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Curious about ATV ... can it do this?

I

itsjustmeee

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 28, 2008
602
7
I'm thinking about picking up an ATV. If I have it AND my mac mini is also plugged into my airport extreme via ethernet, will the ATV see the media content that I have on my external drives plugged into the mini? I'm using Plex and I have mkv files, mp4, m4v and mp3. Would I have to jailbreak it in order for ATV to recognize and play these files?

Thanks.
 
D

davids8477

macrumors 6502
Jan 4, 2008
282
3
itsjustmeee said:
I'm thinking about picking up an ATV. If I have it AND my mac mini is also plugged into my airport extreme via ethernet, will the ATV see the media content that I have on my external drives plugged into the mini? I'm using Plex and I have mkv files, mp4, m4v and mp3. Would I have to jailbreak it in order for ATV to recognize and play these files?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

ATV will play what is in your iTunes library - Itunes has to be running and Home Sharing set up.

To use Plex you would need to Jailbreak - not yet possible on the ATV3.

To do what you want you should consider the ROKU HD. Plex is an app for that and it will do what you want. I have both Roku and ATV3 - both are very good, the ROKU is more "open".
 
P

PaulKemp

macrumors 6502a
Jun 2, 2009
568
124
Norway
itsjustmeee said:
I'm thinking about picking up an ATV. If I have it AND my mac mini is also plugged into my airport extreme via ethernet, will the ATV see the media content that I have on my external drives plugged into the mini? I'm using Plex and I have mkv files, mp4, m4v and mp3. Would I have to jailbreak it in order for ATV to recognize and play these files?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Or, you could use Plex on a iPad or iPhone and use airplay to the Apple TV?

And you can use Beamer, to start the mkv's on the mini, then the Beamer app will stream them direclty to the ATV. As your attorney, I advise you to check out Beamer. Well worth the money.
 
I

itsjustmeee

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 28, 2008
602
7
This idea started because I unfortunately have an early '09 mini without HDMI so that forces me to do the mini DVI to HDMI and digital output to TOSLINK thing. I just got a new smart tv with TOSLINK out and it would be SO much easier if I could plug my mini directly into the TV and get 5.1 going through the HDMI cable with the video and not have to split them up. I can't get a clear answer from any blogs on if this...

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10114&cs_id=1011405&p_id=5369&seq=1&format=2

will actually work or not. I talked online to someone at Monoprice and they said "it probably will work but they can't guarantee it and there might be some quality loss" because I would have to go through a mini DVI to DVI adaptor first. I'm not really crazy about the thought of getting a newer mini just for the HDMI because the one I have now works fine and now that I have a smart tv with streaming (netflix, hulu, etc), I'm only really using the mini and Plex for MKV movies and MP3s.
 
D

davids8477

macrumors 6502
Jan 4, 2008
282
3
itsjustmeee said:
This idea started because I unfortunately have an early '09 mini without HDMI so that forces me to do the mini DVI to HDMI and digital output to TOSLINK thing. I just got a new smart tv with TOSLINK out and it would be SO much easier if I could plug my mini directly into the TV and get 5.1 going through the HDMI cable with the video and not have to split them up. I can't get a clear answer from any blogs on if this...

http://www.monoprice.com/products/p...=10114&cs_id=1011405&p_id=5369&seq=1&format=2

will actually work or not. I talked online to someone at Monoprice and they said "it probably will work but they can't guarantee it and there might be some quality loss" because I would have to go through a mini DVI to DVI adaptor first. I'm not really crazy about the thought of getting a newer mini just for the HDMI because the one I have now works fine and now that I have a smart tv with streaming (netflix, hulu, etc), I'm only really using the mini and Plex for MKV movies and MP3s.
Click to expand...

I am a little puzzled. You can get a DVI-HDMI cable to get video to your TV from your mini (or into your amplifier then to TV). I used this system with success before I ungraded my Mini. Audio from the Toslink on the MINI to my AMP>
 
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