NAS & Apple TV 3 (video)

I think what we're looking for is a cheap solution. As I said, a net top/netbook from MSI is the cheap solution. With the wifi card swap, or enabling wake on LAN. Those are better options than to run Windows Home Server. The point is to have something that can be always on, power efficient, and do it cheaply. WHS is overkill quite frankly.

And I have both an original and 3rd generation ATV.

The whole point though is to answer the question and not to add stuff that is not directly applicable. The question is how to make a setup to stream to the ATV. Right now that's not possible through iTunes. Only iTunes can stream and store at the moment. And why would you have those other things like Roku, or a WD player? He has an ATV.

An the original post IS the source of the problem/issue. There's no mention of WHS, WD, or a Roku. Adding that stuff will just make finding it harder using search.

Time to think outside the box... I think it can be done, though I'm waiting for my aTV to arrive before I can prove it.

1) You need an airplay-capable piece of hardware/software to stream to aTV

2) There's nothing to say the content has to actually be on that piece of hardware...

What you need (I think) is to stream from the NAS to the iPad, and then use airplay to stream from the iPad to aTV.

I've tested this so far by connecting a USB stick with music to my router (a Netgear jobby), and then using the FileBrowser app to connect from an iPhone 4 to the "NAS" using SMB (Microsoft Simple Message Block - aka Windows filesharing). I've then connected the iPhone to my telly using a composite video cable, and it works a treat - the developer tells me that the app is airplay compatible.

Filebrowser looks really good - I've not tried it for movies, but it will play albums in sequence, random, etc. My router's SMB server seems to keep crashing after a number of songs, but a better quality NAS should fix it. The developer also told me he's submitting a new version to Apple for approval, and that could also fix my problem.

I'll know at the weekend 😉

Update: Yes, it works, and can be done.

1) You need a NAS with an SMB server.

2) You need FileBrowser, or a similar app.

3) Use FB to connect to the NAS, start playing a tune (or video, or photo) and press the AirPlay icon

Assuming you've remembered to turn on your aTV and set up home sharing, job's a good 'un 🙂

Hi NesDk

"Wow had thought of it, but believed it was more just filebrowsing." - the app is actually just a file browser, but if you click something that your iDevice knows what to do with (MP3/M4A/MPEG/JPG...), your iPhone/iPad will play/view it.

"Also does using airplay work the way i think, then it first sends from nas to ipad and then send further on to the ATV3 from the ipad/iphone." - In effect, yes. What happens is that the app drags the file from the NAS using SMB (exactly the same way you access network shares at work?) - the app has been written to support airplay, so the app then feeds the file into airplay and passes it to aTV (you have to press the airplay icon in the app)

"Meaning that theres double buffing and chances of frameloss on high quality content" - I don't know how the app's been written / implemented, but that could be the case. You'd have to ask the developer to be certain - they replied very quickly to some questions I had before I bought the app. The usual recommendations apply: use 802.11n, make sure you're using a different channel to your neighbours (if possible), have the NAS wired in on gigabit ethernet (i possible) and keep the distance between router, iPad and aTV as small as possible, to maximise power. Perhaps your router supports QOS, and you could set static IP addresses for the NAS, iPad and aTV, and you could prioritise that traffic? I guess only your ears will know how good it is 😉

"the optimal way (as i see it) is pushing the media from nas to atv via comands on ipad. Or directly browse via ATV3 interface." - that would be nice, but unless Apple bring out iNas, I don't think you'll get that interoperability, because the apple protocol environment is "closed shop" - and I can't see Apple introducing a NAS, because their focus, and the world's at large, is for cloud computing, where you don't own any physical storage. They want to make you do things their way...

"went on "surprise buddy drunken chill birthday party" in the woods, think i'll wait figuring out my port acces setup util the livin room stops moving." - I know what these Danish parties can do to your head - I'd leave the router a couple of weeks 😁

"i'll update your suggestion if i'm succesfull in using filebrowser, or others can confirm and i'll give you the solved bonus star." - Thanks, I hope it does work for you. I've only tested it small scale, streaming music and a small piece of video, from a USB stick plugged into my router. My router's SMB server crashes after about 5 or 6 songs, but I think that's because it's a Netgear router! The developer said he has an update ready that makes SMB problems more resilient.

I would suggest you try his free app first (netportallite) - it will let you list all files on the NAS, but won't play music or video - still, you can try to stream photos to your aTV, and if that works, buy filebrowser.

Let us know how it goes for you.

