USB On Back Of AppleTV

Also can someone please tell me how I change my alias for the forums

Click on "My Public Profile" and then "Edit Your Settings"

Does anyone know what the USB is for on the back on the apple tv, I hope it is to plugin an external HD.

Apple has said that port is for maintenance and diagnosis only. It will not support any external storage.

Technically, a USB port either works as a USB host (on computers, for example) or USB slave (on hard drives, printers, iPods etc). I've never seen a port that does both, even though it may be possible.

A USB connection is always between a host and a slave - never between two hosts or two slaves. For the Apple TV to connect to a computer via USB for service and maintenance, it must have a slave port. Since all USB hard drives also have slave ports, connecting it to an external drive should be technically impossible.

for the Apple TV to connect to a computer via USB for service and maintenance, it must have a slave port.

Well, we don't know if the Apple TV will be serviced by connecting it to another computer. All we know is that Apple's said the port is for maintenance. But you may well be correct, in which case that port will indeed never be usable for external storage. Time will undoubtedly show the true situation.

helpful, no?

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=4354791&tstart=0



betaMoof (mbp) Mac OS X (10.4.9)

It is called "On the Go" USB. When a certain pin is pulled to a certain logic level, the USB port can go from host to slave, or vice-versa.

In fact most of the bigger iPods have a switchable USB host/slave. Mostly it runs slave, but plug in the iPod camera connector and it becomes a host, so a camera can load its pics onto the iPod for storage.