I’g like to buy an TV

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Paul Downie Author

Level 1

25 points

I’g like to buy an TV

I’d like to but an Apple TV: to be honest, it’s a way of entertaining myself on the proverbial cheap.

Understandably — and even after reading the technical requirements — I’d like to reassure myself on a few points.

I’ve a TV set that describes itself as 720p, HD ready: and comes with at least one HDMI port.

I’m also using a 2007 Mac mini, running Snow Leopard: and iTunes 11·1·4.

Am I correct in assuming the TV will work with my set up … ?

Will I be able to to use Home Sharing to drag and drop movies I already own to the device to watch them on the device?

I’m in the UK, I should add: will movies I’ve bought from the UK iTunes store work on it?

More to to point, will movies I already own — not purchased from iTunes, in in the identical format — play on it?

Thanks in advance

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 2 GHz Core 2 Duo 1Gb RAM

Posted on Jan 28, 2014 1:44 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Jan 28, 2014 2:16 PM in response to Paul Downie

The MacMini running iTunes should be fine.

The AppleTV supports 720p and 1080p and several other resolutions apart from interlaced ones such as 1080i, 576i.

Your TV should be ok, but AppleTv has traditionally been fussy with HDMI. HDCP is required for protected content, some older sets may fall down on this, so hard to say it will definitely work - check the manual.

Home Sharing allows you to browse your itunes library via AppleTVs Computers icon. You do not drag and drop content to AppleTV as it has no storage, so your itunes will need to be running. If you have iTunes store purchased movies/tv shows you should be able to play them from 'the cloud' without the Mac Mini running at all provided your internet connection is reasonably good and not throttled/capped.

'Home made video' provided it has been encoded correctly for AppleTV will play. If not you will need to re-encode which is time consuming.

UK iTunes Store stuff works fine for me in the UK.

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Answer 2

Paul Downie Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 28, 2014 11:36 PM in response to Alley_Cat

OK, what IS HDCP? And what on earth do the ports look like … ?

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Answer 3

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Jan 29, 2014 1:53 AM in response to Paul Downie

It's copy protection over HDMI, some old sets don't fully support it. It's part of the HDMI specification not a different port.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4428?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

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Answer 4

Paul Downie Author

Level 1

25 points

Jan 29, 2014 2:58 AM in response to Alley_Cat

This particular set was purchased in 2011: I'm assuming it would be ok ... ?

Given the newer cables ... ?

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Answer 5

Paul Downie Author

Level 1

25 points

Feb 10, 2014 2:39 PM in response to Paul Downie

OK, just as one final question.

How do I connect an TV to my wi-fi network: without the bluetooth keyboard?

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Answer 6

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Feb 10, 2014 2:45 PM in response to Paul Downie

You use the AppleTV remote control to enter wifi credentials using an 'on screen keyboard' - fiddly compared to a real keyboard but not something you need to do often.

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