I want to be aple to stream direcly from the NAS to the Apple tv 3 with out any extra devises

and with out a computer. other compenys have done this

I can stream clips direcly from the nas to my LG blu-ray that have DLNA with out any exttra stuff

so why cna't apple do this I think thy can but why do thy not just do it.

Apple have spent a lot of money developing iOS and the AirPlay protocol - they are not going to adopt dnla or give other companies the right to use their intellectual property.

You can't do what you want to do without breaking the eula (yeah, I know we all read them...) and if you break the eula, you risk voiding any warranties.

If you buy apple products, you buy into that ethos. If that tie-in doesn't suit, or you need functionality that apple don't support, you should buy a different product - but it may not be as good or as smart ;)

You won't change apple's business strategy by saying you want them to adopt open standards, so don't waste brain cycles fighting the inevitable.

I did not say that apple shuld include DNLA or let otehre compenys use there protocol.

I sad that othere compeny have made it to work to stream from nas with out any otherer produckt by using DNLA.

and apple have LOTS of money so why can't apple make the AirPlay better by making there own nas with home sharing with "AirPlay Stream" that whuld work almost the same as a DNLA.

And apple say they are trying to be green by using less power and by using 1 computere 1 nas and 1 appla tv uses more power than 1 nas and 1 apple tv

You're making the mistake that corporates want to work for their customers - they don't; they are only there to make money, without which, there's no point in being in business. Whether good or bad, apple want you to do one of 2 things

1) buy LOTS of apple products - if they made a nas that could stream direct to aTV, you might not buy anything else.

2) use iCloud - if they make a nas, you'll be less likely to use iCloud.

They're just guiding their customers in the direction hey want hem to go. Simples.

As to power and green-ness, it could be argued that a data centre, once set up, costs less to run than millions of individual nas boxes around the world. If you have an iCloud account, you only need aTV at home...

So I guess the answer is they could make iNAS, but I doubt they will. Until that miracle happens, you'll be better concentrating on building the right solution for you, using the options available today, rather than complaining that they don't make what you'd like them to make.

The simplest option if you don't already have an iPhone/iPad may be to buy a cheap iPod touch, which would do the conversion between smb and AirPlay, and also be your remote control unit for the nas and aTV?

Hi.

I wuld love to use the iCloud instead of a nas but in my Contrey we do not have full access to the iCloud function.
don't have access to the itunes-Match nor can I stream my movies from iCloud nor can I buy/rent tv-Shows nor buy 1080.

And as for now if I culd stream direcly from iCloud it whuld not be so good idea becuse I don't have the best internet here and some times it takes me about 5 to 7 hour to download 1 HD movie that is about 3gig to 4gig from itunes store so for now the NAS is best for me.

Still waiting for apple to let more contryes to get the fully access of iClound, hopw that day will come soon.

And I agree with you fully that 1 or 3 server hals with the iClound wuld use much less power than the all of the NAS. when I talk about 3 iCloud servers I mean 1 in USA 1 in Europe and 1 in Asia.

The way I get around this: I have over 4TB of movies, music, and photos. I have a NAS, and use Airvideo to stream to my IPADs and Macs, which will in turn stream to my ATV. Another way around this is to set up an external large drive on a Mac (I use my IMac) and re-direct your ITunes to use this drive. Your ATV will then pick it up and stream directly from that computer. As someone mentioned before, Mac minis are relatively cheap, and an external drive hooked to this, with the path of your iTunes redirected, would be the cheapest way to go.

I know this isn't adding much new, but - - -

As others have mentioned I would like to go directly from my NAS (D-Link 321) to my ATV (multiple ATVs really, as well as my other iTunes machines). My broadband speed is slow enough that iCloud doesn't really work that well. And using another intermediate device like an iPod/iPad seems just silly - the ATV HAS the ability to use an iTunes library on a homeshared computer. Right now I have resorted to sticking a silly Windows machine in the basement with iTunes running - with a hard drive with my media (so my NAS is really just a back-up of that machine). That way I can use the iTunes library on that machine on my ATVs and also other machines. I'd REALLY like to get rid of the Windows machine and just use the iTunes server function on my NAS. If Apple could/would build an iTunes server/NAS or give the NAS folks the abilitiy to make a real iTunes server (with the ability to create playlists) I could finally throw away the last Windows box in my house!

Like I said - not much new - just another voice in the crowd!

I'm looking to setup a RAID1 NAS server for backups. I also want it to work as a itunes server for my appleTV3. Synology DS212J offers iTunes server capability. Does this fits to my purpose? Will I be able to stream videos to apple tv without using my Macbook pro?