Technology
How To Make A Video Loop in iTunes for Apple TV
Oct
Last Updated on January 16, 2021 by Uscenes
It is easy enough to watch our background videos on an Apple TV by placing them in iTunes. However the Apple TV does not have a loop option, so here is how to get around it. This will allow you to play a video continuously for as long as you wish. For rather static videos like aquariums and fireplaces looping is essential to achieve a continuous and seamless playback experience.
Step 1 – Adding the video to iTunes
On your computer click on iTunes.
Then under File at the top of your screen select Add To Library
Locate the video file and double click. This will add it to iTunes.
Step 2 – Preparing the video to be looped
Find the video in iTunes by clicking on Movies (or Films), then List.
Right click on the video, then select Get Info.
Click on the Options tab.
Next to Media Kind select Music Video.
Click OK, then wait for a short while.
Step 3 – Looping the video
On the left side of iTunes find Music Videos and click on it.
Double click on the video to play it.
Find Controls at the top of your screen and click on it.
Hover over Repeat, then select One.
Step 4 – Playing the video on your TV through Apple TV
In iTunes at the top, next to the volume control you will see a rectangle with a triangle at the bottom.
Click on this icon, then select Apple TV
The video will now play on your TV screen through the Apple TV.
This quick fix will have you looping our videos in no time. Our relaxing video downloads make the perfect background videos to loop continuously on iTunes. All our download bundles include a 20 minute Full HD video which is perfect for setting a relaxing scene in your home or workplace. Please note, you will need to get in touch for public licensing.
yours is excellent information to create loop video like 27 seconds no problem But I have a small problem that at the end there is switch back a second to home page screen of computer in apple tv and then a second to be screen black and starting loading the video again to play normally.
it is not smooth as it was chopping at end of looping video.
do you know what the problem?
thanks, craig
Hi Craig, I’m not sure why this is happening for your video. I haven’t experienced this with any of the Uscenes videos. Perhaps the audio is longer than the video. You could also try putting the video in a playlist to see if that helps.
I tried your method and while it will play my video through AppleTV, it will not loop it. It just gets to the end of the video and stops. It seems like I am asking iTunes to loop not AppleTV. I made sure I had the triangle thing checked to AppleTV in iTunes when I set the repeat one but it just doesn’t work. What am I missing here?
Hi Angela, I’ve just tried it again and it didn’t work on the first go. I played the video again and it worked. Not sure whey this is, perhaps due to a recent iTunes update.
Update – I figured out why it wouldn’t play. When I looked at the AppleTV screen in iTunes it looked like the video wasn’t moving so I went to the AppleTV unit and tried to play it from there. But that just disrupts the loop function. So this time I just hit play from iTunes with the AppleTV play window up and went out and just looked at the TV and sure enough it was playing and looping. (My computer and TV are in two different spaces.) There is a bit of a flash to the AppleTV menu on the monitor. But it is only a second or so and then the loop begins. But yes this method works. 🙂
I’d like to purchase one of your video loops, but I need to know if it is possible to also play an iTunes playlist while a video is looping first. Thanks!
Hi Adam. You can only play one thing at a time using iTunes.
You could play the video on another media player like VLC (I’m not sure how to get that on your TV but I am guessing it can be done as there are some apps for VLC).
Or you could play the video on iTunes then play your playlist on VLC (copy and paste the music into VLC then click on first song).
You can download a sample MP4 video to try out here: https://www.uscenes.com/download-a-sample-mp4-video-to-test-on-your-tv/
Great, thanks! I’ll try it.
Hi,
Can I play continuous vids or music on apple tv and if so,what do I need to set ?
Hi Noel,
We have sold our 3rd generation Apple TV now, but I would assume the instructions above will still work.
I believe the app Kodi is able to loop videos on the Apple TV and other devices like Amazon 4K fire TV.
We will be looking into this very soon and blogging about it. We have a new Apple TV so will check on that.
All the devices work differently so it will be ideal to have a single app that can loop videos; which we hope is Kodi (previously known as XBMC)