MacDuff70
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Apple TV with eMac?

Hello everyone,

 

We have an ancient 20" Philips cathode that is about to bite the dust, and it looks like we will be taking the plunge into HD TV in the next year or so.  We do not have cable, only rabbit ears and a digital convertor which works well for the limited amount we watch.

 

My wife mentioned trying out Netflix and I've thought about purchasing both MLB and NBA TV, but we would rather watch them on the TV than the eMac.  How well would a system like Apple TV/Roqu/etc. work with our setup:

 

eMac (ATI), PPC 4,4, 512MB RAM (upgrading to 1GB shortly), OSX 10.4.11

 

Our ISP is Verizon and it's their next-up-from-the-bottom speed offering (somewhere around 1.5MB/sec).  I know very little about wireless networking and these types of new TV systems.  We're casual Mac users and not hardcore Appleheads, though we won't ever be buying a PC again .  I would guess that the speed of the internet connection is probably more important than the Mac, but again I'm not very tech savvy.

 

Any help is appreciated.

AppleTV 2

Posted on Jul 9, 2011 6:19 PM

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MacDuff70

Q: Apple TV with eMac?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Jul 9, 2011 7:22 PM in response to MacDuff70
    Level 8 (35,141 points)
    iPad
    Jul 9, 2011 7:22 PM in response to MacDuff70

    The current Apple TV specs say it requires iTunes 10.2 or higher; all the iTunes 10.x versions want Mac OS 10.5 or 10.6. If your eMac has a 1ghz processor, you could install 10.5 (but not 10.6), but the upgrade costs US$130.

     

    Also older 4,4 eMacs may lack the video horspower you need for decent playback rates. So many video codecs are no longer optimized for the Power PC processors used in eMacs that I worry that the output could look like a PowerPoint presentaion at times.

     

    I feel the 4,4 eMacs were not the computer Apple had in mind when they introduced the current version of Apple TV.

  • by Allan Jones,

    Allan Jones Allan Jones Jul 10, 2011 7:24 AM in response to MacDuff70
    Level 8 (35,141 points)
    iPad
    Jul 10, 2011 7:24 AM in response to MacDuff70

    Thought of something else to try.

     

    "Our ISP is Verizon and it's their next-up-from-the-bottom speed offering (somewhere around 1.5MB/sec)"

     

    That speed may, of its own accord, make moving modern video to an Apple TV dicey, regardless of computer. Speed is one thing but quality of the connection to the server is also important. Run the test at http://pingtest.net/  to grade the quality of your connection, The test will ask you to accept their Java applet. You can deny that and still get valid results.

     

    We have a 5.5mbps connection and the server is 100 miles away. Pingtest gave our line a grade of "B."

  • by MacDuff70,

    MacDuff70 MacDuff70 Jul 10, 2011 7:56 AM in response to Allan Jones
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 10, 2011 7:56 AM in response to Allan Jones

    Thank you for both of your helpful replies.  I was figuring the same, but was hoping there was a way to get a little more out of our eMac.

     

    When I get a moment this afternoon, I will try pingtest.net and see what happens.

  • by BDAqua,

    BDAqua BDAqua Jul 10, 2011 11:02 PM in response to MacDuff70
    Level 10 (123,618 points)
    Jul 10, 2011 11:02 PM in response to MacDuff70

    Then... Try putting these numbers in Network>TCP/IP>DNS Servers, for the Interface you connect with...

     

    208.67.222.222

    208.67.220.220

     

    Then Apply

     

    DNS Servers are a bit like Phone books where you look up a name and it gives you the phone number, in our case, you put in apple.com and it comes back with 17.149.160.49 behind the scenes.  

     

    These Servers have been patched to guard against DNS poisoning, and are faster/more reliable than most ISP's DNS Servers.