Following a lengthy beta testing period, VideoLAN has announced that its VLC app is now available for the fourth-generation Apple TV on the tvOS App Store.
The app is a full port of the VLC media player and supports virtually all video formats in line with the VLC for iOS app. There are also many tvOS-specific features.
- Content Discovery: The app automatically discovers video files stored on your local network, using the SMB, UPnP media server, FTP and PLEX protocols. You can browse through videos with the Siri Remote and select content for playback. During playback, subtitles can be added from OpenSubtitles.org.
- Saved Logins: Login credentials can be securely stored on the Apple TV and will be synchronized to and from your iPhone and iPad.
- Remote Playback: VLC displays an IP address under the Remote Playback menu on Apple TV. This address can be typed into your computer's web browser, and an interface will pop up allowing you to drag and drop a file to play it on your TV remotely.
You can drag and drop multiple files to queue them. The files will remain available locally on the Apple TV until its internal storage is maxed out. The web interface can be used for remote play, pause and seeking.
For playback of a network stream URL on your TV, just paste it to the field and push return. Once playback concludes, you will find it in the Network Stream view for future use. Like for files, you can send multiple URLs rows in a row and they will be attached to the playback queue.
- Playback: VLC for the Apple TV supports basic play, pause and seek controls. You can navigate the app by chapter and titles or select from multiple audio and subtitles tracks. Other features include custom playback speed and hatchet.is integration for artist imagery and biographies.
VLC is currently beta testing Apple TV support for cloud services Dropbox, OneDrive and Box. The feature will be available in the near future.
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When ...
Thursday November 6, 2025 11:12 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple today updated its trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models. Trade-ins can be completed on Apple's website, or at an Apple Store.
The charts below provide an overview of Apple's current and previous trade-in values in the U.S., according to its website. Maximum values for most devices either decreased or saw no change, but the iPad Air received a slight bump.
...
Monday November 10, 2025 1:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple will conceal the front-facing camera under the screen of its 2027 iPhone, a Chinese leaker said today, corroborating reports that Apple's 20th anniversary iPhone will have no visible cutouts in the display.
Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station said Apple's development of under-screen camera technology was progressing as planned for adoption in 2027, one year after it will...
The future of Apple Fitness+ is "under review" amid a reorganization of the service, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that Apple Fitness+ remains one of the company's "weakest digital offerings." The service apparently suffers from high churn and little revenue.
Nevertheless, Fitness+ has a small, loyal fanbase that...
Monday November 3, 2025 5:54 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Following more than a month of beta testing, Apple released iOS 26.1 on Monday, November 3. The update includes a handful of new features and changes, including the ability to adjust the look of Liquid Glass and more.
Below, we outline iOS 26.1's key new features.
Liquid Glass Toggle
iOS 26.1 lets you choose your preferred look for Liquid Glass.
In the Settings app, under Display...
Thursday November 6, 2025 2:45 pm PST by Juli Clover
Apple is promoting the new Liquid Glass design in iOS 26, showing off the ways that third-party developers are embracing the aesthetic in their apps. On its developer website, Apple is featuring a visual gallery that demonstrates how "teams of all sizes" are creating Liquid Glass experiences.
The gallery features examples of Liquid Glass in apps for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac. Apple...
Apple is working on a series of new satellite connectivity features for the iPhone, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.
In this week's "Power On" newsletter, Gurman revealed that the new features in development include:
Apple Maps via satellite: Navigation in Apple Maps without cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity.
Photos in Messages via satellite: Support for sending photos in the Messages...
Friday November 7, 2025 1:19 pm PST by Juli Clover
HTX Studio this week shared the results from a six-month battery test that compared how fast charging and slow charging can affect battery life over time.
Using six iPhone 12 models, the channel set up a system to drain the batteries from five percent and charge them to 100 percent over and over again. Three were fast charged, and three were slow charged.
Another set of iPhones underwent...
Monday November 10, 2025 1:08 pm PST by Juli Clover
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Apple silicon chip that replaced Intel chips in Apple's Mac lineup. The first Apple silicon chip, the M1, was unveiled on November 10, 2020. The M1 debuted in the MacBook Air, Mac mini, and 13-inch MacBook Pro.
The M1 chip was impressive when it launched, featuring the "world's fastest CPU core" and industry-leading performance per watt, and it's only ...
Friday November 7, 2025 6:40 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple's online store in the U.S. is suddenly offering a pack of four AirTags for just $29, which is the same price as a single AirTag.
This is likely a pricing error, and it is unclear if orders will be fulfilled. Apple has not discounted the AirTag four-pack in any other countries that we checked.
Delivery estimates are already pushing into late November to early December, suggesting...
I still use iTunes and Home Sharing to watch my videos the Apple way. With VideoDrive ('http://www.aroonasoftware.com') all my videos are tagged and imported in iTunes. Great to organise movie and TV shows with it. And incompatible videos are converted in the background with HandBrake so I can also sync them to iOS.
Maybe I'm the only one still using iTunes and probably, PLEX has some great features I'm missing out on, but I like to do it the Apple way as much as possible.
Torrented files/movies/TV shows right? I mean that's why people want Plex and this right? Can I just go ahead and say it?
I don't have a single torrented movie file in my just-sub-terrabyte movie library. All those movies are ripped from DVDs and BluRays (which isn't exactly 100% abiding by EULAs, but IMHO ethically sound). They are then completely tagged and catalogued using Ivy and/or Subler (I've gone back and forth between the two), although of course Plex does a good amount of tag-discovery automatically if they weren't already tagged.
Frankly, streaming from the computer a room away in my house should be a lot higher quality and less laggy than streaming from Apple's servers in the cloud (with Plex in general it is). Combined with wide availability of cheap physical media which can easily be ripped to local storage, and the cheapness of local storage, it is a good way to go. That said, the ripping tools often enough get forced-subtitles wrong (nothing like watching a movie and people start talking in a foreign language and you aren't sure if there are supposed to be subtitles showing what they said...), the ripping/converting process takes a few times as long as the movie to complete, and Plex's interface while fancy and nice is not in the same realm of usability as the native Apple interface.
Do people use Plex to manage their torrented files? I'm sure they do. But don't pretend that the only interest in Plex (and I guess VLC, alhough I find VLC's interface abhorrent personally) is for illegally-obtained content.
