This guide covers everything you need to get Bunny Ears TV running on your Apple TV, from requirements to first channel flip. If you have been curious about virtual TV channels but the Docker containers and IPTV configuration have scared you off, this is the zero-friction version. Install an app, sign in with Plex, and start surfing.
What Bunny Ears TV Actually Is
Bunny Ears TV is a tvOS app that connects to your Plex server and turns your media library into virtual live TV channels. Instead of opening Plex and browsing for something to watch, you open Bunny Ears TV and flip through over 200 themed channels and 50+ music stations using an electronic program guide that looks and feels like broadcast television.
There is a Comedy channel, a Horror channel, a Sci-Fi channel, a 90s Movies channel, a True Crime channel, a Saturday Morning channel, a Guilty Pleasures channel, and about 190 more. Each channel is powered by metadata filters running against your library, so the content on every channel is pulled from media you actually own. If you do not have any horror movies in Plex, the Horror channel will be empty. If you have 300 comedies, the Comedy channel will be stacked.
The channels run on a deterministic 28-hour rolling schedule. That means the program guide shows you what is playing right now, what is coming up next, and what will be on tonight, just like a real cable guide. You can tune in to anything mid-stream, flip away, flip back, and pick up where the broadcast left off. It is not a playlist with a shuffle button. It is scheduled programming.
The app also generates fake retro commercial breaks between programs, plays static when you change channels, and wraps the whole thing in a CRT-inspired visual design. If you grew up channel surfing in the 80s or 90s, you will understand the vibe immediately.
I built this app. That disclosure matters because I am going to be honest about what it does well and where it has limitations, and you should weigh my enthusiasm accordingly.
What You Need
The requirements are short, but all of them are non-negotiable.
An Apple TV (4th generation or later). Bunny Ears TV is a native tvOS app. It runs on the Apple TV HD (4th gen) and all models of the Apple TV 4K. It does not run on Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung TVs, LG TVs, or in a web browser. Apple TV only, at least for now.
A Plex Media Server. You need a running Plex server with media in it. The server can be local (a NAS on your network, a Mac Mini in a closet, an old PC running Ubuntu) or remote (a VPS, a friend’s server you have access to, a cloud-hosted setup). Bunny Ears TV connects to your Plex server the same way the official Plex app does. If the Plex app on your Apple TV can see your server, Bunny Ears TV can too.
A Plex account. You sign in through Plex’s standard authentication flow. Bunny Ears TV never sees or stores your Plex password. It uses Plex’s OAuth-based PIN authentication, which means you approve the connection from Plex’s side, and the app receives a token. This is the same mechanism every third-party Plex app uses.
Media in your library. This one sounds obvious, but the depth of your library directly affects how many channels light up and how varied the programming feels. If you have 50 movies and 10 TV shows, you will get a functional but thin lineup. If you have 500+ movies across a range of genres and decades, the channel guide fills out and starts to feel like a real cable package. TV shows work too, obviously. A deep collection of sitcoms, dramas, and reality TV will populate channels you did not expect.
A reasonable network connection. Bunny Ears TV does not transcode or process your media itself. All playback is handled through Plex’s standard HLS transcoding pipeline, the same one the official Plex app uses. If your Plex server can stream to your Apple TV through the official app without buffering, it will stream through Bunny Ears TV without buffering. A local gigabit connection is ideal. WiFi works fine for most content, but if you are playing high-bitrate 4K remuxes, wired Ethernet on both the server and the Apple TV makes a noticeable difference.
What You Do Not Need
Worth clarifying a few things that other virtual channel solutions require but Bunny Ears TV does not.
Docker. You do not need to run any containers on your server. Tools like ErsatzTV and Tunarr are excellent, but they require a Docker environment, server-side configuration, and ongoing maintenance. Bunny Ears TV runs entirely on the Apple TV. Your Plex server does not need any additional software.
IPTV knowledge. No M3U playlists, no XMLTV files, no HDHR emulation. If you have never heard of any of those things, good. You do not need to learn about them.
A Plex Pass. Bunny Ears TV works with free Plex accounts. You do not need Plex Pass, Plex’s own Live TV feature, or any paid Plex tier. If you have a Plex server and a free account, you are good.
Server-side changes of any kind. You do not need to install plugins, modify your Plex configuration, open additional ports, or change any server settings. Bunny Ears TV is read-only. It reads your library metadata to build the channel lineup and requests media streams through Plex’s standard API. It does not write to your server, modify your metadata, create playlists, or change your watch history.
Installation
Open the App Store on your Apple TV. Search for “Bunny Ears TV.” Download it. It is a free download with a free tier that never expires.
If you cannot find it in the App Store, make sure your Apple TV is running tvOS 16 or later. If you are on an older version, update through Settings, System, Software Updates.
The app is about 25 MB. It will be ready in under a minute on most connections.
