Library can't be expanded through referencing different locations for media

Question

Ok, Apple wants us all to be save and not to loose any of the contents we purchase through Apple TV. So it copies everything that is on your Apple TV to your iTunes library. This is a nice idea that, unfortunately, comes with a huge inconvenience: there is no way for us users to tell iTunes where to put, for example, those huge movie files. ITunes simply copies them into the iTunes library the second iTunes is connected to your Apple TV. What this does is filling up the library on your computer faster than you could imagine. Here is an idea: how about using a referenced file system instead. That way users can decide where iTunes should put those valuable Apple TV backup files freeing up all that hard disk space on your computer drive for more important stuff. You may ask, why don't we just move the entire library to an external drive, like Apple suggests? Because it moves everything to the external hard drive leaving my computer's internal drive with nothing but an empty iTunes library, which means I will always have to carry my external drive with me in order to get excess to my files. Well, I could, of course, create a new library on my Macbook and copy stuff I want from my main library (on my external drive) into that library (on my Macbook). Really? That's the most convenient way Apple can come up with: manually copying files between drives? How about an option that allows users to treat my newly created Macbook library like an iPot? That would allow users to decide which contents (playlists, movies, etc) will be synced with my main library on my external drive. Could it be so difficult? That way everything remains organized and in sync, and to get back to my original point, one saves all that valuable internal hard disk space.
Anybody out there that has a better idea?

Answer 1

I think what he is talking about is having the abilty to store and access ALL his ITUNES library while at home and a subset of it while he is on the road with his laptop. If this is the case, there is something you can try.
On the laptop, which I assume is your ITUNES host, point ITUNES at an external drive as its library. While you are at home, ITUNES will store and stream normally but will in fact be accessing an off board network drive for managing the actual data files. The "library" is kept on the host (the laptop) as an database file, but the actual data is NOT on the laptop but streamed to it automatically when at home.
When you are on the road and want to watch a subset of your library, what you can do is creat a separte folder on the desktop and drag into it a copy of the movie files that you want to watch while NOT connected to your physical library disk on your home network. You can copy any or all of the files in your ITUNES library and should to maintain a backup. You can then go to ths folder with the copies of your movies on your laptop and double click them. They will run "outside" of ITUNES. At least they do on my laptops. I do it all the time and it works just fine.
If you have a large ITUNES library, you should be backing it up to a separate physical drive in any case for your own protection. You can always rebuild ITUNES if you have the data files by dragging those files into a new instance of ITUNES. For content purchased from Istore, you will need to connect the "new" rebuilt ITUNES instance to the Istore to get it reauthorized but I have done it several times.