Playing .MOV files on a TV

[robby20]

I have a 4tb Mac formatted external drive full of years of IMovie-downloaded home movies. They all show up in Imovie and I can view and edit them from my Mac.

Is there not a way to play these .MOV files directly to my TV via Apple TV (or some other players like WDTV Live) WITHOUT having to play them through Imovie and then use Airplay? That doesn't work very well, it often clicks off if it works at all, and won't play the movies full-screen.

I so badly don't want to have to convert them all to another format.