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m1ddy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 15, 2013
6
0
All,

FIrstly let me apologise for my noobness. New to this stuff :)

I have an Apple TV3 and an ipad mini. All my media is stored on a ReadyNAS device. I have no problems in converting everything to mp4, so I won't be jailbreaking (I understand this can't be done on the 3 anyway)

What I'm trying to achieve is this: I want the AppleTV to be able to play media directly from the NAS, whilst using the ipad as a remote to control what's being played. One way I know I could do this would be to play the media on the ipad and then airplay it on to the ATV. This seems counter productive as all the media would be being routed via the ipad, rather than the content being played directly to the ATV from the NAS. Is what I'm trying to achieve possible? I've never had much luck with iTunes on the PC so I guess I'm just asking whats the best way to go about this. Would I need a PC running itunes permantely on, controlling the content the ATV sees?

Any help / advice you can give me would be much appreciated.
 

bushido

Suspended
Mar 26, 2008
8,070
2,755
Germany
the apple tv cant communicate with nas unfortunately, it either needs a computer with itunes running or an apple device
 

m1ddy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 15, 2013
6
0
Damn :( I might just buy a £200 tiny PC and leave it running then.
 

rayward

macrumors 68000
Mar 13, 2007
1,697
88
Houston, TX
Damn :( I might just buy a £200 tiny PC and leave it running then.

Many go with a Mac Mini as a home theater "server", which also gives you the option to to do "normal computer stuff" on the big screen. It's a relatively pricey option though.

As for the ATV option, yes you do have to keep a Mac/PC on and with iTunes open in order to view locally stored content (e.g. from your NAS*). All other ATV activity can be done directly through the internet connection - including buying/renting movies, TV shows and music (purchased content will download to your iTunes library next time you open it up).

There is a free Apple Remote app which allows you to control playback on your ATV from iTunes - or any other iTunes-related activity - from any iDevice. It just has to be on the same wifi network.


* I used to keep my iTunes content on a NAS, but later switched to an external HDD directly connected to my iMac via firewire. Two reasons:

(1) the NAS could be slow to mount following a reboot and, if iTunes is opened prior to it mounting, iTunes would default back to the local library location - which was empty; and

(2) content from the NAS would hit the network twice - once from the NAS to the iMac and then again from the iMac to the ATV. That's a lot of network traffic just to watch a movie.

Now I use a local drive for my iTunes library, and have a NAS to backup it all.
 

wknapp0924

macrumors 6502
Sep 14, 2012
410
15
Honolulu, HI
If you can get lucky like I did and find someone selling the ATV2 for 80 bucks on Craigslist than you can JB and connect to the NAS through XBMC, but if you do not find that deal I too reccommend a Mac Mini which will be expensive, but it will work perfectly.
 

JGRE

macrumors 65816
Oct 10, 2011
1,012
664
Dutch Mountains
the apple tv cant communicate with nas unfortunately, it either needs a computer with itunes running or an apple device

Well there are apps like 'Beamer' which bypass iTunes. Don't have any experience wit a NAS, so you might just try their free demo app and see whether it works for you.

BTW, the Beamer I use on OSX, I don't know wether there is an iOS version as well.
 
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