ignoramous questions about appleTV

[jacqueg]

Setting the stage - I live in a studio apartment, and have an older tube TV. Will eventually replace it with a new flat-screen HDTV, but for now, it's what I have. I also have an older stereo system which is hooked up to the TV.

What I want to do - stream both music and video from my macbook air to the tv/stereo. This content could be from my iTunes library, from dvds that I rent or own, or from TV shows over the internet (i.e., hulu). Plus, youtube videos, if possible. (I don't have cable or network subscriptions and can live w/out them.)

From what I have read, what I want can be done with apple tv (with appropriate converters/adaptors for the older equipment) and airplay.

Am I understanding correctly? Any hints or recommendations?

Thanks in advance! Having avoided commercial TV for several decades, I am more than a bit lost in many of the conversations I read!

 

[26139]

Yes

Yes. You can Airplay most everything to AppleTV.

I do that daily.

However, your Mac must be newish: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201343

The only hurdle you face is HDMI to component conversion for your TV and I can't speak to that because I have an HDMI port.

 

[Boyd01]

Just got an Apple TV for my daughter's family as a Christmas present. Instead of sinking money into some kind of adapter to connect it to their 10 year old TV, I also got them a new TV. 🙂

Really, I would replace that old tube TV before buying an Apple TV. 1080p televisions have gotten really cheap and there are some attractive holiday sales out there now.

 

[waw74]

by the time you buy the adapters, you're probably within $100 of the cost of a new TV. so make sure you do some comparisons before you buy anything.

for cables, adapters, and most of your other A/V accessories look at monoprice. You'll save a ton of money and the cables work just as well as the ones that cost 10X the amount.

Take a look at beamer, It's a much better solution for watching videos than mirroring the screen, and will work on older macs.
(you don't have to have the movie showing on your computer screen, you can use the remote on the aTV to pause the movie if you need to, since it can read ahead from the disk, the quality will be better, and it supports 5.1 surround if/when you upgrade your audio)

if your stereo has optical in, you can HDMI to the TV and optical to the stereo at the same time. If it doesn't, make sure the TV has an audio out jack.
Either way, if your stereo doesn't have surround, you'll want to disable 5.1 in the TV settings.

 

[s15119]

Defiantly can do. Had one of my Apple TV's hooked up to an old tube tv for quite some time. It works pretty well with a simple converter.


waw74's post above points you in the right direction. Monoprice is your friend.

 

[priitv8]

However, your Mac must be newish: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201343

The above is a requirement for AirPlay Mirroring only! Not to be confused with AirPlay. These are 2 quite different technologies, despite the name.
Any Mac can AirPlay music or video from iTunes library.

 

[jacqueg]

Thanks all for your responses! Very helpful.