This is what I am trying to do. I have a huge iTunes library which resides on my MBP. The music itself is on the external drive connected to my mac mini which is in the closet. I can play the music from my MBP fine, send the music to external speakers etc. That's fine but, while I am listening to the music I would like to open my temporary iTunes library which I use to edit tags for the new songs before I put it in my main library. The problem is that I can't open 2 libraries at the same time. Can I use AppleTV to stream music from one library from my iTunes without that library being open on my MBP? Right now what I am able to do but it takes like 10 min every time I want to make this work. I am able to open the iTunes library over the network on my other MBP but it's just to cumbersome. I have to connect to the computer which has the library then open that library in my Itunes and that takes about 5min because the library is HUGE and then after that another minute to connect to the external speakers. Could AppleTV solve this?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Can AppleTV play music from MBP library without iTunes open on the MBP?
- Thread starter tarsierspectral
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
That's right. The
TV2 has 4GB of internal memory (is that right?) which you can't control/manipulate. It accepts streaming content from you iTunes library (notice how when you start a film there's a white bar that advances along the bottom ahead of the blue playhead). And when you stream the next film it'll wipe off the old one and accept the newer content.I don't really understand the full technicalities but someone described it like that to me.
I don't have one yet.
OK, so let's say I move my iTunes library to Mac mini in a closet and always keep it open. I will be able to to access that library on AppleTV right? Do I have to have AppleTV hooked up to a TV/Screen? Can I just have the AppleTV show up on an iPad for example? I just want to have a portable player that I can take to any room in the house and play music whenever I feel like without physically walking to a screen AppleTV is hooked up to.
thanks
OK, so let's say I move my iTunes library to Mac mini in a closet and always keep it open. I will be able to to access that library on AppleTV right? Do I have to have AppleTV hooked up to a TV/Screen? Can I just have the AppleTV show up on an iPad for example? I just want to have a portable player that I can take to any room in the house and play music whenever I feel like without physically walking to a screen AppleTV is hooked up to.
thanks
yes that's what i do
you'll need a TV screen to be able to configure it, and for updating the software etc.
you can control it using the remote app on iphone/ipad though, so technically no TV required once configured.
That's right. The
I don't really understand the full technicalities but someone described it like that to me.
Thats right, but it has 8gb of memory not 4
no, you could just attach the mini to the tv using the built in HDMI port
great, can I play my playlists? Can I search songs?
----------
The other guy just said yes, you said no. Hmmm....
What would be the benefit of connecting it to the mini? Mini has no screen attached to it and it is in a closet
is what the same interface as front row ?
if you already have an iphone/ipad then download the remote app and you'll see what it's like
maybe you don't, depends how you want to play your content and how mobile you want it to be.
I don't think he meant connecting the ATV2 to the Mac Mini via HDMI. He more than likely meant that, if you do buy a mini, you might as well skip the ATV2, since the mini can do much more than the ATV2 can without a jailbreak. Sure, you can still buy an ATV2 in addition to the mini, but why spend the extra $100?