Time Capsule + External HDD for iTunes storage (not backup)... Possible?

[tgggm]

Hi,

My iMac HD is getting to near capacity with iTunes content. I have a nice USB external HD that I will use to store the Movies and TV Series from my iTunes Library. I use a Time Capsule as my router, backup, and to stream to my Apple TV. I had originally planned to simply hook up the USB HD to the iMac.

Question(s): Can I plug the external USB HD into the Time Capsule and use it as network storage for my iMac's iTunes Library? If so, when I play a movie on my Apple TV, will it effectively send it to the iMac first, the back to the router and on to the TV? Would that create bandwidth problems? I don't need to backup my movies, as I have them on DVD, so I don't want that drive to become part of the Time Machine facility, even when hooked up to the Time Capsule...

Clear as mud?

[Weaselboy]

Yes, that will work fine, and as you suspected... it will pull the movie through the Mac then back out to the ATV. If you have decent network speeds, it will work fine.

[Icaras]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

Yes, that will work fine, and as you suspected... it will pull the movie through the Mac then back out to the ATV. If you have decent network speeds, it will work fine.

Only problem is the Time Capsule is not designed to backup any drives connected directly to it which makes Time Machine backup of iTunes content not possible.

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by Icaras

Only problem is the Time Capsule is not designed to backup any drives connected directly to it which makes Time Machine backup of iTunes content not possible.

If you read the OP you will see that he is aware of that..

[Icaras]

Originally Posted by Weaselboy

If you read the OP you will see that he is aware of that..

Yea, I read it, but I wonder if the OP seriously would want to go through all that work encoding all those DVDs again. That's quite an inconvenience.

[tgggm]

Originally Posted by Icaras

Yea, I read it, but I wonder if the OP seriously would want to go through all that work encoding all those DVDs again. That's quite an inconvenience.

Thanks a lot for the info. That's what I wanted to know.

I back up the rips, but there's no need for an automated system for that. I have a few drives lying around that will do the job well enough. 1 back up every few months is enough IMO. Is critical data loss is the media hard disk breaks down. Re-encoding is a bore, I agree, but I don't really care that much.

[Icaras]

Originally Posted by tgggm

Thanks a lot for the info. That's what I wanted to know.

I back up the rips, but there's no need for an automated system for that. I have a few drives lying around that will do the job well enough. 1 back up every few months is enough IMO. Is critical data loss is the media hard disk breaks down. Re-encoding is a bore, I agree, but I don't really care that much.

Yea, I considered doing what you were going to do until I found out that the TC completely ignores the attached drive, which sucks IMO. Sorry about bringing up the backup issue, but I'm always a little nervous if my own content just doesn't happen to fall under the Time Machine blanket of security.

But manual backups are definitely better than nothing. And as you say, you have the physical copies still. So happy streaming