Archive - Home Video Player

Archive plays the video your other apps choke on.

It is built for the heaviest 4K footage you own — drone flights, high-end camera recordings, the 100+ Mbit/s files that streaming apps quietly refuse or grind into stutter. Archive streams them straight off your own network drive, at full bitrate, and pushes the Apple TV's decoder as far as the hardware actually goes.

YOUR DRIVE, YOUR FILES, YOUR TV Point Archive at an SMB share on your NAS, Mac or PC and it plays what is there. No uploading, no transcoding your library first, no cloud in the middle, no account to create. Your credentials live in the device Keychain and are sent to nothing except the share you chose.

BUILT FOR BIG FILES Most players assume small, pre-compressed video. Archive assumes the opposite. It downloads while it plays and hands the player a local file the moment there is enough of it, so a 4K clip at drone bitrates keeps its detail instead of collapsing into artefacts. When a file is genuinely beyond what the hardware can decode, Archive tells you so plainly instead of showing you a black screen.

YOUR WHOLE LIBRARY, ORGANISED A timeline grouped by month, folder browsing that mirrors your drive, favourites, and history — with resume where you left off. Photos play as a slideshow with calm background music when the media has no audio of its own.

CONTROL IT FROM YOUR PHONE Open the TV's own web page on any device on your network and browse, search and start playback from there. Nothing leaves your network; the page is served by the Apple TV itself and can be locked with a PIN.

ARCHIVE PRO The free version plays a preview of each session. Archive Pro removes the limit, with a 7-day free trial on either the monthly or the yearly plan. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends; manage or cancel in your Apple Account settings.

Requires an SMB share on your local network. A bundled demo library is included so you can try the player before connecting anything.