When you get some iTunes media files, most probably you’d like to enjoy them on different devices to make full use of them. How do you do that every time? If you simply copy and paste the big media files like iTunes movies, TV shows, music videos to other Apple devices, it will take a long time. Additionally, sometimes you will encounter the problem of not having enough space.
Luckily, Apple has added the iTunes Home Sharing feature to enable users to share iTunes media with up to 5 devices in the same network instantly without taking up extra space on your new devices. Here in this post, I will show you how to set up the iTunes Home Sharing so you can use it to stream iTunes movies on your other Mac computers, PC, iDevices, such as iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV.
- Part 1. Create iTunes Home Sharing on Computer
- Part 2. Stream iTunes Videos to iDevices by iTunes Home Sharing
- Part 3. Share iTunes Movies Anywhere
Part 1. Set Up and Use iTunes Home Sharing on Computer
Turn on iTunes Home Sharing
To get started, you need to have a Mac computer or PC with iTunes. Apple started to add the iTunes Home Sharing feature in iTunes 9, so you must have iTunes 9 or newer version installed on your computer first. We'd recommend you install the latest iTunes. Then you can follow the steps:
Launch iTunes > Click 'File' menu > Choose 'Turn On Home Sharing' > If you haven't signed in iTunes yet, it will prompt you to sign in with the ID and password
After that, you can go to iTunes 'Preferences' to customize the media files which you want to share:
Click 'Edit' menu on a PC or 'iTunes' menu on a Mac > Select 'Preferences' > Go to 'Sharing' tab > Select the files you want to share
Use Home Sharing to Stream iTunes Videos on Computer
Now you have completed the process of creating iTunes Home Sharing. To use the Home Sharing, you can go to another computer with same version iTunes. Take streaming iTunes videos for example, you can follow the steps to stream videos on your computer:
Launch iTunes > Click the media selection droplist from the top > You will see the Home Sharing which you have created > Find and stream the media files such as videos
You can even drag and drop the videos from the Home Sharing to transfer the videos to your own library too.
Part 2. Play iTunes Videos on iOS Devices via iTunes Home Sharing
Originally iTunes Home Sharing is only for computers. Now after iOS 4.3 update, you can stream content including iTunes music and videos on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple TV.
Stream Home Sharing Videos on iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch
The instruction is same for the iOS mobile devices, please refer to the following steps:
Power on the iOS mobile device > Go to settings > Head to the 'Video' app > Scroll down to find the 'Home Sharing' button> Login with the same Apple ID and password >Exit the settings and go back to the home screen > Open 'Video' app > You will find the 'Shared' tab menu > Click it and you will find the videos you want and click it to play
Stream Home Sharing Videos on Apple TV
The steps may vary on different models of Apple TVs. To find the iTunes Home Sharing option on the latest Apple TV 4th Generation, you can click Settings > Accounts > Home Sharing. For the previous models, you can click Settings > Computers. After that, you can follow the steps:
Click 'Turn on Home Sharing' > Log in with the same Apple ID and password > Then go back to the main menu > Select computers and choose a library to find the iTunes video files to play.
Part 3. Share iTunes Videos to Other Network Freely
As has been noted above, you can stream iTunes videos within Apple devices or players easily on the same wired router or WIFI network by using the iTunes Home Sharing.
However, that is not a 100% perfect solution. You have to keep the computers and iTunes on and make sure all the devices are logged on the same Apple ID, else the sharing process will be interrupted. In addition, you won't be able to share iTunes videos on other non-Apple devices or send any iTunes video to your friends because they are FairPlay DRM protected which limits them from sharing in public but stay on the Apple ecosystem only.
So is there another better way to bypass this issue? Of course, normally you just need to use an iTunes DRM Converter like DRmare M4V Converter to strike out the FairPlay DRM protection. By doing this, you will be able to use the iTunes episodes anywhere and share the iTunes videos to anyone remotely. Furthermore, this is a once and for all solution.
DRmare M4V Converter - Top-Notch iTunes DRM Breaker
- Get rid of DRM from iTunes movies, TV shows, music videos and so on
- Convert iTunes M4V videos to play on Android, Windows devices and players
- Retain original quality like audio tracks, subtitles, AC3 5.1 Dolby surround audio
- Run at a 30X faster speed with batch converting feature, save a lot of your time
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