Super FAQ: Apple TV + MediaSmart Server

(This document can also be found on the MSS.net Wiki!)

There tends to be a lot of questions and a fair amount of confusion when it comes to using the Apple TV (ATV) in conjunction with the MediaSmart Server (MSS). In this FAQ I will attempt to dispel any confusion between the two, how to maximize your setup to make the most of your investment and why I feel the ATV is the best “head” to drive your digital media stored on the MSS. The author has successfully been using the Apple TV and MediaSmart Server without any issues for over a year.

The Apple TV at a Glance
If you consider your MSS as the central storage point that “serves” up content for your home the Apple TV – and other products like it – are the “head” that receive and display content in a usable format. This means your music, video, photos, etc. This is the interface that you use to interact with your content and ultimately deliver it.

The Apple TV is a multimedia appliance that can sync or stream content across a wired network or across its built-in 802.11n wireless transceiver. The Apple TV comes in two variations, one with a 40GB hard drive and another with a 160GB hard drive. All units are otherwise identical.

The Apple TV has an optical output, analog stereo L/R, component video, and HDMI. It currently has a maximum bitrate support of 5 Mbps and will output at up to 1080p. It comes with its own remote control. The ATV is able to connect to Apple iTunes Store directly to purchase and download content, including HD movie rentals in 720p, without the need for a computer. Because it works with the iTunes infrastructure, the ATV can sync or stream its content from any device on your network that has iTunes.

Including your MSS.

Apple TV Format Support
From the Apple website, the ATV supports the following:

Why Use the Apple TV?
In my estimation a digital distribution network either succeeds or fails based on its interface. That is to say, if I can’t easily use it – or my wife can’t easily get to her content – then what drives the digital distribution backbone is meaningless. Thus, when looking for a digital content “head” for my home, I immediately looked at the ATV, a well-designed and dead simple, easy-to-use interface.

Pros & Cons
The ATV has a lot going for it. Here’s what:

• Cost: Only $229 per unit, expand to meet your needs as necessary
• Can sync or stream from any iTunes-equipped machine on your network, including the MSS
• Beautiful and easy-to-use interface
• Backed by a highly-visible and driven company (ie. not abandonware)
• Readily available
• Low profile, beautiful case
• Supports all major connections (HDMI, etc), Dolby Digital output
• On-demand video rentals
• One device to play your digital content: music, movies, videos, podcasts, iTunes content, photos
• Built-in Flickr and You Tube support!
• Can play DRM-protected AAC/FairPlay content purchased via iTunes

Downsides? Oh it has a few:

• Tied to the Apple/iTunes ecosystem; this may be a problem for some
• Closed system; Apple locks down the ATV (it can be hacked, however)
• Hard limit of syncing/streaming to 5 ATVs at once
• No built-in display; have to use your TV to pick playlists/listen to music

Understanding How The ATV Works: Syncing vs Streaming
The ATV gets its content three ways: directly from the iTunes Store, syncing from a machine running iTunes, streaming content from a machine running iTunes.

iTunes Store
The first, downloading directly from the iTunes Store, isn’t really applicable in our situation. In this case the ATV contacts the iTunes Store, requests the content, and receives it. This is how you download HD movies, purchase music, etc. Content resides on the ATV's internal HD.

Syncing
The second is syncing. In this model your ATV connects with a computer on your network running iTunes. Once you authorize the connection you can then select what content is then synced or copied to your ATV. That content then resides locally on your ATV. On the ATV this content appears under the “My Movies,” “My Music,” and “My Photos” tabs respectively.

The amount of content that your ATV can sync at any given time is limited by its internal storage, either 40 or 160GB.

An ATV can only be synced with one computer at a time, including your MSS.

Since this guide presumes that you have a MSS, syncing really isn’t that useful; the ATV “only” has up to 160GB of storage and no fault-tolerance. A MSS has at least 500GB (up to 8TB!) and can be fault-tolerant. Instead we want to stream our content, using the MSS as our data store.

