Retro Apple TV connections?

[helios16v]

I just got this super sweet retro portable tv for FREE! everything works too but it's too bad our city no longer supports over the air tv, everything is digital over the air so I was thinking of upgrading the antenna in this bad boy and using it for a fun little project.

Then it got me thinking, maybe I could turn this into an alarm clock and actually use it in my day to day so I have been looking into the Apple TV but I don't know if the Apple TV has an alarm clock App or however those things work. I have an ATV1 but I know nothing about that new mini ATV2/3 which is what I would be buying for this project.

Does this look good or is there no alarm clock settings or anything for the ATV2/3? This little TV also uses RCA and I know the new ATV is HDMI, are there older cable style converters I can buy to go from HDMI to RCA and still have the Apple TV work and if there are, will it support 4:3 if I get it all hooked up inside this portable TV?

I think this little TV is the greatest thing and I would love to get mad at it for waking me up every morning in some unique way with an iOS app of some kind.
(like bird sounds in the morning) or something along those lines.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated, I want to tear into this ASAP and get started on it but I don't know much about the workings of the new Apple TV and I don't want to throw down $100 into a free portable TV only to find out nothing will work the way I wanted.

 

[Gjwilly]

I wouldn't think it worth it.
You'd need an HDMI converter box (not just a cable) for a start.
And I don't think there is an alarm clock app but it looks like you could create the same functionality with some basic programming.
http://bendodson.com/weblog/2011/01...express-into-an-alarm-clock-with-applescript/
I don't think you get any kind of on-screen clock display though if that's what you want.
The Apple TV simply blanks the screen when it's not being used.

 

[Macman45]

The only real time function on the ATV is shutdown. There isn't a clock display as such...You can only tell it to shut down after X amount of hours.

 

[helios16v]

but it looks like you could create the same functionality with some basic programming

I'm looking into a Raspberry Pi, less then half the price of what I was going to pay, might be pretty easy too.
Thanks for the suggestion on programming something myself. That's what I'm going to do.

 

[marzer]

I just got this super sweet retro portable tv for FREE! everything works too but it's too bad our city no longer supports over the air tv, everything is digital over the air so I was thinking of upgrading the antenna in this bad boy and using it for a fun little project.

Then it got me thinking, maybe I could turn this into an alarm clock and actually use it in my day to day so I have been looking into the Apple TV but I don't know if the Apple TV has an alarm clock App or however those things work. I have an ATV1 but I know nothing about that new mini ATV2/3 which is what I would be buying for this project.

Does this look good or is there no alarm clock settings or anything for the ATV2/3? This little TV also uses RCA and I know the new ATV is HDMI, are there older cable style converters I can buy to go from HDMI to RCA and still have the Apple TV work and if there are, will it support 4:3 if I get it all hooked up inside this portable TV?

I think this little TV is the greatest thing and I would love to get mad at it for waking me up every morning in some unique way with an iOS app of some kind.
(like bird sounds in the morning) or something along those lines.

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated, I want to tear into this ASAP and get started on it but I don't know much about the workings of the new Apple TV and I don't want to throw down $100 into a free portable TV only to find out nothing will work the way I wanted.

If you have an Apple TV 1, take a look at this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2040755?start=0&tstart=0https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2040755?start=0&tstart=0

 

[JAT]

Low end Rokus have composite video outputs, which would save you $50 compared to ATV, and another large amount on a converter. There are clock channels, although I don't know anything about them, if they would do what you want.

You can still buy a digital tuner to receive today's transmissions for an SDTV, if you do want to use it for TV. Example. The analog signals were shut off on a certain date due to FCC mandate, it is not your city's choice.