compudude's Profile

  • Oct 02, 2008
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Latest comments made by: compudude

  • I agree. I wasn't interested much in the AppleTV, either, simply because of the lack of hard drive space. I purchased one (cheap at $200 for the low end unit) with the intention of hacking it to allow a directly-attached external hard drive. I downloaded the free Handbrake and started converting my large DVD library to an iTunes/AppleTV-friendly format. After I had converted a few movies, I stumbled across the little tip this article speaks of: If you simply leave iTunes running on the main Mac, AppleTV can pick the movies up right off the Mac. No need to hack... this is part of the Apple software's normal capability! Love it! My wife, recovering from back surgery, can now lay in bed and scan through our whole library (which remains on shelves in the living room, downstairs), and watch all she wants without ever having to load a single disk. All with the cheapest, bottom-end AppleTV using included, non-scary hacky built-in abilities, a cheap external hard drive from the local Best Buy, and some free software. Genius!
    compudude had this to say on Oct 02, 2008 Posts: 4
    Apple TV, the Do It All Machine
  • AppleTV can be set to sync (limiting you to available internal hard drive space, unless you hack and add an external) or stream, or a combination of both (sync specified, stream the rest). I bought the cheap one with smallest internal hard drive because I knew I wouldn't be depending on it for storage. The cheap USB external drive I use was intended to be connected after hacking. But as I said, streaming worked so well I didn't bother hacking.
    compudude had this to say on Aug 20, 2008 Posts: 4
    Is Apple TV the Stupidest Apple Product Ever?
  • For what it's worth, for anyone willing to hack the AppleTV (which takes some... but not too much... ability to follow some technical step-by-step instructions), extra storage can be attached directly to the ATV, rather than streaming. Once hacked (a few steps up front, then never worry again) it's also very easy to add support for many different video formats, rather than just QuickTime. For me, streaming worked so well I didn't bother hacking it, but that had been my original plan.
    compudude had this to say on Aug 20, 2008 Posts: 4
    Is Apple TV the Stupidest Apple Product Ever?
  • My wife LOVES her AppleTV. Why? Because she can sit in bed, and access my entire DVD movie library with the AppleTV. How? Simple. Handbrake, a cheap $200 refurb 40gb AppleTV, and an on-sale $120 750gb hard drive. I have 250 movies from my DVD library (which is now boxed up and no longer sitting on shelves all over the living room) ripped to that inexpensive hard drive, and shared off my main Mac. They show on on the AppleTV's movie list perfectly, and don't take up ANY space on the itty bitty drive. You don't have to hack your AppleTV to do this. You just have to leave iTunes running on the main mac. I don't know about you, but I don't have a spare Mac that I can leave attached to the TV in the bedroom all the time. The AppleTV, however, sits there doing it's job perfectly and silently. Movies stream over my wireless (802.11g) network without a hiccup, and my wife is pleased as punch. We also rent movies on it on a regular basis. I did the math... there is a movie place nearby that rents movies for $0.99 on Tuesdays and Thursday, so I resisted this at first. Even on weekends, at $2.50, it seemed better than the Mac. Then I thought about it. That movie shop is a mere 2 miles away. But I have to go there and come back (4 miles). Then I have to return the movie. (up to 8 miles) That's nearly a half gallon of gas. At today's prices or around $4/gallon, I just spent an extra $2 to rent that movie. Not to mention a bunch of my time. On Tuesdays and Thursday (assuming the movie is in stock on this popular day) that means easily 30-45 minutes of my time (between travel, standing in line, and returning) plus $3 in costs, to rent the movie on the cheap day. On a weekend, closer to $5.50, perhaps more. Suddenly those $3-5 movie rentals on the AppleTV (with zero effort on my part) begin to look a LOT more reasonable. Is it perfect? No. Could it be better? Sure. Does it do everything I want it to? Absolutely. I have a DVD player, but it rarely gets used now. I also have a hi-def DirecTV DVR that gets used heavily. But for movies, I use my AppleTV, and I am extremely happy with it.
    compudude had this to say on Aug 20, 2008 Posts: 4
    Is Apple TV the Stupidest Apple Product Ever?