How to store movies on Apple TV without keeping them in the iTunes library

you can't.. the appletv is an itunes extender and is designed to use your existing itunes content.

if you removed the content form itunes, it would simply be removed from the appletv during the next sync.

if you delete the actual file, but leave the reference to it in itunes then you will achieve what you want, HOWEVER you CANNOT retrieve the content back from the appletv. the sync is one-way.

Wait, seriously? If I buy a movie or TV Show directly on my Apple TV I can't just choose to keep it there on not on my computer? And if I delete the reference and file from my computer it will delete it from Apple TV?

Isn't there some sync setting preference where I can choose to keep purchases made on Apple TV only on Apple TV and not on my computer and in iTunes?

No.

You can hack the appletv and make it do what you are wanting, but beware.

Welcome to the  Discussion Forums.

Most people unwisely don't back up because they can't be bothered or simply don't get around to it. It seems strange to come across someone who will go out of their way to avoid it.

Winston Churchill wrote:

Most people unwisely don't back up because they can't be bothered or simply don't get around to it. It seems strange to come across someone who will go out of their way to avoid it.

That's one way to look at what I'm wanting to do... but this is how I see it. I bought an Apple TV that has a 160 gig hard drive and is attached to my HiDef TV. I will never watch the TV programs I purchase on iTunes on my computer (only on my TV) and will only rarely watch them on my iPod. So why should I fill up the hard drive of my computer with 160 gigs of files that I will never use on that computer. That's a lot of space that I could be using for other things.

you can happily keep them on your appletv and not sync them back to your PC (just turning off syncing)... but you have to remember that you have no way of recovering that data should something go wrong.

the appletv is an itunes extender, and as such is really designed to allow you access to your itunes library on your TV.

Chenks wrote:

the appletv is an itunes extender, and as such is really designed to allow you access to your itunes library on your TV.

A fair point... but it raises this question: Why does Apple offer two sizes of Apple TV then? Why even have such a large hard drive on the Apple TV in the first place? Given that streaming is an option and that the Apple TV, unlike the iPod, is not a portable player that I can take out of the house with me - why not just have the minimum hard drive needed for buffering and just make it a streaming device? What exactly is the point, besides just backing things up, of the hard drive? Is that really the only reason for it?

being able to sync content to it allows you to use it when the network is not available. for example your only pc might be a laptop and syncing allows you to watch a movie without having to turn the laptop on.

I suppose that the two sizes have to do with price-point. And that some people have smaller collections of things than others. Certainly you can stream, and that is a fine option. The idea of storing songs, movies and photographs on the ATV is to allow the end-user to turn off their computer and just use the device like a stereo/video component. Why waste the electricity? Some people might have their computer in the den, or upstairs/the basement, so you don't have to run off, boot up the computer, load iTunes and then go back to the front room.

Totem wrote:
The idea of storing songs, movies and photographs on the ATV is to allow the end-user to turn off their computer and just use the device like a stereo/video component.

Ah! Of course... I wasn't even considering this b/c I'm one of these people who almost never has his computer off b/c I work from home and also do a lot of web surfing, etc. but obviously many many people have the computer shut off much more often than it is on.

So, alright. I see why the hard drive is there... it just seems so tempting for it to be able to be more of a stand alone device, more like another computer with iTunes on it rather than like a big iPod that sits under my TV. I guess I'll file that away in my tech wish list...

Wait a minute....

Why wouldn't he be able to use the storage space on the ATV without hacking it and using space on his MBP?

Can't you open up iTunes/Preferences/Advanced ....and UNCHECK "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to the library"?????

Doesn't this add a short cut to the movies on the ATV Hardrive within iTunes...thereby allowing you to play movies not resident on your MBP hardrive?????

What am I missing here?

but if he remove the file and keep the link so atv dont delete the file
he cant get it back to his computer should he wish to

I'm sorry, I don't understand what you are saying.

The OP wanted to know if he could have his movies on the ATV hardrive and not on his MBP. Since movies are played through iTunes...all he would have to do is import the movie library (resident on the ATV hardrive) without copying the files to his computer using the method I described above. What this does is it tells iTunes that the movies are on the ATV hardrive which would allow him to play them through iTunes.

Yes...if he deleted the movie from the ATV hardrive, it would be gone for good, but the shortcut would remain in his iTunes library until it was removed.

Surely this would be a good use for Time Capsule (the ultimate back-up drive)? Maybe Apple haven't thought of this use yet. If I only have a 120GB HD in my MBP, I don't want an iTunes copy of Apple TV movies on my internal HD, but they could be safely backed up on Time Capsule leaving the MBP out of the loop - if Apple would enable that. Do they?

The ATV is just an extender for iTunes. The ATV drive doesn't show up on your computer to store files to like a local/network drive (unless you hack it to do so)

Essentially what the OP wants to do is to sync files from his MBP to his ATV to watch and then delete the files on his MBP in order to free up the space. This is possible as has been posted before by simply putting the content you want in your itunes library (regardless of move files into my itunes library is set or not), then sync to the ATV. Once the content is synced, you can simply delete the files from your hard drive, NOT from the iTunes library.

The only bad point to doing this is that if you ever have to restore/reset your ATV, all of that content is gone since you no longer have it on your hard drive. There is no way to copy files from the ATV back into itunes (without hacks at least)