Apple TV and AirDisk

[kolax]

I am saving up my pennies to buy an Apple TV.

160GB is still tiny for the amount of TV Shows and Films I have (I have 2 other flat mates and together we have a ridiculous amount of DVD's). My MacBook Pro hard drive is pretty full from 60GB's worth of music and over 3GB's worth of photos, as well as all the other crap I have on it.

This leads me to ask this question - what is the performance like if I had all my movies and TV shows on my external hard drive plugged into my Airport Extreme?

I've had a similar setup using Front Row and AirDisk (just made a shortcut to my external drive in my Movies folder) and occasionally the media would stutter. Note I haven't tried this since 10.5.0 because the performance was crap.

Would using Apple TV provide better performance in terms of buffering to prevent things like that? Also, would streaming HD video in .mp4 format work smoothly over AirDisk?

Anyone got that as a setup?

 

[MikieMikie]

Would using Apple TV provide better performance in terms of buffering to prevent things like that?

Not really. Streaming is... well, dependent on a lot of external factors.

Also, would streaming HD video in .mp4 format work smoothly over AirDisk?

Anyone got that as a setup?

Yep. I have that setup. BUT, be aware I am running an AEBS, "n" speeds, with no one else on the (secure) network.

My iMac, the AEBS and the AppleTV are all "n" class. When my wife opens here Powerbook, we all drop to "g."

If your roomies are on the network you're trying to stream from, they're eating bandwidth, and in streaming, bandwidth is everything.

For a "g" network, you might want to consider plugging your external into your computer and forgetting the AirDisk. Streaming from an AirDisk requires a few round trips, as you can well imagine. My AirDisk has been nothing but a pain. Disappears at the oddest times.

 

[bacaramac]

It would work great if you can actually get your air disk to work on the Exteme. That is if your running Leopard.

I stream on G no issues since my iPhone is being used for surfing web when I am in the family room (iPhone only runs on G so it drops me to G speeds for entire network).

 

[kolax]

Okay - shame about the G, my flat mates laptop's will be G.

I noticed the Apple TV has an ethernet port on it - if I connected the Apple TV by ethernet to my Airport Extreme (n) would the performance be any better?

Does my iTunes need to be running in order for Apple TV to work with AirDisk?

 

[bacaramac]

Okay - shame about the G, my flat mates laptop's will be G.

I noticed the Apple TV has an ethernet port on it - if I connected the Apple TV by ethernet to my Airport Extreme (n) would the performance be any better?

Does my iTunes need to be running in order for Apple TV to work with AirDisk?

Yes, as long as you have a good connection. Atleast for now, wired is faster then wireless for the majority.

Again, I do not notice any delay or streaming issues even on G. My router is only a room away and I could see issues with wireless at further distances. If you have the option to go wired, do it, just waiting for the new house to have full structured wiring throughout on my setup.

EDIT: Yes you need iTunes open to use Airdisk. Unless there is some hack out there.

 

[MikieMikie]

I never had a problem when I was streaming with g, but I only wanted to warn you that if your flatmates are on the network while you are trying to stream, and if you are using wireless to go from the Airdisk to the computer to the basestation to the AppletV, that's a lot of back and forth, especially when others are on the net.

I agree with the others who say wired is far better than wireless.

 

[MikieMikie]

It would work great if you can actually get your air disk to work on the Exteme. That is if your running Leopard.

I stream on G no issues since my iPhone is being used for surfing web when I am in the family room (iPhone only runs on G so it drops me to G speeds for entire network).

Tell me about it. I have never, since starting to use Apple products decades ago, have I been so tormented by a product as I am by this AirDisk in Leopard.

I was hoping 10.5.2 would have fixed it, but, no.

 

[kolax]

Ah that's good.

You mean streaming off the AirDisk as well or just browsing the net in general?

 

[MikieMikie]

Ah that's good.

You mean streaming off the AirDisk as well or just browsing the net in general?

Are you asking me something? I cannot parse your question. I apologize.

 

[kolax]

Are you asking me something? I cannot parse your question. I apologize.

Sorry - when you said the streaming would be bad if my flatmates were on the net at the same time, do you mean if they are accessing the AirDisk at the same time or just browsing net in general?

 

[MikieMikie]

Sorry - when you said the streaming would be bad if my flatmates were on the net at the same time, do you mean if they are accessing the AirDisk at the same time or just browsing net in general?

Got it. Sorry for my denseness and inability to figure out what you were asking.

I meant that any wireless router has a limited amount of bandwidth and, if your flatmates were on the net, using your router's bandwidth, streaming may become an issue.

If you decide to do the Airdisk route, you should look for a USB 2.0 drive, since speed is an issue with all the round trips, and your would want to remove the Airdisk's speed as an issue.

 

[kolax]

Cool, think I'm going to place an order for Apple TV next week. I'm interested to find out if plugging in Apple TV by the LAN cable would provide better performance when others were on the net.

Just a final question, can you choose the source for Apple TV? Like, if I was out with my laptop and my flatmates want to watch something, if they had the same videos in iTunes can they just change the source and away they go?