC over the other options for quite a few things.
Agreed. I made a decision to just give up the struggle and encode/transcode all of my stuff to conform to Apple-supported formats and be playable in iTunes / iOS / AppleTV, but I still think out of the box the new AppleTV should be more compatible and versatile than it is. I'm glad VLC has shown that an Apple TV app can do more, because the Plex app for Apple TV utterly failed to do so, instead it relies on the Plex server (your Mac or PC) to transcode everything to the Apple spec on demand, which is in no way optimal.
Maybe HandBrake can be ported also.
The main issue with many of the unsupported video formats is that it's unclear whether they infringe on video encoding patents or not (see this discussion on the WebM page). If Apple adds support to their products for such formats, then they open themselves up to all sorts of potential litigation landmines. That, combined with the fact that they have their own equivalent video formats which are properly vetted and licensed, makes it pretty clear why they won't be adding support.
Obviously VLC (and other apps) could potentially have this same problem, but then they're not being sold, so how would one calculate the damages/money owed?
How would you do it?....I'm assuming you'd need subscription to PAC12 Networks.
But even so, not sure how that would work.
Wouldn't be better just for PAC12 Networks to get an app on Apple TV?...hoping so.
Thanks.