NAS & Apple TV 3 (video)

We can cloud the subject with all kinds of technical jargon. The fact remains that the apple tv cannot stream from an external drive without having a computer turned on 24/7.

I was merely making other suggestions for the original post. You can talk about using plex and unbroken apple tv boxes etc..but what does that mean to the rest of us who are not " tech wizards" such as yourself?

I've yet to come across a well explained solution in layman's terms to what the original post was inquiring about.

Your comment above does NOT address the issue and has no constructive value except to "nit pick" at terminology.

Want to talk about "workarounds"? Here's my challenge to you.

In layman's terms, tell me how i can make my AppleTV box stream my external drive to my tablet and other apple devices without using iTunes and having a pc turned on...and remember you are talking to a non- techie here.

I have a question for all of those with workarounds too. We purchased an Apple TV not just for the basic features that any media box such as the roku can provide, but to be able to stream our music & videos..and not just our personal collection we ripped or obtained from the Internet, but streaming the Apple encoded files we paid good money for and can only play/stream with iTunes running on a device (iphone, of, mac, etc). As far as I know this isn't feasible and if I wanted to only stream non-apple media, I wouldn't have purchased an Apple TV or media from their store, as well as free digital downloads from blu rays. So the question is, are the workarounds geared toward the apple users or just towards non DRM users who just happen to have an Apple TV cause its shiny and has airplay? And on a techie note, if you bring up Forked DAAP, or a variant such as firefly, etc, does that handle the iTunes purchased media or just iTunes metadata on non iTunes Store files?

Hi

My response was explicitly labelled as "off topic". There's no "clouding" happening here.

As for the silliness about "tech wizardry" you'll see how such nonsense doesn't even warrant a response, let alone your "challenge" attempting to hijack the thread a second time.

"I was merely making other suggestions for the original post."

That included changing the hardware requirements of the original poster. The discussion is about the use of an Apple product, the Appletv, not a wdtv, which isn't made by Apple. Wanna talk about that gadget? Go to another forum where that device is supported.

There isnt one thats the answer.

1. NAS running Itunes server works, convert all files to Mp4 i currently use Wondershare fantastic program very fast, does whats needed.

but for and external drive cant be done, as the various Posts above comment. Just have a secondary device for streaming.

And dont forget Samsung have Just bought Boxee, so prepare to see it Embedded into the Tvs soon, and that IS the defacto best streaming software out period, No transcoding needed it just works on anything....

If you dont beleive me dload it and test its still around to dload 1.5

Not really true.

There's one. You can install Plex Media Server in some NAS which allows you to stream your content to a variety of clients. One of them is a jailbroken Apple TV 1 or 2 or using PlexConnect to stream to an unbroken Apple TV 3.

I haven't posted detailed instructions on this as I'm waiting for an installer that makes it easier for everyone to run, but I've been streaming my content (in any format) to my AppleTV 3 for close to three months now, without problems. It does this through a very clever hack that replaces the content in either Crunchy Roll or Apple Trailers (whichever you decide to be without).

As for Boxee: Boxee uses XBMC as its engine. Your "works on on anything" statement really applies to XBMC, and it's code Samsung won't be able to use as they're aggresively defensive on the use of their code (rightly so, as people think it's the effort of Boxee or similar). What Samsung has "bought" is not the Boxee software (most of which it can't recycle) but the social aspect of the boxes, the good image it has and the distribution channels (as well as the users let's not forget). Samsung already has support for most codecs in its smartTVs to not need Boxee's player (based on XBMC, I insist) at all, so their interest is elsewhere.

Lastly: "de facto" either doesn't mean what you think it means or you're not aware of a wild amount of options on par or vastly better than Boxee. Starting with what you're actually referring to which is XBMC.

I don't mean this in a bad way, but this thread has degenerated in lots of absolutes and statements ending in "period" that harm more than help the discussion.

I'll post more info on PlexConnect as soon as the installer is either made easier or is integrated into the Server (I hope for this), as that's currently the only option that can do exactly what the original post wanted:

-Having all sorts of video media files in a NAS

-Being able to navigate and watch them

The "workaround", in this case, is using Plex in the NAS and taking over the Trailers or Crunchyroll apps in the Apple TV 3.

So far, a thread in the Plex forums is tracking the Synology installer:

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/72356-plexconnect-on-synology/

There are other installation instructions for other NASes and, of course, for computers running Plex Media Server.

Message was edited by: Eduardo Gutierrez De O. - Added Synology package installer

i know its based on XBMC but it operates in a more user friendly way, Its faster and matches much better titles than plex

Plex requires either a powerful NAS or PC, and Trancodes.

Ive used both tirelessly over the years, and Boxee is the better in my view, Plex struggles with large quantities of movies, doesnt match as good and as above needs something to run it on...

and what options do i want ? i need to see the cover for the correct film and stream it and be in sync, something Boxee does flawlessly.

