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I have moved all my media files (about 500GB worth) to a 2TB Time Capsule that also functions as my wireless router. The goal was to centralize all my media files so they could be accessed from everywhere and free up disk space on my PC. I have changed the settings in iTunes on my PC to use the Time Capsule Z: drive as the source for my music library. Streaming media over the network (e.g. Time Capsule to Apple TV) is actually quite fast.

However, when I connect my 120GB iPod to iTunes, it is taking upwards of 15 minutes to complete syncing songs to the iPod. Is this because iTunes is trying to compare the iPod index to the library stored on Time Capsule and the combination of disparate systems/drives and a wireless connection to the Time Capsule is causing a lag? Is there a configuration/setting I need to change in iTunes? Or am I going about all this the wrong way?

Any insight would be appreciated.

studiohack
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zee
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1 Answers1

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The following is using MBps and not Mbps - to calculate Mbps multiply the MBps value by 8.

Streaming won't be an issue as you are feeding a single file (audio or video) to your Apple TV in real time. For example, you have a 1GB movie file that is 1 hour long that is streamed to the Apple TV, your computer / Time capsule has an hour to stream 1GB (17MB per minute or roughly .3MBps) of data to your Apple TV for smooth playback.

When you are synchronizing media to an iPod, you are not listening or viewing the media in real time so the throughput needs to be significantly faster. Now, if we take that same 1GB file and try to sync it to your iPod in 15 minutes, then the network / disk needs to perform at 1.1 MBps. This is considering that the transaction is purely a copy operation without referring to the iTunes database, which will introduce even more lag.

The PC World review linked, shows that the Time Capsule performs at roughly 1.4MBps when the wireless is at 20m.

Apple Time Capsule Review - PC World

With that in mind, if the PC you are using is a Desktop - I would recommend installing an internal drive or attaching an External moving your library to that. This will allow ideal speeds for the iPod synchronization and you can share the folder through Windows to share with other computers on the network and enable iTunes Home Sharing for streaming to your Apple TV.

Dustin G.
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  • Could I get away with a wired connection to the Time Capsule to my PC (via USB or Ethernet) - eliminating the iPod sync issues - yet continue to use the device as my wireless router and media hub for the home? – zee Sep 10 '11 at 12:01
  • It won't be faster than a local drive, but yes - you should see a faster sync. – Dustin G. Sep 10 '11 at 21:28