Apple TV: Streaming photos via iTunes

  • Last Modified: February 13, 2009
  • Article: HT1273
  • Old Article: 306467

Summary

Apple TV can be used to stream your favorite photos from iPhoto or Aperture on a Mac, as well as Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements on a PC and then view them on your widescreen television. Photos can't be streamed to Apple TV if the client computer is setup for syncing. To learn more about syncing photos to Apple TV, go here.

Before you begin, make sure you have the latest version of iTunes and Apple TV software.

Note: These steps are only for streaming photos and not related to streaming other media content to Apple TV.

Products Affected

Apple TV

Streaming Photo Content

To set up photo streaming:

  1. Open iTunes on the computer you want to stream from.
  2. On Apple TV, choose Settings > Computers  from the main menu.
  3. Choose "Add Shared iTunes Library" and make a note of the passcode displayed.
  4. In iTunes, select the Apple TV icon with "Click to set up" next to it.
  5. Enter the passcode. While content is being streamed, the computer must remain on and iTunes must remain open.

Now that you have successfully established a streamed association between your Apple TV and your computer, you can stream photos.

To stream photos:

  1. Open iTunes on the computer that contains your photos.
  2. On Apple TV version 2.0 or greater, choose Photos > Shared Photos from the main menu. On Apple TV version 1.x, choose Sources from the main menu. 
  3. Choose the name of your iTunes library (for example, My Library).
  4. In iTunes, select Apple TV in the Devices list.
  5. Click the Photos tab and select "Share photos from..."
    • On a Mac, choose iPhoto or Aperture from the pop-up menu.
    • On a Windows PC, choose Photoshop Album or Photoshop Elements from the pop-up menu.
    You can either stream all photos or select your favorite albums.
  6. After selecting which photos to share, click Apply in the lower right corner of the iTunes window.
  7. On Apple TV, choose Photos > Shared Photos from the main menu.

Note: iTunes and Apple TV do not stream photo slideshows made in iPhoto; you can stream either the entire photo library or just selected albums and use Apple TV's slideshow function to view photos in a slideshow. Music used for photo slideshows on Apple TV also has to be streamed from iTunes.

Important: Information about products not manufactured by Apple is provided for information purposes only and does not constitute Apple’s recommendation or endorsement. Please contact the vendor for additional information.

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