Apple TV - talk to me

[The Doc]

Im thinking of buying apple tv, can you plug a hard drive into it and stream MP3 music through it?

[bobotheclown]

if that's all you want to do then Airport Express might be an alternative. Plug it in the wall. Plug in an audio cable from airport express to your hifi and then you can stream music from your Mac via itunes to your hi fi.

[DubFan]

With playing music through the AirPort express, you have to control the music from your computer (with iTunes) with Apple TV you control it with a remote on your TV screen, and I think it will play music from your iTunes library on your computer, but your computer has to be on and no you can't plug a hard drive into it. It's quite limited in that respect.

If you want that function, you're better off with a Boxee.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-Boxee-Digital-Media-Player/dp/B0043EV3MS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_T1?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3TFGMH13KSBGY&colid=IFHX74AZZXGB

[Kerrse]

I have 2 Apple TV's both jailbroken,I have one in my living room & one on my kitchen. I use them for streaming music from my computer controlling them via my iphone. I also use them for watching films on my TV's sent from my computer via Apple TV.

I think they are a great bit of kit for the money, if you don't want to jailbreak them they are still worth it as you can now mirror & airplay your Ipad 2 

[DubFan]

But they are still limited in that you can't store anything on them and you can't plug a hard drive into them. Meaning you either have to be watching online content (is there an iPlayer app for Apple TV?) or have your computer on and watch something stored on it.

[Kerrse]

But they are still limited in that you can't store anything on them and you can't plug a hard drive into them. Meaning you either have to be watching online content (is there an iPlayer app for Apple TV?) or have your computer on and watch something stored on it.

They got rid of the storage capability on the ATV2 because it doesn't need storage, who plugs anything into anything nowadays, everything is done wirelessly. You either run it from your computer, ipad or if you want it from a storage device you can use a NAS. I usually run mine from my computer but that doesn't bother me as thats where i have all my films & music stored plus when it's running via my computer its virtually on stand by so using minimal power.

[Jay]

Apple are taking a step backwards by NEEDING a PC to be on, flash storage is cheap enough should have kept onboard storage even if it were only 64Gb to keep the size of the unit down. Lame.

Boxee box FTW, installed Boxee on my PC and used it for a while as a media centre, very good with lots of free media and played all my films and TV shows I have.

[Kerrse]

Apple are taking a step backwards by NEEDING a PC to be on, flash storage is cheap enough should have kept onboard storage even if it were only 64Gb to keep the size of the unit down. Lame.

Boxee box FTW, installed Boxee on my PC and used it for a while as a media centre, very good with lots of free media and played all my films and TV shows I have.

In your opinion i think it's a step forward remember it can also access anything you have saved in the cloud. Having your computer running is hardly an issue when watching a flim my imac virtually shuts down you can't hear it running or see it running.

I would find it a pain downloading flims onto my computer then tranferring them to the apple tv, whats the point when i can just play them from where they are stored. If i wanted to store stuff on it i would have got a mac mini 

[DubFan]

Fair enough if you have stuff in "the cloud", but what if you're internet connection goes down, or your connection speed has slowed down because it's a busy evening? Then you just have to wait every so often while it buffers the rest of the film.
The majority of broadband users in the UK still don't have enough speed to watch HD over the internet. (Although this is changing)
Ok, so lots of people use WiFi and don't want wires around the place, but your AppleTV has to be physically wired to the TV, so what's wrong with having another cable connecting it to some storage. Besides WiFi is still not 100% reliable, why do you think industry still use Cat5e/6 ?
I've had plenty of connections dropped or transfers fail due to Wifi.

The current Apple TV is basically an iPhone4 in a small box, so why not include the iPhone's storage?

Also what about content in other formats? Files off your camcorder or divx content?

[Kerrse]

Fair enough if you have stuff in "the cloud", but what if you're internet connection goes down, or your connection speed has slowed down because it's a busy evening? Then you just have to wait every so often while it buffers the rest of the film.
The majority of broadband users in the UK still don't have enough speed to watch HD over the internet. (Although this is changing)
Ok, so lots of people use WiFi and don't want wires around the place, but your AppleTV has to be physically wired to the TV, so what's wrong with having another cable connecting it to some storage. Besides WiFi is still not 100% reliable, why do you think industry still use Cat5e/6 ?
I've had plenty of connections dropped or transfers fail due to Wifi.

The current Apple TV is basically an iPhone4 in a small box, so why not include the iPhone's storage?

Also what about content in other formats? Files off your camcorder or divx content?

I was just saying that is why they have done it linked to the cloud, forward thinking that eventually we will all have high speed internet & good wifi although by then the new ATV's will be out i think which everyone guesses will be built into TV's like freeview

As i said mine are jailbroken using Seasonpass & running atv flash i can play any files in any format on mine,  i do actually have one plugged into the router as the router is right by my living room tv but the one in the bedroom runs on wifi & never drops the connection when watching films