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Syncing apple TV - Newbie Question

J

Josh-H

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 10, 2008
39
4
I have 1TB NAS drive on my wired network. And my apple TV on my wireless network.

I have dragged all my movie files from my NAS to my macbook pro itunes whilst holding down the option key - so that the files are not recopied to my macbook pro. That part is all good.

But how do i get apple TV to have access to the movies without copying them all over to the apple TV itself?

Whenever I sync my apple TV it copies over all the files and fills up in no time. I just want it to reference the files off the nas drive. I know my macbook pro needs to be on for this as apple tv needs itunes - which is cool.

How do I do this?
 
In iTunes on the menu on the left highlight your Apple TV under Devices. On the summary tab, check "Custom Sync" and only that option, now on the movies and tv shows and music and podcasts tabs, if you do not select anything to sync they will not be copied to the Apple TV but will be available as a "Streamed" event.

Then on your Apple TV, goto Settings, then Computers, Add Shared iTunes Library. Add your library that is on your MBP.
 
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rhett7660 said:
Data..

Thank you for the explanation. I have this thread marked for when I get my apple tv this week. It has shipped and I am hoping to have it tomorrow!

Thanks
Click to expand...

Same here - very useful info! :)
 
if your current library is the default "sync" library, you won't have to add it as a streaming library...
 
THanks.

I get how to do it now - only thing is, when I select custom sync. and then select movies and untick it it then pops a dialogue telling me if i unsync it - it will delete all the movies already on the apple TV, which I want to keep there for when my laptop running itunes is turned off?!?!?

Cant I have some movies on the apple TV, and some on the NAS only accessable when the laptop is turned on with itunes running?
 
Josh-H said:
THanks.

I get how to do it now - only thing is, when I select custom sync. and then select movies and untick it it then pops a dialogue telling me if i unsync it - it will delete all the movies already on the apple TV, which I want to keep there for when my laptop running itunes is turned off?!?!?

Cant I have some movies on the apple TV, and some on the NAS only accessable when the laptop is turned on with itunes running?
Click to expand...

Sync means you want the AppleTV to only have the movies that you select. That way you can change which movies are actually stored locally on the AppleTV. The rest will be Streamed. So if you currently have all your movies on the AppleTV and then you unselect some of them they will be removed from the AppleTV.
 
Sync means you want the AppleTV to only have the movies that you select. That way you can change which movies are actually stored locally on the AppleTV. The rest will be Streamed. So if you currently have all your movies on the AppleTV and then you unselect some of them they will be removed from the AppleTV.
Click to expand...

So it pretty much acts like an ipod... Safe to say, don't store your files locally? Keep them on the server or external drive?
 
When you change to a custom sync, it basically wipes the AppleTV and starts over, so yes anything you have currently on it is gone. I did assume that what you have on your ATV currently is also in your iTunes library, so you just have to select those again to be synced locally.
 
Data...

If I don't want anything stored on my Apple TV, but I want the music to stream from my server. How would I set this up?

Apple TV has 40 gig hard drive.
My music on my server is 180+ gigs. How can I have access to this music if I don't sync the music to the Apple TV?

Just want to make sure I read your post right. If I go through all of the tabs on the Apple TV in iTunes and deselect the sync functions on the movies, tv shows and music all the items will be erased from my Apple TV but will be available for streaming? Is this correct?

Also since I have my music on a server, Windows 2003 server. Would you recommend adding an iTunes account to that box and instead of having it on my Mac Pro? Does this make sense?



Thanks
 
Yes if you choose custom sync and deselect everything (so nothing syncs) then it will stream everything.

So I assume that you are referencing your library on the server drives from your mac ?. Close to the way I do it also, my desktop itunes points to my library that exhists on my server in the garage. Works fine.
 
Data.....

Question, do you have iTunes running on the server and your apple TV connected to that iTunes version? Or do you have iTunes running on one of your other machines?

Right now I have three machines in the house. One Mac Mini, one Mac Pro and my Server. All the media is on the server which is always on. Would you recommend having a version of iTunes running on it with the Apple TV connected to it or have an iTunes version running on one of the other machines?

Trying to optimize the Apple TV's performance.
 
With my setup right now my desktop is always on and I have the processor and memory and disk to handle the iTunes stuff and everything else I do on it, (Gaming, ripping and usual stuff) when I do Video editing I do shutdown iTunes.

I prefer having iTunes running on my desktop and not the server right now. I probably will change that in the future.
 
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