Eduardo! Thanks so much for this. PlexConnect looks like it could be a great solution. Not only does it appear to do most of what I want, it does so in a robust interface that seems like it would be easy for even the less tech-savvy members of my family to handle (other than the fact that the access icon says "CrunchyRoll" or "Trailers"... which could be a little odd for some). And it looks like it will work fairly easily on my QNAP, which is awesome. I'll have to get that installed and try it out.

I *am* confused as to why music streaming isn't supported, though. Seems like a pretty arbitrary decision, but maybe there's some odd limitation that prevents it.

In other news, last month I logged into my QNAP web admin for the first time in ages and it recommended a firmware update. After the update, the QPKG installer had a wonderful early Christmas present for me by way of a great little module called QAirplay. While on the surface this new package looked like it was similar to the QiTunesShare module that has been available for over a year, it works soooooooo much better. Where the old QiTunes module would putter out and drop streams constantly, QAirplay has been working absolutely flawlessly since I fired it up.

I use the QFile app on my iPad and/or Android phone to stream (ANY) media to my ATV3, with no fuss of pairing codes, etc. The only drawback I've run into is there seems to be a time limit for how long it'll keep the stream open if you've paused the content. So, sometimes if I pause a TV show to cook dinner and come back 30 minutes later, it's lost the existing stream so I have to go back, restart the show and scrub past all the stuff I've already seen.

I'm pretty sure QAirplay still uses the iPad/device as a middleman in the stream (ie - the media isn't streamed directly from the NAS to the ATV), but I've had no performance issues at all, even with HD content.

zyne wrote:

i know its based on XBMC but it operates in a more user friendly way, Its faster and matches much better titles than plex

May be, but I was referring to the part about it that "plays anything, without transcoding", which is precisely XBMC. Boxee is a theme on top of XBMC with a social layer spread above it all. Not that that's a bad thing, on the contrary.

zyne wrote:

Plex requires either a powerful NAS or PC, and Trancodes.

I guess you either misunderstand Plex or mix the media server with the players.

Plex Media Server (which can run in the same machine as the player) can transcode, optionally, or serve the files directly. If the client supports direct play (all the clients based on the XBMC player, like Boxee, can direct play almost anything).

Plex Media server doesn't require a powerful NAS nor a PC. CPU is required only to transcode, which is unnecessary if you use a player that can handle more formats.

zyne wrote:

Ive used both tirelessly over the years, and Boxee is the better in my view, Plex struggles with large quantities of movies, doesnt match as good and as above needs something to run it on...

I won't argue your opinion and tastes, but I can argue with what is factually wrong. Perhaps you use them tirelessly (it doesn't look like it, but perhaps you've used Plex in a tirelessly inefficient way for years) but I install both (and many more) as a living (second job, actually, but still). People prefer one or the other or may be better served by one or the other, so I have to know the ins & outs of both (where "both" actually means "half a dozen").

Plex in my home, at this moment, has over a thousand movies and over 5 thousand TV Episodes. No "struggle" anywhere. As for matching, results are pretty much the same (and errors are almost exactly the same). I prefer Plex as it has better support for non-english name matching but in general they're exactly the same (as they all use the same sources).

I can't even begin to understand what you might mean with "needs something to run it on", as it looks like Boxee runs out of thin air.

Boxee (the software) runs on the same type of hardware Plex Media Server and Plex Player run. I can only imagine you're not clear on how Plex runs, and you may believe it needs to be run in a separate machine (you can run it in a separate machine, but that's a feature, not a requirement).

Boxee (the software) was a fantastic realisation of a vision, that sadly met its death way too soon. Boxee, the platform, has died without enough fanfare and honor, related to what they meant. Samsung won't bring them back as they were, since Samsung won't even go into the Legal hurdles of license incompatibilities Boxee was allowed to surf when it was an "indie" company.

Still, sticking to just the technical aspects, you can run the Plex Media Server and Plex Home Players in the same machine, with little difference to starting Boxee alone.

The advantage of Plex is not what it does exactly as well as Boxee (matching and playing every format under the sun) or what it chooses not to do (the whole social layer, which is what Samsung bought). The advantage of Plex is that the "client" part can be something like Boxee (full-blown, all-formats supported player) or any other number of players connected to the same server (Raspberry Pi, AppleTVs, iOS, Android, Windows 8, Android TV Sticks, web interface, etc.). Transcoding is done *as necessary* and direct play is supported to avoid unnecessary transcoding. And play states are kept across platforms so I can start playing a TV Episode in the commute from work, continue on the Samsung Smart TV App and finish at bed on my iPad or iPhone.

zyne wrote:

and what options do i want ? i need to see the cover for the correct film and stream it and be in sync, something Boxee does flawlessly.

Both do it as "flawlessly" as can be done. An advantage of Plex (or XBMC, for that matter), is that any error or bug still can be fixed, whereas Boxee has been effectively end-of-lined and won't see any updates (as it hasn't, for 18 months now).

