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ericinboston

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
2,004
476
I have the latest ATV and have a few questions:

1)If I use my iPhone to stream pictures/videos into AppleTV, it seems that ATV seems to cache the videos after they are fully loaded...meaning, if I come back tomorrow and play the same video from my iPhone 4S, it starts immediately on the ATV instead of it buffering for 30-45 seconds the very first time I played it the day earlier. I've noticed this on several videos. So is there a 2-4GB system cache/hard drive on the ATV?

2)When my iPhone streams pictures/videos into ATV, I presume it is going through my wireless router and NOT directly talking to the ATV...correct? I ask because my Wireless G network seems to be underpowered for at least my iPhone 4S 1080 video clips...a 1min clip might literally take 1-2 mins of buffereing before the clip even plays. Kind of a bummer (but maybe the caching from question #1 above will help all the time when I replay). I could upgrade my router to the N protocol, but that's $80+ for a niche iPhone streaming thing-a-ma-jig feature every few months with my use.

3)I stream movies (that I have created) from my Windows pc. I would LOVE to be able to point my ATV to my Mac Mini where I have thousands of photos in iPhoto ('07 or '08...I forget)...is there a way to do this? I am not going to copy 160GB worth of pix from my Mac to my PC and then set up sharing and all that junk...would love to be able to let the ATV "see" iPhoto just like if I were in front of the Mini and see the Albums and such.


4)When I do a Network Test via the ATV menu, I never get any kind of log/stats on what the test resulted in...just a "test succeeded" unhelpful message. I'd like to know how fast it is pulling from Apple as well as from my iTunes machine on my home network in case I want to optimize my network somehow or offer proof to complain to my ISP or even upgrade to higher speeds on my ISP down the road (I currently get 30Mbs downstream). Can these stats be seen?


Thanks so much in advance!
 

maturola

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2007
3,863
3
Atlanta, GA
1) yes the ATV2/3 have 8GB of flash storage

2) yes all your traffic goes by the router.

3)There are several way to do that, you can just share the folder where you have your pics and stuff over the network, mount it (or map it) on your windows machine and add it to the iTunes library, this way iTunes would be able to share all that with your ATV.

You can also sync with iCloud but you can't do all 160GB.

4) currently there is not a way to see those stats on the ATV. you can test your ISP network speed using Speedtest (google it), you can also test your internal LAN with several Application, you can do from any computer on the network (Google "LAN Speed Test")
 

ericinboston

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
2,004
476
1) yes the ATV2/3 have 8GB of flash storage

2) yes all your traffic goes by the router.

3)There are several way to do that, you can just share the folder where you have your pics and stuff over the network, mount it (or map it) on your windows machine and add it to the iTunes library, this way iTunes would be able to share all that with your ATV.

You can also sync with iCloud but you can't do all 160GB.

4) currently there is not a way to see those stats on the ATV. you can test your ISP network speed using Speedtest (google it), you can also test your internal LAN with several Application, you can do from any computer on the network (Google "LAN Speed Test")

Thanks for the fast reply! Your answer to #3 is what I was thinking and sorry I didn't write it in my original post. But with #3, the Mac/iPhoto stores the photo library in a special folder...I will do some testing but I don't think Windows XP will see that folder as a true directory folder. On the Mac I have to right click the folder and choose Show Package (or something like that) to actually see the directory structures of my pix. I am also concerned about corrupting the iPhoto library with all this non-simple-1-standard-way-from-ATV sharing...hate to see iTunes on my PC crash and have it kill my iPhoto library...or some networking hiccup. If Apple were to create some kind of robust, easy way to do this, I would be a lot happier. :) But I will try the iPhoto sharing mechanism and report back here soon.
 

maturola

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2007
3,863
3
Atlanta, GA
Thanks for the fast reply! Your answer to #3 is what I was thinking and sorry I didn't write it in my original post. But with #3, the Mac/iPhoto stores the photo library in a special folder...I will do some testing but I don't think Windows XP will see that folder as a true directory folder. On the Mac I have to right click the folder and choose Show Package (or something like that) to actually see the directory structures of my pix. I am also concerned about corrupting the iPhoto library with all this non-simple-1-standard-way-from-ATV sharing...hate to see iTunes on my PC crash and have it kill my iPhoto library...or some networking hiccup. If Apple were to create some kind of robust, easy way to do this, I would be a lot happier. :) But I will try the iPhoto sharing mechanism and report back here soon.

You can share your photos directly from your mac, just get into itunes, and tell it to share your iPhone library.

Here is a link on how to setup your phone for screensaver, but it works the same, you just go to Computer> and add your photos.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4362
 

ericinboston

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
2,004
476
You can share your photos directly from your mac, just get into itunes, and tell it to share your iPhone library.

