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KennyX

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2002
5
0
Hi All,

Got a question about using airplay to the ATV2 via either a) iPod Touch or b) iPad Mini…

With either the iPad Mini or the iPod touch, do I need to physically have the music stored on either device? Where Im going with this is:

1. I have all my music stored on a NAS
2. I’d like to load and control the music via the iPod or iPad
3. I’d like to stream (airplay) the songs to my home theatre via airplay to my Apple TV 2

And yes, I know I could just load the songs via the ATV2, but the point is to not having to 1) turn on the TV, 2) turn on ATV2, and 3) use the dinky remote to control music selection. Im just looking to pickup either iPod or iPad, and just play music right away.

Before I make a purchase of either device, I want to know if this is possible?
 

jdblas69

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
270
129
I can answer part of your question. Just like the apple TV streams your music from your NAS, an ipod or ipad has home sharing capabilities as well, so no the media does not need to be physically on the device.

Now when it comes to pushing the content to your home receiver, you either need a receiver with built in airplay support or set up speakers using an airport express. I am not 100% sure about this though, when airplay was new on the scene this was the workaround to use speakers/receivers that did not have airplay built in.

Also if you are not keen on the apple tv remote you can download the remote app and control your apple tv with your ipod or ipad.
 

waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,666
938
you don't need a receiver with built in airplay, the aTV will work for that.

You can select and control the music with the remote app on the iphone/ipad and play the music on the aTV, that way your handheld doesn't have to be actively playing.
the interface is pretty similar between the iOS music player, and the remote app controlling the aTV.


one thing about this, even with your music on a NAS, you will have to have iTunes running on a computer, and home sharing turned on. iTunes can pull from the NAS.
you can also play the music on iTunes, control it from the remote app, and send it to the aTV. The one advantage to this is iTunes can stream to multiple receivers at the same time.
 

lunaoso

macrumors 65816
Sep 22, 2012
1,332
54
Boston, MA
You could access music from the nas without iTunes running, through a third party app. I'm not very familiar with nas stuff, but I've read that if you enable dnla on the nas, then you could use an app, such as airplayer, to AirPlay from either the iPod touch or iPad.
 

KennyX

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2002
5
0
interesting... I was afraid of having to have itunes running on my macbook to get this done as it kind of defeats the purpose.

But I'll definitely look into 3rd party apps like airplayer to see if it's potential solution...
 
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