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Apple TV - One Mac - Two databases.

A

Andy Greenow

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2014
9
0
Hi,

From what I've this hasn't been covered or does it look possible.

I've just brought another apple TV for my house, and this ones to go into the living room, so that the family can watch family videos together and things like that. However, I don't want to mix in the family content with my main iTunes. I have to hard drives, one with My main iTunes database and the other with the family content iTunes database. Now I know you can only run, one iTunes database at a time. but is there anyway or software I can get to make the Apple TV see the files without accessing iTunes. I've ready about using an iPad and file browser but I don't particularly want to do that option.

Hope i've made sense and anything which doesn't just ask and i'll clarify.

Thanks for any help in advance :)
 
P

Panch0

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2010
684
9
Virginia
you can try this, but I am not sure if it will work. in theory I think it should.

1) Create a new user account on your computer
2) configure iTunes on this second user account to use your Family library
3) set up a new (different) apple ID to use for Home Sharing on the new account
4) use fast user switching to keep the new user account logged in - set iTunes to open automatically, or just manually open it.
5) on the new Apple TV, use the newly created AppleID (#3) when you set up home sharing.

Now, you should have two user accounts logged into your computer with iTunes running in both. the old Apple TV should see your original iTunes Library using your original Home Sharing appleID and the new AppleTV should see only the Family library.

Again, I haven't tried this - I am not sure if the background user account really has iTunes 'running' in the way that HomeSharing needs it to be. If this doesn't work, the next step would be to buy an additional computer (probably a really inexpensive Windows box - like an HP Stream laptop or a Lenovo Q190 ) to host the Family library. As long as the home sharing is different only one library will appear on each Apple TV.
 
Boyd01

Boyd01

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 21, 2012
7,685
4,570
New Jersey Pine Barrens
Could this be accomplished with ratings? I think the Apple TV can be configured by parents to keep kids out of things based on their ratings. So, couldn't you assign PG, R (or whatever) ratings to the things you don't want available in the family room?
 
D

davidoloan

Suspended
Apr 28, 2009
419
72
Panch0 said:
you can try this, but I am not sure if it will work. in theory I think it should.

1) Create a new user account on your computer
2) configure iTunes on this second user account to use your Family library
3) set up a new (different) apple ID to use for Home Sharing on the new account
4) use fast user switching to keep the new user account logged in - set iTunes to open automatically, or just manually open it.
5) on the new Apple TV, use the newly created AppleID (#3) when you set up home sharing.

Now, you should have two user accounts logged into your computer with iTunes running in both. the old Apple TV should see your original iTunes Library using your original Home Sharing appleID and the new AppleTV should see only the Family library.

Again, I haven't tried this - I am not sure if the background user account really has iTunes 'running' in the way that HomeSharing needs it to be. If this doesn't work, the next step would be to buy an additional computer (probably a really inexpensive Windows box - like an HP Stream laptop or a Lenovo Q190 ) to host the Family library. As long as the home sharing is different only one library will appear on each Apple TV.
Click to expand...

I have 3 different libraries showing on Apple TV right now, but I use the same Homesharing address and passwords for them all.

This will be the simplest way of doing it, but all the libraries are visible to everyone, so it won't be suitable if you actually want to hide content from young children.

If you are happy enough that they can select their own library and don't mind them seeing yours it will work well, and it's simple to set up.

Just open iTunes on all user accounts and that's it.
 
A

Andy Greenow

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2014
9
0
Thanks, I never thought about using different accounts on the iMac itself. Shall give that a go tomorrow!
 
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