Streaming
Streaming is a lot like syncing except the content isn’t copied to the ATV; content is streamed from the data store (the MSS) directly the ATV via iTunes. Again, like syncing, you establish a connection with iTunes on a machine and then share your library. The ATV reads this library and then displays it under “My Movies,” “My Music,” and “My Photos” tabs respectively. When you stream, content never leaves the streaming server (the MSS).

An ATV can connect to multiple iTunes computers to stream content, although only one library can be viewed (and streamed) at a time. A shared iTunes library has a limit of one sync AND five concurrent streamed connections.

So ultimately what we do is run iTunes on the MSS, share our library, and allow ATV to stream from the MSS directly.

What About Firefly?
One of the selling points of the MSS is that it comes with, out of the box, the ability to act as an iTunes server. This is something of a misnomer. First, the Firefly server is an open-source project not related to HP at all and certainly not supported. Also, the Firefly server only streams non-DRM content, and only music. It will not stream iTunes-purchased content, photos, or movies.

Firefly will, however, allow you to stream your music content via its web interface to the Internet. Thus you could listen to your music from work, streaming it from your MSS. This, in my opinion, is the only benefit of Firefly.

Anyone who wants to use their MSS as a digital content server with ATV will want to use iTunes.

Using ATV With Your MSS
Presuming you’ve used the console to log into your MSS, getting iTunes running on your server is simple. There are two ways to do this. The first is to use the existing MSS Console, the second a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) console. The second (RDC), tends to be easier.

NOTE: If you are in an OS X environment (all Mac) with no Windows machine, please see the next section of this FAQ for details on how to setup your MSS.

First, copy your digital content to the MSS. A good, default place is the Music share located at \\servername\Music.

Setup via MSS Console
First, download and install the Program Launcher plug-in for the Windows Home Server (WHS). This will allow you to execute and run programs from the remote console. Once you have that working, simply display the Desktop and run Windows Explorer.

Setup via Remote Desktop Connection/Services (RDC) NEW!
The MSS Console is just an RDC connection with a fancy GUI that locks out a lot of features. Using Terminal Services you can connect directly the MSS and install without having to fight with the MSS Console. The RDC client comes pre-installed on all versions of Windows after XP. (All Programs / Accessories / Communication / Remote Desktop Connection)

There is a OS X version for PowerPC and Intel Macs and a complete section below on how to do this.

Point the RDC to your MSS and use the "/console" keyword to login directly to the MSS' console. Use your administrator password.

Important! Any time you are done with your MSS do not log off via RDC! This will close out iTunes not cause the system to be available to the ATV! Simply close/terminate your RDC connection; Windows will leave you logged in but locked. Every time you "login" to your MSS you are simply unlocking the console. Remember, do not log out! (I spent weeks troubleshooting this issue at home.)

Both Versions -- Next Step NEW!
From the desktop download and install iTunes. Once you have iTunes installed, run it. You will get an error message that there is no valid sound device. This is normal. Unfortunately there’s no way that I know of to suppress this error dialog box.

Now, map a network drive to your server's share. Do NOT simply point to the D:\share volume! Bypassing the network share and copying directly to the MSS' hard drive can cause issues. To map a network drive, from Windows Explorer select "Map Network Drive," select a drive letter, and map to your \\servername\Music folder (or wherever you placed your content). Make sure to "re-connect at login."

From iTunes set the location of your music, in this case the MSS. Under Preferences / Advanced set the library location to where you mapped your media to. Also let iTunes manage all content. Now “Add to Library” your content, pointing to (again) this same mapped folder. This will add your library contents to the iTunes library. Authorize your MSS to play your iTunes content (“Store” / “Authorize Content”). Then you need to share the library.

Go to your ATV, “Settings / Computers” and establish a connection with your MSS iTunes share. After that is done you should be able to see all of your MSS content on the ATV. That’s it!

