Should I Take Back 40GB for 160GB?

[CaptainCowPie]

We just purchased an LCD TV and my wife said we should pick up the ATV while we were there. I had been talking to her about how I want to try life without cable and using the ATV instead, but I had not done enough research to feel comfortable yet. So we picked up the 40GB version, all they had in stock.

I plan on getting a Drobo or other storage system in the near future, and wanted to know if the 160GB version is worth it? Or is it better to spend the extra $100 on another drive for the Drobo?

Thanks for the help,
Vince

 

[tom1971]

Congratulations !
40 gigs fill up quite quickly, that is why i bought the 160 gig version.
Now my 160 Gig version is slowly but certainly filling up and I connected an external HD to it.
It works great and I don't miss cable at all !

 

[mikenike192]

i would stick with the 40gb and buy a drive for drobo (new drobo coming soon with firewire 800 and faster processor). I have all my media 400gb worth on a 500gb WD Home Edition and I just stream it over my super g network (108mbps). I've never had a problem streaming anything. I love having my apple tv, being able to flip through all my tv shows and wath any episode i want instantly whether it is scrubs family guy or flight of the choncords or any other show. The only thing I use that tv for now is watching HD stations such as ESPN, Disc HD Theater, Mojo and MHD (awesome HD concerts). You should be able to just get the season pass for a tv series on iTunes using your computer and then should be able to stream that right over

 

[emaja]

I bought the 40GB model to save the $100 since I knew that I would be streaming anyway.

The 160 gig will fill up sooner or later as well, so you might as well save the money and put it into extra drives.

 

[omni]

I stream EVERYTHING (aside from a few gb of photos). I own 2 40gb's and I would have regretted it every day if I had bought a 160gb.

Each to their own so to speak but I'd rather take the $100 and buy more storage space on the drobo.

 

[jecapaga]

stream.

 

[mtfield]

The only reason I can see for needing the 160(+) on the TV would be if apple introduced some type of tivo like system... Whether this is likely in the future is up for debate, but until that day 40gb should do just fine

 

[paduck]

The only reason I can see for needing the 160(+) on the TV would be if apple introduced some type of tivo like system... Whether this is likely in the future is up for debate, but until that day 40gb should do just fine

I think there is probably some benefit to not having to stream everything from your main computer and have it on and running iTunes whenever you want to watch TV. I'm not sold either way, but having 160GB of data dumped to the ATV is going to mean that more of your stuff doesn't have to flow from the computer.

Of course, you can always buy the 40GB and self-upgrade to a much larger internal hard drive. I think that the maximum 2.5 inch IDE drive you can get today is 250GB, although I think there might be a 320GB version available. You have to be willing to void your warranty and do a little work with your screwdriver though - not for everyone. I do wonder why Apple went IDE with the ATV? It seems somewhat limiting.

 

[Cave Man]

The only reason I can see for needing the 160(+) on the TV would be if apple introduced some type of tivo like system.

There are a lot of reasons for having a larger hard drive, not just one.

 

[Robbadore64]

I'd say 40gig and put the $ towards another drive to "move" iTunes to. My 160 is full primarily of ALL my music and ALL my 5 yr olds movies. I have a little space (for about ten more movies) that I use to transfer a particular movie if I know I plan to watch it soon. I've it set this way so my son's movies are ALWAYS available as well as my music. For all my other movies I just stream which requires iTunes to be on. My 140 (and growing) movie collection along with music is a few hundred gigs so nothing AppleTV has now or the foreseeable future will accommodate. I'm fine just having my Mac on though, it's usually on anyway

 

[DarkHeraldMage]

I bought the 40 GB model and have never given it a second thought. I stream everything without problems and only occasionally sync the unwatched episodes of a few TV shows I keep current on. Streaming with the ATV works great, and even if you want to sync content, 40 GB isn't a terribly small amount. You'll find that 40 is plenty.

 

[Cave Man]

40 gigs is soooo 2 years ago...

Come on dyna, post your 1 TB screen shot!

 

[CaptainCowPie]

Wow, thanks for all of the replies! It looks like the consensus is to keep the 40GB and stream most of my stuff. That sounds good to me.

Btw, it looks like the new Drobo has come out with firewire, but for those looking for 6 bays you will be disappointed.

I did enjoy that screen shot Cave Man. The 1TB one sounds very interesting.

Well, I get the TV and the iPhone on Friday, can't wait!
Vince

 

[dynaflash]

40 gigs is soooo 2 years ago...

Come on dyna, post your 1 TB screen shot!

Now that would be downright rude and impolite

 

[fivepoint]

I would sell you the 40gb HD out of my AppleTV if I could. I stream everything.

That being said, if there was a model that could hold ALL of my iTunes content (about 750GB as of now) then I would think about it. The responsiveness of content on the actual device is nice. But, alas... that is not an option currently. And it is way to difficult for a guy like me to switch the HD out. I think.