ATV 2, iTunes, MBP & iPhone - Network advice required

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clark80clark80
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
Hi,



I have just purchased myself an ATV2 and am now considering the following set up. All advice or pointing me towards info appreciated.



I want to create a home network

I want a network Hard Drive on it

I want to locate my iTunes library on the hard drive

I want to be able to access this library on the ATV2 - Is this possible?

I want to be able to sync my iPhone to this library - Is this possible?



Thanks in advance

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Clark80 View Post


    Hi,



    I have just purchased myself an ATV2 and am now considering the following set up. All advice or pointing me towards info appreciated.



    I want to create a home network

    I want a network Hard Drive on it

    I want to locate my iTunes library on the hard drive

    I want to be able to access this library on the ATV2 - Is this possible?

    I want to be able to sync my iPhone to this library - Is this possible?



    Thanks in advance



    It's easy, if your "Network Hard Drive" is a Mac Mini.



    Otherwise, even if you locate your iTunes library on a NAS, which is possible, one of your computers will still need to be in the middle to serve up the files to the Apple TV and other home sharing devices. That is going to take a big chunk out of your bandwidth, and also a small bit out of the performance of whatever computer is acting as the server.
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  • Reply 2 of 4
    clark80clark80 Posts: 28member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    It's easy, if your "Network Hard Drive" is a Mac Mini.



    Otherwise, even if you locate your iTunes library on a NAS, which is possible, one of your computers will still need to be in the middle to serve up the files to the Apple TV and other home sharing devices. That is going to take a big chunk out of your bandwidth, and also a small bit out of the performance of whatever computer is acting as the server.



    Thanks.



    Will a Time Capsule achieve this or better to go with Airport Extreme + Hard Drive?



    On a side note I was also looking at a LaCie product which suggests I won't need to have my MBP swicthed on to get media from the drive. Do you know anything about this?



    Thanks



    EDIT: anyone succesfully moved their iTunes library to NAS and then streamed via ATV2 with PC/Laptop off?
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  • Reply 3 of 4
    tontontonton Posts: 14,067
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Clark80 View Post


    Thanks.



    Will a Time Capsule achieve this or better to go with Airport Extreme + Hard Drive?



    If you mean to serve as a NAS where you can locate your iTunes files, both solutions would act the same. Both solutions would also be accessible by Time Machine, so you could partition the hard drive so that part of it is used for TM and part of it is used for your iTunes library. But either of these would still require your Mac to be on at all times if you want to stream to your Apple TV.

    Quote:

    On a side note I was also looking at a LaCie product which suggests I won't need to have my MBP swicthed on to get media from the drive. Do you know anything about this?



    This won't work with the AppleTV because the LaCie Ethernet Disk serves iTunes content using UPnP, while the Apple TV requires Apple's proprietary "home sharing" protocol, which is different.

    Quote:

    EDIT: anyone succesfully moved their iTunes library to NAS and then streamed via ATV2 with PC/Laptop off?



    Impossible, as there is no NAS that has Home Sharing support.



    The best solution at the moment is buying a Mac Mini, and using that as your iTunes machine, then turning on home sharing on the Mini (make sure "Wake for network access" is on), and leaving it on all the time to serve up your files when you need them. You really don't need to worry too much about power usage. Macs actually use very little power when in sleep mode, so you might actually end up using less power to keep you Mini booted up and sleeping while waiting for network activity than you might use with many NAS devices.
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  • Reply 4 of 4
    clark80clark80 Posts: 28member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tonton View Post


    If you mean to serve as a NAS where you can locate your iTunes files, both solutions would act the same. Both solutions would also be accessible by Time Capsule, so you could partition the hard drive so that part of it is used for TC and part of it is used for your iTunes library. But either of these would still require your Mac to be on at all times if you want to stream to your Apple TV.



    This won't work with the AppleTV because the LaCie Ethernet Disk serves iTunes content using UPnP, while the Apple TV requires Apple's proprietary "home sharing" protocol, which is different.



    Impossible, as there is no NAS that has Home Sharing support.



    The best solution at the moment is buying a Mac Mini, and using that as your iTunes machine, then turning on home sharing on the Mini (make sure "Wake for network access" is on), and leaving it on all the time to serve up your files when you need them. You really don't need to worry too much about power usage. Macs actually use very little power when in sleep mode, so you might actually end up using less power to keep you Mini booted up and sleeping while waiting for network activity than you might use with many NAS devices.



    Thank you. Your response has answered all of my questions and given me food for thought.
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