home theatre and network setup tips and ideas?!

[CultHero]

With the recent addition on an HDMI compatible receiver and new plasma TV, I am looking to pick up an Apple TV. I currently have two macs, an intel iMac and a G4 powerbook. I don't have as much drive space as I once thought I had with the 250 gig iMac and the 80 gig Powerbook. Both are backed up to a partioned 500 gig external HD.

Part of the reason for getting the Apple TV is to provide a third location to back up my music and photos but I am considering getting a larger external HD to support more storage.

Question time.

Would it be best to connect the external HD to the Apple TV? Then both my mac's could access it over the network?

If I was to get a larger external drive would I be able to stream from that drive to the Apple TV or do you need to download to the Apple TV drive first before you listen to or view a file?

Basically I am trying to centrally locate the lionshare of my files with all my AV equipment (my router and modem are already in the same rack as my receiver etc). I would like to turn my macs into peripheral devices that access the files etc remotely but aren't the main storage location for my photos and music.

Is this wise or even possible?

Thanks!

 

[FF_productions]

With the recent addition on an HDMI compatible receiver and new plasma TV, I am looking to pick up an Apple TV. I currently have two macs, an intel iMac and a G4 powerbook. I don't have as much drive space as I once thought I had with the 250 gig iMac and the 80 gig Powerbook. Both are backed up to a partioned 500 gig external HD.

Part of the reason for getting the Apple TV is to provide a third location to back up my music and photos but I am considering getting a larger external HD to support more storage.

Question time.

Would it be best to connect the external HD to the Apple TV? Then both my mac's could access it over the network?

If I was to get a larger external drive would I be able to stream from that drive to the Apple TV or do you need to download to the Apple TV drive first before you listen to or view a file?

Basically I am trying to centrally locate the lionshare of my files with all my AV equipment (my router and modem are already in the same rack as my receiver etc). I would like to turn my macs into peripheral devices that access the files etc remotely but aren't the main storage location for my photos and music.

Is this wise or even possible?

Thanks!

1. Connect it to the iMac and share from there.

2. You can connect, for example sake, a terabyte drive to your iMac, and stream that content onto the apple TV. That is what I'm currently doing via my own Mac Pro to apple TV.

 

[LeoFio]

Content is streamed and/or synced from your computer to the Apple TV, not vice-versa. Basically Apple TV makes the content on your computer available for viewing on your TV, but you cannot access the content that is on Apple TV from another computer.

Unfortunately Apple TV does not make a good backup device because if the content is lost from your computer that has all your music and movies, and Apple TV tries to sync from this computer, the Apple TV content will be erased since the files cannot be located.

In summary, one of your macs will be your main storage location for everything. Apple TV will access the content from there. Your other Mac will be able to access the files via itunes sharing. Hope that helps.

 

[CultHero]

okay, thanks for the responses. It seems that using the Apple Tv as backup is not going to work. That has led me down the path of getting time capsule to use as my wireless router (going n in the process) and backing up everything to it. Can I point my Apple Tv to my time capsule or does it need to go to a mac?

 

[bacaramac]

okay, thanks for the responses. It seems that using the Apple Tv as backup is not going to work. That has led me down the path of getting time capsule to use as my wireless router (going n in the process) and backing up everything to it. Can I point my Apple Tv to my time capsule or does it need to go to a mac?

I use Time Capsule as my media drive and not a back-up drive. I use another HD for back-ups. The only downside is you have to remount drive before you open iTunes if you keep all your media on this drive or iTunes will default back to the iMac hard drive if the Time Capsule is not available. Not a big issue, but something Apple should fix.

EDIT: Mounting HD is only required if you reboot or disconnect drive.