Phew!

Tackled Phase 2 AND 3 in one fell swoop, in the process iTunes calls Consolidating a Library. Pointed the Library to the new ShareSpace storage, and consolidated so that all the contents go into the iTunes folder in the ShareSpace and corrrectly linked to it as well. The length of the process? Well, let's just say I started it the day before I left for Shanghai, left the White Macbook running, and only now have completed the lengthy process! 3 DAYS!

Starting Phase 4, checking to see if all three of the Apple TV streams the content fine from the setup. From the Apple TV streaming closest to the Sharespace + Time Capsule, the few TV Show episodes and trial test movies tested streams beautifully without hiccups. Next would be the one in the guest room, and the further in the living room. Things look rosy from here on.

Already starting evacuating the iTunes folder inside the White Macbook, and suddenly I have 260GB free! Time Machine backups should take faster time to complete, and I have more room to abuse on it. So Phase 5 is running in tandem with Phase 4 at the moment, and should be done by tomorrow.

Sorry if the description is a bit more descriptive than empirical, since I have not done any statistical tests to check on the throughput of the data flying around wirelessly using this setup. But I'm only interested to see if the content being streamed around is adequate for the Apple TVs/ Time Machine requirements, and it certainly is.

Also a point to note, since every single iTunes library content has been transmigrated into the Sharespace, syncing of my iPhone(especially syncing applications and games, as well as the periodic iPhone backups) and Apple TV takes a while longer than before since it has to access the Sharespace via network, instead of locally available on the hard drive. Not a big problem, and it works as it should. Also on the opposite route, contents purchased and downloaded INTO the iTunes folder into the primary library also downloaded, written and stored properly and without issues into the Sharespace. Yesterday, got the email notification from Apple about the availability of the new Heroes Season 3, new episode Our Father, and once download is initiated, it is routed nicely into the new pointed library in the ShareSpace.

It has been a long journey, and it was a pretty nail-biting one, to say the least. During the 84+hours of transferring the iTunes library and data content into the Sharespace, I had been extremely worried should a power failure occurs and wipe things out, having me to do it all over again. The fact that everything went as automated as it is, while I was away in Shanghai, and returned to see that it works beautifully is a testament to the fact that Apple made this possible, and made this right! Thank you Apple!

This journey is coming to the end of its road, and I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. What is left to do, is to continue ripping movies, TV Show DVDs and music into the ShareSpace as I am continually doing now. At the moment, I'm ripping Futurama - Bender's Big Score and Futurama - The Beast with a Billion Backs, so the work continues.

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Added on December 11, 2008, 7:25 pmPictures of the completed setup will come once everything is set and done. Stay tuned!

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Dec 11 2008, 07:25 PM

bro, need you share something with me
the HD movie purchase thru itunes store, what the quality?
Resolution:
FPS:
File format:

i have a problem, although I have perian installed, my front row cant play .mkv properly. I try the same file play with Quicktime, FPS sometimes drop to 12/13 fps, Lag.
i found .mkv frame rate is just 23~25 whereas .mov is about 30 frame per second.
i have 1080P(11GB) & 720p(8GB) the dark knight, both are in .mkv format.

Any advise for this case?

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Added on December 13, 2008, 10:48 pmbring up the post

This post has been edited by cRazYee: Dec 13 2008, 10:48 PM

HI Stringfellow

i am waiting for an excuse (and enough $$$) to set up such a system. One question, how do you add age restrictions to ripped movies or home videos? i want different apple tv's to have access to different playlists or files. especially content that are not suitable for kids.

Was thinking of Drobo instead of the WD SHarespace. I read somewhere you had concerns about the Drobo throughput?

b.regards
sin yc

Try re-encoding it into an .mkv recognized by Quicktime, I suggest using HandBrake. The new HandBrake has presets for MKV built into it.

Easy! Remember, your Apple TV is just a husk, an extender for your iTunes. If you have tagged your media right, that would come with ratings. Mine does. Every time I rip my movies using Handbrake, and tagging them using MetaX, MetaX includes embedded rating into your newly ripped movies. Once done, you can arrange this as per the ratings, or IIANM, you can already do so from within Apple TV. That way, you can exert parental controls over what your media is available to your loved ones.

