Hot on the heels of Plex announcing its plans to build an app for the new Apple TV, the developers behind the popular media playback software VLC have announced that they too are planning to support the new Apple TV. While details on the app are sparse at this point, the VLC team announced in a blog post that they have started work on VLCKit for tvOS.
“Some code to build VLCKit for the new tvOS was merged,” the blog post reads. “It’s very early though, but we have video playback.” It’s unclear at this point how VLC will be implemented on the new Apple TV. On iOS, VLC allows for playback of a variety of different file formats. Files can be synced between services like Dropbox, iCloud Drive, iTunes, GDrive, and others. Should VLC on the Apple TV be able to play the same wide variety of file types as its Mac and iOS counterparts can, then it will undoubtedly be one of the most popular apps on the platform.
Last week, it was revealed that popular media streaming app Plex will also be supported on the new Apple TV. The current Apple TV does not support Plex in any official fashion, but rather only if you jailbreak the device. Both VLC and Plex have been cagey when it comes to specific release timeframes and at this point, it seems unlikley that either will be available when the new Apple TV launches in late October.
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I already hook up my Macbook Pro to my non-Apple TV via HDMI cable and watch movies via VLC that way. Though still, this is cool. But they ought to also do an app for Chromecast. I’m curious to see if you’ll still be able to play Video TS files via VLC, unlike Plex.
Chromecast doesn’t actually have ‘apps’. It’s an app on your phone that broadcasts to chromecast. It’s not nearly as cool as I thought it was.
For me personally, VLC is the killer app that makes Apple TV 4 a must have!
Can anybody please answer this, will this now mean the Apple TV with VLC will allow me to stream my movies from my SMB server on my network please. I am hoping so as this is why I have not got an Apple TV so far as I have to use a WD LIVE TV to do this but I would love an Apple TV
Can you do it with the current iOS version?
Just install MiniDLNA for OS X.
http://thornelabs.net/2015/08/23/install-configure-and-use-minidlna-on-os-x-yosemite.html
An official KODI app and I’d be interested…
You don’t need to jailbreak an AppleTV to view Plex media on it, just use PlexConnect on another machine and install a certificate on the device.
Who cares? VLC has a lot of bugs in it that are constantly being mitigated by GPLv3 issues between purests and non-purests, fighting about FFMpeg, etc.
Waiting for Infuse on AppleTV 4. Now running in a Jailbroken ATV 2 and its great
VLC on iPad worked great at one time but then because of licensing concerns they no longer support DTS or Dolby Digital. A lot of movies that used to play have no sound now.
But would Apple allow VLC / Plex apps on the Apple TV App Store? Wouldn’t they be a threat to their iTunes store? If they were allowed, there’s no reason Kodi don’t do a legit app too…that would be cool…
I know it says “any format” but does it play unarchived .rar files?