Apple TV and NAS?

I'd like to know as well. all of my movies are in ISO format on my NAS. If the new Apple TV can play those, I'm in.

I'd like to know the same however i doubt it will play ISO files since they have to be mounted.

I am very interested in this as well. If this can play my .avi, .mkv, .mp4, etc. files perfectly (and without having to import into iTunes) then Apple just sold at least two of them to me.

Wes

WesCole said:

I am very interested in this as well. If this can play my .avi, .mkv, .mp4, etc. files perfectly (and without having to import into iTunes) then Apple just sold at least two of them to me.

Wes

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If you read the tech specs it says m4v, mp4 & mov formats.
Whether it can read those formats directly from a NAS drive (without iTunes running) - now that's what i'm interested in.

bucksaddle said:

If you read the tech specs it says m4v, mp4 & mov formats.
Whether it can read those formats directly from a NAS drive (without iTunes running) - now that's what i'm interested in.

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Same. I've read it can't be done with the previous versions. The tech specs make it seem that nothing has changed in the new one, unfortunately. Hopefully some of the early buyers will let us know.

dissolve said:

Same. I've read it can't be done with the previous versions. The tech specs make it seem that nothing has changed in the new one, unfortunately. Hopefully some of the early buyers will let us know.

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Sorry - my bad interpretation. I was suggesting whether it can read m4v, mp4 & mov formats directly from a NAS drive without iTunes running.
I suspect the answer is no to everything.

bucksaddle said:

Sorry - my bad interpretation. I was suggesting whether it can read m4v, mp4 & mov formats directly from a NAS drive without iTunes running.
I suspect the answer is no to everything.

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That's what I meant too

But I agree with you...I'm almost certain this new hardware won't do it either. I'll probably be looking at some of WD's offerings instead. Oh well.

I wonder if the new aTV will stream from an AirDisk volume connected to a AEBS or TimeCapsule. I hope so as my iBook G3 can't use iTunes10.

I'd rather not tie up a usable computer just to stream to an aTV.

bucksaddle said:

If you read the tech specs it says m4v, mp4 & mov formats.
Whether it can read those formats directly from a NAS drive (without iTunes running) - now that's what i'm interested in.

Click to expand...

now for the answer!

no - you cannot plug your NAS straight in. as with all previous revisions of the TV you will have to copy (or link) your mpeg4 movies into iTunes then the TV can read from there over the network.

The no direct NAS support is a dealbreaker for me. I'll be sticking with WDTV which allows direct NAS media server support without Itunes running.

Who wants to have a MAC/PC on all of the time with Itunes running just to back end the AppleTV when you already have a NAS? Just ends up sucking more power up with fan's running cooling off the motherboard, and spinning disks etc.

DoFoT9 said:

now for the answer!

no - you cannot plug your NAS straight in. as with all previous revisions of the TV you will have to copy (or link) your mpeg4 movies into iTunes then the TV can read from there over the network.

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Not saying you're wrong, but why can't they set it up so that an iTunes library that's located on a NAS work directly without iTunes running? Just because that's how it is now, doesn't mean they haven't improved it. After all, there is no local storage on this guy now.

Of course, Apple probably wants folks to rent/stream directly from the internet rather than from a networked computer.

exchguy said:

The no direct NAS support is a dealbreaker for me. I'll be sticking with WDTV which allows direct NAS media server support without Itunes running.

Who wants to have a MAC/PC on all of the time with Itunes running just to back end the AppleTV when you already have a NAS? Just ends up sucking more power up with fan's running cooling off the motherboard, and spinning disks etc.

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Any idea of your WDTV can handle direct m2ts streams and pass through HD audio? I've been using a Popcornhour C-200 for a while, but it has it's issues and I am about to give up on waiting for an update to give me HD audio passthrough.

TIA!

ftaok said:

Not saying you're wrong, but why can't they set it up so that an iTunes library that's located on a NAS work directly without iTunes running? Just because that's how it is now, doesn't mean they haven't improved it. After all, there is no local storage on this guy now.

Of course, Apple probably wants folks to rent/stream directly from the internet rather than from a networked computer.

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the appleTV will search for computers that have iTunes turned on (and shared libraries turned on), if its not turned on, then it wont come up.

this doesnt mean to say, of course, that one cant purchase a NAS that is iTunes library compatible out of the box - that would work

Apple wants to gear this thing towards one thing...iTunes rentals! Here's what is going to happen in the next year. Apple is still working on their deal with the music industry to offer unlimited music tiers. At that point, the new Apple TV will be set up to just surf the music you want to hear and play it. They've already moved towards TV show rentals. Jobs clearly sees the future as a big cloud pay service whereas Apple regularly empties your wallet each month for the rest of your life. They are less keen on letting you buy something once and pay it forever without paying for it again and again and again forever so the new device is moving away from that model (never was much towards it to begin with seeing as the old model doesn't support NAS without hacking either).

My new NetGear network supports UnPnP from a simple external Hard Disc. In other words, it becomes an NAS if you plug in a hard drive to it. That would be pretty sweet to run instead of leaving my Mac running 24/7.

The thing is that Steve wants iTunes running all the time since it's spying into your world and secretly telling Apple everything you do in iTunes which they will use for future ad targeting in 10.7 "Stealthy Kitty". The menu bar will be replaced with a new "Ad Bar" that sends targeted iAds to your Mac 24/7. If you do not click on at least one ad a week, your OS is wiped with a message that says "Bad Kitty!"

teksurv said:

I'd like to know as well. all of my movies are in ISO format on my NAS. If the new Apple TV can play those, I'm in.

