VLC for Apple TV has arrived with great new features
It’s taken a bit longer than VideoLAN might have intended, but VLC for Mobile should arrive on the new Apple TV sometime today, Jan. 12. In its announcement of the launch, VideoLAN refers to the software as “a full port of VLC media player combined with platform specific features.” Like the iOS version of VLC, the developer claims that the app supports “virtually all formats under the sun.”
Discovering your content
VLC on the Apple TV looks for storage and shares on your local network, using various protocols including SMB, UPnP media server, FTP, and Plex. When you play back your content, you can add in subtitles from OpenSubtitles, and you can even store login credentials on your Apple TV to be synchronized with your iPhone or iPad for easier access.
Remote playback of files and streams
This is probably one of the most exciting features that I’m eager to test. If you don’t have files stored on your server, you can drop them into a Web browser to play them via VLC on your Apple TV. You can do the same thing with network streams, which adds even more variety to the content you can watch on your set-top box.
Playback controls
With VLC on the Apple TV, you’ll see the basic play, pause, and seek controls. On top of that, though, VLC allows you to navigate by chapter or titles, and even choose from multiple audio and subtitle tracks. You can also set custom playback speed, allowing you to make a video play faster or slower, depending on your needs.
The only thing missing is …
The developers behind VLC have acknowledged that cloud services support is currently missing from the app on Apple TV. However, support for Dropbox, OneDrive, and Box is currently being beta tested, and should appear in a future update.
Getting VLC
The update is rolling out now, but downloading version 2.7.2 on your iPhone or iPad should put the Apple TV software in the purchased section of the tvOS App Store. You can also search for VLC, but bear in mind that the rollout might take some time.
