Multiple AppleTV's- syncing and streaming and combining....

Multifold question... I have 11 APple TV's running at our ...etate. Don't aski- But it is actually a VERY cost effective way for guest rooms and other functions to have access to TV/Movies Music etc. What i do NOW is i have one machine on the netwrok as a straming server...i use it's itunes account to buy movies etc - and all other ATV's are conected to it's stream. Each of the ATV's howver have also had content purchased on DOWNLOADE on to THEM as well... and never been sync'd BACK to any other place. SO alot of uncentralized (and unprotected) content I have bought. So a FEW quyestions... 1) Does the central STREAMING "server" need to be "active? Meaning, Say I sign in to the machine, run iTunes as say "local" then use the "multiuser" feature to flip over to my other normal login, will the ATV's lose streaming... IF so , 2) would, say, a dedicated headless mac-mini suffice - logged in as a "Jukebox" dedicated user with iTunes running all the time... THEN 3) how can I get all the content BACK off each of the apple tv's safely? When I look to try to sync them it seems to want to wipe out everything and replace all the content on the AppleTV with what is on the iTunes I am syncing from!

Having done some back of a beer mat calculations, I would suggest the following:
Research has shown that you can sync almost an unlimited number of devices to one instance of iTunes. However, for purchased content, you can only use this content on 5 devices. From itunes Terms and conditions:
*(iii) You shall be authorized to use the Products on five Apple-authorized devices at any time, except in the case of Movie Rentals, as described below.*
http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html#SERVICE
This is a shame, in your case, as it means you'd have to run three mac minis as content servers for purchased content. However, I'm not sure how this would work in principle. You may be able to use 3 mac minis with the same itunes credentials, and sync your 11 appleTVs to these 3 minis. You may need to experiment here.
However, it would mean that content purchased on an appleTV would be shared with at least 4 other appleTVs. It also means that you could, say, every hour, invoke a sync of all appleTVs on your network, keeping the content in sync.
So, what about all of this content: You could use your existing server as a content store, that the mac minis point to. However, if you were using itunes to sync content rather than stream, you may need to go through a consolidation routine to pick up content stored on each different mac mini. This could be done using automator quite easily (I've just had a quick look, and it' possible to search for files cerated today, for example, and then import these into itunes).
It's not the most graceful of solutions. I'd speak to apple personally, and get them to clarify how many appleTV's can sync with one instance of itunes. There is a product ( http://www.paratsolutions.com/parasync.html ) that allows for multiple ipods on one itunes

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Is there a way to keep iTunes library on AppleTV after sync and then...

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A few minor, but irritating AppleTV problems - syncing and streaming

Unlike most of the people who've posted in this formum, I really, really like my AppleTV and use it everyday - for playing music as well as for video. I've synced my music, but I stream video, which works as advertised. I do have two small, annoying problems though.
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I've had similar issues although it was a long time ago and my content is streamed as opposed to sync.
I'm struggling to remember the causes of my issues and how they were resolved. It occurs to me that perhaps if it isn't a result of a field somewhere being empty that it might be as a result of a field containing an illegal character or even a field somewhere that should be blank having something in it.
Another thing I noticed which might not apply to you since you are syncing but if I add content from a new show (ie a show that I haven't added before - not a new episode) it will show up in shows by date but not in shows by show until I have logged out of the library and back in again. Once I have a show added and listed on the tv I can add a second or subsequent episode and it will show up straight away. It's almost as though the tv only reads the 'show' field when it first connects. As I say this might be nothing to do with your situation, but might be worth closing itunes and re-opening it.

