Confused about No Hard Drive in New Apple TV?

There actually is a small hard drive in it, to store the rentals. It just doesn't have dedicated long term storage as an option.

There is 8Gb of storage on the ATV2. It is used for caching movies and other media. My guess is if you are streaming a movie from your home computer, you can turn it off once the ATV2 has cached or buffered the whole thing. If you rent a TV show from iTunes, it is downloaded to the ATV2 for future playback, but only after you started watching it.

MicroApple said:

I understand where harddrive can be an issue but come on, they could stream iTunes movies (like netflix) instead of harddrive storage (instead they make you download the whole file)

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Since Netflix doesn't sell movies, your comparison makes little sense. Maybe Amazon's On Demand service and a Roku box is more suited for you.

It comes down to this, the new AppleTV is not for everyone. You can't make everyone happy.

Even if they included a HDD in it you would still have people complaining about they don't have enough space to store all the movies on it especially when it comes to HD Content. I have 2 External 2TB HDDs and I still need more space. I've had to backup movies I don't watch all the time to DVDs just so I can store other movies.

MicroApple said:

I can't believe Apple the company about simplicity wants you to have to keep two devices on to watch a freakin movie from iTunes (their own service).

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Actually the new apple tv has made my home more simplistic. Instead of loading movies onto 4 different devices, all 4 of my apple tvs stream from one source. My original plan was a htpc in each room, but at this price point, the 4 apple tv comes out to the price of one htpc

Imsuperjp said:

Actually the new apple tv has made my home more simplistic. Instead of loading movies onto 4 different devices, all 4 of my apple tvs stream from one source. My original plan was a htpc in each room, but at this price point, the 4 apple tv comes out to the price of one htpc

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Exactly my point. I am thinking of going ahead and getting two more of them. Right now I've been using XBOX 360s to stream movies.

I have never had an Amazon on-demand movie work well on the Roku. The video stutters and it will not stream HD. Since the Roku worked well with HD on Netflix, I thought the problem was on Amazon's side. My ISP is Fios so I know that is not the problem.

Nevermind... Posted in the wrong thread.

MicroApple said:

I see, well, this is disappointing.... almost makes me want to buy a Roku instead. I can't believe Apple the company about simplicity wants you to have to keep two devices on to watch a freakin movie from iTunes (their own service).

What's steve going to announce next year?

One Device. ATV3

*cheers and applause*

I understand where harddrive can be an issue but come on, they could stream iTunes movies (like netflix) instead of harddrive storage (instead they make you download the whole file)

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It's better than keeping the two devices in sync with each other. That's what the old TV made you do. Your computer is supposed to be on at all times unless it's a laptop. I don't understand how it's not simple to you. Netflix is primarily a DVD/Blu-Ray rental service. They send you the whole disc(s). Yes, they have streaming services available. The new TV is a rent and stream box. People would rather stream than sync content back and forth. You only need to keep two devices on if you are streaming purchased content from computer to TV. If you want to rent something, you only need one device. And that's what the new TV does. It's primarily a renting and streaming box. No long term storage like the older TV.

MicroApple said:

I'm saying that steaming movies (even though you bought them) on this model would have been a nice additional feature. It doesnt change the fact that you can download it on your Mac, but how is streaming from your Mac or steaming directly from iTunes different? It's different because its stored locally on your Mac, but you could do that anyways, streaming would be optional.


Yeah Roku is perfect, except it doesn't work with my iPhone which I want also. Sigh

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You have wrong logic here. If you bought a movie, iTunes will download the whole thing. You can then watch it on your computer, iDevice or any TV (new or old one). If you rent it, you can either rent it on your computer and watch it or rent it from your TV and watch it.

If you want to be able to stream your purchased content directly from iTunes, that's not going to happen. Apple doesn't have that much storage and bandwidth to do that for you.

Imsuperjp said:

Actually the new apple tv has made my home more simplistic. Instead of loading movies onto 4 different devices, all 4 of my apple tvs stream from one source. My original plan was a htpc in each room, but at this price point, the 4 apple tv comes out to the price of one htpc

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This! I'm happy to have one central location for storage and the new Apple TV at a $99.00 price point. Also, I suspect the rental deal Apple struck with the studios was centered on the fact that the new Apple TV can't actually store movies.

No Hard Drive, means a lower price point. At $99 I can afford 2 of them for my other rooms. And I love the design. I have one computer with all my content and everything else just streams from it. I do not have to "Sync" to everything which is crazy.

Also, remember that the itunes cloud will probably be here next year and your ATV will be able to stream from the cloud....