[cooper83]

I have a friend with a Mac Mini and the hard drive is nearly full. He wants to add an external hard drive. He also has a new AppleTV and wants to stream movies from iTunes to it. I think I already know the answer to my question, but please clarify for me:

If he offloads all his movies/media onto the external HDD, will he be able to stream to the AppleTV? Or must they be in iTunes?

Is upgrading the internal HDD a better option?

The goal is ease-of-use, not cost. He doesn't want to learn any tricks or workarounds...just increase space and stream like he does now.

Thanks!

 

[Larry]

The media must be in the iTunes library in order to stream it to AppleTV, but that doesn't mean the files can't be on an external HD. You can "add" a file or directory to the iTunes library without physically moving the file.

 

[hugh]

Is upgrading the internal HDD a better option?

Makes it easier since now you have just the Mini as opposed to Mini Plus External Drive.

Another option might be a NAS drive. Similar to an External drive but also accessible from multiple computers.

 

[QuickSilver]

I use an Acer Windows Home Server with a 1tb drive as my NAS. Streams perfectly to my Apple TV (1st Gen). As a side note I hacked the Apple TV.

Just set iTunes to look to the external drive or NAS for the library and then then devices can stream from iTunes just fine. The setting is in the preferences for iTunes.

 

[cooper83]

Great, thanks for the suggestions guys!

So he'll probably go with an ext. HDD. I found instructions on CNet to transfer everything over; it looks fairly straightforward.

When it comes time to get a new computer, is it just a matter of plugging the ext. HDD into the new comp, and voila there's his iTunes Library?

 

[hugh]

cooper83, don't know what instructions you have but I think if you change the library location and then tell itunes to put all your files in the library it will copy it over for you.

With new computer, I think you just install iTunes and then point itunes to the directory on your external hard drive.

(that's the windows way so it may be different in mac)

 

[cooper83]

Thanks Hugh. Makes sense.

Here are the Cnet instructions:

I hate doing this stuff without doing it on my own computer first! Don't want to screw up anything, but it looks very straightfoward.