# Apple TV, LR CC, and Windows



## eschurr (Sep 28, 2016)

I'm looking for a way to display my LR photos on my Sony Bravia TV. I've read about LR's integration with Apple TV,b but i can't find much documentation.  I don't own an Apple TV but I'd buy one if it did what I wanted.   Can anyone answer these questions:



-- will it workl with LR on Windows?

-- does it support Smart Collections?  i've gotten some indication that it won't. If not, does anyone have a clever way of simulating that?  (e.g., i only want to display photos i've marked as "final" and i have a set of smart collections that filter on that attribute. I suppose one clunky way of doing this is to occasionally copy all the photos in a smart collection to a manual collection)

-- does it support collection sets? That is, can you tell it to display all photos from a Collection Set and it will display all the photos in all the collections in the set?  Does it support Collection Sets within Collection Sets?

-- is there some capacity limitation?  I have 40K photos.  I don't really understand if photos are first sent to the cloud or what.



Thank you. If there's something that explains all this and you can point me to it I will read it.


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## tspear (Sep 28, 2016)

I would think the easiest solution would be to use Google Chromecast (or a competitor).
Most of them have two pieces, one which plugs into the HDMI port on the TV. The second on your laptop/computer which then makes the TV appear as a second screen.

Never tried this with Lr, but I did this at my parents house with Aperature (which was a few years ago).


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## johnbeardy (Sep 28, 2016)

Most of the integration with Apple TV is that they have an iOS app for the most recent version of the Apple TV device. This gets photos from photos synced to Lr Mobile - which requires the CC subscription.

So it's the CC subscription that's key, not whether you are on Windows.

That means we're back to "a way to display my LR photos on my Sony Bravia TV". Now, the Apple TV is just a digital media player. If you have an Apple computer, it lets you mirror the computer's screen onto the TV, just like using an extra screen. That's what I do. But you have a PC and I don't think (correct me anyone!) it will be able to mirror to the Apple TV. But there might be another device, or even one built into your Sony TV. I don't know which device would be suitable, but someone here will....


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## johnbeardy (Sep 28, 2016)

And while I was writing, Tim's posted a good idea. Hopefully I at least put Adobe's Apple TV into context for you.


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## eschurr (Sep 28, 2016)

tspear said:


> I would think the easiest solution would be to use Google Chromecast (or a competitor).
> Most of them have two pieces, one which plugs into the HDMI port on the TV. The second on your laptop/computer which then makes the TV appear as a second screen.
> 
> Never tried this with Lr, but I did this at my parents house with Aperature (which was a few years ago).


i have a Chrome Cast and tried it out but wasn't very successful.  It didn't have enough controls (e.g., i want to say "only display these photos and use this timing duration, etc.).  Right now i'm trying to do this with a wireless HDMI transmitter from a second PC onto which i export final JPEGs.  You can imagine that's a bit clunky.  I was hoping that the Apple TV integration would allow me to display LR photos without having to export them and do it via the network, which is more reliable than wireless HDMI


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## tspear (Sep 28, 2016)

Back then I used a slideshow program to handle the transitions. I just exported the images to a specific folder and it would run through them.
I would also suggest you try looking at Windows Media Center, since the TV likely supports a streaming media platform. And Windows Media Center can build a slideshow and display it.


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## johnbeardy (Sep 28, 2016)

eschurr said:


> I was hoping that the Apple TV integration would allow me to display LR photos without having to export them and do it via the network,



No, it's just about letting the Apple TV see Lightroom Mobile pictures.


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## bob chadwick (Sep 28, 2016)

I have the new AppleTV and the app works pretty well.  I've only used it once or twice and it scrolled the CC pictures with no issues.


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## eschurr (Sep 28, 2016)

bob chadwick said:


> I have the new AppleTV and the app works pretty well.  I've only used it once or twice and it scrolled the CC pictures with no issues.



Great.  Can you tell it to "run a slide show of this LR collection(s)?" Does it support Smart collections?


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## DGStinner (Sep 28, 2016)

Based on your profile, you're running a perpetual license of Lightroom which does not qualify for Lightroom Mobile and therefore will not work on an Apple TV.


