Do new and old Apple TVs play nice together?

[bosox2009]

You have the old and the new Apple TV on two separate televisions.

1. Does your old Apple TV behave as before? ie. able to purchase content, sync, stream, AirTunes speakers, etc...

2. Network-wise everything is okay? ie. no bog downs or other wifi issues out of the box?

3. How does the iPhone/iPad remote app display both devices? Different names? Or you have to rename one of the apple tvs within iTunes? (the new remote app totally rocks my old ATV and iTunes library BTW)

Just curious... Thanks!

 

[hNicolas]

I would like to know too. I ordered a new ATV and it is only shipping Oct. 19. If they don't behave together I might cancel my order. I will not give up my ATV with 160 GB storage right now. New one will go in bedroom until it's ready for primetime. Then I might move it to the home theatre.

 

[CrAkD]

I have the old and new haven't set up the old on a new tv yet. But the remote app pretty much works the same on both only difference is the old doesn't support home sharing so you'll have to add the library to the remote app manually with the code.

 

[iceman17]

I hooked mine up last night and now have 1 new and 2 old

1) Yes, it behaves exactly the same as before.

2) Setup was a breeze, the only complaint is using the remote to type in user names and passwords. That part took far too long. After I entered all that in, the Wireless Network was up immediately. I had to restart my computer to get the Apple TV to find my computer and recognize homeshare.

3) They have different names. You can connect to your itunes, or any one of your Apple TVs

Your new Apple TV will not show up in iTunes since it uses homeshare. For some reason I thought it would, but really, it is just another device on your network now, not a hard drive that holds content.

On another note, the Netflix interface is the best I have seen. I just wish the old Apple TVs could also use it.

 

[tommylotto]

only difference is the old doesn't support home sharing so you'll have to add the library to the remote app manually with the code.

How and where do you do this? I cannot figure it out. I have 2 AppleTV's one was paired on my iPad under the old Remote app. The other was not. The setting was preserved when I upgraded to the new Remote app, but I have not been able to find where or how on the new app I can link the other old AppleTV.

 

[CrAkD]

How and where do you do this? I cannot figure it out. I have 2 AppleTV's one was paired on my iPad under the old Remote app. The other was not. The setting was preserved when I upgraded to the new Remote app, but I have not been able to find where or how on the new app I can link the other old AppleTV.

in settings you select Add Library

 

[rhp2424]

Streaming available?

So to clarify, can you stream content from the old Apple TV to the new Apple TV?
In other words, can the old Apple TV be used as a content server in lieu of always leaving your computer on for the new one?

 

[DJinTX]

So to clarify, can you stream content from the old Apple TV to the new Apple TV?
In other words, can the old Apple TV be used as a content server in lieu of always leaving your computer on for the new one?

No, it won't work this way. I suppose a hack could come along to achieve this (if it is technically possible given the hardware), but no it won't do this. It is all designed so that media streams to the ATV, not from it to another device.

 

[tommylotto]

in settings you select Add Library

Have you actually done this? It now says "Add an iTunes Library"

check this out from Apple:

What's New In Version 2.0
• Designed for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad
• Optimized for Retina displays and large screen real estate on iPad
• Support for Shared Libraries on iTunes and new Apple TV
• Bug fixes and compatibility with iTunes 10 and the new Apple TV

Note how it says support for "new AppleTV" not old AppleTV...