Streaming video and music from a shared external HDD to Apple TV

vahidia said:

Hi,
I have an external HDD (WD), I hope I can connect my HDD to a usb support router to share it in my home network. now, is it possible to use my iPhone/MBP,etc. to stream data from the HDD to my Apple TV WIRELESSLY??

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Yes, the only requirement is that your MBP has to be running iTunes.

I currently have an external USB HDD connected to the AEBS router and my MBP runs iTunes. We use an iPad (or you can also use an iPhone) as a remote control for the aTV or as the source for AirPlay/Mirroring.

vahidia said:

U use an Airport extreme,yes?which generation do u use?
How about non-apple routers? such as linksys or DLINK, Do they work as well?
and another question, do u use this set up for backing up by time machine??

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I use a USB hub to connect several HDD to the Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS). One of those drives is used for mp4 movies (for the aTV) and another is used as a Time Machine backup drive.

I do not have the latest generation AEBS. I have the previous one. In theory, any n router should work. If you look around this forum, you will see posts from some people having connection, stuttering and/or weak signal problems that were solved by switching to the AEBS router. If you already have the router, I would recommend just trying it and see how it works. If you have any of the mentioned problems (or something else weird going on), I would suggest trying the AEBS router to see if it solves the issue. Buy it from a place with a good return policy, so if it ends up not solving your problem it can be easily returned. Personally, I think the AEBS is a good router and the price is not cheap but reasonable.

I'll go out on a limb and recommend you buy an AEBS.

USB hub works fine and does not interfere with multiple simultaneous data transmission. The wifi network will be the bottleneck for that. I would recommend you get a powered hub. Not absolutely necessary if all of your attachments have their own power but will help if you add something that doesn't (like I plug my Garmin into the hub to charge it or I have a couple HDD's that are USB powered).

My AEBS is always on. That has nothing to do with HDD life. Most HDD's have a sleep mode for energy efficiency and to help increase life expectancy.

I don't have a recommendation on a hub (other than getting a powered one). They are all pretty much the same. Pick one with the number of ports you think you will need (plus a couple more).

For TM backups, I use a 1TB drive. I usually buy Fantom Green Drives but also have a couple 2TB Wester Digital drives. Just make sure the drive is formatted per the information in the link you provided. You can re-format if necessary using Disk Utility. Then just open up TM app and select the drive you will be using for backup. The first time you do this, I would recommend you have the drive directly connected to your Mac. That will ensure the fastest initial backup (which can take a while) and eliminate any corruption of data that might happen transmitting over wifi. After the initial backup, move the HDD to the AEBS to accomplish the smaller incremental backups.

mic j said:

The first time you do this, I would recommend you have the drive directly connected to your Mac. That will ensure the fastest initial backup (which can take a while) and eliminate any corruption of data that might happen transmitting over wifi. After the initial backup, move the HDD to the AEBS to accomplish the smaller incremental backups.

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Have you done this in real life? I wonder how did it work out, because direct USB-HDD backup is saved in a folder structure, whereas over-LAN backups are rendered in sparsebundles. I personally have approached this so, that I launch a over-LAN backup and once it has created the sparsebundle on disk, cancel it. Then you can attach the disk directly to Mac via USB. Once TM discovers a sparsebundle on disk, it will mount and back up into it.

priitv8 said:

Have you done this in real life? I wonder how did it work out, because direct USB-HDD backup is saved in a folder structure, whereas over-LAN backups are rendered in sparsebundles. I personally have approached this so, that I launch a over-LAN backup and once it has created the sparsebundle on disk, cancel it. Then you can attach the disk directly to Mac via USB. Once TM discovers a sparsebundle on disk, it will mount and back up into it.

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See this: http://mac101.net/content/how-to/time-machine-101-backup-to-a-network-drive/

The part I forgot about was getting TM to recognize the new location. Sorry 'bout that.

Hi mic j - what are the advantages to having things set up this way? (From an ATV point of view)

I've always just had my external drives hooked to the computer under the rationale that the computer needs to be on anyway. Is there a speed difference or other advantage to have your drives on your router (we are really a one computer house with several ATVs so don't require access by several desktops). In particular, it still irks me that I can't let my desktop sleep - it is awake 24/7 for our ATVs - does your setup allow for the desktop to be woken on wifi by your ATVs?

Thanks - you may have opened up a whole new realm of experimentation for me! (My wife will be upset)

bluewooster said:

Hi mic j - what are the advantages to having things set up this way? (From an ATV point of view)

I've always just had my external drives hooked to the computer under the rationale that the computer needs to be on anyway. Is there a speed difference or other advantage to have your drives on your router (we are really a one computer house with several ATVs so don't require access by several desktops). In particular, it still irks me that I can't let my desktop sleep - it is awake 24/7 for our ATVs - does your setup allow for the desktop to be woken on wifi by your ATVs?

Thanks - you may have opened up a whole new realm of experimentation for me! (My wife will be upset)

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I don't think there would be an advantage for you. I have a laptop as my only computer, so dragging around a bunch of HDD's hooked to it would be kind of awkward.

You don't mention whether you are PC or Mac but the Mac can be set to go to sleep and wake upon LAN. So if it is asleep and you access the aTV it will wake up your system. Not quite as good as being able to totally shut down your system, but at least the power consumption is lowered.