Replacing htpc with ATV

[sergiobaschi]

Hello forum

Today I have a Windows 7 PC connected to my TV. The PC's sole mission is to either stream content from the web, or play movies from an external disk.

Now I'm thinking of replacing the PC with an Apple TV. Except for my girlfriend's work laptop and an old, scarcely used Vista laptop, all our devices are from Apple (four iPhones, one MBA, one MBP one iMac). I'm also planning to get an Airport Extreme. If it's doable, I would like to connect the external drive (that's connected to the htpc today) to the Airport Extreme, and then be able to stream the content to the TV.

Thus, instead of going:
external drive -> htpc -> TV (all wired, no performance issues)

I'm thinking of:
external drive -> Airport Extreme -> Apple TV -> TV (wireless connection == higher failure risk?)

I'm looking forward to hearing your comments and thoughts on this.

[Bozley0621]

I'm waiting for the day the ATV allows this. For the time being, media can only be streamed from a computer or idevice.

[whoiare]

Originally Posted by Bozley0621

I'm waiting for the day the ATV allows this. For the time being, media can only be streamed from a computer or idevice.

To expand on this: the ATV needs to see an itunes account/location, whether its on the cloud or itunes on another computer in order to stream. you cant just pull files. That is unless you jailbreak it. Also, coming from windows 7 are all your video files in apple friendly formats?

your best bet with your current hardware is to leave the imac always on. Turn on homesharing and hook up the external drive. Import all your movies music and tv shows into itunes, then homeshare to all of your "i" devices. Both wired and wireless, you should have no issues unless you have some seriously large blu ray rips.

[sergiobaschi]

Originally Posted by whoiare

To expand on this: the ATV needs to see an itunes account/location, whether its on the cloud or itunes on another computer in order to stream. you cant just pull files. That is unless you jailbreak it. Also, coming from windows 7 are all your video files in apple friendly formats?

your best bet with your current hardware is to leave the imac always on. Turn on homesharing and hook up the external drive. Import all your movies music and tv shows into itunes, then homeshare to all of your "i" devices. Both wired and wireless, you should have no issues unless you have some seriously large blu ray rips.

If I connect the external disk to the AE, can't I import movies to the iMac's iTunes that way?

[bearcatrp]

If the PC won't be used much, install iTunes and another hard drive to make it your streaming machine. Doesn't need to be that powerful to stream your content to the ATV.

[Avatar74]

Originally Posted by sergiobaschi

If I connect the external disk to the AE, can't I import movies to the iMac's iTunes that way?

I have a setup like this. I point all my iTunes apps on any desktop/laptop to the AE base station's network disk, which has one iTunes folder on it. You must enable Home Sharing in iTunes on whichever computer's iTunes application will use it. AppleTV cannot talk directly to that iTunes folder.

Then you can access the computer's library through the Computers menu on AppleTV.

For many movies purchased through iTunes, you can stream directly to AppleTV from the cloud, without first downloading them to your Mac. But if you've acquired these movies outside of iTunes, you'll have to stream them in the fashion above.

I generally don't encounter any problems with internal streaming, particularly over a dual-channel 802.11n wifi network (which has WAY more overhead than your broadband connection). Where I occasionally run into problems is streaming 1080p from the cloud which can hiccup even on a 30Mbps connection depending on what kind of load Apple is experiencing on their end... but it doesn't happen often.

[sergiobaschi]

Hm. Thank you for your replies.

Another method, that seems easier - given it works..:

I have the movies on a network drive. I assume there must be an app out there to access these movies via my iPhone (or an iPad that I eventually will buy anyhow...). And by playing the movie in the iPhone/iPad, I can just select to send the movie signal to the ATV?

Is there any loss in quality, either video or audio?

Do you have any apps of that kind that you would recommend?

Once again, thank you for your replies.