AppleTV and Time Capsule

[rball1979]

I'm in the process of thinking how I can better my Entertainment set up. Currently I have all my movies, music, TV shows etc on a 1TB USB drive connected to my Vista machine which then syncs to my Apple TV. I want to use my Vista machine for something else which would involve it being out of use for holding movies etc.

What I'd like to do is hold everything on the Time Capsule and control it via iTunes from my MBA. A couple questions:

1) Will everything sync up correctly as it currently does? Assuming I take organization off and point the Music folder to the TV
2) Apart from not being to access the data when I'm off the network, what other limitations can you see?
3) Any improvements or suggestions anyone can think of?

 

[kolax]

1. Yes, everything will work correctly.
2. When backing up using Time Machine, I'd imagine streams to the Apple TV would be impacted - others with this setup will be able to confirm.

If I were you, I'd buy an external hard drive that is capable of RAID 1 (two hard drives in the enclosure are mirrored) so you have a backup of all your media if one drive failed. Then plug that into your Time Capsule, allowing your backups and media to be separate, plus with the RAID 1 format additional backup incase of disaster.

My current setup is identical to that.

 

[rball1979]

1. Yes, everything will work correctly.
2. When backing up using Time Machine, I'd imagine streams to the Apple TV would be impacted - others with this setup will be able to confirm.

If I were you, I'd buy an external hard drive that is capable of RAID 1 (two hard drives in the enclosure are mirrored) so you have a backup of all your media if one drive failed. Then plug that into your Time Capsule, allowing your backups and media to be separate, plus with the RAID 1 format additional backup incase of disaster.

My current setup is identical to that.

2) I wouldn't imagine that they would be any more impacted than they currently are though? Connect from USB to Vista, then WIFI to Apple TV.

With regards to the RAID drive that's not a bad idea...plus would give me more drive space for expansion...I'll definately look into that

 

[kolax]

2) I wouldn't imagine that they would be any more impacted than they currently are though? Connect from USB to Vista, then WIFI to Apple TV.

With regards to the RAID drive that's not a bad idea...plus would give me more drive space for expansion...I'll definately look into that

But if you are backing up to Time Machine as well as reading from the drive to stream to the Apple TV, even on N, I'd imagine there would be some lag. Backing up to a Time Machine hard drive and streaming from it via USB or Ethernet would be fine. Someone else can clarify the performance of backing up to the Time Machine as well as streaming from it to your Apple TV via WiFi.

 

[rball1979]

But if you are backing up to Time Machine as well as reading from the drive to stream to the Apple TV, even on N, I'd imagine there would be some lag. Backing up to a Time Machine hard drive and streaming from it via USB or Ethernet would be fine. Someone else can clarify the performance of backing up to the Time Machine as well as streaming from it to your Apple TV via WiFi.

I've been thinking about turning off the backup functionality anyway seeing as I only use my MBA for basic stuff so if it ever did die, it could be easily sorted. But yeah, I see your point.

 

[keeper]

If you use the time capsule for back ups of your MBA eventually they will fill the time capsule leaving no space to add more media unless you delete historic backups.

I now have a time capsule for back ups and a NAS for media which i back to to a USB external drive.

 

[rball1979]

If you use the time capsule for back ups of your MBA eventually they will fill the time capsule leaving no space to add more media unless you delete historic backups.

I now have a time capsule for back ups and a NAS for media which i back to to a USB external drive.

I intend, for now, to hook up my 1TB drive to the TC via USB and use that to store the media. I only have the 500MD TC so it's not really practical for expansion

 

[lokipower]

But if you are backing up to Time Machine as well as reading from the drive to stream to the Apple TV, even on N, I'd imagine there would be some lag. Backing up to a Time Machine hard drive and streaming from it via USB or Ethernet would be fine. Someone else can clarify the performance of backing up to the Time Machine as well as streaming from it to your Apple TV via WiFi.

To credit Kilamite, I agree...I used the TC to stream music and videos. Music played okay, (after about a 15 second Warm up lag from the TC, but videos....No way. I very quickly purchased a Firewire 800 - 2 TB drive to hold my media, and have it connected to the Mac (Naturally). Much better. The TC works great for the backups and temporary storage, but it has a terrible response time due to the spinning down of the drives. My TC is used as a wireless access point to my existing network, and of course for storage of static files. Using it for media just did not work out for me in that regard. Hope that helps.

 

[Upchuckdown]

Time Capsule

ok here it goes...

ive heard the time capsule has very slow transfer rates both on wifi and with usb cable

i have two 1tb seagate external hard drives hooked up to a brand new macbook pro with 2.8ghz processor and 4gb of ram

ive heard that the time capsule MUST be plugged in with a wire directly TO the cable modem

can anyone tell me what the transfer rates of the time capsule are (both wired and wireless) , if i DO indeed have to plug the time capsule into the cable modem (modem is two bedrooms away from the laptop at time being)

can i use it as an external hard drive and not to back up files i already have...(instead of mirroring or copying what i already have on the lap hdd)

and is it worth spending the 300$ (found on ebay) on the time capsule for its wireless properties (the actual real time real life transfer rates of wifi compared to wired time capsule and wired seagate drives is whats gonna influence my decision) or should i just buy another 1tb external seagate

fill a new mac user in

be objective and use facts...dont attempt to persuade with gimmicks or apple propaganda or preference

 

[rball1979]

Well I rejigged everything this weekend and hung my 1TB WD drive off my TC. Mixed results.....the music/video/tv shows play absolutely fine on the ATV but itunes is painfully slow...it's useable, but slow. I think it's partly down to the lack of performance of my 1.8 MBA but I'm not sure.

BUT it is noice to have all my media in once place..just need to back it all up now

 

[kolax]

1. ive heard that the time capsule MUST be plugged in with a wire directly TO the cable modem

2. can i use it as an external hard drive and not to back up files i already have...(instead of mirroring or copying what i already have on the lap hdd)

3. and is it worth spending the 300$ (found on ebay) on the time capsule for its wireless properties (the actual real time real life transfer rates of wifi compared to wired time capsule and wired seagate drives is whats gonna influence my decision) or should i just buy another 1tb external seagate

1. Well obviously! It is a wireless router, so if you want it to work as a router for your internet, then you need to plug it into your cable modem!

2. Yes.

3. Buy another 1TB hard drive. I really don't see the desire for Time Capsule. Yes, wireless backups are useful, but the speed is so slow. Maybe when we see decent transfer speeds that it'll become more attractive.

 

[Dino1956]

Question ? TC & TV & Mac Mini Wired

I know this is an old Post but if someone could give me an answer I'd appreciate it. I want to use the TC for my Media, not for Time Machine. I'm plugging my Mac Mini through the Gigabit Ethernet Port, not Wireless. So my Mac is hardwired. Would I then be able to stream media to the Apple TV with any better (faster) results? Thanks in Advance!

 

[daferrisda]

Hi Dino1956

I don't have a dedicated Mac available to stream and sync my Apple TV. So I setup another account on my Macbook which has another iTunes Library setup, this uses my Time Capsule to store it's media.

It works great, however as I have a Macbook Air which doesn't have an ethernet port I'm stuck using WiFi, which is dog slow and syncing, however if your using ethernet then you should have no problems syncing or streaming.

 

[Dino1956]

Thank you Kind Sir! That is the answer I was hoping for. I stream everything to ATV except my Photos. Thanks again!