An idea or maybe a solution to not having to have iTunes open

WiiDSmoker said:

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For the record I don't mind having my computer on or iTunes open, but an idea I had would be that the aTV could just look at the library XML file.

Just a thought.

Click to expand...

How would you serve this XML file up to the AppleTV?

And the XML file says a file is located at:
/Volumes/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Artist/Album/Song.m4a

How do you serve this music to the AppleTV?

Both would mean the ATV1 needs to be able to mount filesystems (AFP, SMB, etc). And this is assuming you are running everything on a NAS. If you are running on a separate computer, it will need to be awake anyway, so having iTunes running in addition is not a bit deal.

PurdueGuy said:

How would you serve this XML file up to the AppleTV?

And the XML file says a file is located at:
/Volumes/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/Artist/Album/Song.m4a

How do you serve this music to the AppleTV?

Both would mean the ATV1 needs to be able to mount filesystems (AFP, SMB, etc). And this is assuming you are running everything on a NAS. If you are running on a separate computer, it will need to be awake anyway, so having iTunes running in addition is not a bit deal.

Click to expand...

Not to mention, the new Apple TV requires Home Sharing to be enabled, so you basically need to communicate with the Apple TV in some very proprietary protocols. This is beyond DAAP, AFP, SMB, or any other known methods.

It's just not possible without doing some serious reverse engineering, and it would just break as soon as Apple updates it so what is the point? The best method around all of this is the potential of jailbreaking the ATV2, then coming up with a way of connecting to shares through traditional protocols.

Not to mention your leaving you computer on for the TV to read the XML file and then access the storage location....if the computers on, it doesn't take more to have iTunes also running!

So,.......no cigar for you!

I imagine Apple would build iTunes library sharing right into OSX if they could, but god knows someone would have a problem with that. You can't even make a browser into a core OS component without someone whining about it.

iTunes 10 has this great button that looks like a dash, it's probably coloured orange, if you click it, the application more or less goes away. You'll find it in the upper left corner.

Anyway, I do agree that Apple should roll out a 'Home Sharing' preference pane, which is coupled with the components of iTunes that actually do library sharing.

I think the whole having iTunes open thing will annoy people who want to be able to "log out" and let someone else log into their account without the fustercluck of slowdown that OSX seems to incur with multiple simultaneous users. You log out, your iTunes closes, boom, no more home sharing. It definitely needs to be a system service/daemon.

OSX isn't rock stable, although it's saving grace is that it'll reboot pretty damned quickly and whatever your kids happen to have been watching on the Apple TV will resume from where it left off, even if you log out and hard reset (Steam.app crashed pretty spectacularly for me)