Network drive or a router with usb support ?

[Che Castro]

I want to be able to stream my movies using the atv2 via xbmc

But i need to do this with my pc off


Im thinkin either a wd my book world drive like this
http://amzn.com/B001RB1QWW

Or the apple airport extreme with usb support & just use my current 2tb external drive


Both of these would worl with the pc off right ?


Which would be the better option

I already have a reg N wireless router with no usb support

 

[Che Castro]

Dont everybody reply at once

 

[roidy]

Don't know about the airport extreme, never used one, but any NAS box will do what you want, including the WD My Book. I wouldn't personally get the My Book for the simple fact it's an enclosed unit that you can't easily change the drive in. I would look at a proper NAS box with 2 or 4 bays that will allow you to add more drive as you need more space and use the existing 2TB drive you've already got as a backup device.

And yes a NAS will works with either a PC or MAC, again don't know about the airport extreme, but I can't see why it wouldn't.

 

[BeachChair]

I'm using the Airport Extreme + External 2.5" usb drive combination.
It works pretty well with XBMC on ATV2.

There's one thing you need to know though. The USB controller on the Airport Extreme is extremely slow, so file transfers, backups etc. will be slow. It's fast enough to play 720p movies from it, but I'm not sure it's fast enough for higher bitrates like 1080p. So it's not the perfect solution.

Down the line I see myself getting a proper network drive to get faster transfers, so maybe you should just do that.

 

[Che Castro]

I'm using the Airport Extreme + External 2.5" usb drive combination.
It works pretty well with XBMC on ATV2.

There's one thing you need to know though. The USB controller on the Airport Extreme is extremely slow, so file transfers, backups etc. will be slow. It's fast enough to play 720p movies from it, but I'm not sure it's fast enough for higher bitrates like 1080p. So it's not the perfect solution.

Down the line I see myself getting a proper network drive to get faster transfers, so maybe you should just do that.

Can you play movies from the drive with the computer off ?

 

[BeachChair]

Can you play movies from the drive with the computer off ?

Erhm I think so. Tbh there's always a computer on around here so I wouldn't really have noticed if not.