Are my TV, iMac, and Apple TV compatible?

[srowndedbyh2o]

I spend far more time on the internet than watching tv so I was wanting to get rid of the extra cost of cable for the TV, and just keep the RR cable for the internet connection, but not sure if I can with my current tv. I had read somewhere that if you plug the cable supplying the internet connection into your tv, you can watch a few programs on the tv for free. A few news stations and maybe PBS would be enough. I was hoping to get other content to the tv with something like the Apple TV, however on the Apple site under “Apple TV: What you need” it states a wide screen tv. I have an old Sony Trinitron Wega 27” tv. Model #KV-27FS13. Is there no way to use this tv with the Apple TV? Also under “what you need” it mentions AirPort Extreme. Would I have to purchase that in addition to the Apple TV? My current internet connection is a Motorola Surfboard modem SB5100 plugged directly to my iMac via an Ethernet cable. Can’t I just turn on AirPort on my iMac to make the connection to the Apple TV?
I have done a lot of looking around on forums and I read about things like “QAM”, AVI, DiVX, HDD, Handbrake, Plex, HDMI, WiFi g, b, n, etc., etc. It’s all a bit confusing to to me. I just want to be able to turn on my tv and watch the news, Hulu, or YouTube. If I want to watch a movie I can use my DVD player. One of the reasons I’ve always used a Mac is because pretty much everything I’ve ever needed to do has been plug & play, drag & drop, point & click. It just does what I need to do, but this tv thing has me baffled. I don’t want to have to go out and by an Apple TV, and an AirPort Extreme, and a new TV, just to save money on the cable bill.

 

[ziggyonice]

Your television needs component cable connections (red, green, blue) to work with the Apple TV. There are some technical ways around this, but it doesn't really matter as yours appears to have these ports (at least, that's what Amazon tells me).

The Apple TV doesn't require an Airport unless you want to stream media wirelessly. If you want to do this without an Airport, it's possible by enabling Internet Sharing in the "Sharing" preference pane of System Preferences on your iMac. This will take the Ethernet connection your iMac receives and broadcast it wirelessly. Note that this isn't the strongest signal however, but it may work depending on how close the iMac is to the Apple TV.

As an alternative, you can just connect an Ethernet cable to the back of the Apple TV and transfer media that way. If you want to do it that way though, you'll need to get a network switch to split the Internet connection between your computer and the Apple TV. I'm not sure about getting local channels over the Internet, so I can't help you there... Maybe an old antenna? (With a digital converter box, of course! )

 

[srowndedbyh2o]

Thanks for the response ziggyonice!
As far as connecting an Ethernet cable to the Apple TV, I assume I would have the Ethernet cable coming out of my modem going to the switch, and then from the switch one cable going to my iMac and another cable to the Apple TV? Would we be able to use the Apple TV and the iMac at the same time, independently? That is, one person on the iMac surfing the web, while another person is watching something different, say Hulu, on the TV using the Apple TV?