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ATV and External Hard Drive
- Thread starter pmart
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
If that external drive is connected to a computer, yes.
If you are wanting to hook a hard drive directly to the
TV, no*
*unless you jailbreak for which I know you could then do this with the first generation, not sure about "2" or "3".
If you are wanting to hook a hard drive directly to the
TV, no**unless you jailbreak for which I know you could then do this with the first generation, not sure about "2" or "3".
Not out of the box
You can have a computer on your network share the external hardware using itunes, all the movies need to be on a iTunes compatible format.
You can read directly from a NAS device or share network hardware drive if you have a jailbroken ATV2, using XBMC or ATV flash
I have an ATV2. I am looking at buying an external hard drive with a network share so I dont have to hard wire into my computer. All the movies I would put on it would be in itunes format. So will that still work? I am assuming by the responses, yes. Also, any recommendations for a good external hard drive? Thanks!
as I said NO out of the box, you still will need iTunes (on a computer) to share it (unless you jailbreak, in that case you will be able to read the HD directly)
The ATV can only access shared iTunes libraries.
That means the sharing computer needs to be turned on, the files need to be in an iTunes compatible format, and the computer needs to be on the same network as the ATV.
Only after jailbraking can you install additional programs like Plex or XBMC that will allow you to access shared drives or NAS drives directly and files which are not iTunes compatible.
That means the sharing computer needs to be turned on, the files need to be in an iTunes compatible format, and the computer needs to be on the same network as the ATV.
Only after jailbraking can you install additional programs like Plex or XBMC that will allow you to access shared drives or NAS drives directly and files which are not iTunes compatible.
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Thanks! My roommate has an external hard drive that shows up in my itunes on my computer. However everything on his external is NOT in itunes format. So I got curious if it was in an itunes format, if the files would be accessible on ATV via itunes on my computer. Thought maybe the shared drive that shows up on itunes would also show up on the ATV. Thats too bad the only way to make it work is by jail breaking it.