I think I know the answer to this, but I thought I might see if anyone else knows a way to do it. I want to set up a video file to loop over and over again on AppleTV (virtual aquarium). I could do it on my mini in quicktime, but I cannot figure out if there is a way to do it on AppleTV. Any ideas? Thanks.

Okay. I thought I had a solution, but it ended up a dead end. I tried making a playlist in iTunes and put multiple copies of the same movie file into the playlist. Then synced, but the playlist refused to show up on the AppleTV.

Then I thought I had a brilliant idea. I re-designated the movie file as a music video file. The file disappeared as a movie file and reappeared under the music category. I then made a playlist of multiple copies of the same music video file. I synced. The playlist then showed up on AppleTV. Success? No. When I played the first file in the playlist on AppleTV, it played, but once the first file was complete, AppleTV returned to the menu. It did not go to the second file. I even made the second file a different music video file. Apparently playlists of music video files sync, but they don't act as playlists.

Anyone have any ideas?

I know I'm conversing with myself, but for the benefit of anyone else who might be interested. I found another promising theory that did not work. In Quicktime Pro, you can save a movie as a reference file. Then you can copy and paste that file over and over again within itself, then save the longer movie again as a reference file. You will have a very small but very long file that looks to the original file for data. It works in Quicktime and iTunes, but the reference file will not synced to AppleTV. So, this will not work either.

Have you tried streaming instead of syncing?

Have you tried streaming instead of syncing?

I don't think that would work either.

Why not try and extend the video by editing it and pasting the video in a few times? This isn't your desired result (and will produce a bigger file), but looping of video isn't available on Apple TV AFAIK..:cool:

Hi,

I think I got it but since I do not have an apple TV I cannot be 100% sure.
It works on my powermac anyway.
I am really interested to learn if it worked for you as I am also looking for a way to display some HD video for an exhibition ( currently have my powerbook doing that but I really need it back).

So first you want to make a new playlist.
drop your video(s) in the order you want them to play.
go to Control
select Repeat One or Repeat All
then play it.

I hope that works for you. let me know.

I take it you're doing this in Itunes, which does work.. There's no repeat function on the AppleTV IIRC...

ok, i haven't tried this but i would bet the farm it would work. First you would have to bring the movie into iDVD or DVD Studio Pro, and create a dvd that will loop. Then export the DVD to a video_ts folder. You will probably have to hack your appleTV to get support for DVDs. Copy the files over and play the looped dvd. let me know if you need a more detailed explanation of this.

There is an easy solution to this problem now.

However I think this only works with the aTv 2.1 update.

Open the movie in QtPro and flag it to loop. Save the file (the flag only stays in a .mov container) and it should loop without issue on an aTv.

Have you verified this works?

I'm heading to a trade show with an AppleTV on Monday morning - and I'd like to "loop" my promotional video without the brute force approach of taking a two minute clip and copying "back-to-back-to-back-to-back" in QuickTime Pro to create a 90 minute clip.

I won't have a chance to try it until Monday so if you can verify it before then - it will save me a bunch of time.

Indy - I just verified it for you as follows:
Opened an m4v movie in QT-Pro and set it to loop:
Saved it out as a self-contained .mov file;
loaded that into my iTunes which streams to my ATV;
played it on the ATV and verifies it loops (even when fast forwarding);

good solution jersy - thanks...

ken