Creating Huge iTunes Library or Leave It As Is

[lc25]

Hi All,

Not sure if this is the right place to be posting but i thought it was. Just after some general advice really so i've come to the only place i trust.

I currently have 3 readynas storage arrays containing over 8tb's worth of Tv shows and Movies in all different formats (most are .avi with a smattering of mkvs) i am looking at (doesn't mean i will) adding this content to my iTunes library so that it will play on a ATV downstairs and i will be able to add them easily to my iPad.

Currently i just play the content from the storage area straight through my macbook pro or iMac hooked up to my tv but hoping to get it working with an ATV for the folks downstairs.

So my question is this, Has anyone done this or can you point me in a better direction, i have no issue telling a program to convert the entire content of the drives to said format and then just creating folders and adding them into my iTunes library. I am aware of flashing the ATV when i get it and just playing them as they are from the drives but i am kinda taken up by iTunes managing the content and being able to freely add content to my iPad without having to convert it first as everything would always be the same format before i attempted to watch it. Most of the new content i get is mkv as if you are going to watch it on a 50" tv you may as well not bother with dvd rips does this create further issues ?

Many thanks LC

 

[dlegend]

I think this goes along with your question. Is it possible to have iTunes keep only the music organized not TV shows or Movies? I'd like to not have to worry about keeping my music together but keep all my movies on an external drive until I can get a NAS and a desktop.

To the OP, Handbrake is what you want to use to convert everything. Play around with a few of the settings to make sure you are getting the picture quality you want before you convert everything. You can set it up in a queue to convert everything overnight (or days if needed). There's a script at the top of this section that, while includes inserting a dvd, would probably work for you.

 

[steviem]

This is the only thing I like about Banshee - you can specify the locations for Music, Videos and Podcasts independently of one another.

Anyway, dlegend, iTunes doesn't have that, maybe you could have different library files setup, one for Music and one for Video.

 

[Sedulous]

I think this goes along with your question. Is it possible to have iTunes keep only the music organized not TV shows or Movies? I'd like to not have to worry about keeping my music together but keep all my movies on an external drive until I can get a NAS and a desktop.

To the OP, Handbrake is what you want to use to convert everything. Play around with a few of the settings to make sure you are getting the picture quality you want before you convert everything. You can set it up in a queue to convert everything overnight (or days if needed). There's a script at the top of this section that, while includes inserting a dvd, would probably work for you.

Converting that much video to an iTunes friendly mp4 will not be fun, much less editing file tags. OP, if I were you I would leave everything as is.

 

[Omne666]

Converting that much video to an iTunes friendly mp4 will not be fun, much less editing file tags. OP, if I were you I would leave everything as is.

Shhhhhhh......he doesnt mind converting....let him at least start before he goes 'OHHH CRAP!" and a time display of "....approx 2 years until finished" appears!!! ;-)

Besides...he's will to jailbreak the ATV which will then play his files as is, though that wont help the iPad.

 

[Dobbs2]

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Jailbreak your appletv 2 install Plex on your computer and download the app for your iPad and call it a day.

 

[asnozz]

I have about 2tb of movies and TV in my itunes library. Luckily converting 720p .mkv files doesnt take that long on my mac pro, but if you're running on an older machine I'd try and avoid this procedure. Unlike you I've been converting these shows as they are released/when I get a hold of them, so I havent had an issue with re-labelling thousands of shows.

I used visualhub for a lot of my encoding before moving to handbrake (as I was beginning to find I was having issues with VH).

You mention that you have 8tb's of media; would it be possible for you to create a RAID 0 and have itunes point to this one location?

 

[sdbutler]

Try Air Video

I totally understand you dilemma, I am a little more particular with how my shows are dispalyed, and I love being able to see the Video Artwork, and whatnot through my ATV2.

However, I have found that using Air Video for Ipad, I can Airplay all of my .avi and .mkv files without a problem. It takes about 10 minutes to set up, and you can just use your iPad to aiplay the content through the ATV to your TV. Air Video automatically converts the non mp4/m4v content to play while it is streaming.

I hope its helpful.

 

[newagemac]

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Jailbreak your appletv 2 install Plex on your computer and download the app for your iPad and call it a day.

Plex just added Airplay support. Not much point in jailbreaking the ATV2 now just to play different formats. I prefer using Air Video though. Simpler and more stable and consistent. The Plex app is getting there though on the stability but they have a lot of catching up to do.