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Post by beerbum on Apr 21, 2011 8:04:57 GMT
Hi there, I'm loving my new AppleTV. However, I now realise that my iTunes set up doesn't really work as I have to have my iMac on all the time. Clearly there's an option to put my library on another drive. I seem to remember people talking about this before and wanted to get the latest advice. I've got a Time Capsule so my idea was to get a seperate drive and attach it to the TC and leave it on so the AppleTV has access 24/7. For some reason, I'm nervous about mucking about with my iTunes library…. My ideal scenario is limited iTunes library on main iMac for podcasts and Apps, with music and video on the 'House' library. I await to hear of your experiences and to drink at the font of your collective wisdom
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Post by Forum Cat on Apr 21, 2011 19:15:36 GMT
What's wrong with leaving you iMac on? If the screen is asleep is it any different from having an external drive "on" all the time?
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Post by Alan on Apr 21, 2011 22:13:50 GMT
Simply attaching a hard disk to the time capsule isn't going to help. You still need an iTunes server to be running somewhere to serve up the media stored on that drive. Infuriatingly, Apple don't provide any iTunes server functionality on the TC. You can buy some 3rd-party NAS units that claim to have embedded iTunes servers, but I've no experience of using one.
My home solution is based on syncing all my media to a 160GB Apple TV 1. That can play media directly to my TV/Surround Sound AND can serve music to Airport Express units all over the house using Wi-Fi. (all with no computers turned on). It's all contollable with the free Remote App on the iPhone too.
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Post by beerbum on Apr 22, 2011 15:31:11 GMT
What's wrong with leaving you iMac on? If the screen is asleep is it any different from having an external drive "on" all the time? Good point! Very well presented. Why didn't I think of that?
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Post by Forum Cat on Apr 22, 2011 22:51:53 GMT
What's wrong with leaving you iMac on? If the screen is asleep is it any different from having an external drive "on" all the time? Good point! Very well presented. Why didn't I think of that? It is my preferred set up. My iMac is my central server for my MacBook Air. At some point I may get an Apple TV. I intend at some point upgrading the HDD in the iMac. Currently it is 750Gig a 2000Gig drive would hold all my dvds with room to spare and the local shop would only charge me £50 to fit it for me.
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Post by millstonebarn on Apr 26, 2011 8:16:48 GMT
It highlights the big usage change in moving from Apple TV gen 1 to gen 2. I have a gen 1 device that is sync'd to my central iTunes library (which happens to be held on a NAS drive but still requires iTunes to be running somewhere ... In this case just for the sync process or if I want to stream something). Other than that the Apple TV is self-contained.
My original plan was to go further, having the iTunes library held on the NAS devices so that I could run up iTunes on any machine and access it. However that hasn't come to pass - I have a mixture of Apple and non-Apple machines and decided it was too risky to mess about with the xml and iTunes configs.
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