Original AppleTV to ATV2?

[heatherw10]

I've been researching my problem for days trying to figure this out, with no luck. Maybe someone here can help!

My problem is: I have several TV shows & movies that I bought over the past year on my original AppleTV. I never synced them to my computer because 1. it took FOREVER and 2. I don't want all of the files stored on my computer hard drive (they wouldn't fit).

I recently bought a ATV2 for another room in my house. I want to be able to watch the shows and movies I bought on my old ATV on my new one. I have AirPlay turned on so the ATV2 does pick up shows & music that I have saved on my iTunes.

Is there any way to be able to do this - get my purchased files from the old AppleTV to stream to the new one? I looked into AirPort Extreme & Time Capsule. I don't really want to dish out the money for either of those though if I don't have to, as I'm not even sure if it's the solution!

Any help or advice on where to find a solution is appreciated!

Heather

 

[ipedro]

Not without going through a computer. You need to get your movies into iTunes to be able to then stream them to your new tv.

I would suggest buying an external hard drive (large enough to fit all your movies and tv shows) and transfer your iTunes library to that. Once there, you can sync your original tv to your iTunes.

I wish iTunes would allow you to distinguish your music library from your video library so you could keep music on your internal HDD and video on a larger external.

This will all be irrelevant once Apple introduces a cloud iTunes where none of your files are stored locally. In the meantime, try the solution above.

 

[roland.g]

Not without going through a computer. You need to get your movies into iTunes to be able to then stream them to your new tv.

I would suggest buying an external hard drive (large enough to fit all your movies and tv shows) and transfer your iTunes library to that. Once there, you can sync your original tv to your iTunes.

I wish iTunes would allow you to distinguish your music library from your video library so you could keep music on your internal HDD and video on a larger external.

This will all be irrelevant once Apple introduces a cloud iTunes where none of your files are stored locally. In the meantime, try the solution above.

Based on the way iTunes organizes media now, you should be able to keep whatever content you want in your iTunes folder on your internal, say a laptop, but then have the Movies and maybe TV Shows folders which will be the largest simply be alias folders that point to a folder of that name on your external. Just don't try to access those files when you are not connected to the drive or it will give you a locate error message. Also, I'm pretty sure any movies, tv shows, etc that you buy will have to be moved over to the external after download and relocated. I don't think it will download them direct to the external in that setup.

However, if this is your problem, I would suggest a low end iMac or Mac Mini at home as a iTunes server and then use Home Sharing to copy and keep current all your music files on your laptop. If that is what you are trying to accomplish.

 

[heatherw10]

Excellent, thank you for your help!!

I'm getting an iMac for my house for Christmas. Do you think that my files from the old AppleTV will sync to this a lot quicker than they do my MacBook? Or is this an outside issue with the ATV?

And does Airport Extreme or Time Capsule serve as a wireless external? I would have to have my iTunes open on my laptop, I understand that... but store everything on one of those, rather than a standard external?

 

[heatherw10]

Well, in trying to sync my Original ATV over to my macbook to see if I could do it... it copied 4 episodes of a TV show successfully, then it completely wiped my ATV.

Now all 100+ episodes of TV shows up in my iTunes under STORE > Purchased on AppleTV -- but they are gray and I can't click them. My ATV itself is empty.

I've been reading around and have seen that this has happened to many others so if someone just has a direct link to a solution... if there *crossing my fingers* is one. I watch the TV show episodes regularly on my ATV and am very upset if I can't get them back on there.