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I had some problems uninstalling apps from my new BlackBerry Curve 9300 -- the phone froze and I foolishly disconnected it from my Mac without "ejecting" it -- and now I am having big problems syncing. I cannot add media or new apps to the BB and when I tried resetting the phone by removing the battery I encountered the following error message: "Uncaught exception: java.lang.Error".
In addition, when I connect the BB to my Mac with the USB cable I get the following error from Mac OS: "Mac OS X can't repair the disk 'NO NAME." The BB appears on my desktop as a read-only disk.
I can sync information (contacts and calendars) but I cannot sync media. The error message is: "BlackBerry requires write permissions on your media card to sync your media files." Obviously, the permissions have been damaged.
And finally, when I try to add new apps to the BB using BlackBerry Desktop Software, I get the following error message: "BlackBerry Desktop Software failed to validate your BlackBerry device update. Aborting install due to validation failure. Some packages contained unsatisfied dependencies."
Yes, so I have created quite a problem. What do I do? I don't mind wiping the BB and starting fresh, but I don't know even how to do that!
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I posted this question in this forum because I think it is a Mac-BlackBerry problem, perhaps something to do with disk permissions?
-RE.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I opened the log file in Blackberry Desktop and the "unsatisfied dependencies" error was highlighted in red. I don't understand computer logs; however, it seemed to me that Desktop was looking for the BlackBerry Podcase app, which I had deleted. I reinstalled it using BlackBerry AppWorld on my BB and now Desktop and my BB are talking to each other again.
The moral of the lesson: don't ever delete an app on your BB with the word "BlackBerry" in it.
I still don't know how the permissions problem with the media card fixed itself.

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There's not alot of info for sync and stream. Pointer the ATV to a Mac initially produces the sync(user can sync only one itunes library). It streams also as long as the files are in the itunes library and the itunes program is open(can be minimized) and the Mac is not sleeping. Up to five other Macs can stream but not sync. You can tell that feature by the amount of tabs available in the ATV column of itunes.

IPhone/iPod Touch Remote and multiple AppleTVs

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Thanks

You have made a fundamental mistake in your understanding of AirTunes.
AirTunes does not play the music stored on the Apple TV, it streams music from iTunes on your computer.
Your computer can stream to more than one Apple TV, BUT it can only be the same stream which it keeps in sync to all devices. It cannot stream different streams over AirTunes to different Apple TV's.
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Is it possible to sync AND stream from the same iTunes library?

Hi,
I am having trouble in setting up sync AND stream from the same iTunes library.
Config :
Mac OS - Latest update 5/6/09
iTunes - Latest update 5/6/09
Apple TV - Latest update 5/6/09
I am able to either sync OR Stream from my iTunes library but not sync AND stream from the same iTunes library
Let's say i want to sync :
Go to Apple TV > Settings > computer
Add Library (Not shared for Syncing)
Enter passcode in iTunes and select the items to sync
After sync is complete
You can see photo, music & video in My Photos, My Music & My Videos.
Let's say now my Apple TV is full
So like to stream some other content
Now
Go to Apple TV > Settings > computer
Add SHARED Library
Passcode is shown in apple TV but not able to Enter it in iTunes (click to set link is not there next to Apple TV item under devices)
To get that you have to right click the apple tv from the devices and select don't sync.
You will get a message saying that all content in apple TV will get deleted.
If you say yes then only the passcode screen for streaming is presented.
So i am not able to sync AND stream from the same iTunes library.
Any idea?

macanandapple wrote:
1. The checkbox for "show only synced content" should be unchecked
yes
2. No need to Add Shared Library
correct
3. After syncing is complete as per the steps said before, if i have to see a synced content i go to My Movies for streamed content i have to go to Shared Movies?
no... both synced and streamed content show up all together. there is no way to tell what content is synced or streamed when looking at it on the appletv. it is seemless as in there is no difference in how it is presented.
you also need to make sure you are using "custom sync" rather than "automatic sync", as you can't select the "show only synced content" box when using "automatic sync".

