Locating iTunes Movies/TV Shows folders on a NAS?

[skp574]

Like most here I am in the process of converting my DVDs to play on an ATV (which I don't have yet). I have had a long play with a friends so know the deal with it.

What I want to do is store all my Movies and TV Shows on my NAS drive at home but leave all my music on my MBP's internal drive.

I have had a play with creating an alias of the movies folder on the NAS and putting it in my iTunes folder. Is this the best way to do it. Is there a more elegant way of doing it? It is an SMB share on an ICY BOX NAS and I'm running Leopard.

Thanks for any help.

 

[williedigital]

Like most here I am in the process of converting my DVDs to play on an ATV (which I don't have yet). I have had a long play with a friends so know the deal with it.

What I want to do is store all my Movies and TV Shows on my NAS drive at home but leave all my music on my MBP's internal drive.

I have had a play with creating an alias of the movies folder on the NAS and putting it in my iTunes folder. Is this the best way to do it. Is there a more elegant way of doing it? It is an SMB share on an ICY BOX NAS and I'm running Leopard.

Thanks for any help.

I don't believe so, so long as you are letting itunes manage your files.

 

[jhsfosho]

I just started using iTunes Drive-in. It allows me to keep my videos on an external drive while still having iTunes keep all my music organized on my internal drive. It creates a small file 2-3 mb and puts it in the movies folder, and that points to the file in the external drive. Setting it up is pretty straight forward I thought, so you might give it a shot.

iTunes Drive-in

 

[skp574]

Ok, here's the deal.

I created an alias pointing to where I've got my movies stored on my NAS and popped it into the iTunes music folder. It seemed to confuse iTunes. So I have disabled Copy files to iTunes Music folder... to importing that way, which seems to work.

There is a delay when browsing through my movies using Coverflow and I only have 10 at the moment. This was not what I was hoping for.

I am not sure if it is because it is an SMB share, as I had a similar quirk before which a Buffalo Terastation.

 

[jhsfosho]

You should give the program a try, because I think it seems to work well. I've been happy with it. I have about 15 movies on my external and it flows very nicely in cover flow. I also have 10 or so music videos that I use with it.

 

[jhsfosho]

I think I just read something that says you can simply add a file to iTunes by using (option) + drag the file into iTunes. This will allow you to keep the file on the NAS, and still have iTunes recognize that the file is there, but on the NAS. Either option should be quicker than using an alias.

 

[MikieMikie]

I've posted this a few times already, but here goes again:

There are two ways to do it:
1. Reset the "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library"
Make sure this is unchecked.
OR
2. option - drag 'n' drop the file onto the Library.

Either of those will add a "reference/alias/shortcut" to your movie in iTunes.

Depending on latency, you may see a little stutter when starting to scroll through your movies. I experienced the same initial hesitation when I had 10 movies as I do now, with > 120.

 

[FreeState]

1. Reset the "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library"
Make sure this is unchecked.
OR
2. option - drag 'n' drop the file onto the Library.
.

OR you could create an iTunes library for movies only and store that on the NAS. Hold down the option key and then click on the iTunes icon until a dialog comes up that asks you to choose or create a library. Then you can choose where to create a library etc. Next time you want to go back to the previous library you do the same but just choose the other library instead of creating a new one (see pic). Then if you want to you can create another user on your mac and have the library open in an itunes instance there - that way sharing makes it available to iTunes and the AppleTV no matter which user is open on the Mac.

 

[skp574]

I just started using iTunes Drive-in. It allows me to keep my videos on an external drive while still having iTunes keep all my music organized on my internal drive. It creates a small file 2-3 mb and puts it in the movies folder, and that points to the file in the external drive. Setting it up is pretty straight forward I thought, so you might give it a shot.

iTunes Drive-in

I like the idea of creating .mov container files, it makes browsing faster. Just before I go off to check the specs of the ATV, can you confirm that by doing this they will stream to an ATV as I can't check it at my end.

 

[JonHimself]

OR you could create an iTunes library for movies only and store that on the NAS. Hold down the option key and then click on the iTunes icon until a dialog comes up that asks you to choose or create a library. Then you can choose where to create a library etc. Next time you want to go back to the previous library you do the same but just choose the other library instead of creating a new one (see pic). Then if you want to you can create another user on your mac and have the library open in an itunes instance there - that way sharing makes it available to iTunes and the AppleTV no matter which user is open on the Mac.

This is what I've done. My music is on my MBP. I also have re-encoded some of my DVD rips with the iPhone setting in VisualHub to have when I'm not at home. Then I have an additional iTunes library on my external drive. The difference between what FreeState has done and what I have done is that my external iTunes library also has copies of my music. It's annoying and takes up more space but I hate having to switch libraries to easily play music.