Storage?

[mkaiser1]

Hello all,

This is only my second post (no-one replied to my first ) so please be nice to me

I'm struggling to get my head around why the Apple TV needs storage. I know that 40 gb is not an awful lot nowadays, but if it will push everything I download to my iMac why does it need storage at all? I understand that it can be used as a stand alone device, but realistically most people will also have a PC/Mac which they will use as the source for all of their videos, photos and music.

I really want to buy one of these, just a little peeved they don't do a cheaper 5gb/10 gb version.

 

[tersono]

Reducing the disk size would not necessarily reduce retail price as the cost of a 40gb drive at manufacturer level these days is incredibly low.

The thing to bear in mind is that the ATV is designed to download music and video without use of a computer - this wouldn't be practical with a very small drive.

Personally, I wish they'd produce an ATV with 500Gb or 1Tb - would be very useful as primary storage for my music library.

 

[GoCubsGo]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/3A109a Safari/419.3)

You are correct but also know rentals can only be stored on your aTV. With that I now decided it had to be the larger drive. I may never rent, but I also said I'd never buy a Mac.

 

[mkaiser1]

Interesting point...and thanks for the reply.

It also begs the following Q though:

Why should a buy an TV as opposed to a mini mac with a bluetooth mouse? Surely, I could use the mouse from my sofa to access the web (including YouTube) and download music and films from iTunes?

 

[NightStorm]

Interesting point...and thanks for the reply.

It also begs the following Q though:

Why should a buy an TV as opposed to a mini mac with a bluetooth mouse? Surely, I could use the mouse from my sofa to access the web (including YouTube) and download music and films from iTunes?

Because you won't get the shiny new interface, and while the method you mentioned may work for you, it isn't a simple solution for those who want an easy-to-use box.

Before this announcement, I saw the 40GB hard drive as a waste of a drive as I streamed everything to it via my iMac. However, with the rentals and iTunes Store coming in this update, it finally has a use.

 

[LouisBlack]

Why should a buy an TV as opposed to a mini mac with a bluetooth mouse? Surely, I could use the mouse from my sofa to access the web (including YouTube) and download music and films from iTunes?

HD rentals aren't available for Macs, only the TV. I always thought a Mini would be a lot better as a media centre/file server but as it lacks this functionality now, the TV is looking much better.

 

[jwa898]

would be very useful as primary storage for my music library.

Can you use it as a primary music library and then stream it to your pc?

 

[Scarpad]

Yeah 40gb is plenty big for a rental or two, all I'd be doing, then you would watch it and delete