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How to use Time Capsule & Apple TV 2

H

hokiepokie07

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 20, 2009
601
11
I have the newest Time Capsule, and would love to just move a ton of my movies and television shows to it and not take up space on my hard drive. If I'm using Apple TV to watch the movies and shows, how do I have it set up to use my my Time Capsule to view the videos?

Thanks.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
The Apple TV 2 must have a computer running iTunes on to be able to use locally stored videos.
 
B

blevins321

macrumors 68030
Dec 24, 2010
2,768
96
Detroit, MI
Two choices.

1) Add the media on the TC to iTunes, and set it to not copy them to your internal drive. Trick here is that your computer has to be running for your ATV to get the media.

2) Jailbreak the ATV2 and install XBMC (or something similar). XBMC can then access the network drive directly and play your media without a computer acting as a hub.
 
H

hokiepokie07

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 20, 2009
601
11
blevins321 said:
Two choices.

1) Add the media on the TC to iTunes, and set it to not copy them to your internal drive. Trick here is that your computer has to be running for your ATV to get the media.

2) Jailbreak the ATV2 and install XBMC (or something similar). XBMC can then access the network drive directly and play your media without a computer acting as a hub.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

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Intell said:
The Apple TV 2 must have a computer running iTunes on to be able to use locally stored videos.
Click to expand...

So basically, if I'm going to watch a movie or a television show that I've moved over to my Time Capsule to free up space on my laptop, I'm going to need to move it back over to iTunes in order to watch it on my Apple TV unless I jailbreak my Apple TV, right?
 
B

blevins321

macrumors 68030
Dec 24, 2010
2,768
96
Detroit, MI
hokiepokie07 said:
Thanks!

So basically, if I'm going to watch a movie or a television show that I've moved over to my Time Capsule to free up space on my laptop, I'm going to need to move it back over to iTunes in order to watch it on my Apple TV unless I jailbreak my Apple TV, right?
Click to expand...


No, it can be "in iTunes" without being on your computer. The only bad part here is that once you turn off the setting to automatically copy stuff to iTunes, it will disable that feature for music too. See the attached screenshot. Disable the "Copy to iTunes folder" function.
 

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B

blevins321

macrumors 68030
Dec 24, 2010
2,768
96
Detroit, MI
I should probably add a disclaimer to my XBMC option above. If you're talking about viewing iTunes purchased videos, a computer with iTunes is the only way to do it. No 3rd-party software can play DRM-protected iTunes videos. However, I think with the latest software update you can stream all purchases to the ATV2, but I haven't tried this, nor do I know if it actually works.
 
Intell

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
hokiepokie07 said:
So basically, if I'm going to watch a movie or a television show that I've moved over to my Time Capsule to free up space on my laptop, I'm going to need to move it back over to iTunes in order to watch it on my Apple TV unless I jailbreak my Apple TV, right?
Click to expand...

Yep, unless you find an old Apple TV 1G and sync the movies over on to it.
 
S

slothrob

macrumors 6502
Jun 12, 2007
443
0
blevins321 said:
1) Add the media on the TC to iTunes, and set it to not copy them to your internal drive. Trick here is that your computer has to be running for your ATV to get the media.
Click to expand...
3)I use an external drive, but I think this would work with a NAS as well: Use iTunes to move the entire iTunes library over to the NAS. Then you can allow copying to the iTunes folder, since it is now on the NAS.
 
Y

yvobogers

macrumors newbie
Mar 29, 2012
1
0
I tried the recommended setup - movies on TC, imported but not copied into iTunes on a Mini, and streaming to the apple tv. Does the movie stream directly from TC to ATV, or does it 'travel' through the Mini? I'm experiencing a lot of hiccups and stutters in the stream, even though ATV and TC are directly connected with a 1 ft ethernet cable :/ The Mini is sitting wirelessly in another room though, so I wouldn't want my streams to have to go there first...
 
chenks

chenks

macrumors 65816
Oct 23, 2007
1,187
489
UK
yvobogers said:
I tried the recommended setup - movies on TC, imported but not copied into iTunes on a Mini, and streaming to the apple tv. Does the movie stream directly from TC to ATV, or does it 'travel' through the Mini? I'm experiencing a lot of hiccups and stutters in the stream, even though ATV and TC are directly connected with a 1 ft ethernet cable :/ The Mini is sitting wirelessly in another room though, so I wouldn't want my streams to have to go there first...
Click to expand...

it travels thru the mini.
with your setup, you've added an extra "hop" to the journey, thus any issues your wifi may have are now exaggerated.
 
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