ATV (1st Gen): Manually put files into Media directory (bypassing iTunes)?

Hello.

I've been running a hacked ATV since v1.x of the OS (now running the latest OS) and I've always used a combination of external HD & Sapphire for the some of my media and the stock Movies/TV Shows player (synced to iTunes on an iMac via wifi) for other. With the new (iOS ATV) now out, I've purchased one for the parents and thus a lot more of my media is being converted to .m4v files, all nice and tagged for use in their iTunes for streaming. Thus, I'm looking into moving a lot more of my content to the default Apple TV format and just using the stock Movies/TV Shows player for playback.

But, what I absolutely hate (and why I originally started hacking the ATV in the first place) is that I have to have iTunes running on my iMac all the time, that I'm limited to the size (40GB) of the internal ATV HD, and that I also have to have the same HD space allocated on the iMac.

I know I can move the Media directory to the external HD and create a symbolic link on the ATV pointing to this new location, but even if I do this, do I still need to manage the content via iTunes on the iMac? Or, can I just copy files directly to the new location of the Media directory to be used by the ATV (thus, eliminating the need to have iTunes running/all these media files existing on both the ATV and my iMac)?

Thanks,
Kristin.

of course you can. with Mac use CyberDuck one of the sftp freewares to allow you to connect into appletv.

as for iTunes i used it to just sync my songs thats all.

Excellent! Yea, I have no problem accessing the Media directory/volume (I have AFP enabled, so I can just mount it on my iMac desktop). But, I'm unsure where I put the files? I'm remoting into my machine now and the directly listing looks like this:

Album Artwork (directory)
Downloads (directory)
Genius.itdb
iTunesPrefs.plist
Media Files (directory)
Media Library
Network Logs (directory)
Photo Library
Photos (directory)
Rental Files (directory)
Rental Library
Subscription Library

I assume the files need to go into "Media Files", but when I look in there, it's just a long list of sub-directories starting with F00 and end with F99 (and then within each of those are various media files, mostly .mp3/.mp4 audio files with names I don't recognize).

Anyway, so, my question — where do I put the files I want to copy to the ATV within the Media Directory? And, does the ATV OS reference the metadata within the .m4v video files to determine if it's a Movie vs TV show, get cover art, etc. (I assume it does)?

Thanks again for the response — much appreciated!
k.

If you want to play the files via the built in options (movies, music, tv) you need to sync via iTunes.

Otherwise you can put the video files wherever you want and then use nitotv or atvfiles or similar.

OK, so zedaf's reply is incorrect then?
So, there's no way to bypass requiring iTunes (via hack) if you want to play the files via the stock players?
That said — are either Sapphire or NitTV (or other) able to pull cover art and other details (proper name, rating, description, etc.) for the embedded data in an .m4v file?
Basically, since I already have all this data populated (via embedded metadata using iFlicks) in a ATV supported format (.m4v), I don't want to have to populate it all again (via Sapphire or NitoTV, etc.) again. I have no problem using these players (I've been using Sapphire for years as my primary player), I'm just hoping I can utilize the metadata already embedded in the files.
Thanks,
Kristin.

While it cannot see the cover art in an m4v file, Sapphire can read the metadata and construct a movie or tv show object around what it reads in that file.

Can any of the third-party video viewers build their library around the embedded metadata in mp4 video files? I have many of my DVDs ripped this way (ripped from handbrake, tagged with iFlicks) and I don't want to use iTunes to to manage the library. Any solutions?
Thanks,
k.

Sapphire can now read the metadata in the .mp4 files and generate a library from them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gbooker

Sapphire can now read the metadata in the .mp4 files and generate a library from them.

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It only reads in movie/tv though, right? Not titles, summary, cover art, etc.?
k.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by theboyk

It only reads in movie/tv though, right? Not titles, summary, cover art, etc.?

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Cover art, no. Movie/TV, titles, summary, dates, season/episode, etc, yes.