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Delete from Mac without deleting from AppleTV

superleccy

superleccy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 31, 2004
997
187
That there big London
I've just got a 160GB AppleTV, and it's great.

My Mac is a MBP with a 160GB HD. All of this is taken up with Logic Studio, stuff I need for work, and my iTunes library which is 40GB of music plus however much video I can spare the space for (which is usually zero).

I've got a whole load more video (probably another 40GB or more - mostly LOST from the iTMS, and recordings from my EyeTV) archived onto an external RAID 1 drive.

So... I want to keep all my iTunes music on my MBP, along with maybe the latest episodes of video as I can spare the space. I also want the rest of my video archive to be accesible thru :apple:TV without having to store it on my MBP.

Is there a way I can "split" my iTunes library so the majority of my movies live on my external drive, but are still part of the iTunes library, so :apple:TV syncs them?

If so, what would happen if :apple:TV subsequently tried to sync with iTunes whilst my MPB wasn't connected to my external HD?

Or, could i get a Time Capsule, have a second iTunes libary on there and have :apple:TV sync with both of them?

Or is there a hack?

Any other suggestions?

Cheers & Thanks
SL
 
I store my movies files on my external drive. To get my movies into iTunes so I can sync then I hold down the option key while dragging my files into iTunes. This creates an alias to the movie file stored on the external drive. This way the movie files are not copied to the iTunes library saving space on my main hd. They show up in iTunes so I am able to select those movies to sync to my appletv.

Hope this helps
Jason
 
I had the same problem. As do you, I keep my movie files on an external hard drive. I solved my problem by making an alias copy of each movie file, which I placed in my iTunes Movie folder. You do this by dragging a movie file’s icon from the folder in which it is stored on your external drive and dropping it in the iTunes Movie folder while holding down the Apple key and Option key. Then, sync the movies that you have copied to your Apple TV. After that, your Apple TV won’t know that the tiny alias files it sees in your iTunes Movie folder aren’t the huge movie files that you store externally. It should work the same with music files -- only a lot faster. :)

What I like best about this solution is that it relieves me of having to have my computer up with iTunes running before being able to watch a movie on Apple TV.

By the way, I have ordered a Time Capsule, which should arrive by tomorrow or Monday. I haven’t decided yet whether to dedicate part of its hard drive to movie file storage. I am currently using a 250 gig OWC FireWire drive to store my movies and for Time Machine backups. After I point Time Machine to the Time Capsule and delete the backup files from my FireWire drive, I should have sufficient movie storage capacity for awhile.

Edit: Jason beat me to it. :)
 
would this work over a wireless router and hard drive (time capsule or another)? that is, does the HD and router need to see the MBP in order to play those movies? or it jsut needs it to sync the movies, then they are on the :apple:TV?
 
I use a Time Capsule for just this purpose. Once the file has been synced to the AppleTV neither the Time Capsule nor iTunes needs to be on. iTunes only needs to be running and be able to see the file if you want to stream it.
 
Marvin1379 said:
would this work over a wireless router and hard drive (time capsule or another)? that is, does the HD and router need to see the MBP in order to play those movies? or it jsut needs it to sync the movies, then they are on the :apple:TV?
Click to expand...

Depends what setup you have. If you have enough space on your Apple TV to sync all your stuff, then great. If not, then the best option is an external hard drive plugged into a router (i.e. Airport Extreme), store all your data on that, and anything that isn't synced to the Apple TV (because it is full) will be streamed off the external hard drive.

Only downside to streaming is you have to have iTunes running on your Mac that is setup with the Apple TV. Unless you invest in an iTunes Server.
 
Excellent information here! Thanks guys. I was thinking of asking the same question. I have an external hard drive hooked to my Time Capsule for use as a network drive. The perfect place for movies. On top of that, the movies can be shared with the other computers in the house.
 
Just found this and it seems like pure genius, exactly what I want to do as I've just picked up an AppleTV.

Only problem is I think I'll have to get myself a TC now as well to plug my external drive into :D
 
That's a plan I have been using since shortly after I got my 160 GB Apple TV in February. At first, I used a FireWire drive for the actual movie files. Since May, when I got a Time Capsule, I have used it to store the actual movie files, and back them up to the FireWire drive, which is now attached to a Windows machine that is on my network. As a matter of fact, I am currently syncing another movie, which i ripped and converted last night. Good luck and three cheers for alias files created in iTunes with the Apple key-option key combination! :)
 
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