Storage/Network Question

[dpriest]

I currently have a 2TB OWC mercury pro external drive that holds my media collection. It is connected to my PC I stream the content on the drive to my Apple TV. I am running out of storage space so I need to find bigger storage. At some point in time, I am going to bury my PC and replace it with an iMac. I currently have a 2009 17" MacBook Pro also. I would like to be able to have my media on a drive that I can access wirelessly for the ATV. I would also like to have an ATV setup at a beach house that I spend weekends in the summer at and access the same content. I don't know too much about Networked Attached drives and using cloud based solutions so I can access media from various locations.

I would really appreciate some thoughts and recommendations on the best way to go.

Thanks.

 

[ColdCase]

Probably the best way is to put a duplicate copy (or backup) your main storage to a portable drive you take with you to the beach with your laptop, I assume you already have wireless at the beach house. The internet connection may be slow.

Most NAS boxes and the OSX server app that runs on any Mac will allow remote access to your media hard drive. The easiest and most effective is to set up a server, but that may be more money than you want to spend.

You could put some media in a private youtube account. You would access and play just like any other Youtube.

 

[dpriest]

For my regular house, can I connect a drive to my network via Ethernet and how would that work? Or, do you recommend getting a bigger hard drive and connecting it to my pc the way I have it now?

 

[ColdCase]

I don't think the current ATV version can play media without it being shared by an iTunes library and iTunes running on a computer/laptop somewhere. It is the iTunes app on the computer thats doing the heavy work and sharing of media you stored on the hard drive.

So, wherever you are, you need a computer running iTunes to share the library of videos stored on a hard drive with the ATV. The hard drive itself can be directly connected to the computer, or remotely via the local or remote network. Someone should drop in here and correct/update.

The ATV can play movies from your iCloud account directly. These are typically movies you purchased.

The easiest thing to do is probably buying two hard drives, large enough for your video collection, and use one at the house as you are now, copy the library to the second drive to take to the cottage. Once in awhile bring the cottage hard drive back to the house and update it with new content manually or with something like CCC.

There are, of course, dozens of more elegant, more complex and costly ways to skin the cat, like setting up a server at the house with remote access.

 

[dpriest]

I completely understand all of that with the ATV and iTunes. Right now, I have my external hard drive directly connected to my PC via e-sata. I am contemplating getting a larger hard drive that I connect to the network via ethernet and then I can access that through the network with my computers. I understand the concept of how iTunes works as a directory and simply locates media in a specific location. A friend of mine mentioned he has a 4 TB G raid drive that he connects to his network with an ethernet cable to his airport. I am not sure of the way to go at this point. does anybody have any experience with the drive connected to the network and how it performs? I know there are NAS drives that are left on all the time. When I want to use my ATV, my understanding is that I have to have iTunes open in the computer that is connected to the hard drive.

 

[ColdCase]

Yeah, seems that you know what you are doing, wasn't sure.

There are many about that store their libraries on a networks drive, all kinds from a USB drive hanging off the airport to a NAS to a server.

A lot of them hang out in the appleTV and media server section:

https://forums.macrumors.com/forums/100/

I don't have personal experience so can't comment on performance. Its been talked about a lot. I think you are OK for a single user. Its when you have several users when here are issues. If someone doesn't jump in here soon, check the AppleTV forum.

 

[dpriest]

If the ATV forum is more appropriate to help me decide the best storage device to get and how to attach it, could somebody please transfer my thread over to that forum so I do not have to start from scratch again? Otherwise, if somebody else has any personal experience on this matter or knowledge of different products, please chime in at any time.