Managing Your Content
Unless you want to remain logged in to your MSS all the time to manage your content (not recommended) the easiest way it to simply take your “home” machine and point its iTunes library to the MSS library. Import the MSS content into your library and manage from there, as a file store. This also won’t chew up one of your five allowed streaming connections. Now any new music you purchase will be added directly to your MSS, along with ID3 tags, artwork, etc.

The caveat is, however, that your MSS iTunes library doesn’t know about this new content. That’s not a problem. Using scripts provided in the next section you can setup your MSS to automatically re-import its library at a set interval and update it. If you do not use this script your MSS will never see new changes to its library added from your “home” machine. Your other option is to console in and manually update your library but that defeats the purpose of making your digital content transparent.

Everything we’ve discussed so far also has the benefit of making your entire digital library available to other people on your network, including other computers. Your MSS can share your content with anyone running the iTunes client!

NOTE: If this is a concern for you, you can lock down the MSS share and require a password. Make sure to change this setting on your ATV as well.

Multiple ATVs
No problem. Just connect each ATV up to your MSS shared iTunes library.

Remember that the MSS can only have five concurrent iTunes streams open at once.

The Q&A Section
What kind of output does the ATV support?
Apple TV has the following connections: HDMI and component for video. HDMI and optical for audio with Dolby Digital 5.1 pass-through, L/R stereo for AAC output.

Apple TV outputs 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. The latter is only available via HDMI with a 1080p-compliant device.

The ATV also has 50Hz output for PAL sets.

Does ATV support 5.1 surround sound?
Yes, but only via HDMI or optical and it requires you to have a receiver capable of decoding the Dolby Digital output; ATV does pass-through only. You must turn this on via the ATV menus, otherwise the ATV outputs 2-channel stereo.

Worth repeating: 5.1 support is pass-through only; the ATV does not decode at all!

What is the native/maximum resolution?
The maximum resolution is 1280 x 720, or 720p. The ATV will scale content for 1080i and 1080p. Depending on your HDTV you may be better off to set the ATV output at 720p and have your HDTV scale the signal to 1080i/1080p. (I’ve seen no discussion as to the quality of the ATV’s scaler.)

How Do I Rip My DVDs/Stream to the ATV?
How you go about ripping your content is up to you. However I would recommend the following for ATV: H.264 encoded video with a DD stream + AAC within a .m4v container at 720p with a maximum bitrate of 5000kbps. This will get you the best picture and sound quality on the ATV and in a format that it natively understands.

As for programs to do this, I can think of none better than HandBrake, which also has an ATV preset built-in.

Should I Get the 160GB ATV?
No. The entire point of this FAQ is to use the ATV with your MSS, thus the storage capacity of the ATV is entirely immaterial. Get the 40GB as that is all you will ever need; you’ll be streaming all your content.

Is Gigabit Necessary?
No, but recommended. The ATV has a fast Ethernet (100Mbit/s) connection and supports 802.11n (300Mbit/s). Those are theoretical maximums; in reality your throughput will be much lower. For high-bitrate video you’ll want about 45Mbit/s which is the upper limit of 802.11g and getting close to the maximum of fast Ethernet.

In short, connect the ATV via fast Ethernet or put up an “N only” wireless network for best performance. You’ll be able to stream faster, move through chapters in a movie faster, etc.

Can I Purchase Content on my ATV?
Yes. If you setup the ATV with your iTunes Store account credentials you can purchase music and videos and/or rent HD content directly from the ATV.

Content purchased this way will be synced to your MSS/iTunes library if you use a sync connection. Non-HD movie rentals can be copied to your iTunes library and viewed on another device.

HD movie rentals cannot be removed from the ATV.

An ATV that streams its iTunes library will not be able to sync its content back to the MSS. Thus the recommendation is made to make your iTunes purchases from your “home” machine and update your iTunes library and stream to the ATV on a regular interval. (See the script provided earlier in this document.)

