Trying to understand apple tv

[guidoverduci]

Quick question... If i have all my iTunes media stored on an external hard drive that is plugged into my airport extreme... Can apple tv play it without hacking it? How is the streaming? Is there any lag, or is there a direct way of hooking it up? Sorry, guess that was a few questions.

 

[Diveflo]

Quick question... If i have all my iTunes media stored on an external hard drive that is plugged into my airport extreme... Can apple tv play it without hacking it? How is the streaming? Is there any lag, or is there a direct way of hooking it up? Sorry, guess that was a few questions.

Yes it can but unfortunately not without a running machine with iTunes (mac or pc) that consists the library. But the files can be located on the external drive.
Lag depends on your connection. I have most of my files located on my PC which is connected via Gbit LAN to my AirPort Extreme, the files go from there over n-draft Wifi to my MacBookAir (which contains the iTunes library) and back via Wifi to my AirPort Extreme and from there again via n-draft Wifi to my AppleTV. A lot of travel for the files (because Apple apparently isn't able to just let iTunes TELL the ATV where the files are located and let it get them itself, but the files actually have to go thru the machine that contains the library) but it works for my HD Movies (overall bitrate around 7000kbit/s) without any lag.

Hope this helps.