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Maybe a silly question:, can Apple TV be a router too?
- Thread starter mugwump
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Any idea if the ATV would work the other way as a router? Connect wirelessly and use its ethernet port to connect to something else? Yeah, I know, a stretch even thinking this might work, but it would be nice. 
I keep my Home Theater components isolated to one "insured" Monster Cable power/connection source in case there is a powerout or lightning strike, otherwise I could run an ethernet cable direct. The Monster Cable box doesn't filter/protect ethernet.
I keep my Home Theater components isolated to one "insured" Monster Cable power/connection source in case there is a powerout or lightning strike, otherwise I could run an ethernet cable direct. The Monster Cable box doesn't filter/protect ethernet.
Think of the 
TV as a small computer with a special video card capable of playing HD content. It can't act as a router any more than your Mini can.
TV as a small computer with a special video card capable of playing HD content. It can't act as a router any more than your Mini can.
Think of the
A Mini actually can act as a router.
If wireless came into a mini it can share that internet across its ethernet port and vice versa, if connected via ethernet it can share its internet wirelessly.
But that would still be a no on the Apple TV.
Stampyhead: a Mac mini can share its Ethernet connection wirelessly, so it's not that far of a stretch to think that the TV could do the same under your school of thought.
mugwump: the closest you could get is putting an AirPort base station on top of your TV and then connecting the TV to the base station with an ethernet cable.
mugwump: the closest you could get is putting an AirPort base station on top of your TV and then connecting the TV to the base station with an ethernet cable.
Yes, you're both right. I guess the point I was trying to make is that the OP seemed to be comparing the
TV to an Airport Extreme in his mind whereas it would make more sense to compare it to a Mini. So I guess mine was a bad analogy.Just to clarify...
So I can't use the ethernet port on theTV to connect my 360 to my network like I can with my Airport Expres? That's kinda lame.
So I can't use the ethernet port on the
TV to connect my 360 to my network like I can with my Airport Expres? That's kinda lame.
So I can't use the ethernet port on the
Why is it lame? The ATV is an endpoint of an A/V distribution chain.
Lame probably wasn't the best word, but still, its kind of annoying to me. I wanted to replace my airport express behind the TV with the
TV and now I have both back there. I understand that its an endpoint, but my little airport express can function both as an endpoint and as a bridge. It's got audio out and an ethernet port, which sounds a lot to me like an TV without video output. All I'm saying is that it connects to me wireless network with the faster 802.11n speed, and it has an ethernet port. Just seems lame that the ethernet port on my Express can do it, but my TV can't. One last question though, regarding the symbol above the ethernet port on the
TV, what does that symbol mean. Based on the symbols on the AEBS, I assumed that symbol meant it could share an internet connect, while the symbol above the plug for the internet on the AEBS meant you could only input an internet connection on that port. I'm posting picture below for reference. Apparently I misunderstood the symbols, but can someone clarify? The same image appears above the ethernet port on the AE.
It's the same symbol as the AEBS LAN port. If you are using the AEBS as a router, your modem would go into the WAN port. The other ports are just a hub off the router.
edit: The Express only has one port, but since it can be used as either a router or a bridge, it makes sense to use their LAN symbol.
edit: The Express only has one port, but since it can be used as either a router or a bridge, it makes sense to use their LAN symbol.
No, it is lame.
>Why is it lame? The ATV is an endpoint of an A/V distribution chain.
It is completely lame that AppleTV can't be a router because all the AppleTV is, other than lacking an optical drive, is a Mac Mini with a slower processor and different A/V ports. Anything a mini can do, the AppleTV can do unless artificially crippled by Apple to not cut into other sales.
With a mini you can plug your cable/DSL modem into its ethernet port and share the connection wirelessly. Hardware-wise the AppleTV is certainly capable of doing the same thing, and it would be pretty damned neat if it did because it is usually going to be located right next to the cable hookup. But Apple doesn't want to lose a possible Airport sale, so the internet sharing functionality is removed the version of OS X shipped with the AppleTV. Just like Apple makes it hard to play AVIs over a SAMBA mount--why make it easy to play the most-downloaded format when you can make buying from iTunes the easiest route?
>Why is it lame? The ATV is an endpoint of an A/V distribution chain.
It is completely lame that AppleTV can't be a router because all the AppleTV is, other than lacking an optical drive, is a Mac Mini with a slower processor and different A/V ports. Anything a mini can do, the AppleTV can do unless artificially crippled by Apple to not cut into other sales.
With a mini you can plug your cable/DSL modem into its ethernet port and share the connection wirelessly. Hardware-wise the AppleTV is certainly capable of doing the same thing, and it would be pretty damned neat if it did because it is usually going to be located right next to the cable hookup. But Apple doesn't want to lose a possible Airport sale, so the internet sharing functionality is removed the version of OS X shipped with the AppleTV. Just like Apple makes it hard to play AVIs over a SAMBA mount--why make it easy to play the most-downloaded format when you can make buying from iTunes the easiest route?
Actually, it doesn't require much processing power AT ALL for a computer to bridge 2 ethernet networks. In a previous life I once configured a PC 8088 to do this and it bridged 10Mbps beautifully. Today's machines can easily do hundreds of Mbps and still have ample time to spare for other tasks.
On another topic, isn't Airplay just the video version of Airtunes? Hence aTV could be the new Airport Express.
On another topic, isn't Airplay just the video version of Airtunes? Hence aTV could be the new Airport Express.
Holy resurrected threads batman.
this thread is over 4 years old, long before the aTV 2 came out.
not really,
airtunes re-encodes the audio as apple lossless and sends it over the network.
airplay sends the video file to be played locally.
people had video cheats working long before audio, even though audio had been out for several years. Someone finally broke into an express last april, and got the key that the express uses to authenticate itself for airtunes.
It may be an old thread, but it's a good question. It'd be interesting if the ATV could serve as a router - I wonder if that would help reduce the latency a little with Airplay gaming.