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Old Mac Mini to Apple TV

A

awintersdaybyth

macrumors regular
Original poster
I have an old core duo mac mini that I was hoping to wirelessly hook up to a new apple tv I got for Xmas.

I know the machines graphic card wont support airplay, but if I added an external HD (the internal storage is only about 120gb) would I be able to stream from that if I left the machine on?
 
awintersdaybyth said:
I have an old core duo mac mini that I was hoping to wirelessly hook up to a new apple tv I got for Xmas.

I know the machines graphic card wont support airplay, but if I added an external HD (the internal storage is only about 120gb) would I be able to stream from that if I left the machine on?
Click to expand...


Yes. Just have iTunes open on the Mac Mini, pointed to your iTunes library on the external HDD, and your ATV will stream all your content from that over wifi.
 
davidoloan said:
You also have to set up Homesharing in iTunes on the mini and "computers" on the Apple TV.
Click to expand...
That's when you want to browse the library on your Mac from appleTV's menu.
If you kick the playback off from a computer and set it to AirPlay to appleTV, Home Sharing is not needed.
 
priitv8 said:
That's when you want to browse the library on your Mac from appleTV's menu.
If you kick the playback off from a computer and set it to AirPlay to appleTV, Home Sharing is not needed.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the OP stated his MM is old and does not support Airplay.
 
awintersdaybyth said:
Yes, you're right - Airplay isn't supported on the old machine as it's, well, old!
Click to expand...
You are mixing things up! AirPlay is supported on all Mac-s that are capable of running a recent version of iTunes.
AirPlay Mirroring requires special hardware, that's not present in older Macs.
So with AirPlay, you can stream any movie or song to your aTV and it will be no big deal for any CPU. Ok, HD movies would call for either wired Ethernet or 802.11n wireless network card.
But if you connect just your Mini and aTV via an ad-hoc network created by Mini, you shouldn't experience much problems as there will be no contention on this network.
With AirPlay Mirroring you'd be able to beam your computer screen to appleTV.
 
Last edited:
priitv8 said:
You are mixing things up! AirPlay is supported on all Mac-s that are capable of running a recent version of iTunes.
AirPlay Mirroring requires special hardware, that's not present in older Macs.
So with AirPlay, you can stream any movie or song to your aTV and it will be no big deal for any CPU. Ok, HD movies require either wired Ethernet or 802.11n wireless network card.
With AirPlay Mirroring you'd be able to beam your computer screen to appleTV.
Click to expand...

Ah OK, I stand corrected! I thought it was the other way round, thanks for clarifying 🙂
 
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