I was heavily into Drobo+DroboShare as well, but looking at the price, it wasn't feasible. The ShareSpace includes 2 x 1TB Caviar Green HDDs with its price, compared to am empty husk for the Drobo, not to mention the added cost of DroboShare. I intended the ShareSpace as a NAS, not a wirelessly-transmitting storage space. From my time having the Time Capsule in my network, it has proven to work beautifully, so I'd like to continue doing so, with as little changes to the already up-and-running system I have. Sure, I'd love to have the Drobo's hot-swappable HDD feature, but judging from the reviews I read online, doing hot swaps results in the HDD arrays left in the Drobo recovering from that loss of a HDD, and rebuilding that array takes a while. More so, that it negates the advantage of this hot swap itself. It may take considerably less time if you're dealing with a smaller RAID array, but once you hit the Terabytes, that advantage diminishes.

Good luck on yours, I am having so much fun with mine. Been downloading podcasts like crazy, even the HD ones, which were not possible before because of storage constraints. I even am in the process of ripping more movies into the ShareSpace, I had to be selective before because of storage space again. I can also finally get rid of all my CDs( or at least store them away ), and DVDs, and eliminate clutter. Life is good!

bravo!!! u the man....
okie been reading alot of your settings...
will try to start with the basic NAS fitst then slowly i'll implement your concept home design I love your style bro... well...im tried to create something like yours...something simple..but i do not hav time ~

Will like to know more on the WD ShareSpare NAS.. this baby comes with 2HDD? (2TB) so i can just straight plug n play? will this monster hook up my connection?

Any tweek i need to configure this NAS storage? will the come along HDD support MAC OS format?

Thanks

marvelous! this is craziness
apple everywhere.. ehehee

Danke, danke!

If you want something simple, that simply plugs and plays straight out, I would suggest using a WD MyBook, configured to RAID 0 or striped configuration. That way, you have maximum possible space and the fastest access speed as well. Bear in mind, RAID 0 allows 2 TB full disk space, but no protection against data loss due to failure of any of the other striped HDD. You lose one, you lose EVERYTHING. If you want protection, set it to RAID 1, that way, every 1s and 0s of data you have is mirrored, so losing one HDD means that you can rebuild the TOC and the content itself from the remaining surviving HDD. But doing RAID 1 means halving the available content, so if you got the 2TB ShareSpace, you effectively only have 1TB of storage space, because of the mirroring.

Moving up the table to 4 x 1TB HDDs, you can configure to RAID 5, which stripes and mirrors your data, basically the best of RAID 0 and RAID 1 combined.

The Sharespace comes with 2 x 1TB HDDs already inside, or a more pricier option, a full 4 x 1TB HDDs. I opted for the cheaper 2 x 1TB HDDs, since I can outsource cheaper prices for the remaining 2 x 1TB HDDs that I need. Also, your choice of HDDs is also somewhat important. Tendencies would go for the fastest, hence performance driven HDDs in the WD catalogue, hence the "Black" Edition. But there are drawbacks in this setting, mostly from power consumption, acoustics and life expectancies of the drives. I chose the WD Caviar "Green" Edition HDDs, which are also the HDDs that WD chose to put into the Sharespace, because they run on lower power consumption (meaning it would not be like a blistering hot oven when all these 4 HDDs are running in that tight space confines of the ShareSpace enclosure), they park when they are not accessed (hence lower possibility of the platters getting damaged by constantly moving reader head), and since they spin at a lower RPM compared to the "Black" Edition, they are very quiet. I place the Sharespace inside my bedroom, and I dont even hear them even during heavy access. It is even more critical if you choose to place the ShareSpace in the living room, you dont want to hear the whines and drones of the drives spinning, while entertaining your guests.

For a Mac , it is easy. If you are planning to use this plugged straight to your Mac, pick an empty Ethernet port. Gigabit Ethernet works best, providing optimum speed. Right-click your Finder, and choose "Connect to Server". Type in "smb://wdsharespace" in the server address window, and voila! It comes up instantly as an acessible storage space, just like how a USB-type storage space would. Done with it? Eject is as per normal. The same instructions as what I have typed above is available on the provided manual. I find it that on the Mac it is easier to access the Sharespace than on a PC running Vista, on Vista, you would have to run WD's specific software to access it as a NAS. On a Mac, it acts just like any storage device, thanks to its Bonjour-friendly characteristics.

If you are planning to use the ShareSpace as per my setup, the same instructions applies. Just that now you have to make sure your wireless router plays nice with the ShareSpace. Mine works beautifully with the Time Capsule, zero config, right out of the box.

