For those who own a 40GB model...

I bought the 40gb version and it was fine when I just had the music on it but when I started loading movies and TV shows it filled up quick. If you are going to stream more than store in the ATV you should be fine. I upgraded the hard drive in mine to 160gb myself (it wasn't too difficult) so if you discover you need more space later you can upgrade and maybe even do so for less then the $100 price difference.

Ditto, I got a great deal on a 40GB tv, and at first, with music, podcasts, and pictures the storage space was adequate. Then came the movies...

I suppose it works out now though. We treat videos as disposable; watch one a few times then take it off the tv's hard drive. We can always stream it from the Macs hard drive with an occasional frame drop or hiccup (though we are running 802.11n and g). I will tell you the 160GB model is mighty attractive at the new price point! Definitely will be getting the larger of the sizes once a version 2.0 is released.

So to sum up answers to your questions:

1.Yes, I kinda regret not getting the 160GB, although, really, shuffling around movies isn't that much a hassle. But now with the new update coming...

2.Yes, you set up what you want synced to your tv, that is what is on your HD. You'll obviously have better performance video wise with that content. Then you can switch back and forth within the UI to what source you want to view content from (ie. the tv HD, your Mac/PC, or the Macbook upstairs). This is how I listen to my music/podcasts and watch pictures/video podcasts (via streaming).

3. Really it all depends on your network. I am currently running a Netgear 802.11n router, which drops to g when every the ol' Powerbook is on. When it is in g, performance is fine, YouTube videos load fast, and movies are great. Like I said earlier, theres the occasional hiccup, but it's really depended on the network at the time.

Lastly, with the new update coming, and the ability to rent movies and purchase music from the tv, I can see where the latter model would come in handy. =)

Hope this helps.

Buy the bigger version, in 1 or 2 years you will need more space.

I buy the 30GB ( first model ) and you can't have a lot of movies stored on the hard drive.

Hi, you don't need to have anything on your ATV to view/listen, you can just go into your settings and connect to your iTunes on another mac. I only sync the new films/music i haven't seen and if i want to see it again i connect to my main mac. The ATV does fill up sometimes but then i just need to see some more and it empties. My suggestion is save the money on the ATV and buy a very big HD to use as your iTunes disc.

hope this helps,
marc

Everyone's requirements will be different, I have 5 (40 GB) tv's with no more than 6 GB of photos and 400 MB of audio on each. Streaming works just fine for me, I have mine connected using ethernet (x2), 802.11g (x2) and 802.11n.

I have 2 apple TVs. I have never used more than 2 GBs space for photos for the screen saver. I stream the rest. I have over 108,000 songs, 2400 Music Videos and 40 or so movies. Some on this forum mentioned using Apple TVs as backup. I think if this materializes that would be justification for a bigger HDrive. One data point......

Hi,

I bought the 40 gb when it first came out. I only have my photos on the apple tv hard drive and stream everything from my library on my iMac. In my experience streaming is much more reliable and faster if you have an ethernet connection to both your iTunes Server (my iMac) and the Apple TV. I recently upgraded my wireless network from G to N and figured I would convert the AppleTv and the Imac to wireless but the wired ethernet connection is still faster and much more reliable even over the N connection. So as long as you Wire and Stream the 40GB will be just fine. No regrets for me...

and I also have a huge iTunes library (about 300GB) with about 90 movies and a ton of other video content as well. My kids (7 and 8) use it to watch movies, videos, youtube stuff and it is very kid friendly.. The streaming doesn't effect their experience at all...