Apple TV (V2) Resource(s) Question

BReligion · Jul 5th, 2011, 04:42 PM

Hey All,

I've done a few checks in the forums (and on Google) and can't really find a clear cut answer, so I am asking directly the experts here at ehMac!

When streaming to an Apple TV V2 from iTunes (Windows or Mac), is there a resource hit on the device you are streaming from? Does it use any local resources (Video, RAM, Processing power etc) on the device running iTunes for rendering, other than network and disk usage as it passes the media file to the Apple TV?

The reason I ask and the story behind my question is my "iTunes server/box" at home is a genuine POS old Frankenstein of a Windows PC.
The box really doesn't do much except run iTunes on a stripped down install of Windows 7. Works fine for its purpose of streaming to an Aiport Express and Syncing my work iPod (need a Windows format for work).

My media library physically exists on a NAS. Until now only the music was loaded into the iTunes box without issue.

Now that I’ve loaded my Video library to it, the files are listed no problem, sync to the iPod no problem, but I can't really efficiently play videos (choppy output) on the box because of the Video Card (not officially supported by the OS) and RAM (not nearly enough for vid playback) in the box. I also have no intention of watching anything on this PC, knowing the limitations of it.

All of that build up and to elaborate on the question above about local resources when streaming..... Will the Apple TV V2 "streaming" be impacted of the limitations of the device hosting the iTunes library or not?

I do have my library also loaded into my Macbook Pro, but i take that to the office with me quite often and my goal was to continue to use the windows POS as the centrailzed media Hub.

Thanks!

BReligion

Paul82 · Jul 5th, 2011, 07:39 PM

Apple tv does all the heavy lifting in this case, the machine running iTunes is essentially just a file server... Depending on the NAS you have you may even be able to stream directly from it...

BReligion · Jul 5th, 2011, 08:12 PM

Awesome, that's what i was hoping to hear.

The nas is a DLink DNS-323. I've installed the firefly iTunes server on it to try it out but i didn't want to rely on that since it's not really an "officially supported solution". If it doesn't behave the way i like i didn't want to be stuck.

Thanks!

BReligion

Paul82 · Jul 5th, 2011, 08:24 PM

If you can see the dlink nas library under shared in iTunes it should work to play files from it on the apple tv.

BReligion · Jul 6th, 2011, 07:26 AM

I will have to do some more testing later tonight, but so far iTunes was NOT happy with the video's in the playlist, or should i say, iTunes/Firefly weren't playing nicely for the video's. Which makes me wonder how the Apple TV will handle it.

I could see all of the media in the very large "Shared" Playlist. Each video was showing as 10:00 in length, when in reality they are all varying lengths. If i tried to run one of them.. lets just say, it sounded like the Vampires in 30 Days of Night and no video. All of the music files play fine.

I am trying to figure out if the iTunes server / Firefly supports sharing of video. The nas has a UNPNP option for sharing media, so i wonder if they've limited what the iTunes Server can do.

BReligion

fjnmusic · Jul 6th, 2011, 08:33 AM

The Dlink may be the weak part of the chain actually. You need 802.11n for smoothest playback over a network. Is the Dlink an N or a G model? I had a Dlink once but never could get it to play nicely for whatever reason. Switched to an Apple Extreme with 802.11n and haven't looked back since. That was about 5 years ago.

BReligion · Jul 6th, 2011, 09:07 AM

The DLink is just the NAS, no other DLink networking equipment (personally not a big fan of DLink's routers or switches).

The NAS is hard wired gigabit to my Airport Extreme, where my dekstop POS is connected at gigabit as well.

BReligion

BReligion · Jul 7th, 2011, 12:18 AM

So... Did some research today, both information gathering and experimental... and some interesting results for those who care about Firefly iTunes server and Video

I first stumbled across this little gem...
//Streaming Video Using Firefly
In addition to music files, Firefly is also able to serve video to iTunes. However this functionality seems to be buggy. For example, video files must have .mov or .m4v encoding in order for them to play. To discover video files in the media directory, add .mov and .m4v (comma separated) to the list of extensions in the configuration panel of the Firefly web configuration page and rescan the server for files. You can also play .mp4 files but you have to change the extension to .m4v. It seems that iTunes video playback via Firefly is also a little buggy. In order to see the video once a file was playing, I had to click on the “Now Playing” window in iTunes. Video does not seem to work at all in Front Row. Hopefully future releases of Firefly will fix some of these problems.
//

Well that was from 2008, and it appears the bugs are still there. I decided to take one of my many .MP4 of the files, change the file extension to .m4v. Reindex the database, and Voila! It's appearing in iTunes (has the monitor icon now) it's being recognized as a video, click the play button, 15 seconds later.. WE HAVE VIDEO!!

...... then I had a thought, nay a fear... fired up my xBox 360.. and guess who can't see m4v files... Oh come on now, why can't we all just get along?

After some testing of simply changing the file extension (not having to re-encode, thank goodness since they are all h.264), MP4, M4V, AVI, MOV.. we finally have success on iTunes (direct), iTunes via Firefly iTunes server and xBox 360 via UNPNP with the same file with the .MOV extension stored on my NAS.

I think i have the answers now for this and can safely go get the Apple TV

BReligion