transfer from external hard drive to Apple TV

Open the Advanced section of the iTunes preferences, set iTunes not to copy content to the iTunes Music folder, drag the movies into iTunes, and sync or stream them to the Apple TV. Content cannot be transferred from an external hard drive to an unhacked Apple TV without going through a computer.

(39539)

Welcome to the  Discussion Forums.

Option-drag the files into itunes.

Just to clarify that both Niel's suggestion and my own will do the same thing in terms of the files on the external HDD, however they will both do different things in the long term. Niel's method will add all future content to the itunes library without copying them to your mini, my suggestion will revert back to copying files to the mini, it merely temporarily turns off copying while the option key is pressed.

Both methods will be preferable in differing circumstances, you will want to choose one or the other.

It may also be helpful to you to know that if you use Niel's method and turn off copying altogether, you can always use the option-drag method to temporarily enable copying.

Does this mean that if I turn the copying back on, that will prompt the hard drive to copy the movies?

No. They will only be copied to the hard disk if imported with copying on or a Consolidate Library command is performed.

(39559)

can you do this in reverse? That is to say, if you have the 40G ATV, and you start to fill it up, can you back up movies/tv shows that you dont watch often to an external HD?

pwncakes wrote:
can you do this in reverse? That is to say, if you have the 40G ATV, and you start to fill it up, can you back up movies/tv shows that you dont watch often to an external HD?

as the content will have come from itunes in the first place, you should already have it on you pc/laptop.

anything purchased direct from appletv auto-syncs back to itunes, as itunes is the master library. the appletv should only ever have copies of you content on it, not the only copy.

http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/ultranewb--how-to-move-your-itunes-library -to-an-external-drive-238296.php
&
http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/move-itunes-to-another-computer-and-keep-l ibrary-data-intact-229747.php

from
http://www.google.dk/search?source=ig&hl=da&rlz=&q=moveitunes+library&btnG=Google-s%C3%B8gning&meta=lr%3D&aq=0&oq=moveitune

excellent, thank you very much

Hey thanks for responding, I have a Time Capsule from apple shaped same as Apple TV which is my hard drive and airport, since both are by apple and both have wireless capabilities is there any way to stream them together? Or if not hook USB to USB from the Apple Time Capsule to Apple TV?

Is it possible to wirelessly stream movies/music from an Apple Time Capsule 500 GB to play through Apple TV while keeping files on the Time Capsule? Or any way to fill up the Apple TV (160 GB) with previously stored movies with a Mac Book that does not have much room? Im getting the idea that in order to play movies/music through Apple TV, that file has to be in your itunes library at time of play, if this right just respond yes. I appreciate the help

I'm not too sure, but at the moment i think ATV needs either iTunes, or its own HD in order to play content. Can someone verify this? So basically, if you have a computer to stream from, the ATV will use iTunes on that computer to stream the music/video/etc. I hope this changes in the future, or perhaps it has changed now, but i'm pretty sure for licensed song and video you'll need iTunes to verify that license in order to stream/play material.

Message was edited by: kobold