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*
no way apple lets you connect anything to the device...any media will have to come from itunes, if you connect your itunes to your NAS, then appletv will play it

exchguy said:

Who wants to have a MAC/PC on all of the time with Itunes running just to back end the AppleTV when you already have a NAS? Just ends up sucking more power up with fan's running cooling off the motherboard, and spinning disks etc.

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You must own a PC and not a mac. Macs will happily sleep for days if not months sipping very little electricity. No fans running, no spinning disks, etc unless needed.

If you want to stream media from your NAS to ATV, here's what you need:

1. Get the current ATV unit (not the one launching in 4 weeks)
2. Hack it with a patchstick to get XBMC and Boxee on it
3. I prefer to run XBMC - which connected seamlessly to my ReadyNAS NV+ and streams my stored videos via my wireless home network

You cannot run media on your NAS through ATV, unless that media is formatted for and connected to your iTunes.

Tom Sawyer said:

Any idea of your WDTV can handle direct m2ts streams and pass through HD audio? I've been using a Popcornhour C-200 for a while, but it has it's issues and I am about to give up on waiting for an update to give me HD audio passthrough.

TIA!

Click to expand...

Yes it can and does it flawlessly.

important said:

If you want to stream media from your NAS to ATV, here's what you need:

1. Get the current ATV unit (not the one launching in 4 weeks)
2. Hack it with a patchstick to get XBMC and Boxee on it
3. I prefer to run XBMC - which connected seamlessly to my ReadyNAS NV+ and streams my stored videos via my wireless home network

You cannot run media on your NAS through ATV, unless that media is formatted for and connected to your iTunes.

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Correction, If you want the best NAS functionality buy a Mac-mini w/ the HDMI out. Then run Boxee or XBMC so that it starts automatically every time you boot. This will give you FULL NAS capability, HDMI quality and allow 1080i playback. A hacked "older" ATV has a really hard time playing back your really high quality movies (Blu-ray rips, etc) because of its slow processor. I was holding out w/ my old hacked ATV and unix NAS until this new ATV was released but after seeing the specs today I'm def. going the mini route! I just can't take watching IronMan in HD anymore and have the movie slow down during all the explosions or big action scenes..

Yeah I currently have a 2009 mini running Plex which I love. I suppose in my case I was looking at this as a cheaper alternative, which it is not.

WiiDSmoker said:

Yes it can and does it flawlessly.

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Awesome, going to pick one up from Best Buy! Appreciate the info!

duckmanjbr said:

Correction, If you want the best NAS functionality buy a Mac-mini w/ the HDMI out. Then run Boxee or XBMC so that it starts automatically every time you boot. This will give you FULL NAS capability, HDMI quality and allow 1080i playback. A hacked "older" ATV has a really hard time playing back your really high quality movies (Blu-ray rips, etc) because of its slow processor. I was holding out w/ my old hacked ATV and unix NAS until this new ATV was released but after seeing the specs today I'm def. going the mini route! I just can't take watching IronMan in HD anymore and have the movie slow down during all the explosions or big action scenes..

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Remove wireless card from AppleTV. Replace with CrystalHD graphics card. Full HD support, no slowdown. Sorted. Rather cheaper than spending £600+ on a new MacMini*.

* What we really need a a proper new £400 macMini to bridge the gap between the cheap and cheerful new AppleTV and the 'too expensive for just media' new MacMini.

exchguy said:

The no direct NAS support is a dealbreaker for me. I'll be sticking with WDTV which allows direct NAS media server support without Itunes running.

Who wants to have a MAC/PC on all of the time with Itunes running just to back end the AppleTV when you already have a NAS? Just ends up sucking more power up with fan's running cooling off the motherboard, and spinning disks etc.

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I totally agree with the above comments.

I'd be very dissapointed if they don't allow this. I wouldn't mind too much if they limited it to the Apple TimeCapsule (Apple NAS drive) as I could see them launching a firmware update for the drive that allows this. I'd be happy with that as I have a TimeCapsule but I know that doesn't help everyone. So I'm very surprised there is no info yet about it supporting a TimeCapsule, will be very dissapointed if its not supported otherwise its not very good customer recognition of brand loyalty.

For me, I'm not even that bothered about iTunes as I tend to store that on my MacBook, but all our photos are stored on the TimeCapsule and I'd like to run them through a slideshow on my projector using the new AppleTV plugged into the projector and getting my photos off the TimeCapsule upstairs over WiFi

shakerstevens said:

I totally agree with the above comments.

I'd be very dissapointed if they don't allow this. I wouldn't mind too much if they limited it to the Apple TimeCapsule (Apple NAS drive) as I could see them launching a firmware update for the drive that allows this. I'd be happy with that as I have a TimeCapsule but I know that doesn't help everyone. So I'm very surprised there is no info yet about it supporting a TimeCapsule, will be very dissapointed if its not supported otherwise its not very good customer recognition of brand loyalty.

For me, I'm not even that bothered about iTunes as I tend to store that on my MacBook, but all our photos are stored on the TimeCapsule and I'd like to run them through a slideshow on my projector using the new AppleTV plugged into the projector and getting my photos off the TimeCapsule upstairs over WiFi

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like i said earlier, unless your NAS supports sharing iTunes libraries natively, you wont be able to look at the movies stored on the NAS.