The VideoLAN Forums

There was a recent update to the vlc for apple TV app but the videos on remote playback are still not working properly, we still can't pause/play or fast forward/rewind, I can't watch any of my films or TV shows on it and didn't know what else to do other than write here, please solve this problem as soon as possible!!!!! PLEASE VLC!!!! :/

We need more information because this works here. What is the used file format? Why can't you play/pause? what happens instead? Seriously, more details.

There was a recent update to the vlc for apple TV app but the videos on remote playback are still not working properly, we still can't pause/play or fast forward/rewind, I can't watch any of my films or TV shows on it and didn't know what else to do other than write here, please solve this problem as soon as possible!!!!! PLEASE VLC!!!! :/

Niska: I am afraid that you may be asking too much from a feature that is underpowered/handicapped by its very nature. The proper way to watch our so-called "home movies" is with iTunes as an intermediary assistant, sharing the heavy load between two computer systems:

(1) Your PC, used as a file server
(2) Your Apple TV, used as a player.

What model is your Apple TV? Let me guess: Not the latest & greatest, is it?

I was surprised to discover this "feature" (I would call it -due respect- featurette, pun intended). Placing video files (*.mp4, *.mkv) imposes a heavy toll on the limited storage space -not to mention RAM and CPU- of all Apple TVs, which were not designed to be client-server simultaneously. For instance, I tried drag-dropping 4 videos and sure enough, they never finished. Had to remove them, and drag-drop them one at a time. You cannot possibly expect the same performance (in FF/RWD, even subtitles) as when you have the massive resources of a Netflix or Amazon at the remote end.

Best regards

I just want to add my experience to this thread, as I believe I am experiencing the same issue as the original poster.

Apply TV (4th Gen, not 4K model) running tvOS 11.3 and VLC version 3.0.2.

When playing any type of video file -- MKV, MP4, MPG, AVI, etc. -- pressing the play/pause button on the AppleTV remote successfully pauses the video, but a repeat pressing does not unpause and restart playback.

Using the remote's touchpad, I can bring up the video progress bar and scrub back and forth. If I press/click the touchpad, after scrubbing left/right or snapping it back to it's currently paused position, video play will resume again.

I've also tried an iOS device using the Apple Remote app instead of the AppleTV remote to double check it is not an issue with a faulty button on my remote, but the exact same issue occurs.

I am able to reproduce this behaviour via connecting to a remote network over SMB as well as through remote playback.

Prior to any 3.0.x versions, this bug was not happening at all.

If I can provide any additional technical details, please let me know. Hopefully this can now be properly reproduced and resolved.

@shawn_allison thank you for providing more detailed feedback.
We will take a look!
I'm going to try to reproduce the pause / unpause bug later this week with remote playback and in case I can't reproduce it will ask for step by step instructions

@Carola, just wanted to follow up on the status of this issue, as it has been over 10 days at this point. Any traction on reproducing and solving the issue?

Please let me know if I can be of any additional assistance.

Just wanted to add my 2 units of currency as well. I am also having the same issue as Shawn has described.

The same files (stored on my home server) play fine with VLC on my iPad and I can use the screen mirroring to play them on the TV through Apple TV. These can be paused, restarted, scrolled through, ext.

However, if I try and use VLC directly on Apple TV, I have the same problems Shawn and others have mentioned.

Just to be absolutely sure, the resume that doesn't work is from the bottom left button?
If so, would you mind trying to resume the video by a single tap on the touch pad area of your remote? scrubbing shouldn't be needed.

I know that it's not a fix, but please consider this as a small workaround.

Yes, just to confirm, it's the bottom left button.

See attached image:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/r2dew3qx3j3mivb/appletv.png

I can confirm a single click on the touch pad area will resume video.

Appreciate the heads up on that, as I didn't think that would work without first scrubbing the timeline.

I have the same problem.
I can pause the video with the Play/Pause key, but I can't resume the video with this key.
A single click on the touchpad resumes the video.
I hope for a fix

Regards
hacky98

I just want to add my experience to this thread, as I believe I am experiencing the same issue as the original poster.
...

+1, exactly the same situation.

I'd like to add that the tvOS screensaver begins ~15 minutes into auto-started remote playback after a file is added.
The tvOS screensaver does not begin when a video that was uploaded to the remote playback webpage is started manually.