Completely confused of AppleTV, help needed please

[Mirai 11]

Right, so im about to buy a 40gb model, and ive got an iMac hooked up to Time Capsule.
Yes, theres a million others of the subject, but they do make me very confused, so i just want to make sure:

I need to use an external hard drive for it, 1TB im thinkin, so can i use a patch to enable the USB port,, hook it to the hard drive, and make the tv think that the storage is the external hard drive, not the one inside, and not one thats on a network?

or, is there no chance of that, and do i have to hook the 1TB HDD to Time Capsule, leave that on all the time for the tv to just stream it?

I dont want to use some other interface like boxee or anything else, if i bought an apple product i want to use the apple interface, not something else, otherwise as far as im concerned, im buying a hard drive with a HDMI port.

So if anyone can really help me on this, i'd appeciate it.

 

[geoffreak]

You cannot stream video directly from a TC to a TV without a computer. If you set the iTunes library on the computer to use the TC's HDD as storage, when the TV streams from the computer's iTunes library, it will be streaming from the TC. You must have the computer on for this to work.

 

[Mirai 11]

Right, i didnt type that bit, whoops.
I mean iTunes is on the iMac connected to the Time Capsule, so i can have the apple tv connect to it and have the external drive of all the shows etc on that, which is connected to the Time Capsule by the ethernet port.

 

[geoffreak]

Again, it will work as I explained above

 

[Mirai 11]

ok, thats alrite then lol.
But will that mean that i cant use the TC as backup? only storage? or can i just use the other method i said of? enabling the USB port on it and connecting the eternal HDD like that?

 

[tom1971]

I need to use an external hard drive for it, 1TB im thinkin, so can i use a patch to enable the USB port,, hook it to the hard drive, and make the tv think that the storage is the external hard drive, not the one inside, and not one thats on a network?

Yes, you can do that - yo can use only the external hd to be synced with your itunes library

 

[Mirai 11]

ok thats fine, so ive got questions:
Could i copy the shows and movies ive got now thats on the mac, onto another hard drive connected to the imac, and have a kind of movie/tv show server there to sync back and forth to the appletv?

This, http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/07/28/usb-patch-released-hallelujah/ can it still work on the latest update of 2.4 and is there an easier way than going into terminal?

and if i do get the external drive working, lets say i buy a tv show or rent a movie off appletv, will there be no problem in syncing that back to the imac?

many thanks

 

[tom1971]

Could i copy the shows and movies ive got now thats on the mac, onto another hard drive connected to the imac, and have a kind of movie/tv show server there to sync back and forth to the appletv?

This would be more or less the iTunes functionality. You can copy your movies to the external hd on your aTV, but there is no sync with any other source, unless you use the external hd as primary target for itunes synchronization. However then you loose the ability to play native mp3, avi etc. files and you would have to manage them through itunes

This, http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/07/28/usb-patch-released-hallelujah/ can it still work on the latest update of 2.4 and is there an easier way than going into terminal?

Here is a solution that allows the installation of the USB patch with the click of the remote control, no Terminal required.

and if i do get the external drive working, lets say i buy a tv show or rent a movie off appletv, will there be no problem in syncing that back to the imac?

This would be handled via iTunes integration, which will be untouched by the USB patch- so, yes it would work.

 

[Shuttleworth]

TV works perfectly streaming from iTunes with a library stored either internally on your iMac, or on a USB drive attached to your iMac or your Time Capsule, that's what it's designed to do. If you're not interested in any of the other benefits of a hacked TV then streaming is the best option for you.

You can have storage and TM on the TC, you don't have to save it for TM only. If you've got a 1TB TC and say 100GB of TM backup, you've got plenty of space at the moment to put your iTunes library folder on, say up to 800GB. Then you can just stream to the TV via iTunes on the iMac.

Once your iTunes library starts to get too big, you can move it onto an external USB drive which can either be attached to the TC or directly to the iMac (directly will reduce lag when starting a film on the TV)

This is a handy article for moving your iTunes Library to a new drive:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/