New AppleTV and Synology (NAS)

no.
appletv can only connect to a real itunes instance, not a pseudo one like on your NAS.

jonlanghoff wrote:
Think I'll buy an "old" AppleTV for music then... 🙂

the old appletv has the same restriction.

I have Airport Extreme with a USB Hard drive plugged into it where I store my iTunes music folder. I play music through my iTunes on my Macbook. I did this because my Macbook ran out of storage. I just ordered the new Apple TV hoping I can stream my music and hopefully other media from that hard drive. Does anyone know if that will work?

I have the Synology DS210J NAS drive, and it has a full iTunes server - not a 'pseudo' one.

http://www.synology.com/enu/products/features/itunes.php

However, I think Apple missed the trick of making the new ATV compatible with uPnP / DLNA. This is a huge deal breaker for me. In fact, the only one.

jonlanghoff wrote:
Will I be able to feed content to the new AppleTV from my Synology DS210J NAS? It has an "iTunes service"...

Not directly. Apple TV requires either a synched or streamed sever to respond with a 4 digit code upon initial link-up. The NAS's use the mt-daap/FireFly media server which does not have the capability to respond with a 4 digit code response. Besides, iTunes 10 broke the ability of most NAS mt-daap/FireFly servers to share thru iTunes.

I've never tried streaming iTunes 9.21 shared library audio/visual files from a NAS. I'll have to try that when I get a chance.

BTW, the mt-daap/FireFly server s/w hasn't been updated in two years, and it's speculated on the 'Net that the developer has stopped the development. However, I new guy is furthering the development under the generic name of "forked-daapd". But, it will be up to the NAS compa benies to fix their units, not Apple. (Another discussion.) Guess I won't updating to iTunes 10 for awhile.

yorkshire2510 wrote:
I have the Synology DS210J NAS drive, and it has a full iTunes server - not a 'pseudo' one.

http://www.synology.com/enu/products/features/itunes.php

However, I think Apple missed the trick of making the new ATV compatible with uPnP / DLNA. This is a huge deal breaker for me. In fact, the only one.

What do you mean by a 'full itunes server'? AppleTV doesn't use standard iTunes sharing, and must be registered with a 5 digit code to iTunes using a setup procedure, unless you can accomplish this the synology won't work with the original. Remains to be seem if the new one will just use standard sharing, but doubtful.

yorkshire2510 wrote:
I have the Synology DS210J NAS drive, and it has a full iTunes server - not a 'pseudo' one.

Don't be misled your drive can do little more than any external drive, it can't run iTunes and it can't be used in isolation to provide content to the tv.

Hopefully Apple sees the need to access an iTunes Server (Firefly) and provide an update

It will never happen in my opinion. the tv does much more than just play content, it lets you resume at the same spot you turned the movie off, it tracks when and how many times something has been played, removes watched content, sort by unwatched etc etc etc

This would not be possible without iTunes.

I agree, but i dont want these features. I just want to stream my music and videos directly from my nas to the apple tv.

Or i buy the old one and hack it... or wait until the community provide an hack to add an Firefly iTunes Source, UPnP or SMB share. 😉

segi_ch wrote:
I agree, but i dont want these features. I just want to stream my music and videos directly from my nas to the apple tv.

the appletv is not the device for you then

It's these sorts of features that set the tv aside from other devices and in part to some of the restrictions that some are unhappy about. Without them it would likely be as clunky as the other devices out there.

If all you are going to do is hack the tv and turn it into one of those other devices, wouldn't it make more sense to get one of those other devices to begin with and not go jump through hoops to change the tv and lose your warranty in the process.

segi_ch wrote:
I agree, but i dont want these features. I just want to stream my music and >videos directly from my nas to the apple tv.

I agree. Streaming from an iTunes server is much more efficient than using another Mac. I'm perfectly happy with my standard 1G Apple TV, but would just like this one enhancement. After all, if Apple can add YouTube, Internet Radio and now Netflix to the Apple TV "experience", the added capability to interface with a NAS iTunes through 3rd part developers shouldn't invalid the current marketing model.

Chenks wrote:
the appletv is not the device for you then

Actually, it is the device for us - for the reason I just agreed with poster segi_ch.

When I mean efficient, I mean start-up cost, operating cost and best utilization of my scare resources; e.g.; my Synology DS110j NAS w/2TB cost $250 to acquire and operates on 14 watts (less than a Mini) when not in the standby mode. In addition to being capable of being an iTunes server in the iTunes sharing mode, it emulates a Time Capsule, a web server and a file server. The NAS is a ice efficient device as is my Apple TV 1G.

In a home theater scenario, I don't want to operate another computer with the Apple TV to enjoy rentals or my media. Once the Apple TV is "registered" with the iTunes NAS server, it should operate just like having a Mac dedicated to the servicing of the Apple TV.

It turns out I have a Mac Mini in my home theater set up to get around this Apple TV streaming limitation.