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160 Rules!

Well, I have a 160 and it's nowhere near full.

I stream movies & TV.

But...
I have a ton of photos, music and podcasts that live on it. I wanted room for expansion.
 
I bought the 160 gig model. Streaming is great, but I prefer to use/think of :apple:TV as a box that doesn't need to talk to computers to do its thing, so the extra storage made sense to me.
 
Both of mine are 40GB, since I'm streaming from a 1.5TB library. If there was such a thing as a 4Gb flash-based version then I'd have probably opted for that instead, for minimal heat production.
 
Different Networks

Lots of questions have popped up about just about everything. I try and answer a few here.

The AppleTV can be used for music only, but buy an Express if that's all you need.

The Express can be used to extend a network from an Airport Extreme and some third party routers, the AppleTV can not.

The Airport Extreme and Time Capsule support dual mode wireless, N & G or N & B or just N. I run my Extreme as N & G for the Apple TV, Macbook, Wii, iPhone, iBook. Mixed mode devices. Works great.

I have not streamed to the AppleTV with anything but N; sorry. But N works fabulous. Think about it for a second, G is 54Mb per second, faster then most internet connections I know of, by which you stream most/allot of content without interruption. Without doing calculations on video data rates, I think G will be fast enough.

Yes AppleTV supports dolby digital on the optical out. Sweet. The analog out does encode 5.1 Surround. All active all the time.

Personal Opinion: As a Movie Rental device, this is going to be sweet (any day now).

As a media hub, it is sweet.

I serve my currently 400Gb of music and video from a hardwired G4 Mac Mini, although when I had is wireless, it still worked just fine.

Enjoy

I currently only use Airport express as a desination for my speakers -- i guess i will wait until the update rolls out so people can give me the scoop -- i will probably use the airport express as a network extender (if you can do that in a non-apple router environment - don't think you can) after i get the appletv

if i stream over G is that going to suck with video? -- audio i know is fine

another question -- if i hook up my appleTV through HDMI and send my tv audio to my receiver through my optical out, will it play dolby digital? i have an issue with my dvd player that doesn't want to play dolby digital signals from the DVD (HDMI)-> TV (optical)-> receiver. just curious
 
I got the 160GB :apple:tv because I didn't want to leave a computer turned on at all times just to be able to watch movies.

I keep a fair number of movies synced -- including all of the kids movies -- its more convenient that way. And its especially handy if you want to take movies over to someone else's house.

BTW, its really not an either/or proposition, you can always stream movies from other computers if you want. And it'll be nice to have the space for storing up unwatched movie rentals when the Take2 software gets released (still waiting, Steve!).
 
Easy answer

I got the 40gb because I ordered an Apple TV within 1.5 week it was annouced! :(

I would've prefered to get an 160gb for today's current prices. I would have gladly paid $700 for AppleTV/Blu-ray 1080p Combo System with 120gb!
 
The Airport Extreme and Time Capsule support dual mode wireless, N & G or N & B or just N. I run my Extreme as N & G for the Apple TV, Macbook, Wii, iPhone, iBook. Mixed mode devices. Works great.

Wait--so Airport Extreme/Time Capsule has the ability to produce two signals--one for N and another for G? Does this mean I could connect one set of wireless items to a "G" signal and connect another set to an "N" signal and still get the speeds of an 'N' network for the 'N' items?
 
Wait--so Airport Extreme/Time Capsule has the ability to produce two signals--one for N and another for G? Does this mean I could connect one set of wireless items to a "G" signal and connect another set to an "N" signal and still get the speeds of an 'N' network for the 'N' items?

No, it will put out N and G on the same wireless signal making the N signal slower than it is intended but its still faster than G but not as fast as a N only network.

This PDF from Apple has a ton of info on set ups, its easy to read and I highly recommend it when figuring out what you want:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Designing_AirPort_Networks_Using_AirPort_Utility.pdf
 
I purchased mine primarily for the movie rental function, as as a simple stream from my home iMac, so the 40 gig sufficed for me perfectly.
 
I'm really mad at myself for bypassing the AppleTV. About 6-9 months ago I bought another kind of device to connect to the TV, and I did so for multiple reasons that I thought were justified at the time:

1) Able to play more than just iTunes compatibles files (ie, AVI files, etc.)
2) Active USB port on the back
3) Slightly cheaper at the time than the 1st gen AppleTV

However, now that I've switched to Mac I wish I'd just paid for the AppleTV and taken the time to convert all my videos to mp4. I have hundreds of gigabytes of videos, so it's taking quite a while to convert and tag them all, but it'll be worth it when I someday get the money to replace my ugly non-working box.

The whole point of this was that mine has never successfully streamed and I worry about trying to stream over G with the AppleTV. I usually get about two minutes into the movie and then the connection times out and it drops. It's infuriating. If it weren't for the USB port on the back where I can hook up a drive directly with the videos, I'd toss the thing.

I should've trusted Apple. :(
 
To everyone thinking about getting :apple:TV DON'T it's a waste of money.

I to was thinking of getting one but i have to sync to my Mac Pro and i can't store the Movies on The :apple:TV only which is what i wanted to do (Not have them on my Mac Pro as well) but (If your into just streaming then this is right for you).

I have instead opted for a slightly more expensive option the Mac Mini (Waiting for Update) and a 5TB NAS System as i have alot of 720p/1080p HD Rips and TV Shows at 1.2GB in MKV and a Few 1080p Divx HD (750MB). All of the formats i have wouldn't play on :apple:TV anyways.

I have Transcoded some and streamed on my uncles :apple:TV seems great but if you have a large library and don't have 'N' Wireless it going to lag alot which is a bummer for lots of people i know.

Do your self's a favor and go for the HTPC option with NAS System much better in my opinion.

Just My 2¢

Northy124
 
To everyone thinking about getting :apple:TV DON'T it's a waste of money.

I to was thinking of getting one but i have to sync to my Mac Pro and i can't store the Movies on The :apple:TV which is what i wanted to do (If your into just streaming then this is right for you)....

Northy124

Just to clarify (and forgive me because I'm asking myself the same question as the thread starter)... you're saying you CAN'T sync movies on the Apple TV? Or you choose NOT to? I ask because I'm looking at the manual and it seems to me that you can. In fact it's the first on the priority list. Just want to be sure, before I make this purchase.

rjf
 
No, it will put out N and G on the same wireless signal making the N signal slower than it is intended but its still faster than G but not as fast as a N only network.

This PDF from Apple has a ton of info on set ups, its easy to read and I highly recommend it when figuring out what you want:

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Designing_AirPort_Networks_Using_AirPort_Utility.pdf

Well there you go, I've been streaming over N at about G speed with no problems at all (This includes HD VideoCast content).

Also keep in mind that the :apple:TV has an Ehternet port on it for a hardwired connection if you sync (not stream) a lot of content between a media server and it.

Have fun, it's been great thus far.
 
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