Is it possible to stream from one apple tv's internal HD to another ATV? I have @ ATV's in my kids rooms and wanted to get rid of some of their movies on my server and thought maybe i could just store the movies on one of their internals and play them on either ATV. Both have XBMC 10 and are original ATV's of course.. thanks
Mike
Basically just looking to share the internal drives over the network. Anyone??
Thanks
Mike
Does the built in UPnP server work under XBMC on ATV, never tried it out myself but that might be one way you could do it.
For it to work you must
a) Scan your media into the library
b) go into settings/network and enable the UPnP server (share out library)
c) go to other XBMC client and add source then point it at the XBMC UPnP server
thanks i'll give that a try and let you know how it works..
I know there are other ways to do this but I actually installed SMB on one ATV1 (running ATV OS i.e. Tiger) and used it to host a connected USB drive for the other ATV. In effect turning the one ATV1 into a poor man's NAS for my video library for the other. Besides taking a few seconds longer at start up I can see so performance difference between the two ATV 1s.
I followed the installation technique here which is a slightly more boiled down version of the instructions from awkwardtv.com
http://mrcolinsappletvguide.tumblr.com/#Install%20SAMBA
An added bonus for PC users is that they have a little easier access to their video library this way.
UPnP may be a little flakey and it requires both ATV's to be running XBMC whereas if one has SMB on it, it only needs to be on to act as host to the other.
Ok i can share the internal drives now by enabling UPnP, but another question has come up..
Where are the movies stored from itunes, or are they accessible by XBMC? I see ALOT of folders but dont see the movies i have stored.. or is there a better way to get the movies on the internal drive, FTP i bet
.. I'll search and see what i can find here but thought i would let people know it can be done with UPnP.. I have 3 ATV1's and now can see each box from any of them..
Thanks alot
Mike
Itunes will play correctly encoded h.264 mp4s only but in terms of content purchased from itunes its my understanding that is DMCA protected and they don't want you playing that through another application.
I would for clarity's sake keep content you intend to access as part of your XBMC library separate from content purchased from iTunes. By default iTunes creates a Movies folder under the user "frontrow" that if you are not using for iTunes purchases is as handy as a spot as any - i.e. mnt>users>frontrow>Movies.
But it does not really matter as long as you are consistant and remember the file path when you add it as a source to your "host" copy of XBMC.. XBMC can add any local folder as a local source so as long as you remember where you put the folder you'll be able to point your local copy of XBMC to it. If you are using XBMC's UPnP host then if the local copy of XBMC can find it - thats all you need to know. It does the work of publishing your library to the remote copy of XBMC. The remote copy of SBMC needs to know the name of the UPnP server its looking for but it does not need to know the file structure of your host XBMC.
The thing is for movies the built-in drive for the Apple TV 1 whether its 40 gig or 160 gig really is not that useful for storage. It fills up quick. Assuming you got XBMC on your ATV using the patchstick installer, the easiest solution is use nito.tv's smart installer to enable the USB port if you haven't already. While you are at it (if you are a Mac user) you should enable AFP filesharing protocal.
Since the ATV1 is essentially a Mac, if you have a handy Mac around AFP lets you access, browse and copy files to the ATV1 as local computer using user "frontrow" pw "frontrow". You can even turn on screen sharing (which is handy for using a local mac's keyboard to enter complicated URLs or file paths). Screen sharing is basically a VNC-like windowed virtual desktop. Also handy for force-quitting if XBMC or another app on the ATV1 ever locks up without either pulling the plug or logging via ssh to do a "killall" command.
If you are a PC or Linux user, adding SMB to your ATV1's filesharing repetroire in the link I mentioned earlier is a lot easier/more convenient than constantly accessing the ATV's harddrive via SFTP.
For what you are trying to do, I really recommend simply adding an external USB drive with plenty of room for video content. I did what you are trying to do by taking a Mac-friendly HFS+ drive, a little passively USB powered WD Passport and connecting it to the ATV1's USB port. I picked an HFS formatted dive because truth be told, the Best Buy had them pre-formatted and it was the easiest plug-n-play solution. Since ATV1 is essentially a mutant Mac it plays well with HFS drives and FAT32 formatted drives. As a Mac user I can always simply power down the ATV1 and walk the little drive over to my Mac to dump in a ton of content quickly. There is also a way using nito.tv (assuming you did the patch stick install) to enable access to local NTFS drives for the ATV but I personally have no experience with it.
Anyway so I have a little portable HFS formatted drive I can use for old fashioned sneaker-net but which when its connected to the ATV is also accessable over the network via AFP. If you then add SMB file sharing to your ATV's tool set using the link I posted earlier and its suddenly a poor man's NAS publishing all the video content you keep on it as an SMB share to any other XBMC boxes on your network. If you are a PC household you also have an easy way to dump content onto your shared video library. SMB path would be something like smb://ip-of-host-ATV1/Volumes/Name-of-USB-drive/Movies (assuming you made a Movies folder on the USB drive). I like keeping Movies and TV Shows in separate folders so that when I add them to XBMC as sources, I can point them to the appropriate scraper by default.
I had a lot of success with that set up till I upgraded my router and turned it to my slightly-less-poor-man's NAS. UPNP works too I just find that XBMC's SMB client is very reliable and like I said, the "host" ATV1 doesn't also have to be running XBMC all the time. As long as its powered up, its hosting the files to my "client" ATV1 via SMB.
itsmike2k Wrote:or is there a better way to get the movies on the internal drive, FTP i bet
Regular FTP is not turned on by default on the ATV1 by the patchstick isntaller. You also have to turn it on using the Nito.TV "smart installer". Same as enabling the USB port and turning on the ATV1's AFP file sharing.
SFTP on the other hand (which is very similar) is enabled from the get go after the patchstick installer assuming you left ssh checked when you made the patchstick.