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How to move only iTunes movies to external drive and Apple TV

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GtotheK

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 17, 2009
87
0
Hi all,

I'm running low on disk space on my macbook. I'd like to move ONLY my movies/tv shows to an external drive. I have a couple of questions:

1) How does one do this? Can I drag only the movie folder onto the external drive and leave the music folder on my macbook?

2) If I get new movies, do I have to individually put each onto the external drive?

3) If I'd like to those watch movies on my apple tv, do I need to attach the external drive to my macbook? To the apple tv? Can I attach it to my airport extreme base station, so it's shared over wifi?

I appreciate the help! :)
 
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mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
GtotheK said:
Thank you, as for the apple tv aspect, would I still be able to watch movies if they are not on my macbook? I thought the home sharing "computers" icon on apple tv is meant for media on the macbook?
Click to expand...

Nope. Movies being on an external drive will be fine.
 
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mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
GtotheK said:
I don't plan on the external drive being connected at all times to the macbook, I'm thinking it won't work then?
Click to expand...
It either has to be connected to the MB or your router. Obviously, if it's not connected somewhere, you won't be able to see it's contents.
 
G

GtotheK

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 17, 2009
87
0
mic j said:
It either has to be connected to the MB or your router. Obviously, if it's not connected somewhere, you won't be able to see it's contents.
Click to expand...

So I can simply connect it via USB to my airport extreme base station, and it will be available over wifi?
 
K

KevinC867

macrumors 6502a
Jun 8, 2007
620
2
Saratoga, CA
rusty2192 said:
Your MacBook will have to on and running iTunes no matter what, just keep that in mind.
Click to expand...

Yes, and since the drive will operate *much* faster when connected to the MacBook, it doesn't make much sense to connect it to the router. I tried that for a while and quickly discovered that there is a huge difference in performance between a true NAS (network attached storage) box and a router with a USB port.
 
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mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
KevinC867 said:
Yes, and since the drive will operate *much* faster when connected to the MacBook, it doesn't make much sense to connect it to the router. I tried that for a while and quickly discovered that there is a huge difference in performance between a true NAS (network attached storage) box and a router with a USB port.
Click to expand...
It makes a lot of sense to connect it to the router if you want to keep your laptop portable. I think you overstate the performance degradation. The only thing I have noticed that is slower is the cover art is a little slower to load. No impact on movie playing performance as the stream is buffered.
 
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GarrettL1979

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2012
330
0
mic j said:
It makes a lot of sense to connect it to the router if you want to keep your laptop portable. I think you overstate the performance degradation. The only thing I have noticed that is slower is the cover art is a little slower to load. No impact on movie playing performance as the stream is buffered.
Click to expand...

Same thoughts here.
 
K

KevinC867

macrumors 6502a
Jun 8, 2007
620
2
Saratoga, CA
mic j said:
It makes a lot of sense to connect it to the router if you want to keep your laptop portable. I think you overstate the performance degradation. The only thing I have noticed that is slower is the cover art is a little slower to load. No impact on movie playing performance as the stream is buffered.
Click to expand...

I agree that it will be fast enough to stream the media for playback. However, my experience was that it was painfully slow to load new media onto the drive when it was attached to my Airport Extreme. I would have been frequently moving the drive from the router to my laptop to add new content.

I usually have my rMBP "docked" to a USB3 hub which I have a few drives attached to, so it's no problem for me to leave my media drive connected there. I understand your point if you are often moving around with your laptop.
 
M

mic j

macrumors 68030
Mar 15, 2012
2,663
156
KevinC867 said:
I agree that it will be fast enough to stream the media for playback. However, my experience was that it was painfully slow to load new media onto the drive when it was attached to my Airport Extreme. I would have been frequently moving the drive from the router to my laptop to add new content.

I usually have my rMBP "docked" to a USB3 hub which I have a few drives attached to, so it's no problem for me to leave my media drive connected there. I understand your point if you are often moving around with your laptop.
Click to expand...
Takes me about 15m to wirelessly transfer a 1GB DVD and a little over an hour to do a 30GB BR. Since I have converted all of my library to mp4, I am in 1 at a time mode now. So it's no big deal. Often, I start the larger transfer's before going to bed.
 
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GarrettL1979

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2012
330
0
mic j, do you ever get server disruption error messages on your MBP using this setup? They're kind of annoying. Doesn't appear to affect playback on our ATV3 though.
 
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GtotheK

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 17, 2009
87
0
So I ran into a problem last nite. I was trying to watch a movie that I had transferred to the external hard drive. I had the drive connected to my macbook, but apple tv was not able to connect. So I had to launch the movie in itunes and airplay it. I just want to be able to turn on my apple tv and watch the movie. On the apple tv, next to the movie, there was a cloud, but I don't have itunes match. What am I doing wrong?
 
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