Syncing and streaming from different itunes libraries on same computer

First, I came across a thread saying that it is possible to sync and stream from the same itunes library, but Apple technical support says this is not possible and the thread didn't explain how this is done. I know you can still stream music from a library that is synced with the ATV by using Airtunes, but you can't stream movies through Airtunes. If there's a way to sync and stream movies through the ATV from the same itunes library, can someone please let me know how to do it?
If this is not possible, does anyone know if it's possible to sync to one library and stream from another on the same computer? I tried this last night and for a second I thought it worked because my itunes was listed on the ATV twice (once as syncing and the other as streaming) but then when I switched back to the library that the ATV was supposed to be synced with, that library disappeared from the ATV and I lost all of the media on the ATV. (As a side note, when I started syncing again, the ATV showed that it still had all of the media on there, but itunes showed that there was nothing and started copying everything again - very annoying).
This is an issue for me because I only have one computer and all of my media on an external harddrive. I like having my music synced with the ATV but my movies will not fit on the ATV so I would prefer to just stream those rather than have to delete and add movies everytime I want to watch something different. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

missed a very important step necessary to achieve this, in the summary tab in iTunes there is a check box... "show only synced items".. if you uncheck that box then unsynced items will will appear on the appleTV menus and when you click on them they will be streamed... this gives you the sync and stream from the same library part of what the OP wants.
the other part of the puzzle is to let items inside and outside of the iTunes Folder exist in the iTunes library... the library is file that contains all the files that you see in itunes... files don't need to be in the iTunes folder to be in the itunes library though..
the trick here is that when you drag the files from your external (the ones you don't want on your computer) and into iTunes... press option as you drag and the files will be added to the iTunes library (a reference/path to them really) but the files will not be copied to the iTunes folder... when iTunes looks for that file (to play it directly or to stream or sync to appleTV) it looks at the reference and says.. hey i can get this file here (on your external) and goes and fetches it.
on a PC you press SHIFT as you drag into iTunes so the item(s) don't get copied to the iTunes folder.. no OPTION key on PCs.
Message was edited by: tmartine

Syncing and streaming to the same iTunes

Appletv works great...but I want to sync and stream from the same iTunes...is this possible. I want to be selective about what I sync to the HD but be able to access any media in iTunes via a stream...is this possible?
iMac Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Appletv works great...but I want to sync and stream from the same iTunes...is this possible. I want to be selective about what I sync to the HD but be able to access any media in iTunes via a stream...is this possible?Yes it is. Simple set up your "sync" preferences in iTunes as you probably already have. Then access the "Sources" area of your TV device. Under this menu you should see both your "Named TV" device, as well as, your "Named iTunes Library" at the very least. Simply select whichever you wish to access at a given time and select it. NOTE: This option appears to default back to the "synched" TV device whenever you open "Sources" so always "reselect" the streaming iTunes Library when you want to stream content and have opened this option.

How to setup Sync and Stream for Different Photo Libraries?

I've read through most posts, but still can't get ATV to both sync and stream photos.
On my MBP I have my iTune library with music, movies, etc. I also have several iPhoto libraries for each year ('05, '06 '07, etc). I initially set up ATV to sync to my MBP iTune Library and my iPhoto '07 iPhoto library and everything went fine. Even if ATV->source->my music->photos, I get the photos streamed fine.
The question is how do I stream the other iPhoto libraries? If I go into MBP-> iTunes->Devices->ATV->Photos and deselect sync, I can't select any other Photo Albums and lose the ones I just sync'ed. If I try ATV->source->my itune lib->connect to new iTunes->sync #, but then when I go to MBP-> iTunes->devices->ATV there is no window to insert the # to stream.
What am I missing? Usually Apple is very logical, but this has me stumped. Basically I would like to sync and store my music on ATV, but be able to stream different photo libraries, the photos don't have to be stored on ATV. If I could sync some and stream others that would be better.
Can anyone give me a step-by-step on how to do this? I must be missing a step somewhere. Thx

