Network Video Players for Apple TV (2026)

Recently, I was upset that My Movies 6 Pro became subscription-only. As it turns out there are many others that are also turning their purchased app to subscription-only (they all suck). One of them is 8Player, an app that I purchased in 2012. I liked it so much that I paid (again) for the Apple TV version, and it was the app that I turned to when I wanted to stream my own content from my local server. Recently, when I tried to use the app, it locked my content until I pay for their subscription – without warning. Needless to say, everyone who previously purchased the app are upset as I am. One user said it was like how he bought a car and was using for a while and then one day the seller said he had to make monthly payments again just to use the car he purchased. I was so mad at this change that I left a one-star (zero star if that was possible) and warned others to not update their app. I don’t want to give this terrible company any more publicity, so instead of talking about them, I’m going to recommend other apps. So, avoid 8Player, do not buy, do not upgrade. Stay away from them.

The only shining light out of this stupid 8Player debacle is that it forced me to examine other apps. I am also very hesitant on paying for an app, especially when two of them (8Player & My Movies) suddenly wanted more money by forcing a subscription service.

So let’s take a look at Swiftfin… which is an “official” Jellyfin player for AppleTV. I’ve briefly mentioned Jellyfin running on my iPad and I said it “loads up pretty quickly, and playback was smooth” in April 2024.

The free Swiftfin is buggy. Sometimes it works, sometime it experiences network error -10001. If you see that Network error, just refresh and leave Swiftin on – sometimes it’ll work. Kind of annoying, but, again it’s free and it was created with love.

When it does work, I love the way it displays full movie artwork and it’ll keep track of what you watched. It also has actors looking up and additional information. The interface reminds me of my favorite player: Kodi (which is not available on AppleTV). So if you like Kodi, and you have Jellyfin, checkout Swiftfin.

The only annoying thing about Swiftfin is that often you need to re-enter the local URL and user/password. The forgetfulness happens more often than you think, so what I’ve been doing is keeping the IP number (something like 192.168.xxx.xx:xxxxxx) on my phone’s Notes so when I have to enter it in AppleTV, I just copy and paste it from the phone’s keyboard.

The open-sourced VLC on AppleTV came highly recommended. I’m already familiar with this great player, having install the player on all my PC (it’s my default player).

VLC is pretty good, especially for free. I hate their orange cone icon. I think its interface is clunky and some things doesn’t work, like sometime it has trouble finding my local network SMB. When it works, it’s pretty awesome.

It has all the functionality of 8player, including subtitles and multiple audio switching. VLC will play most, if not all, of my movie files.

I haven’t used the AppleTV version for very long (instead just rather use Swiftfin), but I don’t think it allows sorting by most recent date, which is how I like to browse. Instead, you’re forced to see it in alphabetical. Most people prefer it alphabetical, and it’s fine. Again, I haven’t used it long enough to explore all my options.

The best part is that VLC will automatically play the next television episode. That’s a very nice feature that some players won’t do.

For $0 and no subscription, for what it offers, it’s a great solution for anyone looking to stream their local network. It certainly is the best alternative to all the subscription or paid apps.

I have an old PlayerXtreme on my iPad and it works great. The fonts are tiny, that’s my only complaint, but it works well and it’ll automatically detect my local network. It sometimes won’t play certain video codec, but it’s still my preferred player on the iPad.

So naturally, I searched Player Xteme on my Apple TV and there is a new version – but it’s very different. I guess this new version is subscription-based, but you do have an option to pay for a “Lifetime” license for $70. For basic free version (no subscription payments), I believe it won’t play some video codec or I read that it contains advertisements.

I did use it, but haven’t spent too much time with it. I was not impressed that it buffers and had issues sometimes with playback. A show just automatically quit mid-stream, so I had to reload the show. I also couldn’t get the player to fast-forward or move the player marker to a later time. It’s buggy, from what I’ve seen – it wasn’t a good experiment. If they were trying to sell me on that $70, it sure wasn’t working.

After it played one episode, it didn’t play the next episode, so that sucked. Plus, the player was constantly losing connection when I was trying to browse my local network that it was so frustrating that I just force-close the app. I am starting to think that all that time that it was trying to “connect” that it was probably trying to download advertisements. You see, I don’t have the internet available all the time (all network has to go through my phone and sometimes I just don’t turn on the internet). If the reason for the poor performance (due to advertisements), then I do not recommend this new Player Xtreme on the Apple TV. If you have an older version, just stick with that.

Saw this Velo on a subreddit and tried to find it on my iPhone – could not find it. You have to use the Apple TV app store to find it, as I guess this is an Apple TV-only app. Also, that name ‘velo’ have multiple apps with the same name. I don’t know the origin of the name – but it is a terrible name for a video app, because there is a tobacco product in the UK and it means bike in French. It’s not a term you associate with video.

I don’t recommend this app. It’s still very new and I don’t think it’s worth paying a monthly or yearly subscription fee for this product.

The app itself is free, so I was just trying it out. There is a Velo watermark on the top-right corner. It’s not horrible, but I guess I just don’t want to see any “advertisements”. Most people will ignore it or don’t really care that it’s there…. But I hated it.

The final straw was when I tried out their search function and it took me to the right television show – but unfortunately, it’s not my own media so it wouldn’t play.

The player is okay, but comparing it to the free VLC and Swiftfin, both offering much more functionality and it works without any watermarks, there is no reason to use Velo.

Yours,