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## eschurr (Sep 28, 2016)

eschurr said:


> i have a Chrome Cast and tried it out but wasn't very successful.  It didn't have enough controls (e.g., i want to say "only display these photos and use this timing duration, etc.).  Right now i'm trying to do this with a wireless HDMI transmitter from a second PC onto which i export final JPEGs.  You can imagine that's a bit clunky.  I was hoping that the Apple TV integration would allow me to display LR photos without having to export them and do it via the network, which is more reliable than wireless HDMI


 
Correct that. I found a way to do it that works pretty well.  I export my photos to a secondary PC, use an advanced screen saver that allows me more control, and ChromeCast the entire desktop to my TV. Works great.


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## eschurr (Sep 28, 2016)

DGStinner said:


> Based on your profile, you're running a perpetual license of Lightroom which does not qualify for Lightroom Mobile and therefore will not work on an Apple TV.


 
thanks. my profile was out of date. I'm using LR CC


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## johnbeardy (Sep 28, 2016)

eschurr said:


> thanks. my profile was out of date. I'm using LR CC



Well, that changes things. An Apple TV is viable, if you want to spend the extra money.

You sync pictures to Lightroom Mobile from your computer, and those collections will be available on your TV via Adobe's iOS app for Apple TV. You just use its remote controller, or the remote controller app on an iPad or iPhone.


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## eschurr (Sep 28, 2016)

johnbeardy said:


> Well, that changes things. An Apple TV is viable, if you want to spend the extra money.
> 
> You sync pictures to Lightroom Mobile from your computer, and those collections will be available on your TV via Adobe's iOS app for Apple TV. You just use its remote controller, or the remote controller app on an iPad or iPhone.



thanks.  Are smart collections supported?


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## clee01l (Sep 28, 2016)

I've worked with GoogleTV (SonyBravia w/ Google Chrome/Android OS), Apple TV, and Fire TV.

GoogleTVs are no longer supported by Google but I think Chrome Cast has replaced. It can run a Chrome Browser to get you to any web site.  You can also put your photos on the Google+ site and view these in a Chrome Browser or an Android Slideshow app.
Apple TV works with the iCloud Photostream.  You create your albums in iCloud and you can show then using the app on the AppleTV.
FireTV has an app that can show slideshows of photo albums that you store in you store on your Amazon drive in the cloud ( I think you need a Prime account to use Amazon Prime Photos)
Any TV that can access the web via a browser can access your Lightroom Mobile collections website.
Of the 4 choices, I have evolved to the Fire TV and web-based LR Mobile Collections.
When Google stopped updating the Android OS on my GoogleTV, I looked around for other options.  ChromeCast was the obvious replacement for the GoogleTV but there was no local storage as I had on the GoogleTV  Google+ was less than adequate for storing photos on the Web  I no longer liked the ApplTV because it was too closed and I could only (at that time) run the apps that Apple provided with the Apple TV.  Since I had a Prime Account, Amazon Prime Photos and a FireTV was a nice fit.   So today, I use my Amazon Prime Photos Albums and my LR Mobile website Collections.  Both are readily available on my iPhone.  My GoogleTV can still run a Chrome browser so I can access my LR Mobile Account there.  The Fire TV can run an app to show my Amazon Photos.

*Integrating with Lightroom*
The easiest is Lightroom Mobile and a browser.  You set up Collections to sync with LR Mobile and you are done.  Anything in those collections will appear in your browser.  You simply need an app to put a browser on the TV monitor.   the one down side is that LR Mobile Collections are non managed like Publish Service and only work with Static collections. 
The method to use if you are not using LR Mobile Collections is to Publish to a local Disk Drive folder using the LR HardDrive Publish Service. Then that local folder is sync'd to the cloud no matter how you view those images on your TV.  Publish Services can work with Smart Collections and LR can manage the images in the target folder(s) allowing you to publish republish and deleted images from inside the LR Publish Services. 

Other processes require populating the cloud drive.  With Google Drive, you can use a Publish Service to export to your local Google Drive Photos folder.   With your iCloud Account comes your Photostream free and in Windows this is a separate iCloud upload folder. You can use a Publish Service to export to your local iCloud app upload folder

Until recently the Amazon Drive worked the same way.   Now the Amazon Drive App  no longer supports any local File Sync. But there is a free app "odrive" that will.


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## bob chadwick (Sep 29, 2016)

eschurr said:


> thanks.  Are smart collections supported?



It doesn't appear that LR CC support smart collections syncing with LR Mobile.  I just created a smart collection and there is no option to sync it with LR Mobile.  With out this functionality yo won't be able to use them on the Apple TV.