Can You Hack The ATV?
Yes, although that’s beyond the scope of this document. Suffice it to say that you can unlock your ATV and install additional programs to provide additional functionality. This will, obviously, void your warranty.

Thus far I’ve had no compelling reason to hack my ATV.

How Do Movie Rentals Work?
This can be a little confusing based on the restrictions that Apple has placed on rentals and how the ATV interacts with your MSS. Here are the bits that have nothing to do with the MSS:

• HD rentals can only be made from the ATV and may not be moved/copied/synced
• SD rentals may be moved to and from the ATV to a computer that is synced with the ATV
• SD rentals moved off of the ATV can be moved onto another device, like an iPod/iPhone

When you put the MSS into the mix, the only thing that really changes is that rentals moved from the ATV to a synced computer (that pulls its library from the MSS) have their files stored on the MSS. Once that rental expires or is moved again then it is also removed from the MSS. In this case the MSS is nothing more than a data store location. Considering that a SD rental is between 1.0 and 1.5 GB this is a good thing!

Help! I Have A Mac! NEW!
No worries. You can setup and manage the MSS from OS X without the need for a Windows machine (aside from the MSS, of course). See the section below for specific details.

Hints & Tips
Tag Your Movies Correctly
If a movie has no XML/ID3 tags associated with it the ATV will, by default, simply display the file name. This may be enough for some, however it is possible -- and quite easy -- to set the movie poster art, movie genre, rating (PG, R, etc), and a brief description. This will all display on the ATV and make your movie collection look a lot more organized!

What you need is a meta-tagging application. For OS X try MetaX, a free download. With this you can batch encode your movies, download actor and movie information from Amazon, browse movie art, etc and tag all of your files correctly. You can also do TV shows which will then organize on the ATV by show, rather than by file, making for a lot less clutter.

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Changelog
01/26/09 - Mega update, scripts, depreciated content removed
01/28/08 - Content added to the Wiki by Cougar!
01/25/08 - Data corruption bug reminder (thanks Swim2383!)
01/23/08 - Movie rental info; Hints & Tips
Posted 1/22/08; cleaned up a few links.

iTunes Scripts
In the previous post I mentioned how there is potentially the issue where you add new content to your MSS from your "home" machine--PC or Mac--and the iTunes library running on the MSS is not updated. That library is what the ATV sees so we need to automate the MSS scanning for new content so that the ATV can see it (and you can play it).

There are three scripts that make this happen. They are the UpdateItunesLibrary.bat, DoUpdate.vbs, and RemoveDeadTracks.js scripts. I have included them as attachments as well (see bottom of this post).

Important
The scripts require iTunes to be running on the MSS. They will launch iTunes but the "No audio device found" iTunes dialog box will wait for interaction. Thus, your first step of troubleshooting is to make sure you leave iTunes running on your MSS! Obvious but important!

Installation
On your MSS, create the following folder structure:
\\yourserver\Software\Scripts\UpdateITunesLibrary

UpdateItunesLibrary.bat
This one is pretty simple. It's a batch file that kicks off the other two scripts we'll be creating. We will automate having the MSS run these at a set interval.

Create the following file, "UpdateItunesLibrary.bat" in the aforementioned directory path. Cut and paste the following:
If you care, this script launches each of the next two scripts using the CScript engine in Batch Mode and suppresses the dialog logo (and output).

DoUpdate.vbs
This script does the heavy lifting. The script scans your media folders and adds the content into iTunes. You will need to configure this script for your settings.
The first two lines are where you set the path to where your media is. It can be a drop box, your Music share...whatever. In the previous section you should have mapped a drive to this location, so enter in the mapped drive location above. In my example I have the Z:\ drive mapped to my \\server\Music folder where my iTunes folder resides. The Y:\ drive is mapped to the root of my \\server\Videos share which is where I drop any converted movies that I want loaded into iTunes.

If you don't plan on having a movie drop box folder you can just delete lines one and six and not bother importing that content.

This script was written and kindly provided by Jehos of Ars Technica.

