Tricking iCloud.

[tyherring]

hello all,
im new to the forum and have a kinda specific question about iCloud that after 2hrs of research haven't come up with anything. let me explain what i am try to accomplish:

BACKGROUND:
i have a rMBP 128SSD (base model)
-i do not have the space to store my movies that i have copied from my own collection (90gb) to my new retina because of business class software (windows)

-i currently have itunes mapped to save my itunes library on an externalhard drive.

WHAT I WANT:

- I want to be able to ditch my external

-My thoughts are i know iTunes/iCloud recognizes digital downloads/copies (ultravolient, etc) can iCloud be tricked to keep my ripped copies of my DVD library on the cloud? where i dont have to physically have them on my computer taking up space?

 

[Weaselboy]

Sort of... but it won't help like you want. There is a folder on your computer that syncs iCloud documents like a Pages document for example. You could put a video in that folder and it would sync to iCloud, but it is just that... sync. So as soon as you move the video from the local folder (like you want to do), it will be removed from iCloud.

iCloud storage as currently configured by Apple is more for sync than stand alone storage like you are after.

Sounds like you would be better served by a NAS setup so you could access stored video from there.

 

[Carlanga]

Nope, you will have to buy dvds or BR that have an iTunes digital copy or buy them straight from iTunes.
You can't trick iCloud.

 

[tyherring]

Sort of... but it won't help like you want. There is a folder on your computer that syncs iCloud documents like a Pages document for example. You could put a video in that folder and it would sync to iCloud, but it is just that... sync. So as soon as you move the video from the local folder (like you want to do), it will be removed from iCloud.

iCloud storage as currently configured by Apple is more for sync than stand alone storage like you are after.

Sounds like you would be better served by a NAS setup so you could access stored video from there.

what is a NAS setup?

 

[skippymac]

what is a NAS setup?

Network attached storage, basically you have some storage usually in the form of an HDD attached to your LAN which you can access over wifi.

 

[tyherring]

Network attached storage, basically you have some storage usually in the form of an HDD attached to your LAN which you can access over wifi.

can i map my iTunes to save on a network attached storage? and could my apple tv be able to talk to the NAS to access the movies without my laptop being there? like when im at school and my wife is at home.

 

[Weaselboy]

can i map my iTunes to save on a network attached storage?

Yep. Here is a how-to.

...and could my apple tv be able to talk to the NAS to access the movies without my laptop being there? like when im at school and my wife is at home.

I have not seen this feature on a NAS yet. All of them I have seen requires the iTunes App running to serve up the files. You can get around this by jail breaking the Apple TV.

 

[tyherring]

can i map my iTunes to save on a network attached storage? and could my apple tv be able to talk to the NAS to access the movies without my laptop being there? like when im at school and my wife is at home.

i think i found my answer

http://www.macworld.com/article/1163242/organize_and_play_your_media_from_a_nas.html

Apple TV 2 This device is trickier because it refuses to recognize the existence of a NAS. However, if you have an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that supports AirPlay, you’re in business. The trick is to call up the media you want to play—music or video—start it playing, tap the AirPlay icon in the app’s controller (AirPlay appears in all the apps I’ve mentioned), and then select your Apple TV as the destination. Your music or video will stream from the NAS to the iOS device and then to the Apple TV. With all these jumps you’d think there’d be latency issues but it works quite well, though there can be a several second delay before a movie begins playing.

 

[skippymac]

You can get around this by jail breaking the Apple TV.

If you have pre ATV3. Or you could buy a raspberry pi and set it up as an HTPC Might look at setting up a NAS media thingy setup actually but not sure if it's worth it as all my media consumption tends to go on in my room.

 

[tyherring]

If you have pre ATV3. Or you could buy a raspberry pi and set it up as an HTPC Might look at setting up a NAS media thingy setup actually but not sure if it's worth it as all my media consumption tends to go on in my room.

why only pre-ATV3? this write-up is old but it says if you can airplay it, it'll work

 

[Weaselboy]

i think i found my answer

http://www.macworld.com/article/1163242/organize_and_play_your_media_from_a_nas.html

Apple TV 2 This device is trickier because it refuses to recognize the existence of a NAS. However, if you have an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that supports AirPlay, you’re in business. The trick is to call up the media you want to play—music or video—start it playing, tap the AirPlay icon in the app’s controller (AirPlay appears in all the apps I’ve mentioned), and then select your Apple TV as the destination. Your music or video will stream from the NAS to the iOS device and then to the Apple TV. With all these jumps you’d think there’d be latency issues but it works quite well, though there can be a several second delay before a movie begins playing.

Yes, that is a work around that would do it. There was a thread here discussing it when that Synology update came out. It still will not play a movie directly from the NAS to the ATV, but it at least allows an iOS device to Airplay it to the TV.

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why only pre-ATV3? this write-up is old but it says if you can airplay it, it'll work

What Skippy meant, and I should have pointed out, is that there is still no jail break out to crack the rev. 3 ATV. There is for previous versions. A jail break allows one to directly access videos on a NAS.

The NAS iOS Airplay method you posted would still work a non-jail broken ATV 3 though.

 

[skippymac]

What Skippy meant, and I should have pointed out, is that there is still no jail break out to crack the rev. 3 ATV. There is for previous versions. A jail break allows one to directly access videos on a NAS.

The NAS iOS Airplay method you posted would still work a non-jail broken ATV 3 though.

Sorry yes, this is what I meant

 

[Mydrivec]

I've tried much of this and have what I think is the easiest solution but it requires a home server or media server.

My ATV3 pulls directly from my WHS machine wirelessly. I have movies on the WHS and run Itunes in it. With homesharing on, you can watch anything in that box.

Not much delay or latency issue to deal with either. Each movie file is anywhere from 4 - 8 GB depending upon the movie length and you can't tell the difference between those files and the original blu ray movie on a 50 inch TV.

Worth a go if your movie collection is large enough. Even easier if you have an old machine hanging around you can dedicate to the process.

Also, I would guess (haven't tried it) that you would not need to run WHS, but rather just have a dedicated storage machine running any windows platform.