Postby gray » 20 Apr 2022 19:54
I have 2 Apple TVs. The 4K 1st gen. model seems to work OK. I have only tested it with a 28 gig mp4 file and it works as it should. All my files are stored on a QNAP NAS so that I can play them on the Apple TVs in 2 rooms and on Macs in another 2 rooms.
The older HD Apple TV (4th gen.) used to play that same 28 gig file prior to upgrading VLC recently, but after one of the upgrades (I don't know which because the Apple TV is set to update apps automatically so this may have started with an earlier version than 3.3.4) it seemed to cut off the first 1.5+ hours of the 2.75 hour file which I could not understand at first as I was not aware that VLC had upgraded. This shortened file started to play at exactly the same point in time as a smaller backup MKV file in the same folder. The video is David Gilmour Live At Pompeii which I ripped from my Bluray and then used DaVInci Resolve to tack every individual MKV file into the full length concert video MP4 file at high quality settings hence the large file size. The individual MKV files remain in that folder.
The 28 gig MP4 file remains intact and I have played it on VLC on my MacBook without problem. It is not possible for VLC on the Apple TV HD to have shortened the file, I suspect that it refused to play the full length MP4 file and skipped to the next file in that folder which is 5 gigs in size.
However, the issues have become more serious since that first problem appeared. Now, VLC on the Apple TV HD, and this must be the latest version, cannot play any file over about 3 gigs in size, I can see that it tries to load the file for a fraction of a second before stopping and going back to the folder view, it no longer skips to another file in the selected folder when it can't play my first choice. This is now true of any file of more than 3 gigs size in any folder.
And still the 4K model works properly as do both my Macs.