Apple TV and Home HD

[macvirgin2013]

Hi there,

I have a MacBook Pro and want to set up a Hard Drive at home that stores all my Music and Movies etc. I have seen that you can have a Hard Drive stored somewhere in the home and be able to access this through the MacBook wirelessly....?

Can someone please offer some simple step by step advice as to how I can set this up? I've heard you need a Hard Drive and a router connected to something? Or is Airport Extreme the way to go?

Also, can Apple TV then access this Hard Drive to play content so I don't have to store all the Music and Movies on my laptop Hard Drive?

One last thing! I promise....How do I go about accessing the hard drive from anywhere in the world? So, say I'm at work, can I tap into the Hard Drive securely over the internet and download whatever I want from there?

Thanks, much appreciated.

 

[tersono]

You can set up a NAS (network-accessible drive) and dump your iTunes library on it. Some will allow you to stream music to other devices direct from the NAS, but it won't work for video or your ATV. The ATV requires a mac with sharing turned on to be able to work. You can, however, mount the iTunes store on the NAS as a network drive and connect iTunes on your mac to that - it'll be slower than having a local library on the Mac, but it will work.

Most NAS devices can be configured to allow sharing over the web. You'll need to set up a secure login (methods differ dependent on the hardware you're using) and then use port forwarding on your router to give you a way to connect from outside.

If you want to do this, I'd recommend Synology's NAS hardware - easy to set up and very Mac-friendly. http://www.synology.com. You'll find all the info you need on their site.

 

[spacepower7]

If you use a time capsule or Airport extreme with external USB drive and access from anywhere in the world ( maybe not China and other places that restrict the Internet ) but depending on your home Internet upload speed, it's not going to be useful for streaming movies and music. The way you can easily connect is via Back to My Mac with your iCloud ID which you setup in the airport utility.

In your situation, since the AppleTV requires a Mac/PC running iTunes to stream your non iTunes store content, your better off putting that media on an external drive connected to your MBP. If you put your media on a time capsule or USB drive connected to the Airport Extreme, it will send a lot more wireless traffic around.

In my understanding...
A
MBP with external USB drive and Airport ( or any wireless router )
Signal flow: AppleTV request media>router>MBP with iTunes with USB>router>AppleTV

B
Media on time capsule, USB on Airport Extreme, or NAS hooked up to router
Signal flow: AppleTV request media>router>MBP with iTunes running>router>media connected to router>MBP with iTunes>router>AppleTV

If this is correct, then the system B is sending the movie to the MBP with iTunes wirelessly then sending the movie back at the same time back to the router then to the AppleTV. This is a waste of bandwidth and may cause problems in certain situations.

Apple really needs to upgrade the system so that iTunes doesn't need to be running on a Mac. Or upgrade the time capsule or airport extreme to be an iTunes server.

Of course if all of your content is purchased thru iTunes or you use iTunes Match on your own music, your can turn off your MBP and you can stream straight to the AppleTV, not hard drive required.

Hope this helps