ATV with Ethernet

[bearcatrp]

Can the ATV with Ethernet use a direct connection to a hard drive with ethernet connection or does it still require a Wi-Fi connection? Can save a little if I buy without the Ethernet if direct connection does not work. Thanks.

 

[Bigwaff]

If your HD is connected to your network (i.e. like a NAS) either via ethernet or wireless then your ATV w/ ethernet can access it -- assuming your router supports both wired and wireless clients.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

There is no direct connection AppleTV to Hard Drive. Drive must be attached to a computer running Music/AppleTV apps or iTunes. Video streams from host computer to AppleTV hardware... or over the internet in situations where you rent a movie from Apple.

Ethernet simply means that whatever you want to watch is less likely to stutter if wifi is in high demand and/or adversely affect others using wifi because the video being streamed is hogging a chunk of wifi bandwidth.

Advice: if you can reasonably easily connect it with ethernet, get that one. If not, wifi. $20 is perhaps the easiest hardware upgrade in Apple's entire lineup.

 

[bearcatrp]

Thanks folks.