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Directly connecting and syncing content between your Mac and Apple TV

by Sang Tang Feb 26th 2010 at 4:00PM

After many years together, my Linksys WRT54G and I have parted ways. In its place, I'm now using an 802.11g-based Apple AirPort Express with AirTunes that was passed along to me. Besides not wanting to fork out the extra beans (c'mon, who here isn't saving up money for an iPad) for a shiny new 802.11n Airport Express, the devices living in my current wireless ecosystem are more g-leaning. That, and I don't really need the speed of 802.11n or the ethernet cable connection afforded to me by the WRT54G.

Or so I thought.


I had just restored my Apple TV to factory settings when I realized that I'd have to transfer 20GB of videos back to it from my MacBook Pro. Waiting for paint to dry would be more fun than waiting for all 20GBs to transfer using the AirPort Express's 802.11g connection. Or, for old times' sake, I could bring the WRT54G out of temporary retirement and connect the two together. But I didn't want to do that.

However, as all modern ethernet-equipped Apple products are of the gigabit ethernet spec, I could just plug an ethernet cable directly between the two and party like it's 1999. And if this was 1999, I wouldn't be able to do this without a crossover ethernet cable. Update: As pointed out in the comments, the Apple TV actually doesn't have a gigabit port -- it's a 10/100 connection -- but both the Mac and ATV ports support auto-sensing, which removes the requirement of the crossover cable when connecting the two devices.

To begin, you may want turn off the AirPort connection on your Mac to avoid any network device priority issues. After connecting your Mac directly to your Apple TV, head on over to "Settings" on your Apple TV and select "Network." Then, hop on over to "Configure Ethernet" and select "Use DHCP." Voila! You may now sync to your heart's content.

Neat trick if you need to transfer a lot of files fast. Of course, it'll use the port up on both computers, and you won't have the use of your internet connection during the transfer, but for a quick share, it's the easiest way to do things.



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After many years together, my Linksys WRT54G and I have parted ways. In its place, I'm now using an 802.11g-based Apple AirPort Express...
 

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Jared Mauch

Wired, all-the-way. I have a geek house, and have wired Ethernet ports in each room (with a few exceptions) to allow things like AppleTV and other devices have gigabit networking between each other. While the ATV does not do 1Gb/s, other machines can transfer with fewer barriers. Combine with a transparent squid proxy, and software updates will FLY when something new comes down the pipe. We have enough devices that something like a few hundred megs of software update * devices can quickly total a few GB.

Building it right the first time is important. Fixing drywall is cheap (even if you pay a contractor) and will save you from unnecessary wireless troubleshooting in the long-term. Just make sure you buy the plenum cabling.

February 27 2010 at 3:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
D. Verde

The whole iTunes ecosystem drives me nuts. I don't want to continually sync content, in fact, I don't want content to reside in more than one place. I'd rather replace the AppleTV HDD with a minimum-necessary SSD and then be able to stream directly from drives that are networked to the Airport Extreme. However, I can't do that. Ridiculously, I have to be linked through iTunes on an awake computer.

Apple seriously needs to look at what it means to have an independent media library in a household with multiple users and devices. Unless, they have and it's some cloud solution they haven't revealed… because the only thing sillier is thousands of people ripping and storing locally the -exact- same material.

Perhaps Netflix should also stream music… I could then ditch the AppleTV for a Roku.

February 27 2010 at 2:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iCaci

No need to reach for your Ethernet cable at all. Both Apple TV and your MacBook Pro have 802.11n adapters so you can just setup an ad-hoc WiFi on your Mac and connect the Apple TV to it. It's as easy as selecting "Create Network..." from the AirPort menubar item.

February 27 2010 at 6:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andy

> Why? If set up properly there won't be any issues.

Explain please.

February 26 2010 at 10:56 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andy's comment
Andre

A sample configuration. Lets say network A is the wireless, and network B is the hard-wired ethernet between the Mac and the ATV.