Signing In to Plex
When you first open Bunny Ears TV, you will see a sign-in screen asking you to authenticate with Plex.
The authentication flow works like this: the app displays a four-digit PIN code and a URL (plex.tv/link). On any device with a web browser (your phone, your laptop, your iPad), go to that URL, sign in to your Plex account if you are not already, and enter the PIN. Once you approve it, Bunny Ears TV connects to your Plex account and discovers your available servers.
If you have multiple Plex servers on your account, you will be asked to choose which one to use. Pick the server that has the library you want to channel surf. If you only have one server, it will be selected automatically.
The entire sign-in process takes about 30 seconds.
What Happens After Sign-In
Once you are signed in, Bunny Ears TV reads your Plex library metadata and builds your channel lineup. This is not a server-side process. The app pulls your library data and runs its channel algorithms locally on the Apple TV. Depending on the size of your library, this takes anywhere from a few seconds (small libraries) to about 15 to 20 seconds (very large libraries with tens of thousands of items).
When it finishes, you land on the program guide. This is the main interface. It looks like a cable TV electronic program guide: channels listed vertically on the left, a time-based grid of programming stretching horizontally to the right, and a preview of the currently highlighted program at the top.
Use the Siri Remote’s touchpad (or clickpad on newer remotes) to navigate up and down through channels, left and right through the schedule. Press the select button to tune into a channel. Press the Menu button (or the back button on newer remotes) to return to the guide.
That is it. You are watching TV. Your TV. From your library.
Understanding the Channel Lineup
The 200+ channels in Bunny Ears TV are not randomly generated. Each channel has a specific theme defined by a combination of metadata filters: genre, decade, content rating, media type, and more.
Genre channels are the backbone. Comedy, Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, Action, Thriller, Romance, Documentary, Animation, Western, Musical, and many more. These pull from the genre tags in your Plex metadata, so if your movies and shows are properly tagged, they end up on the right channels automatically.
Decade channels sort content by release year. There are channels for the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s. If you have a deep library that spans multiple decades, these channels become surprisingly interesting. The 80s channel playing a random action movie from 1987 at 10pm hits different than scrolling past it in a grid.
Audience channels filter by content rating. There is a Kids channel (G and PG content), a Family channel, and channels that skew toward more mature content. If you have children and want to park the TV on something safe, the Kids channel pulls only from age-appropriate ratings in your library.
Mood and vibe channels are more subjective. Late Night, Guilty Pleasures, Background TV, Saturday Morning, Comfort Food. These use combinations of metadata to create a feeling rather than a strict genre match. Background TV, for example, favors lighter content that works as ambient viewing. Saturday Morning favors animated shows and family content. These are the channels that tend to surprise people the most because they surface content in a context that makes it feel new again.
Music stations pull from your Plex music library if you have one. Jazz, Rock, Hip-Hop, Classical, Indie, Electronic, Country, decades-based stations, and more. They function like radio stations: continuous playback from your own music collection, organized by genre. If you do not have a music library in Plex, these stations will not appear.
Not every channel will have content. This is important to understand. If you do not own any westerns, the Western channel will be empty. If you have three documentaries, the Documentary channel will exist but will repeat those three on a short cycle. The app reflects your library. A wider library means a richer lineup.
The Free Tier vs. Paid Tiers
Bunny Ears TV has a permanently free tier. Thirteen channels are available at no cost, forever. This is not a trial. There is no expiration. You get 13 channels from the full lineup and can use them indefinitely to decide whether the app is worth paying for.
The free channels span a range of categories so you can get a real sense of the experience without paying. Genre channels, decade channels, and a few of the mood channels are represented.
If you want the full lineup of 200+ channels and 50+ music stations, there are three pricing options:
$1.99/month. Month-to-month, cancel anytime.
$14.99/year. Annual billing. Works out to about $1.25 per month.
$29.99 lifetime. One payment, permanent access to everything, including future channels added in updates. No recurring charges.
If you are the type of person who keeps an app for years (and if you have a Plex server, you probably are), the lifetime tier pays for itself in about 15 months compared to annual, or about 15 months compared to monthly. Most of the early users have gone lifetime, which tracks with how this community tends to think about software purchases.
All three paid tiers unlock the same content. There is no tiered feature set. Pay once at any level and you have the full experience.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of It
A few things you can do to make the experience noticeably better.
Clean up your Plex metadata first. This is the single highest-impact thing you can do. Bunny Ears TV’s channels are built from your metadata. If a comedy is tagged as a drama in Plex, it will show up on the Drama channel instead of Comedy. If a kids movie has no content rating, it might not appear on the Kids channel. Spend 20 minutes in Plex fixing the obvious mismatches in your library. Sort by genre, look for anything that is clearly wrong, and fix it. You do not need to audit every title. Just catch the obvious ones.