RemoveDeadTracks.js
This is the exact file from the Apple iTunes SDK, repeated here for your convenience. This removes "dead" tracks from your iTunes library. A dead track is an orphaned track; one that is on a playlist or in your library but doesn't actually exist for some reason.
You can cut and paste this as-is; no configuration is required.

Automating
On your MSS, login (preferably via RDC) and to go All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Scheduled Tasks. Create a new Scheduled Task named whatever you'd like. Set the Run path to:and the start path to:Allow the task to be run as Administrator. On the Schedule tab, set a schedule. Originally I ran my script every 10 minutes when setting up my MSS and running tests. Now I run it every 30 minutes. With about 100GB of content and 10K songs in iTunes, it takes less than five minutes. Set whatever interval you deem appropriate.

Scripts Archive

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Changelog
Posted 1/26/09

Using the MSS In a OS X Environment

A frequent question I get is how to use the MSS in an all-Mac environment, like the one I have at home. It's no problem and the MSS is the only Windows box I have at home.

When you unpack the MSS and set it up the MSS leases an IP address and looks for any computer running the MSS Console. In the past that would have been a problem with any Mac user but now days with virtualization software and Intel-based Macs able to run Windows native it's not a big deal.

MSS Setup With OS X -- Intel
If you have an Intel-based Mac made within the past few years you have many options available to you. Run Windows on your Mac via Boot Camp or run Windows virtualized in OS X. Both will allow you to install the MSS Console software to setup your MSS.

Boot Camp
Boot Camp is available from Apple with the Leopard operating system. It does not include a license for Windows; you will have to provide that yourself. Once Boot Camp is setup you will reboot your Mac and hold down the Option key at startup. You will have a Windows partition to select and boot into.

Once in Windows, insert your MSS disk and install the MSS software. If you don't have the disk, you can download the MSS Console directly from the MSS if you know its IP address. Point Internet Explorer to \\serverIP:5050

Virtualized
This is the easier solution but more costly. Download Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion and install on your Mac. Both of these programs have trial versions. You will still need to provide your own Window's license, however. The plus side of running virtualized is that you can setup your MSS from within OS X without rebooting. Much less mess.

As with the Boot Camp version, install the MSS Console software to setup your MSS or point your Windows (not Safari!) web browser to the MSS, port 5050.

MSS Setup With OS X -- PowerPC
Unless you can borrow someone's Windows machine for setup you have only one option on an older Mac: VirtualPC software provided by Microsoft. It is a free download and no longer supported--and runs like a dog!--but it will run well enough for you to install Windows and get the MSS up and running. After you have the MSS configured you will no longer need to use VirtualPC and can use the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client below.

After Setup
The good news is once you have your MSS configured via the Console you'll never have to use that again. Once setup you can now use Remote Desktop Connection to administer your MSS. This program provided by Microsoft runs on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. Make a note of the IP address of your MSS. In the connection field for RDC enter the IP followed by "/connect," like so.That connects you to your MSS and into console (root) mode. This lets you administer your MSS from the Windows desktop without the annoying MSS Console. Install iTunes, manage your scripts, etc from here. If you need to get to the MSS Console, use the link right on your MSS desktop (within RDC).

Important! Once you are done administering your MSS do not log out! Simply terminate the RDC connection, locking the console. Logging out will shut down iTunes and turn off your MSS streaming to your ATV!

The Q&A Section NEW!
Can I Use Time Machine With My MSS
Simple version: No, not currently.

Long version: It's a messy hack, but basically Time Machine doesn't like to play nice with SMB shares like the MSS. Even setting up a monolithic sparse image file eventually your Time Machine backup will corrupt. Time Machine does work over the network but only across AFP shares and the MSS doesn't support that natively. You could probably get it to work but it probably wouldn't place nice with the WHS file duplication system, thus defeating the purpose. Use a locally connected USB drive, Time Capsule, or a second drive in the case of a Mac Pro.

