Newb Question: Managing Media

[Josh-H]

Newbie question for Apple TV.

I know apple TV access's movies and music through itunes. So movies on my laptop hard drive for example have to be dragged into itunes and then sync'd with the apple TV.

My question is - does iTunes take a copy of the movie and store it somewhere on my laptop or does it just reference it in its current location?
In other words, If I have a movie file on my desktop and drag it into itunes so I can watch it on my apple TV is itunes copying the movie somewhere on my laptop effectivley meaning I have two copies on my laptop?

If its just referencing it in its current location then is it possible to store all my movies on a network attached 1TB NAS drive and just drag the movies on it into itunes to get them into my apple TV?

Thanks - just getting my head around the setup.

 

[coogee]

It depends if you have set (under Preferences > Advanced) for iTunes to 'Copy Music to iTunes Folder'. If you have then I think (note: not 100% certain about Movies) that it will duplicate your Movie into your iTunes folder.

If you don't have this set it definitely will not copy the file, it will just keep a reference. This is how I manage my iTunes Music library, all stored on NAS, all dragged into iTunes with the 'Cpy Music...' unchecked.


It's most definitely possible to have your media on a NAS but referenced through iTunes. I have my entire Library on a Time Capsule as I like the 'always on' aspect of the Time Capsule.

 

[Josh-H]

Thank you.