In our example Network A is configured (likely set up as DHCP on the router) to have its IP address to be in the 10.1.1.x range (netmask of 255.255.255.0). The wireless router's address is 10.1.1.1. The Mac's wireless IP address is set to 10.1.1.2, with a gateway set to 10.1.1.1 (via DHCP on the router).

Network B is hard coded as the 172.1.1.x range (and netmask of 255.255.255.0), so we'll set the ethernet card to an address of 172.1.1.1 , and we'll set the ATV to an address of 172.1.1.2 (no gateway settings are required as no routing will be required).

If the Mac wants to talk to the ATV (or address 172.1.1.2) then it knows that 172.1.1.2 is on the same network as its ethernet card (172.1.1.1), so it sends all traffic for that address down the ethernet card.

If something on the Mac needs to talk to something on the Internet, for instance TUAW.COM (at IP address 64.12.50.151), then the IP stack knows it's not on either of its built-in networks, and must be routed. It knows to send the packets to the wireless router (at the gateway address of 10.1.1.1) , and the router routes the traffic out the right way (to the router's external gateway). Likewise, if something on the Mac needs to talk to say another mac on the wireless network (say your wife's Macbook Pro with IP address 10.1.1.3), then it knows it's on the 10.1.1.x network, and talks through the wireless network to it.

This is all basic IP networking. I'm not sure what you mean about my comment being ignorant. If you didn't know how to do this, it doesn't make me ignorant.

February 26 2010 at 11:52 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andy

Andre,
Know what you mean... but your first post is pretty ignorant as well.

February 26 2010 at 9:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Andy's comment
Andre

Can you explain that? Are you saying I am lacking knowledge and stating things that are untrue?

February 26 2010 at 10:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Wilbur

Out of curiosity, how long did it take to transfer your 20G of files via the direct connection?

February 26 2010 at 8:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Wilbur's comment
Andre

Don't be silly - that would mean real testing and quoting facts!

February 26 2010 at 9:18 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andre

"To begin, you may want turn off the AirPort connection on your Mac to avoid any network device priority issues."

Why? If set up properly there won't be any issues. Basic networking. If the address of the ATV is on the wired network, traffic can only go that way when seeking its address. Likewise, if the only route to the Internet is over your wireless router (i.e. your gateway), that's the only way it will go.

Also, I'm pretty sure I get better speeds out of my 802.11n (5Ghz) for synching, as both devices do support 'n'. I'm getting better than 40Mb/s when I synch movies (as measured by iStat Menus). I'm pretty sure I've never had steady speeds that high with 10/100 ethernet.

To have written this article in the first place stating that all these devices are Gigabit, just shows that the author doesn't know his subject. I mean if you're going to write an article about the fastest ways to send data over a network, then research the basic facts about it first. And do some testing. Then post facts.

Telling people they have to turn off their Airport connection for the direct link just removes all doubt that the author doesn't know his butt form a hole in the ground. It's OK to not know your butt form a hole in the ground... that is until you write an article on a popular site like TUAW and try to give the Mac community advice on the subject.

February 26 2010 at 7:33 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dave

I couldn't imagine running my network with only an Airport Express. It's a nice device though (I have an 11g model) and I guess if you only needed wireless it would work. But some of my devices are wired only--plus I live near a college and there are about 5-10 other wireless networks in range; making wireless somewhat unreliable (from the interference).

I'm curious how the Express keeps up when running things like a torrent application where there are a lot of simultaneous connections?

February 26 2010 at 5:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jdechko

It's a nice reminder that you can directly connect 2 devices without a crossover cable if one has Gig-E.

I've used this solution to hook up my XBox 360 to my desktop while bridging the wired and wireless connections on my computer. Saves me from having to run a long ethernet cable or buy the wireless adapter for the 360.

February 26 2010 at 5:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

In 1999, the 1000BASE-T 802.3ab spec came out with Auto-MDIX. So you still wouldn't have needed a crossover cable, just one device with gigabit.

February 26 2010 at 5:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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