There is a software update coming to the MSS that will include an OS X "wrapper" front-end that will allow the MSS to be seen by Time Machine and backup to it. Because this wrapper must be installed in OS X to see the Time Machine content, you will be unable to restore from backup in the event of a boot drive failure. (Content is backed up; you cannot install OS X directly from the backup.)

Do I Have To Manage My MSS via The MSS Console?
No, that's a little secret that HP doesn't really want you to know. The MSS Console locks down the screen and prevents you from messing up a lot of things or doing exactly what we're doing, installing other applications like iTunes. You can manage the MSS just fine via RDC or Terminal Services, be it on a Mac or PC.

I Installed The MSS Console and My MSS Wants To Backup My Mac?
The MSS sees your Mac (via Boot Camp, Parallels, VMWare Fusion, or VirtualPC) as a PC and the default behavior of the MSS is to install the backup software utility and schedule backups. From the MSS Console goto the Backups tab and disable backups on your faux PC.

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Changelog
01/26/09 Initial post

I am not a "Fan Boy" of Apple OR Micro$oft as I own products from BOTH companies.

With this said however, no support for MS-DVR files make this "head" a NO GO for me. If the ATV supported this file format I would go buy three of them immediately.

DVR-MS is a closed, proprietary standard that MS has a stranglehold on. How, exactly, do you suggest Apple legally provide support for MS-DVR, out of the box, on ATV?

Yea, ATV doesn't wash your dishes either, but that doesn't mean it's no good. You're asking for the impossible.

DVR-MS Wikipedia

You could always transcode the video and then it would play on the ATV. With like, say MCEBuddy.

_________________
The Apple TV guy | Read the Apple TV Super FAQ!

Abulia,

Thanks very much for a great post!

I'm new to the Apple world, so I'll probably first download iTunes and play with it to get more familiar. However, this seems very promising. I would like a DVR function, to time-shift my viewing of off the air programming, but I guess that would add a tuner and extra cost to the system.

Could you describe the experience of browsing Photos/Music/Video using ATV with content on MSS? Is it more like "cover flow", or more like a directory listing?

I'm also probably going to purchase an iPhone. If I do I understand I can transfer content from the ATV to the iPhone and resume watching a program, if I already starting viewing it. I think I read something, however, that if I do that I cannot again watch the movie rental on ATV. Perhaps you could clarify if you know.

Thanks again for your help.

_________________
Leif

Downloading iTunes implies that you're on Windows, not OS X so I can't really speak to DVR functionality.

With that said, in theory you could take any output of a DVR/EyeTV, create a batch job to transcode it, and then store it on the MSS/iTunes library to be viewable on the ATV.
In OS X and iLife it's a bit more integrated as iTunes, under your Apple TV setting, has the options for you to select what photos/libraries you want to share.

Having messed with the new Flickr functionality I'm very impressed by that. That also has the option of being system-agnostic.

All content with 2.0 is now a top/down "list" view. It's not very sexy, IMO. You can view the entire interface at the Apple TV website.
http://www.apple.com/appletv
Depends on the rental. HD rentals can not be moved off of the ATV. SD rentals can, however this presumes you have a sync connection with your iTunes library. You can take your SD rental onto your iPhone/iPod, transfer it around, etc.

If you transcode your DVDs correctly as I have with an iPhone/iPod "friendly" format, you can also download them to your iPhone via your iTunes library. This is really simple and I'm doing it with my iPhone currently.

Hope that answers your questions. I'll fool around a bit with the Windows version of iTunes to validate a few of these (the photos in particular) and rent a $.99 weekly special SD movie from iTunes Store on the ATV and see how easy/hard it is to get onto my iPhone.

[Edit] A quick Google answered the question on Windows iTunes photos. In "My Documents" you'll have a folder called "iTunes photos". Any photos you put in there (in the supported formats given above) will then show up in iTunes, under the Apple TV "Photos" tab for you to then sync or stream, depending on your connection. That's it!

