Sans Digital and AppleTV

[tscholle]

Hi All:

I am looking to get a Sans Digital MN2L NAS unit with a built-in iTunes server so that I can turn my computers off and still have access to an iTunes libary, but this brings up a few questions.

First will this work with my AppleTV?

Second are other people doing it and if so is it worth the money?

Third are there other products out there that do this?

Here is a link to the unit I was looking at:

http://store.sansdigital-shop.com/momn2bayrara.html (Check out the features, built-in iTunes server)

Then I was looking to put these disks in in a RAID-0 and keep my master libary on my G5 and use rsync to keep the two libaries in sync. Also giving me a backup of my libary.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...7f43110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&reqPage=Model

Any thoughts or advice?

Thank you!
Tom Scholle
tom@atomic-city.com

 

[JonHimself]

I'm looking into some way of doing what you want as well. The downside (from what I've read) is that even with the iTunes server built into a NAS you still need to run iTunes on a computer that connects to the NAS' shared library.
The other NAS systems I was looking at were the ReadyNAS NV+ that has 4 drive bays and the Dlink DND-323 which has two drives. I can't really recommend either, those are just the two that I've been looking at.

 

[supercooled]

There doesn't seem to be an all in one solution out there save having a dedicated machine to run OS X and iTunes itself. I guess you could run your iTunes library off a master drive (NAS, DAS, USB, Firewire, et al) and do it that way; the drawback here being AppleTV and Airtunes cannot access it unless another computer is running and mediating. My advice is get a Mac Mini and run it as a 24/7 server.

 

[AVonGauss]

Deleted.

 

[tscholle]

Maybe I found a golden ticket?

Hi All:

Thanks for the feedback; I am glad I am not alone in my dream. I would think more people would want to do this. Anyhow, I have some updates that I hope help. First it seems that right now every NAS /w iTunes Server is music only. But I did call and speak to a developer named Stanley Chan who claims they are working on a firmware solution to this issue. In thinking about it, I bet they have to get past that pass code thing.

I do not know anything about any of these NAS units, but Sans Digital was well reviewed on Engadget and Stanley was very helpful. So I think I might try them. He also said the cheaper Seagate; AS Series drives are fine so that will save some money.

Lastly, I might have found a non-destructive way to make this work after hours of reading. Basically it breaks down to this…

1. Enable SSH on the AppleTV (can be done without opening it)
2. Second enable the AppleTV to mount SMB Shares
3. Third set the NAS share to auto-mount the AppleTV

I am making this sound simpler than it is, but you can see the details on: http://wiki.awkwardtv.org

I figure since you do not open the unit you can do a factory restore in the worst case.

My question now is has anyone done this already? Does it work?

As always thank you!

Tom Scholle
tom@atomic-city.com

 

[MikieMikie]

There doesn't seem to be an all in one solution out there save having a dedicated machine to run OS X and iTunes itself. I guess you could run your iTunes library off a master drive (NAS, DAS, USB, Firewire, et al) and do it that way; the drawback here being AppleTV and Airtunes cannot access it unless another computer is running and mediating. My advice is get a Mac Mini and run it as a 24/7 server.

I like your setup (as shown in the flikr link).