Win7 HTPC on network - Can't figure it out - how to view existing itunes videos?

[Sean Dempsey]

I have a Mac Pro that serves an iTunes library to 2 AppleTV's. All the files are Handbraked as "Apple Universal" mp4/m4v files. Work great with the AppleTV's.

I got a free HTPC that is pretty nice, it has Win7 ultimate. It has XBMC installed on it. Here's the problems I'm having:

1. I cannot browse the OSX computers on the network to view any files or folders. I can view the Win7 computer and it's folders, but not the other way around.

2. I installed iTunes onto Win7, and it shows my shared Mac Pro library. It will play music, but not any of the video files, which are all MP4 files. Will windows play an Mp4 through itunes, or will I need a codec pack or something of that sort?



I know there's gonna be alot of hassle connecting Win7 to OS X, so anyone got any tips so I can use this HTPC as a glorified AppleTV?

 

[From A Buick 8]

I have a Mac Pro that serves an iTunes library to 2 AppleTV's. All the files are Handbraked as "Apple Universal" mp4/m4v files. Work great with the AppleTV's.

I got a free HTPC that is pretty nice, it has Win7 ultimate. It has XBMC installed on it. Here's the problems I'm having:

1. I cannot browse the OSX computers on the network to view any files or folders. I can view the Win7 computer and it's folders, but not the other way around.

2. I installed iTunes onto Win7, and it shows my shared Mac Pro library. It will play music, but not any of the video files, which are all MP4 files. Will windows play an Mp4 through itunes, or will I need a codec pack or something of that sort?



I know there's gonna be alot of hassle connecting Win7 to OS X, so anyone got any tips so I can use this HTPC as a glorified AppleTV?

I am having kind of the same issue, i was able to play all of my music and movies through iTunes on my PC (also running Windows 7), do you have home sharing turned on in itunes on your Mac Pro, and in the itunes preference box is "share entire library" clicked.

I have my iTunes lib on an ext hdd connected to my iMac (firewire), i was not able to connect to the ext hdd on the windows PC (except for going through iTunes) until i installed "mac drive" on the PC and on my iMac i turned on windows file sharing. From the finder click on the Help menu and type in "share files with windows" and it will walk you through it.

After i did that i was able to add the iTunes movie library to the media files in WMC on the PC.

 

[matrix07]

2. I installed iTunes onto Win7, and it shows my shared Mac Pro library. It will play music, but not any of the video files, which are all MP4 files. Will windows play an Mp4 through itunes, or will I need a codec pack or something of that sort?

Try changing default program to play mp4 to iTunes. it's played by Windows Media Player by default.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Try changing default program to play mp4 to iTunes. it's played by Windows Media Player by default.

I can view my shared library in iTunes on the Win7 machine. The videos just don't play. VLC player and XBMC will play them, but iTunes in Windows won't.

It doesn't seem like iTunes in windows can play mp4 files

 

[matrix07]

It doesn't seem like iTunes in windows can play mp4 files

Mine can, and does.

 

[Sean Dempsey]

Mine can, and does.

I copied some MP4 files over, and they did play in Win7. So apparantly, it just can't play shared itunes movies.