How to easily watch multiple Apple TV's

TidBITS Talk
1

How to Easily Watch Apple TV’s in Different Rooms

Background

Our house have 2 apple TV’s, located in different rooms.

When we want to watch anything, we have to make sure that the Mac with the TV library is awake with TV app running. and that the NAS is also awake. This is a PITA with everything in different rooms on separate floors.

Objective
I am looking for a spousal-friendly solution to simplify watching an Apple TV if the primary Mac is asleep.

Configuration :
Room 1

  • 2024 M3 Macbook Air, OS Sonoma hosting TV app library but no media files
  • NAS Synology DS 213J (original DSM 4, very old) hosting all media files (each file has full metadata).
  • Apple TV-1 (4K 1st gen)

Room 2

  • 2019 iMac, OS Monterey 12.7
  • Apple TV-2 (3rd Gen)

Possible Solutions : 3 come to mind:

  • Create some form of wake-on-lan event from room 2 to wake MBA if needed. This would no longer be a PITA since both Apple TV and iMac are in same room. (Under older MacOS’s, there used to be some kind of low level ‘magic ping’ that accomplished this but this capability has disappeared in recent MacOS’s).
  • Clone TV library from MBA to iMac. However, since original library was created under Tunes and migrated to TV app after many OS upgrades, I am confused as to where the actual library file is located.
  • Stream directly from NAS to each Apple TV. I am reluctant to pursue this if it involves 3rd party apps, given the age of my NAS, plus I doubt it would be a spousal friendly approach.

I would appreciate help accomplishing either of the first 2 solutions, or any other solutions for that matter.

Regards,
Peter Donlevy

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My media server for Homesharing is an “old” iMac that is still running Mojave. So I still use iTunes for Homesharing. It reliably wakes up when an ATV, Mac or iOS device seeks to stream media@. From your experience it seems that more modern Macs/OSs do not always wake up.

I am dreading the day when devices running the latest OSs are unable to stream from iTunes/Mojave but will stick with my set-up for now.

I also have Air Video Server HD installed on the iMac and client apps on my ATV and iPad. This is an alternative to using Homesharing for non-DRM videos.

BTW - I have my videos stored on a large hard disk attached to the iMac with a USB cable. I do back up those files to a Synology NAS but haven’t tried using it as a media server.

@ Funnily enough I just went to stream some music on my ATV and got an error message that the iMac was not available. Then I remembered I shut it down last night due to an approaching thunderstorm!

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Most of my TV viewing is via streaming outside services. I have a Mac Mini with media files on it I can watch but it is set to never sleep. The only Mac’s I let sleep are laptops and only when on battery power. With the displays set to sleep, power usage is minimal.

2 Likes
4

M. Paine’s comment made me wonder if a bug in WOL in Sonoma is the real culprit?