As for the HDDs supporting Mac, that point is moot once you decides which RAID configuration you are going to go. In my case, I picked RAID 5, and I had to go through a 15 hours RAID 5 setup to prep the 4 x 1TB HDDs to stripe and mirror each other. Your mileage may vary, may be vene shorter, on smaller capacity drives, or if you plug the Sharespace straight to your Mac using a wired Ethernet cable. I did my RAID setup while in a wireless environment.

The end result? Have you been to a nice high-end hotel which offers video-on-demand movies for purchase on their in-room TV? The one that you can choose with the remote and purchase if you like? Mine uses similar principles, only that the movies are free, of course. And best of all, they come with the slick, awesome Apple TV interface you can move around using that little Apple TV remote (or in my case, I'm using my Logitech Harmony One Universal remote), with beautiful movie poster art, movie details such as directors, screenwriters, producers, and the actors, date of these movies produced......even, their ratings (PG-13, R, etc)! That way, I can simply do my own self-censoring, by blocking out the more unappropriate content when guests with young childrens in their families come over to my place. They always have their kids diving for the Apple remotes wanting to check out what new movies their Uncle Stringfellow have for them to watch. Latest ones are WAll-E, Speed Racer and Kung Fu Panda as digital copy download from their Blu-ray packages, while for the more responsible adults gets Wanted, Get Smart, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls and Hancock during our movie nights. Popcorns, snacks and sodas included of course, I love entertaining my guests.

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Added on December 30, 2008, 1:11 amAnd by the way, I dont stop at movies. Next month, we're continuing our tradition of TV Show nights as well, when Lost Season 5 starts January 21st. Add the new season of Family Guy and South Park, it's going to be awesome! iTunes provides these episodes ONE day after they are screened on national American TV network, so we're not missing on the freshness of these episodes! We rotate homes to go for during TV Show nights, others subscribe to other shows, so when the latest episodes are available, we go to their house to watch them together.

Also, the Sharespace holds all my music collection, as well as vacation photos and home-made videos I've made during the holidays. The photos come out as beautiful slideshows WITH accompanying music, set on Apple TV as screensaver. And even when all my iTunes library is stored on the Sharespace, when my iPhone or iPod Touch is plugged in to sync, or back up with iTunes, and it having to access the Sharespace wirelessly, the sync/backup went in flawlessly. No hiccups whatsoever. I now have a centrally-located storage of all my multimedia-related, as well as sensitive/personal data on the Sharespace.

This post has been edited by stringfellow: Dec 30 2008, 11:16 PM

WOW That's what i can tell u bro...Thanks for explaining to me...i will go thought the simple way..either the Apple 1TB time capsule or i try to hunt around at Singapore see whether they are selling WD SpareSpace with affordable price

Regardless the RAID settings....if i opt for NAS device....probably i'll go for 2x 1TB better just in case the hdd failure....

Very good idle home settings, will keep lookout for your awesome digital home environment

i'll stay in the loop for your updates hehe

Thanks ya

This post has been edited by terencetoo: Dec 30 2008, 10:59 PM

Hi Stringfellow,

I am really impressed with your setup.
I am currently thinking on doing something similar (But at a MUCH MUCH MUCH smaller scare)

I was wondering whether any Movies (Especially HD Movies from your camcorder/camera) played through your AppleTv lag in anyway?

I intend to put an AppleTV in my company's conference room which has no ethernet port so it relies solely on the wifi. I also intend to pickup an Airport Express along with it. However, i have my reservations due to the speed of the transfer. Some of our presentation videos are gigabyte big and my boss insist on keeping the files in his Mac Pro so i have to resort to this idea.

I have a D-Link 323 with 2 bay storage. A Mac Pro, Mac mini and Macbook Pro is connected to it at the moment. Another AppleTV and Mac mini is on its way, pending the effectiveness of the airport express streaming effectiveness.

Secondly, The digital copy that you got from your BD's... they are stored in your PS3 or in your NAS system as well? Are they in .mp4/.mkv format?

Thanks

My HD movies from my camcorder are in the .m2ts format, so I'll have to use VoltaicHD to convert them into a H.264 file wrapped in the .mp4 container. Works fine by me, and I am very finicky when it comes to IQ.

If you're planning wireless transport via WIFI, use Wifi-N. "G" would work, but prone to inteference. also make sure there aren't double wifi-hops, meaning you dont transmit twice over wireless environment, if you do, you'll get slideshows instead of any semblance of a movie. Only transmit ONCE over wifi, preferably between the transmitter and the end-user(in this case the Apple TV).

