MBP with Apple TV

[iMackPro]

I have recently been thinking about getting an Apple TV and i have a few questions about it. Ive been reviewing it on the apple site and it looks pretty cool. I was looking for reviews over the product but i cant seem to find it, usually its in a blue HTML link under the over view of the product. Anyways, do very many Notebook users have an Apple tv? Does it get much use?

I hook my MBP up to my 60" and watch movies and tv episodes all the time and i love it. i also stream netflix, however when i want to do this i cannot use my computer! I have been thinking about buying an apple TV just for this purpose, my question is can i stream my own movies over the apple TV or does apple have it rigged to where you can only play stuff that you have PURCHASED in iTunes? I rip all of my dvds after i rent them and have quite the collection!

If i cannot play my own content over the apple tv i will definitely not be buying this product!

Also: i do not see anything about a HDD on the apple TV. so you cannot store any music or videos on the device itself? So you stream them wirelessly over a network? So does it load the video and then begin to play it? So if you don't have really fast internet your movie will be stopping and buffering then? I have a pretty quick internet im just scared about trying to watch a 9 GIG blu ray and it not being able to load as fast as the movie plays. But if you can connect it to the macbook i guess wouldn't be a problem. Do any of you guys have these devices and simply let them connect dust?


Thank you's to everyone that has some input! I greatly appreciate it!! like i mentioned before, i looked for reviews on the website and couldn't find any so here i am! thank you again!

 

[dizzy130]

I hook my MBP up to my 60" and watch movies and tv episodes all the time and i love it. i also stream netflix, however when i want to do this i cannot use my computer! I have been thinking about buying an apple TV just for this purpose, my question is can i stream my own movies over the apple TV or does apple have it rigged to where you can only play stuff that you have PURCHASED in iTunes? I rip all of my dvds after i rent them and have quite the collection!

...

Also: i do not see anything about a HDD on the apple TV. so you cannot store any music or videos on the device itself? So you stream them wirelessly over a network? So does it load the video and then begin to play it? So if you don't have really fast internet your movie will be stopping and buffering then? I have a pretty quick internet im just scared about trying to watch a 9 GIG blu ray and it not being able to load as fast as the movie plays. But if you can connect it to the macbook i guess wouldn't be a problem. Do any of you guys have these devices and simply let them collect dust?

I use mine all the time to play ripped movies, so it'll certainly play things you didn't buy in iTunes. I don't have any blueray rips, but I've mostly had no problem streaming smoothly with comcast internet. Sometimes there will be a small problem buffering and a couple seconds of delay, but I think it's mostly due to the cheap router I have not my internet connection itself. When my connection is good I get as much as 20mbps down, though, so ymmv.

Bonus is that I use my Netflix subscription much more now, so I feel like I'm getting my money's worth finally.

 

[Bending Pixels]

As dizzy notes, anything that's in your iTunes library can be streamed to Apple TV.

One recommendation though - make sure the router you're using can stream video feeds without being a bottleneck. The Apple TV supports 802.11n, so having a router that supports this also is the way to go.