_________________
The Apple TV guy | Read the Apple TV Super FAQ!

While I'm not exactly pleased with this "proprietary" file format, I have too many of them to drop the Media Center experience and purchase a box that will not play them.



I never said it was "no good" I was just stating "MY" position and why I personally could not use this device. I'm sure that I am not the only one in this boat and there really is no need to be so defensive.



Trans-coding, re-ripping, converting (whatever you want to call it) is time consuming and far from perfect. I have tried MCEBuddy, and had NO success with it. The bottom line in this regard is the MS files provide a stellar picture quality even though they are quite large and I CAN play them using my XBOX 360. And by the way Linksys, Dlink and "others" do in fact have "legal" hardware that will play these files so nothing is "impossible". I just won't hold my breath expecting that Apple and MS will join forces on this one.

And by the way since you seem to know so much about Apple products do you know if there is solution comparable to the Media Center Experiance on the Apple platform?

So once you get iTunes running on the MSS, you can simply close remote access and the console and iTunes will continue to run and allow you to stream to an ATV?

Thanks.

Leif, I have the definitive answer to your movie question as it relates to ATV and a shared library.

First, here's how it works without a MSS involved:

• SD content can be purchased (ie rented) from either your computer or ATV. Once you've downloaded it (I did "The Hours", a $.99 special) you then have the option to Move the movie to another device. In this case I downloaded it from my "base" home computer.
• You can only Move content to and from an ATV that is synced, not streamed. More on this in a bit.
• Moving is just that, moving the content from one device to the other. It does not copy.
• I was able to move the movie from my computer to the ATV, back to my computer and then to my iPhone with no restrictions.

Here's what happened when I put the MSS in the mix:

• The movie file did save to the location of my iTunes library, in this case the MSS. No surprises there.
• The MSS did its library update and did see/acknowledge the movie.
• The ATV, however, did not see the movie. This is because its connection to the iTunes library was streamed. (You can't stream ATV movie rentals.)
• Upon making a synced connection with my "base" computer I was able to then transfer the rental to and from the ATV. When moved back to my iTunes library the 1.2GB movie did reside on my MSS.

But, I hear you say, just above I said that syncing was bad, right? Well yes and no. For bulk content, like your iTunes music, video, and photo library syncing is bad. You want to keep that permanent content on the MSS. However, for temporary content, like movie rentals, there's nothing wrong with syncing. Just create a sync connection with your "base" computer (the computer you sync your iPhone/iPod with, for example) and you'll have no problems.

Remember, the ATV can have one sync connection and multiple stream connections, so you really aren't hurting yourself here.

Finally, as a reminder, HD rentals cannot be moved off of the ATV. That's a hard limit stipulated by Apple and the movie studios.

I hope that all made sense.

_________________
The Apple TV guy | Read the Apple TV Super FAQ!

Correct.

_________________
The Apple TV guy | Read the Apple TV Super FAQ!

Do you download iTunes for Windows from within remote access or on you main PC then copy it to the remote access desktop and run it?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm new to the whole server thing and want to be sure I do things right.

Thanks again.

I found the built-in security permissions on the MSS to be a bit to aggressive to download from the MSS. Instead I downloaded iTunes from another machine, dropped the .exe in the Software share, and then installed from the MSS. I had to copy the .exe to the Desktop; the default MSS security is pretty strict.

_________________
The Apple TV guy | Read the Apple TV Super FAQ!

Thanks Abulia. Terminology is bothering me a bit. When I think of sync I think of updating a older copy so that you have two identical copies. But it sound like by sync you mean "Move".



So the reason to "sync" a rental movie, through MSS, would be to watch it somewhere else, such as on a computer or iPhone or iPod, right? Otherwise, as you point out, there is no reason to "sync" with MSS.

This there any advantage/disadvantage in renting from ATV vs. iTunes?

_________________
Leif

Do you install Quicktime too? The program launcher add-in needs to be installed and run also, any tips on that?

Thanks again, will be trying this shortly.