The stength and quality of the throughput greatly depends on the distance and line-of-sight hindrances between your transmitter-receiver (Airport Express and your Apple TV). Otherwise, they work beautifully.

I don't store any movies or songs on my PS3, the PS3's interface is hideous compared to the Apple TV. I tried streaming content to the PS3 using MediaLink and EyeConnect before, and the filetree and directory is so ugly, and unwieldy for common layman to navigate through, I scrapped that approach. Plus, media streaming to the PS3 requires strict uPNP and DLNA compliance, resulting in some of my files arriving onscreen via my PS3 with their metadatas and tags missing, including album art. I am so used to Apple TV's presentation of the media being streamed over to it, including its beautiful album art and metadata tags, that I cannot live without it.

All the digital copies from the BDs are verified and copied over into iTunes, which in turns, since I place the primary iTunes library pointed to the WD ShareSpace, gets copied there as well. When I want to play them, just turn on the Apple TV, which links up with the iTunes and points to that digital copy in the ShareSpace and voila! Instant Video-on-Demand!

The digital copies are in .m4v format. Some of the digital copies, from Hancock and Speed Racer are in the .wmv format, so I need to re-encode them back to .mp4 before I can add them into the primary iTunes library.

Good luck with your setup!

Hi String - How long does it take for you to rip and encode a single video for Apple TV format? As for me, it took quite sometime...many hours in fact... I used the 4Media Apple TV Converter software to do that.

Poison Poison and more Poison ... haiyaaa.

I was considering Drobo as well but now seeing that you said its not as good as the reviews, i'm having 2nd thought.

I am using Handbrake, and using its built-in preset, it took as long as the movie itself. So you can imagine, all this effort took long man hours, and I am not taking any chances about losing all those effort down the drain should the drives go kaput.

The Drobo is good, just not so good when you look at the price you pay. The dealbreaker for me was after researching its features, I found out that its supposedly hot-swappable feature, is not so superior, when user reports stating that the rebuilding of the files from the removed HDDs (if you want to upgrade to bigger size HDDs or removing faulty ones) takes a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time. IT also uses Data Robotics proprietary file system, unlike the RAID config. For the price you pay for the Drobo(much more expensive, and WITHOUT any HDD inside, unless you get them straight from the US), it's relegated to second choice to me. For the time being, any NAS-related devices from QNAP or Synology is better than the Drobo. WD Sharespace just happen to be available when I was shopping around Melbourne at that time.

wow
drobo sound like incredibly easy
makes me abit worry

dear stringfellow,

about lost season 5 pass, BUY IT. in HD. i don't know why, but somehow i think lost HD is the best looking HD tv show offered. i've bought all season of battlestar galactica in HD, and somehow it didn't look as nice. so in conclusion, you'll not regret the purchase.

i'm totally having the same problem as you in regards to managing video contents, especially those bought from the itunes store. i believe i'm too are nearing the usd1000 mark of itunes purchases. i thought of buying an apple tv, but decided against it cause the functionality vs price ratio just didn't warrant a worthy purchase to me, and i have a love-hate relationship with the idea of wireless streaming my itunes library; doesn't seem very energy efficient to have both the comp & the lcd tv + apple tv on. since i've yet to have my own home, my network of media devices are constricted to my own bedroom (ie everything is just a few feet from each other) thus the need of a centralized nas device seem irrelevant, in my case.

nevertheless, one day i'm sure i'll be looking for a similar solution (albeit not with multiple apple tvs), so this is a great starting point. good luck in your highly ambitious endeavour

ETA: sorry, i must've missed some part. u've already bought lost season 5 pass, my mistake. though, huzzahhh

This post has been edited by dawn152: Jan 3 2009, 10:08 AM

Hi String ..

Too bad there are no Western Digital ShareSpace NAS available around my area...cant search for the price tag...only NAS system which i listed privoursly..

what about Apple TC? Will that be a better solution to start with or i should go with normal NAS first?

I would like to transfer all my movies/music/documents to ext hdd

Thanks

This post has been edited by terencetoo: Jan 4 2009, 11:07 AM

What about the HP MediaSmart Server?

@String
Bro ... where do u usually go to read reviews on this stuff? Need to do some research first.

hello mr.stringfellow..

Hav u tought of hacking the ATV to play other non-apple video format?

I'm very interested in the ATV, but I would like to be able to play other non-apple video format

AND at the same time is there a way/hack to make itune recognise those files so that I can use the itune UI in ATV??

