ITunes Library File Size Limit?

Question

I've been struggling to get my AppleTV to work as advertised since I bought it on the day it was originally released. I'm a big music fan and wanted to use it mostly as a music device. My iTunes library is huge. I have my entire CD collection ripped in lossless, as well as AAC for my iPod. I also have lots of other music, some DTS audio files, etc... and very detailed organization.
At any rate, I could always get the AppleTV to work if I just set it up to sync and play the files locally, but never to properly stream in a manner that's useable. And any syncing would take FOREVER. I'm on an N network, and I was getting speeds around 100KB/second. And then after it finally would get setup, I would often get pauses up to a minute where the AppleTV would freeze between menus while "thinking". It would take me 5 minutes just to navigate to a song and start playing it.
I tried all sorts of troubleshooting. Test libraries always worked fine. I've rebuilt my iTunes library from scratch, suspecting a corrupt library file, even though there was no other evidence to support this theory. No dice.
I'm finally giving up, and deciding that AppleTV has a limit to how large an iTunes library file it can handle. My iTunes library file is 160MB. Just the library file. You figure it's only got 256MB of RAM, and it's no wonder it can't handle it. I'm not sure how large the AppleTV OS is, but I suspect with a library file that large that the ATV has to do lots of going back to the HD to retrieve information it just doesn't have enough room for in RAM.
So my new strategy is to set up a secondary iTunes library just for my AppleTV that contains just music I want to sync, and any video I may want to stream. If I want to stream video, I'll launch this new library. If I want to listen to music without my computer on, the AppleTV will have a selection on it from this new library. If I want to stream my huge library, well, now I can use my iPhone as a remote to control my large iTunes library, and use the AppleTV with airtunes feature. And this works wonderfully, 100% responsive with no "waiting".
At any rate, I'm very disappointed that I couldn't get the AppleTV to work as advertised. I wish Apple would specify that there's a limit to how large a library it can handle. I've been screwing around with this for a long time and am essentially giving up, although the iPhone remote / airtunes solution works well for me.
Maybe down the road they'll come out with a new hardware revision with more RAM that can handle things better.

Answer 1

Well, I was hoping I could send you a private message, Greg Neil, because I don't know if you'll ever see this message. Regardless, your iTunes library is NOT the problem no matter what others have told you. 7000 files it's child's play. My iTunes library currently has 14,639 music files in it and 129 Movies ripped at 3000kbps. The library size is NOT the problem. If your network is slow then that will be what is hurting you. The second fastest behind 'n' (i always forget this bit of trivia) should be fast enough for streaming music and most movies. I know that because I've done it. Having said that, go out and buy a bit of ethernet cable and hook it directly into your machine and see if you can stream that way. If you can't then you need to take back your aTV because, in that case, it's the problem. If your network is of adequate speed per what I and the previous poster have mentioned and it still won't stream at all wirelessly then TAKE IT BACK. Mine has streamed fine in the past however, I eventually just hardwired it via ethernet to prevent any drops ever. Hope this helps. I just wanted you to know that going to that amount of trouble to make it work should not have been necessary, and btw, aTV running all your favorite music to your home stereo is worth the price of the device itself. You shouldn't have to suffer.
All the best,
A fellow music lover