Welcome to the  Discussion Forums.
It's debatable whether you could ever sync and stream photos from the same library. tv v 1.1 gave that impression because it showed photos in a synced source and a streamed source when the source was the same library. However as they were effectively the same photos it was never really clear what was happening.
Now that synced and streamed content is in the same menu under v 2.0 it really doesn't matter. If your itunes library is synced to your tv then you must sync your photos, if your itunes library is stream only then you must stream your photos.
Moving on, because this doesn't actually address your problem, which is that you want to sync or stream multiple iphoto libraries from the same itunes library. Well you can't, although you have a couple of workarounds.
If you must have multiple libraries, then you could open additional user accounts, stream the itunes libraries in those user accounts and allocate a single library to iphoto under each user account. This is quite messy if you have more than a couple of libraries and will not work with more than 5 libraries, which you may well have if you are working by years.
Your second option and I don't think you'll like it too much is to put all your photos in one library. To be honest I'm not really sure why you split your photos up as you do, I would have thought that iphoto was more than capable of coping with photos from all years.

Little confused by Syncing and Streaming

I got my Apple TV yesterday. Everything appeared fine when I set it up. Except when I tried to play music, it was "skipping" and sounded kind of weird. I assumed it was because the Apple TV was syncing. So, I left it alone overnight expecting to find this morning the 40 GB drive would be full and it would be ready to go.
What I'm finding instead is that my pictures and music are not syncing over, even though I've got iTunes set to sync everything (all pictures and all music). I have about 4X what would fit on the 40 GB Apple TV. But, I thought it would sync what it could. Is that not the case? I keep changing settings on syncing. But, no matter what I do, the drive never gets anywhere near full. I get messages saying certain songs/playlists won't be synced because there's not enough room on the drive. But, I thought the drive would still fill up.
Lastly, since I can't get all my music and pictures on the AppleTV at once, should I sync photos first and assume the music will always just stream?
Thanks,
Brian

The fact that the drive isn't that full may suggest a network issue as overnight it would hopefully have synced as much as it could. How are you connected?
Stuttering music sounds more like it was playing using streaming and cutting out.
I too have more than will fit on a 40GB machine.
The one thing you should sync is photos you need on there - streaming can only deliver the same ones which is odd.
Just in case it needs clarification:
- under Sources the AppleTV option means to play what is synced to the device
- the other entries are streaming iTunes libraries
This isn't always obvious!
You can select individual movies/TV shows to sync and I assume you've disabled that. For music it's all, nothing or selected playlists - it could be that your music library is too big and it's confusing AppleTV trying to work out what to sync and what to leave out - I don't know how this works, but when my music library grew, every time it resyncs there are warnings some things are left off.
Try creating a playlist say 'AppleTV playlist' and drag and drop music into that and just sync that leaving out things you'd not listen to often and be content to stream.
AC

Sync and stream from the same library?

Hello,
Prior to upgrading to ATV2, I was able to access 'unchecked' items in my iTunes library from my ATV. This is the iTunes library that I am also syncing from.
This allowed me to stream items that I didn't want to sync.
I would do this by going to the 'sources' option and directly selecting my Mac Based iTunes library, rather than the ATV library.
With the new update, can you still stream unchecked items from the same iTunes library that you are syncing too?
If so how?
If not, I think this is a major let down???
Any help much appreciated.
FH

Depends on what you mean by unchecked.
If you don't check items in the sync options window (from device list) they won't get synced, but they will get streamed provided the item is checked alongside it's title in the main library window. If an item isn't checked alongside it's title in the main library window then it won't sync or stream.
All synced and streamed content from the same library now appears in a single list on the tv, namely 'my movies, my tv shows etc'. Only content from a secondary (streaming only) library will appear in a separate list on the tv, namely 'shared libraries'.

Ipod remote app and apple tv sync vs. stream problem

Have been using ATV 1st gen streaming from a shared itunes library for some time.
Now I want to use the ipod remote app and can make it work only if I sync content to the ATV. If I stream content to the ATV, the remote app says there is no content.
However, I can see (on my tv) and play the sync'd content using the white plastic remote.
*Does this mean the remote app works only with synced (not streamed) content on ATV 1st gen?*
(all itunes and ATV software is the latest)
Thank you.

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