Pls advise. Thanks....

This post has been edited by ryancfs: Jan 5 2009, 10:55 AM

Erm,

A simple answer is in here

How to Install Divx, Xvid, WMV On Your Take 2 AppleTV

http://www.apple-times.com/?p=433

This post has been edited by pmsoo: Jan 5 2009, 11:53 AM

LOL, we're both two crazy iTunes junkies, aren't we? Yup, if your immediate area of operation for these media delivery is small, the most common-sensical way to go about it is wired, be it wired GE or USB/FW. There's no uncertainties about wired connection on whether your media transfers would work or not, it just does.

As for Lost, I went hi-def on the Blu-ray route. I keep the standard definition from my iTunes Season Passes, so I'm sticking it that way.

The Time Capsule is good start, but it would start getting pretty cramped sooner or later. With a NAS, you can easily(relatively) swap the smaller sized drives for bigger ones later when they are made available or becomes cheaper later. So, in essence, it depends on your needs, and how you are approaching this in terms of future ability of storing your data later. If you only hold smaller sized data, and/or not planning to upsize your storage size later, then the TC would be adequate. But trust me when I say that, all this storage capacity and filling it up, gets addictive, at least to me. I always find ways of filling them up with things, even things that would be time-consuming, like ripping entire seasons of TV shows, that I initially would not prefer to do later. There's always something about the ease and accessibility of all those TV Shows, movies and photos at the tip of your fingers using the Apple Remote. Very very liberating.

I've not read on the MediaSmart server, so no comment on that. As for where I read reviews on this stuff, I actually dont read them until I've narrow it down to a few candidates. For that, I follow up with the guys at Macrumors.com forum, there is this one thread about the members there utilizing their Apple TV and discussing about their iTunes library spiraling out of control in terms of size. A few go for the external HDD route ala MyBook, but there are a few who dealt with NAS for their storage choice, and it seems like the NetGear ReadyNAS is popular there. Me? All I need is the NAS to be readily and easily detectable by iTunes, and of course fast transfer system via the Gigabit Ethernet. The reviews for the ShareSpace, I read the all over the place, but I pay particular attention on choices of NAS which hold not problems with detection within iTunes, as I want as little problem as possible, and as much automation as I can so that my guests can easily go about turning on this VOD system as easy as turning on the Macbook and turning the Apple TV on.

Hello there!

I've thought about hacking it, but the movies and audio I mainly use the Apple TV with are on formats readily recognizable by the Apple TV. Personally, I kept avery high standards on what I store in my ShareSpace and what I have running on the Macbook serving the ShareSpace to the Apple TVs, so I dont want things like dodgy files from shady and questionable sources to permeates my system and possibly undermine and disrupt my VOD ecosystem. I've seen a few of those "torrents" of TV Shows and movies, and personally, although they are passable in quality, but they are not good enough for me to put as servable media in my VOD ecosystem. Some have rolling advertisement at the bottom of the screen, some have questionable aspect ratios, and even the TV network logo on the top right corner. Others may not mind these things, but I want my media to be pristine and free from these "blemishes".I want to serve them right. And to do so, I even research them, these TV shows and movies and songs, I tag them properly using websites like TV.com, Film.com, and IMPawards.com for their metadatas like directors, actors, screenwriters, year of release, length of movie/TV Show, ....even their ratings (PG-13, TV-PG, etc). That way, it looks very very professional and authentic.

To some, watching TV shows and movies may just be about "downloading/leeching" pirated copies of them and watching them on their PC monitors, and then delete them off, but to me, great TV shows deserves collecting and proper management of them. Watching them is also an experience, an event for itself, I have friends, guests and diehard fans of these shows and movies over for a Movie Night, throw some popcorn into the microwave, a few jugs of soda and/or tipsier beverage , and have a great time watching them. That way, you would appreciate them more, than just simply associating watching TV shows or movies with illegal downloads and piracy. We (my buddies and I) make it into an event, and we rotate houses, for Heroes and Lost, the come over to my place, for House, 24, Battlestar Galactica(before it ended last year ) or other series, we go to our other buddies' houses and they hold their own Movie Night events.

There I go babbling again. To answer our question, I have thought of hacking it, but I dont feel the need for it. My home over in LA, the Apple TV has been hacked to use Boxee to watch TV shows on Hulu, which Boxee supports, but it is a moot point here, since Hulu implements Geo IP blocking stopping streaming outside continental US.