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Apple TV -- headless music streamer


plakey

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Yes, yes, and yes. :)

 

On caveat, you do need to plug it into a television or monitor to set it up the first time, connect to your iTunes account, turn on iTunes Match, etc.

 

-Paul

 

 

I have a very simple question: Can I plug an AppleTV into a DAC and run it headless with a iPhone Remote app, and stream music from my iTunes that is in the cloud? In other words: no TV, no iTunes library open on another computer.

 

Thanks.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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I have a very simple question:

I have a not-so-simple answer, sorry.

Can I plug an AppleTV into a DAC

Yes, via Toslink or HDMI. Your DAC needs to accept 16/48 input via these (most do).

and run it headless with a iPhone Remote app,

Yes, although you will (probably) need a TV with HDMI input for the initial setup.

and stream music from my iTunes that is in the cloud? In other words: no TV, no iTunes library open on another computer.

Yes, you need an iTunes Match subscription. See here Apple - iTunes - Match and also check here for some CA member feedback on how well it works http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f11-software/itunes-match-user-feedback-and-some-questions-10224/. There are a few more threads here on CA discussing the iTunes Match service, so have a look around if you have any doubts. I'm not saying it's bad or anything, I'm just being cautious since I haven't tried it for myself.

Thanks.

You're welcome :)

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Do you really need a Match account for this?

 

If all of your music is already purchased from iTunes you don't need the Match account. The Match account would only be needed to get music not purchased from iTunes, like CD rips, up into the cloud so it can be pulled back down to the AppleTV. OP didn't indicate if this was a requirement.

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Do you really need a Match account for this?

 

Good question.

 

I think that if you have purchased your music from iTunes, you can download your purchases to all of your i-devices directly from 'the cloud' (cannae be arsed reading the smallprint though). However, the latest Apple TV doesn't officially have any storage space, which means streaming would be your only option... which takes you back to needing the Match subscription if you want it to play your music without having your computer switched on.

 

On t'other hand, if you have an iPhone or iPad with enough storage space you could use airplay to stream from that to the Apple telly. Or if you had a Spotify or other music streaming account. Horses for courses. You pays your money and you takes your gift to water and makes it salute the flagpole.

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I just tried this with my ATV2 and here are the 3 options to get music on the device:

 

1) iDevice or Mountain Lion to send audio/video via AirPlay

2) Home Sharing (requires iTunes to be running somewhere local)

3) iTunes Match (subscription required)

 

That last one sounds like what OP wants. Shame really that you can't "stream" purchased audio content like you can movies.

 

So, iTunes Match subscription is required to stream audio from the cloud on Apple TV (at least with my limited testing).

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I have a very simple question: Can I plug an AppleTV into a DAC and run it headless with a iPhone Remote app, and stream music from my iTunes that is in the cloud? In other words: no TV, no iTunes library open on another computer.

 

Thanks.

 

Why not simply use the ATV as an AirPlay receiver for whatever device you are using?

All your music in the cloud would be available through the iPhone in addition to any music app you used such as Pandora, Spotify, etc.

David

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Well mostly, because an ATV Doesn't have local storage of course. Would you expect a CD player to play your music sans CDs?

 

So far as I know, without iTunes match, any iDevice has to have the music file downloaded to it - or streamed to it from a local iTunes server - to play it.

 

With iTunes match, your music plays from the cloud - quite nicely too. During a recent trip, i streamed music from iTunes match to my phone, and from my phone via bluetooth to the stereo in my truck. Worked beautifully up and down 1500 miles of Interstate highway.

 

$2.083 per month is a pretty paltry amount to backup and stream 50k tracks, pretty much anywhere and to a lot of different devices. IMO, etc. Not perfect, no, but very good jst the same!

 

 

Yeah, I just bought an AppleTV and ran into this problem. I don't get it. Why should I pay $25 to listen to stuff I already bought on iTunes? It's bizarre. I can listen to cloud based iTunes purchases on my iDevice. This is a huge fail.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat DAC.

Robert A. Heinlein

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It has 8 gig of "memory" and if you jailbreak it, you can even mount any old disk via NFS.

 

As others have mentioned, any computer running 10.8.X can stream to it, and any Ipod/iPad/iPhone running OS 5 or 6 can do this as well, which means you can stream Pandora or Mog or whatever to it.

 

But I find by far the best way to enjoy it is to simply leave iTunes open as a server on my main system, and then use the ATV2 as a (headless) $100 Sonos-killer zone player, controlled from my iPad via Remote.app.

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Yeah, I just bought an AppleTV and ran into this problem. I don't get it. Why should I pay $25 to listen to stuff I already bought on iTunes? It's bizarre. I can listen to cloud based iTunes purchases on my iDevice. This is a huge fail.

 

Maybe. I don't use it, but I don't consider it a fail. It is just a feature I have no interest in. I have my own local cloud (as should be evident from my perpetual negative mood.)

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