Popular video player VLC has launches on the tvOS App Store for Apple TV. It is a full version of VLC and it will play almost any video format, the company says. It also has features unique for tvOS.
VLC on Apple TV
VideoLAN, the company behind VLC, says that it has been working on the app since Apple unveiled the new Apple TV. The mission has been to create an app that “plays it all” and the company has almost achieved its goal.
VLC claims that the app will play almost any video format that you can think of. Because Apple TV has no traditional local storage and because you cannot connect a USB hard drive, VLC connects to your network and allows you to play shared files (via SMB, UPnP, FTP and Plex).
Another way to enjoy you videos is with "Remote Playback". In this case VLC gives you an IP address on the TV screen that you can open in your PC browser and pull content into the window. This content will then become available on Apple TV. With this method you can actually transfer files to the internal storage of Apple TV until capacity is full. Once that happens, Apple TV will automatically delete the files.
It is also possible to play videos stored on specific URL addresses, and Apple TV automatically syncs with VLC on iPhone/iPad, allowing you to see which URLs you have used on the mobile devices.
VLC supports subtitles form OpenSubtitles.org (SRT, SSA, webVTT and others) as well as audio tracks. It lets you pause and rewind/fast format jump in chapters. You can also control playback speed.
The company says that cloud playback did not make it for launch. In a future update they will add the ability to access video files from Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box.
VLC is available for free in the tvOS App Store.
- Source: VLC
