How to set up an external HD to stream to ATV?

[codyPT]

My movies library is growing fast and soon I will run out of 160G on my ATV. I read on the forum that some people are streaming their content from an external drive. How would I set this up?

 

[roland.g]

connect an external drive to your Mac or PC. Put all or some of your content there. Point your iTunes libraries to that data or to some of it if that is the case. Leave iTunes running on your Mac or PC. Stream what you want whenever you want.

As far as connecting an external drive to an Apple TV for extra storage at that end. It is not totally impossible but not easy either. What you would have to do is rather complicated and would either involve leaving the case open with the drive connected to it, or replacing the internal drive with a larger one. Either way, you have to hack it first.

 

[codyPT]

how to point iTunes library?

connect an external drive to your Mac or PC. Put all or some of your content there. Point your iTunes libraries to that data or to some of it if that is the case. Leave iTunes running on your Mac or PC. Stream what you want whenever you want.

How do I point my iTunes to that content on the external drive?

 

[roland.g]

connect an external drive to your Mac or PC. Put all or some of your content there. Point your iTunes libraries to that data or to some of it if that is the case. Leave iTunes running on your Mac or PC. Stream what you want whenever you want.

How do I point my iTunes to that content on the external drive?

Do you want all your iTunes data on the external or just the movies?

 

[codyPT]

just the movies

Do you want all your iTunes data on the external or just the movies?

Just the movies since these take so much space.

 

[roland.g]

Just the movies since these take so much space.

Not entirely sure. Not in front of my Mac right now. But what you need to do is copy the Movies folder from within the iTunes music folder to your external. Then either a. or b. a should be easier.

a. Delete all the movies from your iTunes library that you just moved. Tell it not to delete the file (keep file). Then go to iTunes preferences and tell it not to copy files to the iTunes library when adding. Then go to the external and select all the movies. Then drag those files into the iTunes window. It will now add all the movies back into the library, but not copy them to the local drive, keeping your movies separate. You can then verify this with the get info function. Then you can delete the original movies folder off your drive. Go to preferences and recheck the box to copy files to the library so that when you add music or what not it still does. What you have to remember is that each time you add a new movie to change your prefences. Drop it in the external location. Drag to the library to add it. Recheck the box so you don't forget for music.

b. you don't want to know b.

 

[TXCraig]

You can't have a differerent place for movies in one iTunes library. Set your Apple TV to Auto Sync and you never have to worry about it filling up. It does all the work for you and moves newer data to the hard drive and older data stays on the PC or MAC but you can stream it if you should select it to watch. You won't know the difference. Its all done in the background.