New AppleTV & NAS ...

Question

New AppleTV & NAS ...

Ignoring the movie rental aspects, would I be right in believing the new AppleTV is essentially an Airport Express with video, up to 720p, that feeds off other devices on the network - computers, NAS, etc ... so don't have to rent, could load own copies onto NAS (*) and use the new AppleTV to watch them ... ???

(*) perhaps bought with the cost-saving the new one brings ...

Message was edited by: Christopher John Hunter

Posted on Sep 5, 2010 5:02 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2010 5:17 AM in response to Christopher John Hunter

I think it's a little more than your comparison with an Airport Express, however yes you can view your own movies from an external/network drive assuming the content on that drive is referenced through iTunes on a mac/pc.

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Answer 2

Sep 5, 2010 5:58 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Thanks, good .... then maybe people who want-to could get-back what they lose by moving from old to new AppleTV ?

Yep, it looks clearly to have a lot more processing power than 'Express - presumably that's to cope with the the download & playing process as seamlessly as possible ... ?

'wonder if there's a way of including my wife's large DVD collection in iTunes, without having to load it onto a HD (computer and/or NAS) - it would be handy to have it indexed with everything else & no hardship to load the particular one into a DVD drive when wanted to-view, via new AppleTV ... ?

Message was edited by: Christopher John Hunter

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Answer 3

Sep 5, 2010 5:58 AM in response to Christopher John Hunter

DVD's cannot be viewed on the tv. Home made DVD's and other non commercial DVD's can be converted to an tv compatible format and added to your external/network drive via iTunes for use with the tv.

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Answer 4

Sep 5, 2010 5:59 AM in response to Winston Churchill

ah, thanks again ... shame !

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Answer 5

Sep 6, 2010 6:36 AM in response to Winston Churchill

I am also interested in using the new ATV in this way with a NAS drive. Would the computer need to be switched on with itunes running for ATV to access the itunes media library stored on the NAS drive?

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Answer 6

Jolly Giant

Level 7

25,464 points

Sep 6, 2010 7:14 AM in response to Stephen B

Stephen B wrote:
Would the computer need to be switched on with itunes running for ATV to access the itunes media library stored on the NAS drive?

as far as anybody can tell, yes.

@ least for the moment ...

J GG

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Answer 7

Sep 12, 2010 3:41 AM in response to Jolly Giant

Well, I for one really hope a NAS solution with the new AppleTV will work. Having to leave a computer running iTunes for AppleTV (old or new one) is just not 2010.

I am willing to buy the new AppleTV, sometime in 2011, if that issue has been sorted and confirmed to be working. After so much dropped connections (my AppleTV needs to have the power plug pulled and put back in once a day, it just disappears over night and won't show up in iTunes after a computer has been shut off for any number of hours.

We're buying a SONOS system now for the Music part, which remains the most important bit. For video, I can live with re-plugging the silly little box (old AppleTV), but it also remains the only Apple product I tell my friends not to get. Hope the new black version does it all so much better. And can go straight to a NAS storage (incl. VIDEO!) soon.

Message was edited by: JonasLondon

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Answer 8

Sep 12, 2010 4:16 AM in response to JonasLondon

interesting - giving Apple feedback here :

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

might help it to happen !

we're looking to get things around the house, too, audio & video - EyeTv working over WiFi gets TV (live & recorded) around fairly well (to laptops & iPod touch & iPhones) ... integration of iTunes & EyeTV would enable more, and if iTunes could handle DVDs too, and iPods had WiFi, and they could all share what they're holding, we'd almost be there !

why Sonos, rather than Squeezebox, or Airport Express etc (just currious) ?

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Answer 9

pmcd

Level 1

4 points

Nov 1, 2010 3:42 AM in response to JonasLondon

I don't see why a NAS would be any better than a Mini or some other low powered computer running iTunes. Even if you have several NAS systems they can all be funneled through the Mac/PC which is running iTunes and then accessed by the ATV's.
My Mini probably uses less energy than my Drobo...

philip

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Answer 10

Nov 6, 2010 3:40 PM in response to pmcd

It's really just a matter of choice. I also agree that this is a huge design flaw in ATV. All my media on a NAS and I would love to be able to access it without a computer running when I'm watching TV. I give apple a TV a 6 out of 10 just for that reason. Luckily ATV has been jailbroken and I am quite sure there are thousands of people who have the same issue so I expect it to be resolved. I'm actually buying a Google TV because of it, and comparing the two and deciding which goes in my main entertainment center and which ends up where ever else. I wouldn't have thought of doing that if it had seen my NAS out of the box.

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