{"id":73329,"date":"2025-03-14T15:00:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T07:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/?p=73329"},"modified":"2025-03-11T18:07:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T10:07:12","slug":"watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Play Movies from Mac on Smart TV (Without Transferring Files)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want to watch movies from your Mac on your Smart TV without transferring files? You don\u2019t have to! While we\u2019ve previously covered <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/transfer-files-tv-ipad\/\" title=\"How to Transfer Files from Smart TV to iPad\">how to transfer files between devices<\/a>, there\u2019s an even easier way to access your media.<\/p>\n<p>You can stream them directly from your Mac to your Smart TV by simply pointing your media player to the right folder. This way, you can access your entire movie collection without having to transfer each file separately.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h2>What You Need<\/h2>\n<p>Before you start, do the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>VLC Player on your Smart TV<\/strong>: If you haven\u2019t installed it yet, go to the Google Play Store on your Smart TV, download, and open it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Both devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network<\/strong>: Your Mac and Smart TV must be on the same network for this to work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Organized movie folder on your Mac<\/strong>: To keep things simple, place all your movies in a single folder. In this example, I\u2019m using the <strong>Public Folder<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/public-folder.jpg\" alt=\"Public Folder on Mac containing movie files\" width=\"720\" height=\"442\"><\/figure>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<h2>Stream Movies from Mac to Smart TV<\/h2>\n<p>Once everything is set up, follow these steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>On your Smart TV, open the VLC Player app.<\/li>\n<li>Go to <strong>Browsing &gt; Local Network<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/browsing-local-network.jpg\" alt=\"VLC Player Browsing Local Network on Smart TV\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\"><\/figure>\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Inside <strong>Local Network<\/strong>, you\u2019ll see a list of connected devices.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/connected-devices.jpg\" alt=\"List of connected devices in VLC Player\" width=\"1920\" height=\"683\"><\/figure>\n<ol start=\"4\">\n<li>Click on your Mac from the list of devices.<\/li>\n<li>Enter your Mac login credentials (the username and password you use to log into your Mac).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/enter-credentials.jpg\" alt=\"Entering Mac credentials in VLC Player\" width=\"1407\" height=\"923\"><\/figure>\n<ol start=\"6\">\n<li>Once logged in, you\u2019ll see your Mac\u2019s file directory.<\/li>\n<li>Navigate to the folder where you stored your movies.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.hongkiat.com\/uploads\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/movie-files-in-vlc.jpg\" alt=\"Movie files listed in VLC Player on Smart TV\" width=\"1920\" height=\"829\"><\/figure>\n<ol start=\"8\">\n<li>Select the movie you want to watch, and it will start playing on your Smart TV!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<hr>\n<h2>Enjoy Streaming Without Transferring Files<\/h2>\n<p>That\u2019s it! With this method, you don\u2019t have to transfer movies manually. Instead, you can browse your Mac\u2019s movie folder from your Smart TV and play any movie directly. If you\u2019re interested in other smart TV tips, check out our guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/screenshots-on-smart-tv\/\" title=\"How to Take Screenshots on Smart TV\">how to take screenshots on your smart TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Now, grab some popcorn and enjoy your movies on the big screen! \ud83c\udf7f<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want to watch movies from your Mac on your Smart TV without transferring files? You don\u2019t have to! While we\u2019ve previously covered how to transfer files between devices, there\u2019s an even easier way to access your media. You can stream them directly from your Mac to your Smart TV by simply pointing your media player&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3398],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["entry-content","is-maxi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Play Movies from Mac on Smart TV (Without Transferring Files) - Hongkiat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Want to watch movies from your Mac on your Smart TV without transferring files? You don&#039;t have to! While we&#039;ve previously covered how to transfer files\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hongkiat.com\/blog\/watch-movies-mac-in-smart-tv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Play Movies from Mac on Smart TV (Without Transferring Files)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Want to watch movies from your Mac on your Smart TV without transferring files? You don&#039;t have to! 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