old ATV solutions

[fotogenius]

Hi All

First of all, as this is my first post, my name is David and starting to get into the whole mac world. Currently I have a couple of ipod touchs, an iphone 3gs and an "old" atv.

The blessing and curse with the old atv is the built in hdd. This is great until it gets full. Since I dont want to leave my windows pc running all the time and tie up bandwidth through streaming I am looking for a different solution.
1.) Attach an external hdd to the atv, although according to mac the usb port is only for service purposes.
2.) buy a mac mini server which I could network directly with the atv, have running all the time and also have some additional server advantages.
3.)open for suggestions

Basically I have set myself some conditions that must be met:
1.)I need nearly unlimited hdd space directly or indirectly attached to atv without wireless streaming (ie. the mac mini server would "hard wired" to the atv)
2.)If possible I would like to store my entire dvd library (about 300 dvd) in a format that can be imported into itunes or at least played by atv.

Right now I am favouring the mac mini server solution, but havent found any statements by people who have actually done this and how well it works.

So I am open for suggestion from all you guys and gals here!

regards
David

 

[XJ-linux]

Google for NitoTV and Handbrake. Good luck.

 

[baggss]

1) What's the issue with leaving your PC on?

2) What do you have against streaming?

3) You could simply use the MacMini as a server, hook up however many HDDs you want and stream it all wirelessly to the ATV. I suppose you could use ethernet but why?

I've done exactly what you want (well over 800 movies and 3000 TV episodes) but without the hangup of not leaving my computer on pretty much 24/7 (4 internal and 5 external drives on my desktop with all my media). I stream directly from iTunes there. I had an old ATV and now have an ATV 2. To be frank, ditch the old ATV and stream from the MacMini server wirelessly. The older ATVs SUCK compared to the new ones, the HDD is simply a waste of your time and the software is never going to get updated again. You won't be disappointed.

 

[fotogenius]

Well the issues with leaving my pc running all the time: power consumption 750w), noise.

Streaming issues are mainly that I do not want to tie up my wireless connection and that its generally a bit slow at times. But I might reconsider it if I get a mac mini (server or non-server).

I know its a sensitive topic here, but what did you use to get your movies and tv-episodes into a compatible itunes format?

you could pm me to avoid breaking any rules here in this forum!

Basically your third suggestion is what I'm planning to do, but have yet to read anything about anyone doing this already.

Why do you suggest ditching the old atv? what additional features does the atv2 have? I have read conflicting posts on this forum here, but would like to read your direct comparison.


Thanks!
David

 

[bobtomay]

Just one note since you keep mentioning Mac Mini "server". You do not need (or want) OS X server for this, it's a waste of money for what you are wanting to do. All you need is the regular flavor of OS X for use as a media server/streamer.

 

[fotogenius]

Hello

Thanks for that input. The reason I might get the server edition are the additional server features that it also incorporates. You are right, for use just as an itunes server it would be massive overkill! But the mail server, ical server and other goodies such as advertised push functions make it an interesting deal. That, and the 1tb hdd space. I have some very specific question about this server but they are not suitable under this topic.

I will create another topic in another section and would appreciate your input.

regards
david

 

[baggss]

Well the issues with leaving my pc running all the time: power consumption 750w), noise.

Streaming issues are mainly that I do not want to tie up my wireless connection and that its generally a bit slow at times. But I might reconsider it if I get a mac mini (server or non-server).

You could set up a wireless connection between the Mini and the ATV separate from your main wireless network. This would work with either an ATV or an ATV2, but the ATV2 would need to have a way to get to the internet since it has to log into your iTunes account to enable home sharing and movie streaming from the Mini. If the Mini was hard wired via ethernet, that is would work, but you could do the ethernet connection as you mentioned earlier between the Mini and the ATV, with the Mini on the wireless network, and get the same result.

I know its a sensitive topic here, but what did you use to get your movies and tv-episodes into a compatible itunes format?

you could pm me to avoid breaking any rules here in this forum!

Handbrake. Google it.

Basically your third suggestion is what I'm planning to do, but have yet to read anything about anyone doing this already.

Why do you suggest ditching the old atv? what additional features does the atv2 have? I have read conflicting posts on this forum here, but would like to read your direct comparison.

The old ATV streamed poorly at best in my experience, the ATV 2 is FAR better at this IMO. It's like night and day and I did no changes to my network. For that simple reason alone I recommend getting an ATV2. As I said before, the original ATV is a dead platform that won't be updated any further. Coupled with the speed increases of the ATV2 that's an even better reason.

 

[fotogenius]

Thanks for the info. I will look into separate wireless connections once I get my hw.

tried handbrake and it worked like a charm on a windows pc. too bad the movie name is not properly passed to hb. I also have to find the artwork and description. But other than that its a great tool!

Before I get atv2 I think I am going to exhaust my atv a little and see what its like once I get a mini (server or no server). I am also looking into some nas systems. Synology has a nice item with 8tb. That should cover me for a while, but it wont last long especially if I implement RAID 1 which would make sense.

The mini and the nas will be hardwired via gb switch, so getting the data from there shouldnt be a problem. The connection to the atv or atv2 will still be wireless.

Some NAS solutions offer an itunes server. Have you (or anybody else) had any experience with this? If it worked well would basically make the mini redundant? If that were the case I could invest a little more in the nas and maybe bump my storage capacity up to around 20tb.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Thanks again
David

 

[baggss]

tried handbrake and it worked like a charm on a windows pc. too bad the movie name is not properly passed to hb. I also have to find the artwork and description. But other than that its a great tool!

Look at an App called MetaX. The name isn't HBs fault, it's the DVD itself, you can manually change the name before you begin the encode.

HB and MetaX are both available for the Mac as well and both work better on the Mac IMO.