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## clee01l (Sep 29, 2016)

bob chadwick said:


> It doesn't appear that LR CC support smart collections syncing with LR Mobile.  I just created a smart collection and there is no option to sync it with LR Mobile.  With out this functionality yo won't be able to use them on the Apple TV.


This is correct.  Smart Collections are not actual collections and do not exist until you click on the collection name to run the SQL query behind the SC to populate the grid view. Sync'd Collections are auto and dynamic in that Smart Previews of photos assigned to the collection automatically are uploaded to the Adobe Cloud without action on the part of the user.  Since a Smart Collection does not exist in a permanent fashion, there is nothing to sync.


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## eschurr (Sep 29, 2016)

Thanks for all your replies, especially your detailed ones, @cletus. 

I should explain my situation in more detail:  i have a 55" Sony Bravia in my kitchen and i want to have my photos displayed in the same manner as a screen saver: randomly rotate thru and display the photos. Sometimes i want it to display most of my photos (i.e., the ones marked as "completed") and other times I'd like it to display a chosen subset. 
I'd hoped that the integration with Apple TV would operate directly from my LR catalog without requiring me to export my files to another location.

I need to learn more about LR mobile.  i didn't realize the LR integration with Apple TV relies on it. I have 30K photos i'd want to make available to Apple TV; is there some capacity limitation with the Adobe Cloud?


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## johnbeardy (Sep 29, 2016)

There is no known limit. I've heard of 30K+ being synced.


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## clee01l (Sep 29, 2016)

eschurr said:


> I need to learn more about LR mobile. i didn't realize the LR integration with Apple TV relies on it. I have 30K photos i'd want to make available to Apple TV; is there some capacity limitation with the Adobe Cloud?


Integration with AppleTV/FireTV Does not need to use LR Mobile In fact, can't take advantage of LR Mobile  Both Apple and Amazon have their own Cloud Service that integrates (in some way) with an AppleTV or FireTV.    Both of these options require a derivative (export) image.  Lightroom Mobile is accessed through a website  and as such Collections that are designated can be sync'd to the Adobe Cloud.  An intermediate file is created by LR. It is the Smart Preview/Lossy DNG that gets uploaded to the Adobe Cloud site  and it happens automatically for every image added to a LR Mobile Sync'd collection.   30K images might be workable in LR Mobile but there is the logistics of organizing these — One large collection? Lots of little collections?   30K images might not be so practical for an AppleTV or FireTV since the derivative needs to be created and then is there a space limitation on these cloud sites?


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## Rob_Cullen (Sep 30, 2016)

I have had similar questions to the OP, Wanting slide-shows to TV (or in my case projector.)
I have now been able to Screen-mirror anything on my laptop to my Apple-TV device plugged into a digital projector but I had to buy a copy of Air-Parrot. So I can run any slideshow (mirror the laptop screen) to the projector.
Limitations- It needs laptop WiFi and local modem WiFi connection.

I would love to be able to screen-mirror to projector in any (remote) location without needing the modem WiFi. ie. 'Stream' direct from laptop to projector. (Nothing to do with LR-Mobile or Sync)


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## clee01l (Sep 30, 2016)

I-See-Light said:


> I would love to be able to screen-mirror to projector in any (remote) location without needing the modem WiFi. ie. 'Stream' direct from laptop to projector. (Nothing to do with LR-Mobile or Sync)


The projector is a dumb device like any other monitor.  It needs a direct connection to a smart device like a computer.  It is the smart device that translates images into signal that can be displayed on a screen.  
Now the Smart Device does not need to be a laptop or a desktop. but is does need the intelligence and the storage capacity to manage the slide show part of your problem.  AFAIK, no one builds that into a projector. A TV is a dumb monitor with the exception that there is built in a tuner to receive over the air television broadcasts from a remote TV antenna.   Most of us probably don't use the tuner built in even though we pay extra money to buy a device with that capability. Instead, we have a Cable box which is a tiny computer to decode the cable channels and send that signal to the Monitor on that dumb device we call a TV.  AppleTV/FireTV, a DVD Player or your Laptop etc. are simply smart devices (computers) that generate a signal to display on the monitor/TV. 

If you want a wireless signal to your projector, you need something that can receive that signal and translate it into a picture that can be viewed with your projector/ monitor.  Wireless means radio waves.  Either in the form of WiFi (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth (2.4 GHz) or Over the Air TV (54 - 216 MHz) and a receiver that can get those signals to the monitor.  The receiver can be built in as in the case of the TV or it can be in an add on appliance like an AppleTV/FireTV.


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