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OccupyCouch · 2012-02-26, 03:31

Is it possible for XBMC and ATV2 to stream video wirelessly from an external USB drive plugged into a Time Capsule?

I have an Apple TV 2 jailbroken and working well with Plex and ATV Flash and I just installed XBMC for the first time. I'm tired of having to have an external USB drive plugged into my macbook for media and backup and I'm now planning on buying the latest 2TB Time Capsule (it will be connected to my 802.11 N router upstairs) for XBMC and for backing up using Time Machine (or using other backup software like SuperDuper!, Carbon Copy Cloner...etc. if necessary) but I wanted to make sure what I want to do is possible before making the purchase.

I'm planning on using the Time Capsule hard drive itself to back up our two Macbooks and plug in a 1TB usb external drive into the Time Capsule and dedicate it for video files to be streamed to XBMC on my ATV2? Does anyone have any experience with this? From my initial research, I've only found reference to people streaming from the Time Capsule drive itself but I haven't found any examples of people saying you can do the same from an USB drive plugged into the Time Capsule to do the same so wanted to make sure.

deanmv · 2012-02-26, 04:27

A lot of people do it from a USB drive plugged in. I do as well. I have the Airport Extreme (basically the same without the built in HDD) and plug a 1TB HDD in via USB and it works perfectly.

OccupyCouch · (This post was last modified: 2012-02-26, 04:38 by OccupyCouch.)

deanmv Wrote:A lot of people do it from a USB drive plugged in. I do as well. I have the Airport Extreme (basically the same without the built in HDD) and plug a 1TB HDD in via USB and it works perfectly.

Thanks. Ordering TC now.

What about backing up that attached USB drive? I want to make sure everything has a backup. I'm thinking I'll have another 1TB plugged in (either through a hub or daisy chain) to back up the attached 1TB drive. From what I've read so far, Time Machine doesn't support USB drives plugged into TC/AEBS aka "airdisk"/Airport Disk, is that right? I keep seeing people recommending using alternatives like Chronosync to backup airdisks. So I'm assuming I won't be able to just use the Time Capsule to back up the attached USB drive via Time Machine.

OccupyCouch · 2012-02-26, 04:42

Oh, and what protocol are you using to stream from the USB drive? AFP? SMB?

Cozmo85 · 2012-02-26, 07:30

Smb. Afp causes a crash if the drive spins down.

OccupyCouch · 2012-02-26, 08:17

Cozmo85 Wrote:Smb. Afp causes a crash if the drive spins down.

Ok, I found the threads discussing that issue. But this post from five days ago suggests that the same issue happens under AFP as well so it might not be a protocol issue?:

"Just wanted to let you know: same crash to ATV happening when just using SMB, so it's not (just) connected to the protocol I guess. Hence it's 100% reproducible I will gather some crash reports and post them."
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=1...ost1023940

OccupyCouch · 2012-02-26, 08:32

I found a thread where someone explains how they fixed the drive spin down crash problem:
"After removing the WORKGROUP and 'device password' part of the smb:// urls it works! No more crash after a long pause...

I really have no idea why this should make any difference. But if you are having this issue with Apple routers and USB hard drives, simplify your XBMC video source urls so they look like this:

smb://AirportIP/path/to/file.
not like this:
smb://WORKGROUP:[password]@AirportIP/path/to/file"
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=1...ost1028575

but someone in that thread said the above solution doesn't work for them.

deanmv · 2012-02-26, 08:50

OccupyCouch Wrote:Thanks. Ordering TC now.

What about backing up that attached USB drive? I want to make sure everything has a backup. I'm thinking I'll have another 1TB plugged in (either through a hub or daisy chain) to back up the attached 1TB drive. From what I've read so far, Time Machine doesn't support USB drives plugged into TC/AEBS aka "airdisk"/Airport Disk, is that right? I keep seeing people recommending using alternatives like Chronosync to backup airdisks. So I'm assuming I won't be able to just use the Time Capsule to back up the attached USB drive via Time Machine.

I backup to my externall USB HDD in my AE and it works fine. Not sure about backing up that disc to another one though. Currently there is a known issue (on any protocol) that means that when the drive spins down if you pause a show for a long time, when you try to carry on watching it xbmc crashes as the drive has to spin back up. This doesnt happen to me and how ive set mine up also fixed one other user with that problem but it isn't a solid fix as some people are reporting it isn't working for them.

OccupyCouch · 2012-02-27, 09:14

deanmv Wrote:I backup to my externall USB HDD in my AE and it works fine.

Not sure I understand. Where do you back up your external USB HD to? I thought Airport Extreme is just a router?

Is it even possible to do automated incremental backups of an external USB hard drive connected to a Time Capsule/Airport Extreme?

deanmv · 2012-02-28, 00:18

OccupyCouch Wrote:Not sure I understand. Where do you back up your external USB HD to? I thought Airport Extreme is just a router?

Is it even possible to do automated incremental backups of an external USB hard drive connected to a Time Capsule/Airport Extreme?

I backup TO my External USB via the Airport Extreme (i.e I backup my laptop to the USB disk plugged in my Airport Extreme.)