I'm not peddling Plex, by the way. It was just coincidental I mentioned Plex can do now what the original poster wants to do and you posted about Boxee doing something exclusively when it obviously isn't. I'm not here to convince you to use Plex, as even the year and a half-old Boxee is more than capable and enough for lots of needs where the set-up is simple and uncomplicated.

csteinola wrote:

Eduardo! Thanks so much for this. PlexConnect looks like it could be a great solution. Not only does it appear to do most of what I want, it does so in a robust interface that seems like it would be easy for even the less tech-savvy members of my family to handle (other than the fact that the access icon says "CrunchyRoll" or "Trailers"... which could be a little odd for some). And it looks like it will work fairly easily on my QNAP, which is awesome. I'll have to get that installed and try it out.

I love the usual Plex clients, yet I've been using it from the Apple TV constantly for some months now. That's how well it works. 🙂

There's already threads with tutorials about running it on QNAP NASes

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php/topic/70373-plexconnect-running-on-a-qnap-na s/

csteinola wrote:

I *am* confused as to why music streaming isn't supported, though. Seems like a pretty arbitrary decision, but maybe there's some odd limitation that prevents it.

A side effect of using a video playing application as a proxy. All functionality in both Trailers and Crunchy Roll revolves around playing discrete units of video. Music has different requirements (one of which is continuous/shuffled play of a playlist) that are not supported by these apps.

There's some talks about doing to the "Radio" app the same that was done to the "Trailers" app. That is a good lead, in the meantime they keep it in the roadmap but they're not hopeful.

This is how it looks, running the Plex media on an Apple TV 3:

http://i.imgur.com/zefe7dg.jpg

I truly hope this gets integrated, in the same way DLNA and UPnP are integrated in the server.

csteinola wrote:

I'm pretty sure QAirplay still uses the iPad/device as a middleman in the stream (ie - the media isn't streamed directly from the NAS to the ATV), but I've had no performance issues at all, even with HD content.

QAirplay plays directly to the Apple TV. That's what makes it better. You don't do the double-shuffle of going to the iPad and then from there to the AppleTV (which has the added burden of using double the bandwidth over WiFi). It sends straight to the device (the caveat is that you have to start the video from QNAPs application, not from a generic player that can play network files. This is equivalent to the Video Station of Synology NASes, that allow direct play over airplay without going through the iOS device.

Eduardo Gutierrez De O. wrote:

QAirplay plays directly to the Apple TV.

I wondered if that were the case. The only reason I thought it not to be the case was you still have to get the media playing on the iPad and then select the ATV in the Airplay selector. I was hoping that it was switching to stream the feed directly to the ATV, but not having any Wi-Fi or network traffic sniffers, I couldn't confirm. But that's awesome! And definitely explains why it works so much better.

And... yeah... duh on the music playing. Didn't even think about shuffle or playlist, or how it's actually still using the functionality of Trailers. Makes perfect sense.

BTW - went on the Plexapp site to research the Crunchy Roll alternative setup, and only found one thread that was asking about it... and it looks like the administrator immediately replied with "No, it can't be done" and summarily locked the thread. And people wonder why there is a prevalance of misinformation about this stuff.

Dude, seriously, get off the thread.

I am useing a nas ipad2 and xbmc (and the xbmc app). I have been thinking about getting Apple TV. If you are watching a video on ipad that is choppy and send it to Apple TV will it be choppy? I can watch the same video wirelessly on a Laptop with xbmc and it is not choppy. My assumption is that the iPad does not have the processing power to handle playing back the file smoothly so ultimately my video would be choppy on an Apple TV. File type: 6 gig .mp4 (ipad has this issue with all of my larger .mp4s). Thanks in advance for anyone's thoughts.

PlasmaX23, start a new thread. Your question will get lost in a mega thread that started eighteen months ago.

Have a nice day.

(I don't think that's true, Boyd)

@PlasmaX23 - There are a couple of things at play, most likely. If you're streaming media from your NAS to your iPad and it's choppy, it's unlikely that it would get better if you then AirPlay that to your ATV. AirPlay from your iPad, IFAIK, does not bounce the actual source video stream from your NAS. It takes in the feed, and then streams the display it out as a different feed. Meaning if the display is choppy, that's what gets sent out to the ATV.

So... the question is why is the video choppy. The iPad generally has adequate processing power to view/stream full HD video. I doubt very much if it's the iPad that's causing the issue. More likely culprits are either your Wi-Fi connection(s) or the video file itself.

For me, I have wireless N for the Pad, and my ATV is hard-wired to the LAN, but I was still getting buffering interruptions. Until I realized that my router wasn't set up properly and it was actually throttling my media streams. I readjusted my configuration and suddenly my videos play fine now.

The other thing you want to pay attention to is the codecs. The iPad, natively, only supports a limited set of codecs (both video and audio). Everything I might want to play on my ATV I will generally run through Handbrake, set on the Apple TV 3 profile, to make sure it's optimized for the device. It typically does an awesome job, quality-wise, and the ATV seems to be significantly happier.

One final thought... my NAS (a QNAP) offers an app that directs an AirPlay stream from my NAS directly to my ATV. This is presumably more efficient than sending it to my iPad and AirPlay'ing from there. It may be that a solution like that would be less choppy for you. Though you'll still likely want to Handbrake everything to make sure it's absolutely ATV-compatible.