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Any good uses for a 3rd Gen ATV?

jthesssin

jthesssin

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 6, 2013
162
95
Matthews NC
I have decided I like my 4th Gen ATV, I am now stuck with a 3rd Gen.
Since I can't really sell it for more than 20-30 bucks since Apple reduced brand new ones down to 69.99, anyone have some good ideas on what i can do with it/use it for?
Almost any/all ideas accepted :)
 
Continue to enjoy everything it does. Except for new app store apps and the new remote, it's not like the "4" brings a whole lot more. The "3" still plays the very same 1080p movies & TV shows, still plays music exactly the same, Podcasts, Netflix, YouTube many of the more popular video-playing apps like HBO go and Hulu, etc.

If you desperately need the apps that aren't on the "3," the same ones are generally available on iDevices. And if you need to see them on your big screen, airplay them.

The "4" doesn't play 1080p any better than the "3", nor music any different at all, nor podcasts, etc. So it's mostly non-"3" apps and the new remote that most tangibly differentiates it from the "3". Be sure those 2 things matter enough to you to justify "4" envy.

Else, gift it to someone who will love it. Or save up all but what you can sell the "3" for and then go buy the "4".
 
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Do you have a second TV? As SandboxGeneral mentioned, hook it up to a second TV if you have one. Or give to a friend or family member. At one point we had two ATV3's, but when when I got the ATV4, I hooked it up in our living room and we gave our spare ATV3 to my girlfriend's parents to use since we already had a ATV3 hooked up in the bedroom.
 
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I was planning to keep 1/2 tv's on ATV 3 but after I setup my ATV 4's and the App's that were required for what I wanted to do I decided to go all in on ATV 4. If your use is mostly stream movies / tv from iTunes, Netflix, Hulu them the ATV 3 is fine.
 
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The atv4 is the way to go for some people like myself but not really required by people that watch netflix or videos in itunes which the atv3 does perfectly at a considerably cheaper price. For myself I had 2 atv3 and 2 wdtv live media players and the atv was only used for netflix and airplay and wdtv for tv and movies off the nas which was a pain in the ass always having to switch remotes and tv inputs all the time. Now the atv4 replaced that setup since I run plex on both to watch tv and movies.
 
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good ideas here... I love the games on this thing....dont really have a need for a second TV since the wifey doesn't really watch anyway, I have it to myself ;-)
I may hook it up to a projector and throw some older movies on the side of the house for the neighborhood......
I am interested in obtaining the gamepad...has anyone actually bought one yet?
 
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jthesssin said:
good ideas here... I love the games on this thing....dont really have a need for a second TV since the wifey doesn't really watch anyway, I have it to myself ;-)
I may hook it up to a projector and throw some older movies on the side of the house for the neighborhood......
I am interested in obtaining the gamepad...has anyone actually bought one yet?
Click to expand...

Done that this year. Have not hooked my ATV3 to my projector but rather my MacBook. Works great. Nice being able to toss my (somewhat large) iTunes movie collection up there. If you've only the one TV and have an ATV4 as well there are lesser options but maybe it is a good idea to keep it as a backup unit in case the 4 goes down.

I really like my ATV3 and am in no hurry to upgrade. It has streaming access for everything I would want to stream on it.
 
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Hook it up to any speaker with an optical input* and you have yourself an Airplay speaker for your iPad/iPhone/iPod/Mac.

* or get a cheap $6 optical to stereo converter and use it with any analog input speaker
 
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Airplay a sports match to two TVs simultaneously if conference room mode works on the ATV3 if your other ATV is a 4.
 
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Hook it up to a receiver as a dedicated music AirPlay server.

Buy a small tv for the bathroom and watch house of cards on the throne.
 
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