All you great Apple TV minds out there--would this work?

[JW008]

Here's the deal: I really want to be able to put videos and music on the hard drive of an Apple TV without keeping them on the hard drive of my iMac. I understand that currently I cannot do this because every time I sync my Apple TV to my iMac, all the music and videos I deleted off my hard drive on my iMac will delete from the hard drive on my Apple TV as well.

Here's my plan: I am about to purchase Time Capsule. Could I use it (or any other external hard drive for that matter) to stream my music and videos to my iMac and then copy them to the hard drive on my Apple TV (or for that matter, stream them)? This way I can save the space on my iMac AND put all the videos that Time Capsule can handle on my Apple TV?

One step further: If I wanted to create another account on my iMac and solely use it for Apple TV, is that possible? That way I could have my "regular" iTunes library on my normal administrator account that I update my iPods and iPhone with, listen to, etc. and then my "Apple TV" iTunes library on my "Apple TV" account that I update my Apple TV with. Would I be able to stream from iTunes on my "Apple TV" account even when my "Normal" account is the one that's active?

One last bonus question: how well do videos/music stream from your Macs to your Apple TVs? Well enough to not have to worry about putting much on the Apple TV hard drive?

I know this is a bit of a workaround, but I'm quickly filling up the internal hard drive of my iMac, but really want to store (or stream) a huge amount of video/music to my Apple TV. If someone can confirm that I can do all of this, I'm ordering my Apple TV this evening!

Thanks guys and girls---you really are the most knowledgeable Apple people out there! I appreciate all the help!

 

[jsw]

Here's my plan: I am about to purchase Time Capsule. Could I use it (or any other external hard drive for that matter) to stream my music and videos to my iMac and then copy them to the hard drive on my Apple TV (or for that matter, stream them)? This way I can save the space on my iMac AND put all the videos that Time Capsule can handle on my Apple TV?

I believe but am not certain that the Time Capsule can be also used simply as a network drive. If so, then you can store your iTunes library on it instead of on your iMac, and although your ATV would sync with your iMac, it'd actually be syncing with files stored on the TC, not the iMac.

One step further: If I wanted to create another account on my iMac and solely use it for Apple TV, is that possible? That way I could have my "regular" iTunes library on my normal administrator account that I update my iPods and iPhone with, listen to, etc. and then my "Apple TV" iTunes library on my "Apple TV" account that I update my Apple TV with. Would I be able to stream from iTunes on my "Apple TV" account even when my "Normal" account is the one that's active?

I would think so, but this doesn't remove the need to use your iMac's disk space. Edit: no, actually, I think the proper account needs to be active. You could use fast user switching to have both logged in, but you can only, I think, run iTunes from one at a time.

One last bonus question: how well do videos/music stream from your Macs to your Apple TVs? Well enough to not have to worry about putting much on the Apple TV hard drive?

It works fine, if your wired/wireless bandwidth is decent. Mine has no problems streaming at all.

I know this is a bit of a workaround, but I'm quickly filling up the internal hard drive of my iMac, but really want to store (or stream) a huge amount of video/music to my Apple TV. If someone can confirm that I can do all of this, I'm ordering my Apple TV this evening!

You can absolutely do what you want with an external drive attached to the iMac. I'm uncertain that you can do it with a TC, but that's just because I don't have one yet to verify it'd work.

 

[MikieMikie]

Here's the deal: I really want to be able to put videos and music on the hard drive of an Apple TV without keeping them on the hard drive of my iMac.

Not a problem. I sync some content from an external HDD that is connected to my Mac. In addition, I sync other content from a HDD that's connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station (AirDisk).

No media has to live on your Mac -- you just need to "option-drop" the media into iTunes so iTunes creates a reference to the media and does not copy it into its internal library. There have been lots of posts for this, and optionally, you can turn off "Copy to my library" in the iTunes preferences.

Here's my plan: I am about to purchase Time Capsule. Could I use it (or any other external hard drive for that matter) to stream my music and videos to my iMac and then copy them to the hard drive on my Apple TV (or for that matter, stream them)? This way I can save the space on my iMac AND put all the videos that Time Capsule can handle on my Apple TV?

The consensus here is that Time Capsule is not going to be just an external drive and cannot be used as one.

One step further: If I wanted to create another account on my iMac and solely use it for Apple TV, is that possible? That way I could have my "regular" iTunes library on my normal administrator account that I update my iPods and iPhone with, listen to, etc. and then my "Apple TV" iTunes library on my "Apple TV" account that I update my Apple TV with. Would I be able to stream from iTunes on my "Apple TV" account even when my "Normal" account is the one that's active?

Sure. There are other recommendations for using multiple iTunes libraries. Just search for them.
One last bonus question: how well do videos/music stream from your Macs to your Apple TVs? Well enough to not have to worry about putting much on the Apple TV hard drive?

I know this is a bit of a workaround, but I'm quickly filling up the internal hard drive of my iMac, but really want to store (or stream) a huge amount of video/music to my Apple TV. If someone can confirm that I can do all of this, I'm ordering my Apple TV this evening!
Thanks guys and girls---you really are the most knowledgeable Apple people out there! I appreciate all the help!

I stream video, sync audio and photos. Enjoy your new toy!

 

[JW008]

I would think so, but this doesn't remove the need to use your iMac's disk space. Edit: no, actually, I think the proper account needs to be active. You could use fast user switching to have both logged in, but you can only, I think, run iTunes from one at a time.

Two questions along these lines--

1) I could keep my "normal" iTunes library on my iMac and then stream my "Apple TV" from an external hard drive/Time Capsule? I know that's doubling up on some things, but it would be worth it to me.

2) If I put the media on the actual hard drive of the Apple TV, would I still have to have iTunes running on my computer?

Thanks for your help!

 

[MikieMikie]

Two questions along these lines--

1) I could keep my "normal" iTunes library on my iMac and then stream my "Apple TV" from an external hard drive/Time Capsule? I know that's doubling up on some things, but it would be worth it to me.

They would (technically) still be the same library. Films you have on the external HDD do not have to be physically present in your Mac's iTunes library in order to sync or stream content to the Apple TV. The Apple TV (and iTunes, for that matter) don't really care where the media really lives.

2) If I put the media on the actual hard drive of the Apple TV, would I still have to have iTunes running on my computer?

Thanks for your help!

Once the media resides on Apple TV, it no longer needs iTunes.

Think of Apple TV as a big iPod. Once you sync it, the media lives there. If you remove it from iTunes and re=sync, it will be removed from the Apple TV.

It'll be a little different for Take 2.

 

[jsw]

1) I could keep my "normal" iTunes library on my iMac and then stream my "Apple TV" from an external hard drive/Time Capsule? I know that's doubling up on some things, but it would be worth it to me.

All in all, I think it'd work much better just to throw the whole library onto the external and sync/stream from there. I do that, and it works quite well. But, as mentioned above, iTunes doesn't care where the files are. Just be sure not to trip over yourself.

2) If I put the media on the actual hard drive of the Apple TV, would I still have to have iTunes running on my computer?

Thanks for your help!

Edit: See above for a better explanation than what I wrote.

 

[JW008]

Thanks guys! I'm ordering it later this afternoon!