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JaguarPaw · 02-19-2008, 03:42 PM

Todd H - I was in this same predicament before I bought the apple tv. I hooked up a 500gb external western digital my book to my macbook. I put all my .mp4 files (converted from VIDEO_TS from mac the ripper --> handbrake... about 4gig files) onto my external hard drive. Then all you do is launch ITunes...Preferences... UNCHECK the box that reads "copy all files played in itunes to itunes library" (not exact wording, but i'm at work with no axx to itunes) and then copy all your .mp4s to the external hard drive. Then simply place the .mp4s into your itunes. They will stream off of your apple tv from the external hard drive almost flawlessly.
I don't have any problems with playback, fast forwarding and rewinding may be delayed a couple of seconds, thats all, no biggie. The movie files will take A WHILE (hours) before they all appear under "my movies" in apple tv. After I loaded my collection into Itunes only one or two movies was showing up in apple tv and I was so frustrated, I even called Apple customer support and waited on the phone for an hour. As I was waiting, I noticed movies started appearing in my list. So although the files can be played immediately through itunes and the status bar doesn't show that the files are still importing, the apple tv interface doesn't pick them up for some reason? That was a bit confusing, but be patient and you'll be ok.

Before I left for work this morning I noticed my apple tv wasn't being recognized in ITunes and I began to panic, everything was turned on and my network connection was fine, hopefully I was just sleepy. But I'll let you know tonight if I have any further problems, for now, I say buy! It's a GREAT addition to my home theater.

02-19-2008, 03:42 PM	#13 of 26
JaguarPaw *Frank Lucas* Member Location: Connecticut Join Date: Nov 2007 Local Time: 06:46 PM Local Date: 10-06-2008 Posts: 6 bdigg	Re: Apple TV 2.0 Update now available Todd H - I was in this same predicament before I bought the apple tv. I hooked up a 500gb external western digital my book to my macbook. I put all my .mp4 files (converted from VIDEO_TS from mac the ripper --> handbrake... about 4gig files) onto my external hard drive. Then all you do is launch ITunes...Preferences... UNCHECK the box that reads "copy all files played in itunes to itunes library" (not exact wording, but i'm at work with no axx to itunes) and then copy all your .mp4s to the external hard drive. Then simply place the .mp4s into your itunes. They will stream off of your apple tv from the external hard drive almost flawlessly. I don't have any problems with playback, fast forwarding and rewinding may be delayed a couple of seconds, thats all, no biggie. The movie files will take A WHILE (hours) before they all appear under "my movies" in apple tv. After I loaded my collection into Itunes only one or two movies was showing up in apple tv and I was so frustrated, I even called Apple customer support and waited on the phone for an hour. As I was waiting, I noticed movies started appearing in my list. So although the files can be played immediately through itunes and the status bar doesn't show that the files are still importing, the apple tv interface doesn't pick them up for some reason? That was a bit confusing, but be patient and you'll be ok. Before I left for work this morning I noticed my apple tv wasn't being recognized in ITunes and I began to panic, everything was turned on and my network connection was fine, hopefully I was just sleepy. But I'll let you know tonight if I have any further problems, for now, I say buy! It's a GREAT addition to my home theater.