10-02-2010, 05:51 PM

I wasn't sure if anyone else tried this, or at least tried this and posted it. I wanted to share my findings on getting my personal digital files on to the new Apple TV. Since we can't hook up an external hard drive (yet...) to the ATV2. I wanted to find a good solution on getting my video files working on my TV through an Apple TV 2.

Personally, I don't like keeping all of my video files on my MBP. I have quite a big library already and I don't have a particularly large hard drive to keep my media on there. So I decided to consolidate my iTunes library so all of my videos are sitting on my Time Capsule. My TC acts as a wireless router for our home anyway, so I also use it as a wireless hard drive. It's handy since I don't have to lose a USB port to keep a hard drive always plugged in.

I found that keeping my iTunes library on another hard drive, I could have the best of both worlds. I can stream my personal media content to the new Apple TV 2, but use the Time Capsule to house my video content.

So far the only disadvantage I've found, is that it may not be nearly as fast to navigate as if the files were sitting right there on the old Apple TV. But I've been very happy so far. Hope this helps give anyone other ideas of how to play their own video files on the new Apple TV!

03-16-2011, 12:08 AM

That works? With no computer on? Everywhere else online says you need a computer to be on.

04-21-2011, 11:38 PM

After some experimentation with the ATV2 and using the Time Capsule-- I found it to be slow to pull up a movie or tv show. It's true that I do have to wake up my MBP's iTunes up. Which can be a pain sometimes.

I honestly haven't found the perfect solution to setting up my video files so that the ATV2 or ATV1 will be able to ping it. I've heard of people using a NAS or a RAID server to host theirs. Network hard drives are becoming reasonably priced-- the Western Digital one (2 TB) is around $200 at Best Buy right now.

Unfortunately these solutions are just another stop along the way. When it comes to grabbing video content from a hard drive, I have yet to find a good way to take the iTunes/computer out of the equation. I'm playing around with a few more ideas, but I haven't found the one perfect solution.

This may be heresy, but other OTT devices like the Roku and WD TV are nice because you can plug in any hard drive and play many of the popular video formats. I wish this was the same with Apple TVs.