Downloaded movies appear in Apple TV the app but not on Apple TV the device

Apple TV has a specific set of parameters as to what it can play. The easiest thing to do would be to use something like handbrake, which has a preset for Apple TV

FYI: This is a user forum. No one here works for Apple nor are they reading this.

I missed that they were purchased items, those will not be able to be read by Handbrake, or any other converter, as they are protected.

All downloaded movies would be streamed using home sharing and accessed using the Computers app on Apple TV. If you are having an issue with that then contact iTunes.

The Tv app on fire stick will only allow you to stream the purchased content. You cannot view iTunes purchases on an Xbox.

True, Handbrake has an output preset for Apple TV. Handbrake cannot, however, read the HLS content, even if it has been downloaded to a MacBook.

For a company that prides itself on its ecosystem, the current situation with Home Sharing and HLS is ridiculous.

As I noted in my response above, I missed that they were purchased files and clarified that those cannot be read by Handbrake regardless.

I agree that this situation is not great but have also been in contact with Apple support and they are continuing to work on a solution. The more that continue to give feedback hopefully will expedite an update.

I still use iTunes & Mojave on a Mac but I haven't purchased any movies via the Mac recently. The iTunes store gives me the option of downloading movies in HD or SD format. I guess SD is an MP4 but don't know if HD is MP4 or HLS. Obviously SD would be disappointing to watch on an ATV and, in any case, I think it would be treated as a new purchase so it is not a solution.

It would help if Apple recognised the issue and allowed a purchase to be downloaded in other formats.

I do regularly rent/buy movies directly from the Movie app on the ATV. Evidently these are in MP4 format. I will try downloading one of the purchases to my Mac and see what format it is in (and report back here). If it works then that could be an option for future movie purchases (buy via ATV and then download them to the Mac).

The downloaded movie is in my iTunes/iTunes Music/Movies folder as

Danger Close_ The Battle of Long Tan (1080p HD).m4v

(a great aussie action movie - by the way)

So... Mojave/iTunes seems to work. I don't have Catalina so cannot test that configuration.

Unfortunately it's not quite that simple: when downloading movies via the TV app on Catalina, some movies arrive in the standard m4v format, while others arrive in the HLS format, identified in your file system as ".movpkg", which is actually a package containing many, perhaps 100s, of "frags" or fragments, that are tiny bits of the movie. So you may think you're home free on Catalina because you received an m4v file, but you've actually been lucky for that movie.

Ironically, you can download HLS videos from Apple from directly in the TV app on iPad, iPhone and Apple TV -- those devices have the software to process that format. It's Home Sharing that is not able to handle the format. We'll just have to wait for Apple to get Home Sharing up to snuff there -- I'd say more but Apple appears to be aggressively deleting comments that are too uncomplimentary.

I have an ATV 4 so maybe it does not "buy" HLS video (actually it streams a bought movie that is then available to download to a Mac or iPad). In any case it is clear that Homesharing is the limitation with HLS movies.

With each macOS or iTunes update I try to check that Homesharing still works for watching local content on my ATV. At the risk of being uncomplimentary., Homesharing seems to be a neglected feature of the Apple ecosystem.