Make sure your Plex server can handle the stream. If you experience buffering, the issue is almost always between your Plex server and your Apple TV, not with Bunny Ears TV itself. Test by playing the same content through the official Plex app. If it buffers there too, the problem is network or server performance. Common fixes: use Ethernet instead of WiFi, reduce the streaming quality in your Plex server’s remote access settings if you are streaming from outside your network, or ensure your server has enough CPU headroom for transcoding if the content needs it.
Set your Apple TV’s audio output correctly. If you have a soundbar or AV receiver, make sure your Apple TV’s audio settings match your setup. Go to Settings, Video and Audio, and check your Audio Output and Audio Format settings. Bunny Ears TV passes through whatever audio format Plex provides, so if your server is transcoding audio unnecessarily because the Apple TV’s audio settings are misconfigured, you might get lower quality sound or delayed playback starts.
Try it at night. This sounds like odd advice, but the experience clicks differently after 8pm. During the day, you are more likely to want to choose what you watch. At night, when you are tired and just want something on, the lean-back channel surfing experience makes the most sense. Flip through the guide, land on something that looks interesting, and let it play. That is the use case this app was built for.
Let it run in the background. Bunny Ears TV works well as background television. Put on the Background TV channel or a music station while you do other things. The content keeps playing, the schedule keeps advancing, and you do not have to touch the remote. When something catches your ear, look up. That is the whole point.
Troubleshooting
“I signed in but no channels appeared.” This usually means your Plex library metadata is still loading. Give it 15 to 20 seconds on a large library. If channels still do not appear, check that your Plex server is online and reachable from the official Plex app on the same Apple TV. If Plex cannot reach the server, Bunny Ears TV cannot either.
“Most of my channels are empty or have very few items.” This is a library size issue, not a bug. Bunny Ears TV cannot create content that does not exist. If you have 100 movies concentrated in two or three genres, only those genre channels will have meaningful programming. The solution is either to expand your library or to focus on the channels that are well-populated and ignore the rest. The free tier is a good way to test whether your library is deep enough to support the experience before paying for the full lineup.
“The stream keeps buffering.” Test the same content in the official Plex app. If it buffers there too, the issue is your network or server, not Bunny Ears TV. Common fixes: switch to wired Ethernet, reduce Plex’s remote streaming quality, make sure nothing else on your network is saturating your bandwidth, and check that your Plex server’s CPU is not maxed out from transcoding. If the content plays fine in the official Plex app but buffers in Bunny Ears TV, that is worth reporting.
“The guide shows programs but nothing plays when I select a channel.” This is rare but can happen if your Plex server’s streaming URL has changed (common after a server restart or IP change) or if the Plex token has expired. Sign out of Bunny Ears TV and sign back in. This refreshes the server connection and token.
“I want to create my own channels.” Bunny Ears TV does not currently support custom channels. All 200+ channels are pre-built with curated metadata filters. If you want full control over which content appears on which channel, tools like ErsatzTV or Tunarr are built exactly for that use case. They require Docker and more setup, but they give you complete control. You can also run both: ErsatzTV on your server for custom channels through an IPTV player, and Bunny Ears TV on your Apple TV for the pre-built lineup. They do not interfere with each other.
What Bunny Ears TV Is Not
To set expectations clearly:
It is not a Plex replacement. You still need the Plex app for managing your library, editing metadata, adding users, and anything administrative. Bunny Ears TV is a viewing experience layer on top of your existing setup.
It is not a general-purpose media player. It does not support direct play of exotic codecs or bitstream audio passthrough. It uses Plex’s standard HLS transcoding for playback. If you need features like lossless audio passthrough or client-side decoding of niche formats, that is a different category of app.
It is not available on any platform other than Apple TV right now. There is no iOS version, no Android version, no web app. Just tvOS.
It is not a DVR. It does not record live TV, it does not capture OTA broadcasts, and it does not integrate with TV tuners. If you want live OTA television alongside your Plex library, Channels DVR is the tool for that.
Getting Help
If you run into something this guide does not cover, the Bunny Ears TV website at bunnyearstv.com has a FAQ section that covers the most common questions. There is also a growing community around the app where you can ask questions, report issues, and suggest features.
If you hit a bug, the most helpful thing you can do is note which channel you were on, what content was playing (or trying to play), and what happened. Reproducible bugs get fixed fastest.
The Bottom Line
Setup takes about two minutes: download the app, sign in with Plex, and start surfing. If you have a Plex library and an Apple TV, there is nothing else to buy, install, or configure. The free tier gives you enough channels to know whether this is your kind of thing, and if it is, the lifetime purchase is a one-time cost that gives you permanent access to the full lineup.
The whole point of this app is to solve a specific problem: you have a great library and nothing to watch. Not because the content is bad, but because the experience of choosing is exhausting. Bunny Ears TV takes the choosing away and gives you channels instead. Some people find that freeing. Some people prefer to pick exactly what they watch. Both approaches are valid, and both can coexist on the same Apple TV.
Download it, try the free channels, and see if it clicks.