Jailbroken 128gb iPad with sftp access from infuse. I know the storage is limited but its better than having my Mac turned on all the time.
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What is everyone using to host library now?
- Thread starter rlu929s
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2012 Mac Mini with a 3TB external drive for iTunes and 4TB external drive for backups. It's sole purpose is an iTunes and file server. I don't even have a monitor hooked up to it. Every once in awhile Apple TV gets stubborn with home sharing but the workaround for me is to force close the computer app on Apple TV and pull up shared videos on my iPhone. Apple TV picks it up after that.
I like Plex and it works well but we like to see all of our movies in one place (drm and non-drm). Been doing it this way for years. I especially like that the mac mini can go to sleep and be woken up on demand.
I like Plex and it works well but we like to see all of our movies in one place (drm and non-drm). Been doing it this way for years. I especially like that the mac mini can go to sleep and be woken up on demand.
Convenience yes. Marginal difference between BD and iTunes? Completely absurd claim.
Well, check out this "absurd" comparison from the highly respected and venerable Ars Technica site, performed way back in 2012.
"I was surprised to see how close the iTunes 1080p download comes to Blu-ray, considering that it's only a fraction of the file size."
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/03/the-ars-itunes-1080p-vs-blu-ray-shootout/
And even this comparison involves some pretty extreme pixel-peeping. ;-)
With 2 little kids and a busy day to day life, iCloud on Apple TV is the way to go for us. Hands down.
The sound though. The sound from iTunes movies through the fourth generation of Apple TV is absolutely horrible compared to blu ray
Agreed. But that's a (hopefully) temporary issue and is not because of the iTunes content itself. Many of the complaints regarding ATV4 audio quality could be addressed with a software update.
Hopefully. But we've lived with it for so long now. And infuse seems to do a much better job with the audio
Completely laughable. Done with a 23" PC monitor and a MacBook.
I use an AppleTV 1. 
Much simpler, having everything directly on the device, no computers to leave on or accessible over the network. Syncing happens automatically when I (occasionally) open iTunes on the computer. Likewise for photos and videos. No cloud needed either.
Of course the lack of external content options such as Netflix means I have a Roku also to handle that side of things. Still simpler than always relying on computers and clouds. I keep hoping Apple will come back to the ATV 1 design at some point, but it seems that train has left for good.
Much simpler, having everything directly on the device, no computers to leave on or accessible over the network. Syncing happens automatically when I (occasionally) open iTunes on the computer. Likewise for photos and videos. No cloud needed either.Of course the lack of external content options such as Netflix means I have a Roku also to handle that side of things. Still simpler than always relying on computers and clouds. I keep hoping Apple will come back to the ATV 1 design at some point, but it seems that train has left for good.
I have my active music library only hosted on external drive....kept up to date on another external (which never is the source of music, only data drive), and then on my NAS which houses everything as well. All are encrypted volumes.
I use an AppleTV 1.
Doesn't that limit the size of your library to 160gb?
kind of dumb that Apple restricted the usb port to only diagnostic purposes in the early days..... but i guess it made sense.
Plex is good... Although i like the options available, u have no control over the nameing eg: u must use s for season. as in s01 ?
Switched back to iTunes.. particually now the description stuff in available on Apple TV.....
Plex is good... Although i like the options available, u have no control over the nameing eg: u must use s for season. as in s01 ?
Switched back to iTunes.. particually now the description stuff in available on Apple TV.....
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That's pretty standard across most media programs. You can name it whatever you want, you just need a s01e01 in there somewhere. Otherwise it has no way of knowing what episode or what season the show is.
My downloader, sonarr, does this automatically.
The hunt is still on. I'm leaning towards just buying a new PC with a 256MB SSD and 3TB SATA drive. I'll just copy the library over to the new drive and have an extra 1 TB to grow still relying on Home Sharing and my PC to be on and ITunes up.
However, I'm also thinking of maybe just hooking up a 3TB External Drive to my Airport Extreme via USB and just using Infuse to view ripped/home movies and going to streaming all ITunes purchased films.
Think the Files going over USB to Airport would work? All my ATV's are hardwired via ethernet.
It's a USB 2 port, so I'm guessing probably not fast enough.
However, I'm also thinking of maybe just hooking up a 3TB External Drive to my Airport Extreme via USB and just using Infuse to view ripped/home movies and going to streaming all ITunes purchased films.
Think the Files going over USB to Airport would work? All my ATV's are hardwired via ethernet.
It's a USB 2 port, so I'm guessing probably not fast enough.
I have a gigantic library housed on a 6TB USB 3.0 drive that I use with iTunes. I've had barely any issues over the last 4 years, and I've scaled my setup considerably over that time. This setup works for me as I never really turn my iMac off, so it serves up my content super fast. I also pair it up with my iCloud library of digital copies.
I think it will be fast enough for streaming, but it's quite slow. I got about 26MB/sec write with an external drive connected to the USB port on my 2TB Time Capsule, which should be the same as your Airport Extreme. Another user only got 18MB/sec.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/time-capsule-vs-aebs-w-hd.1747622/#post-19286321
My 2 AppleTV3's are also hardwired on ethernet, but they only support 100baseT which is 12MB/sec. But the latency with a drive connected to an Airport Extreme is going to be noticeable.
Might I suggest getting another 3TB HD and using RAID 1?
I have a PC running server 2008 R2 with two 4TB drives in RAID 1. That way if one drive fails, I haven't lost all my media.
I have some 3TB external drives that is backup my data to nightly using ViceVersa. I then cycle those out and store them in a vault at my bank every couple months to protect against tornado/fire etc.
I think I'm going to just get a system that has the drives I need to store the data and use the SSD for OS/Files/Data.
I do this. Every week I buy a few movies on iTunes and I decided last year that I would no longer spend money on storage to download and store movies and TV shows.
At one time, I had six HDs connected to my MBP. It was ridiculous. Even went with a 2008 Mac Pro back then just for the ability to put four drives in that. Gave up on that after a year and sold the MP.
Are you ever worried that the movies will vanish and not be available for streaming anymore? More than likely not, but just curious. Too bad they don't offer and iTunes Video Match service.
I used to be worried about a bandwidth cap, so that's why I downloaded. But my internet service just recently went to unlimited data if I get the 150MB down plan. Just $10 more per month.
I used to be worried about a bandwidth cap, so that's why I downloaded. But my internet service just recently went to unlimited data if I get the 150MB down plan. Just $10 more per month.
I've thought about that. I'm banking on hearing a rumor of it first. As soon as I hear a hint of any speculation of something like that happening I'll go on a downloading binge. Then rip the DRM out of each file.
Those are camera shots for a pixel to pixel comparison. As long as the camera is good enough to differentiate individual pixels (it can) screen size is irrelevant.
I prefer to just buy the Bluray and rip them to my server. That way if I lose some files, I can re-rip. I use Plex to house/stream my media so I have access to it wherever I'm at.
As far as storage, HD's are pretty cheap nowadays. I'm currently using about 1.3TB of my 4TB (with over 200 movies atm and using it as a file server). If I run out of space, I can grab a couple of 8TB HD's for pretty cheap and transfer everything.
As far as storage, HD's are pretty cheap nowadays. I'm currently using about 1.3TB of my 4TB (with over 200 movies atm and using it as a file server). If I run out of space, I can grab a couple of 8TB HD's for pretty cheap and transfer everything.
Its no wonder people think iTunes is good enough.
Think what you want. It's wrong and completely innacurate to compare stop images (using different displays with differing pixel characteristics) of motion picture material, but think away.
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