Here is a link on how to setup your phone for screensaver, but it works the same, you just go to Computer> and add your photos.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4362

So the ATV can see/point to 2 different iTunes on the same home network? Whatever version of iTunes I have on my Mac is eons old and has never been integrated to anything...I've used iTunes on my PC since day 1. I'll try that, too. Thanks!
 

maturola

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2007
3,863
3
Atlanta, GA
So the ATV can see/point to 2 different iTunes on the same home network? Whatever version of iTunes I have on my Mac is eons old and has never been integrated to anything...I've used iTunes on my PC since day 1. I'll try that, too. Thanks!

I haven't done it with Photos, but I did it with music, as long as you use the same "Home sharing" account on all devices, you should be able to see all libraries.
 

ericinboston

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
2,004
476
I installed iTunes 9.2.1 (the highest verision my Mac OS will take) and it does not seem to have the feature to share photos. I've Googled for over 30 mins and nothing explicitly states if/how to share photos with iTunes 9.x. Sounds like it is a feature only on 9.3.x or higher on the newer Mac OSes. :(

If I am wrong, can someone please clearly state how to enable/setup photo sharing with 9.2.1 on the Mac?

Thanks!
 

maturola

macrumors 68040
Oct 29, 2007
3,863
3
Atlanta, GA
I installed iTunes 9.2.1 (the highest verision my Mac OS will take) and it does not seem to have the feature to share photos. I've Googled for over 30 mins and nothing explicitly states if/how to share photos with iTunes 9.x. Sounds like it is a feature only on 9.3.x or higher on the newer Mac OSes. :(

If I am wrong, can someone please clearly state how to enable/setup photo sharing with 9.2.1 on the Mac?

Thanks!

You need Open iTunes 10.0.1 or later to use home sharing.

Your options are limited, you either update, or copy the photos to the windows machine.

You also try my original suggestion, however you will have to export the iPhoto library first (File>export) and them share that folder over the network.
 

ericinboston

macrumors 68010
Original poster
Jan 13, 2008
2,004
476
Not to go too off topic, but this is exactly what drives me nuts about Apple/Mac vs. the PC world. Here's my Mac experience regarding this thread:

1)I want to share some pix via iTunes which sounds pretty normal
2)My late 2007 Mac is on OS 10.4.11
3)I launch iTunes and it tells me there is an update...I let it do it's thing and after 60 seconds of checking for updates, I am not given an iTunes update...just a bunch of Mac OS junk. I then download iTunes 10.x from Apple.com and when it runs it says it is not supported on my OS and I need to upgrade my OS. I then surf and find the last supported iTunes for my OS which isiTunes 9.x.
4)iTunes 9.x (released in mid 2010 so basically 2.5 years after my OS) does not support photo sharing
5)In order to install iTunes 10.x, I need to BUY A NEW APPLE OS!!!! Who cares if the OS is $25 or $100, I need to upgrade my whole !*#$(%@ machine's core system so I can go from itunes 9.x to 10.x?!
6)I've been photo sharing on my pc for awhile now with iTunes (maybe 1.5 years? I forget)...so even if I tried this process in early 2011 or late 2010, I would get the same results...so the answer isn't "well, Eric, you waited 5 years to update iTunes...things have really changed."


Apple has purposely done this iTunes crap a few times...demanding major Apple OS updates (yet never a Windows update)...so either a)Apple developers are purposely burying code inside the OS that makes it so fundamental for iTunes to run and thus reliant on exact OS versions or b)Apple is simply putting an "if...then" check in the iTunes installer that says "ha ha ha...you are on an old OS...we want you to buy a new OS...I will NOT install until you fork over money"


The SAME experience happened before when we got our $900 iPad 1 in 2010. The iPad demanded a certain flavor of iTunes which in turn demanded a certain flavor of Mac OS. I called Apple and they agreed it was a crappy requirement so I used my PC. My PC that was (and still is) on Windows XP that was released in 2001!!! So my iPad will work just dandy on a 10+ year old Windows platform but not a 2.5 year old Apple platform. Ditto for iTunes 10.x running on my XP system for photo sharing.

Anyway, just venting...but this is one reason why I and others are not Apple fans. This never happens in the PC world. Seriously. Sure, there are always apps that prefer newer OSes, but I can easily still find bazillions of apps/upgrades that run fine on my Windows XP box from 2001. If I want a 64bit version, of course I need to grab the Vista or Win7 version since XP is not 64bit and basically nothing was 64bit back in 2001. And back in 2005 I could still easily find apps that run on Windows95 that was released in 1994. 2-4 year "backwards compatibility" on OSes is a bunch of bull.
 
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