I’ve been using and experimenting with Infuse for a few months, and finally decided to go “all in” and get a Pro subscription and set things up so it can be my primary video player on Apple TV and my iPhone.
I use videos to fall asleep to - without something like that playing, I can’t keep my brain still. I set up a number of playlists of old shows that I’ve seen many times and use them for working and sleeping. By “playlist,” I didn’t exactly make playlists. The NAS that has all the videos (available through an SMB share) uses Linux. So, to make my playlists, I create a folder. For instance, I have a folder with all the videos from a TV show:
/Library/Video/TVShows/Comedies/Gilligans_Island (1964)
Then I make another folder:
/Librarly/Playlists/Video/BGTV/GilligansIland
And I make symlinks from the files in the original directory to the one in the playlist directory. (This lets me remove 2 parters or episodes that stress me out from a series, so I still have them on my server, just not in the playlist.) This lets me keep the full series, but have a copy in the playlist collection that lets me remove the episodes I don’t want to play sometimes.
I’ve been using this method for playlists for other software and when I started checking out Infuse, I found it worked for Infuse, too.
To put these on the nearby TV, I would use Screen Sharing. I know Infuse doesn’t support that, but since I wasn’t sure yet if I was going to subscribe, I didn’t have the AirPlay feature from Infuse. Apple supports doing this, even if Infuse does not. I’ve been using this trick for a year or so with VLC, Plex, and other software, and for a few months with Infuse, without issue.
Then I paid to unlock Pro. For a couple nights there were no issues, but now I find I can’t play some of these playlists but can play others - and this is through screen sharing AND using Infuse’s AirPlay feature. The issue with screen sharing is that when a “bad” playlist is used, it just won’t play. If a show is playing on my phone and I turn on screen sharing, the playback stops.
The problem with Infuse’s AirPlay is that when I use it, it plays only audio on the Apple TV. I cannot get it to play video at all. I’ve rebooted the Apple TV and the iPhone, and it does not work. And there’s a consistency: If a playlist for a show works, it works on both. If it has a problem on one, it has a problem with both.
I found Gilligan’s Island did not work. Green Acres did work. I Dream of Jeannie works, some others don’t.
I have tried using my playlists with VLC and they’re working with it - even the ones acting up in Infuse. (And note that I never had this issue before activating Pro features!)
I don’t expect Infuse to work with the screen sharing issue, but I would like to find out how to use the AirPlay feature so when I use it on my phone on Infuse, it will play both audio AND video on my Apple TV.