Play sequential videos in a folder
August 20, 2019 8:21 PM Subscribe
It should not be this hard
This should be easy. I have a bunch of videos in a folder that lives on Dropbox. I want to have a tv
play all and then repeat. Tv has Roku built in and I just got an Apple TV because I thought that would work.
VLC on iPad does not work for this. It plays audio on the tv and video on the iPad. Tried with an iPhone X, iPad 3rd gen and iPad Pro. Same result each time.
This should be easy but my Google fu is failing me. Any help? We are an iOS household so google chrome cast solutions are fine if I don’t need to buy a lot of google hardware to make them work.
Plain mp4 files. Nothing fancy. Just a lot. And more every day. To use. As a screensaver type repeating display
This should be easy. I have a bunch of videos in a folder that lives on Dropbox. I want to have a tv
play all and then repeat. Tv has Roku built in and I just got an Apple TV because I thought that would work.
VLC on iPad does not work for this. It plays audio on the tv and video on the iPad. Tried with an iPhone X, iPad 3rd gen and iPad Pro. Same result each time.
This should be easy but my Google fu is failing me. Any help? We are an iOS household so google chrome cast solutions are fine if I don’t need to buy a lot of google hardware to make them work.
Plain mp4 files. Nothing fancy. Just a lot. And more every day. To use. As a screensaver type repeating display
The VLC iOS documentation has some info that seems relevant:
posted by panic at 10:43 PM on August 20, 2019
VLC for iOS supports AirPlay video and audio streaming. To enable audio streaming, just activate the AirPlay switch which will automatically appear next to the volume slider as soon as your iOS device discovers an AirPlay capable playback device (an Apple TV, a multi-media receiver, etc.). For video playback via AirPlay, it's slightly more difficult due to AirPlay API limitations. Apple does not allow to show an AirPlay button for video playback within an Apple if the app does not use the default media player, which VLC does not for the sake of supporting formats other than H264 / MPEG4. As a work-around, you need to use the AirPlay mirroring feature available from the multi-tasking bar (shown when double-clicking the physical home button on your iOS device).You could also try screen mirroring from your iPad to your Apple TV if that doesn't work.
posted by panic at 10:43 PM on August 20, 2019
VLC on the mac can create folder playlists, so maybe you could airplay from the mac to the apple tv. Or maybe you could create a playlist in the Plex Apple TV app.
Searching for "digital signage apple tv" could be a good query if neither of the previous two suggestions work.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:13 PM on August 22, 2019
Searching for "digital signage apple tv" could be a good query if neither of the previous two suggestions work.
posted by oceanjesse at 5:13 PM on August 22, 2019
Response by poster: So, for the benefit of others - I got this to work. Videos stored local on an older MacBook. Played them with VLC. screen mirror to Apple TV. Success.
posted by BrooksCooper at 7:41 AM on August 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by BrooksCooper at 7:41 AM on August 23, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
that has just tried to use some facility outside Apple's walled garden. So no, in fact you should expect it to be this hard; outside the walled garden is not somewhere Apple wants you to go.
Path of least resistance will be just using iCloud instead of Dropbox, but this will probably end up costing a fair bit and leaving you even more subject to Apple's whim.
Path of minimum vendor lock-in is to give up on proprietary solutions whose main aim is to enforce it and go open source.
This will mean you spend money on hardware and time on tinkering, but you will end up with something that can be persuaded to do just about anything you can think of and migrate cleanly to upgraded hardware without causing much change to the way you use it.
posted by flabdablet at 9:49 PM on August 20, 2019