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kavika411

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 8, 2006
617
3
Alabama
Thanks for reading this. I may use the wrong terminology, but hopefully you will understand my inquiry. I have a pre-intel Power Mac with an internal airport card. Will that card work with the new Apple TV? Does anyone know? Thank you.
 
i would think so but it would take longer to stream the content

i would not try to sync my iTunes collection over 11Mb but 54Mb would be ok
 
It's just a software update that is needed to make your airport card "n" compatable, included with the AE Base Station (not sure if it's included with the Appletv though).
 
To 'live stream' you need 'n'.

To stream then watch from the AppleTV HD I guess 'g' is good enough. Probably will take 5 min to copy 1GB movie via 'g'. Not sure.

Hopefully the existing cards will be upgradable to 'n'.

Strange though that the other night I watched Pirates2 on my TV, streamed 'live' from my G5 via frontrow on my MB on a 'g' Airport connection. No problem whatsoever. ???
 
No, the incompatibility issue would be with Airport cards in PPC chipped Macs (...G4, G5 chips) ...you've got an Intel Core Duo (not PPC) chipped MacBook so you have compatability. :)

Does it? I thought we didn't know if the CD Macs had the 'n' chipset...
 
It's all on Apple's site, guys:

These Mac computers support 802.11n in the new AirPort Extreme Base Station using the included enabler software:

iMac with Intel Core 2 Duo (except 17-inch, 1.83GHz iMac)
MacBook with Intel Core 2 Duo
MacBook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo
Mac Pro with AirPort Extreme card option
 
It's all on Apple's site, guys:

Thank you for all of your responses, especially Livefortoday for citing the above from the Apple store. Because I am completely dense on hardware, I hope you'll nonetheless indulge this question.
Does that mean that, in the world of Apple desktop computers, only owners of a Mac Pro will be able to employ an internal airport card that will work with Apple TV?
Again, sorry for my limited knowledge and possible redundency. I'm just frustrated that, if I am reading that correctly, I will have to buy an external airport thing for my 2.7 PowerMac.
Thank you again for your time.
 
Thank you for all of your responses, especially Livefortoday for citing the above from the Apple store. Because I am completely dense on hardware, I hope you'll nonetheless indulge this question.
Does that mean that, in the world of Apple desktop computers, only owners of a Mac Pro will be able to employ an internal airport card that will work with Apple TV?
Again, sorry for my limited knowledge and possible redundency. I'm just frustrated that, if I am reading that correctly, I will have to buy an external airport thing for my 2.7 PowerMac.
Thank you again for your time.

There are two issues at hand here:

1.- Does my computer have an 802.11n - capable card?

2.- Will my computer be able to communicate with Apple TV?

The answers, on your case:

1.- No
2.- Yes

So don't worry too much. You probably won't be able to stream 720p, but you will be able to sync all your videos for later view.
 
It should work if i understand correctly apple TV is backwards compatible with a/b/g protocols.

The N draft will alow for streams to be smoother or faster.
 
Pulling all the facts together here iin one post.

The Apple TV will pull from any PCs with the following -
<<System requirements
Mac or PC
iTunes 7.1
Mac: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
PC: Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2)
AirPort Extreme, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless network6 (wireless video streaming requires 802.11g or 802.11n), or 10/100BASE-T Ethernet network>>

SO yes even with the original Airport card it will work which was Wireless B. Then any PPC or Intel Mac with a Wireless G - Airport Extreme card it will also work with. Then you have the Macs with the Wireless N cards in them with out them being enabled which are -
<<All Mac computers with Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Xeon processors except the 17-inch iMac with 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor support the 802.11n technology in AirPort Extreme. These 802.11n-compatible Mac systems require enabler software that is included on the AirPort Extreme CD.>>

SO yes most any computers with the right software on them will work perfectly. Depending on your network speeds, results will vary. This setup is "most likely" optimized for the new N wireless. I would say for the best results if you have older Original Airport try for a wired setup.

Kevin
 
The question isn't whether it will work. The question is whether it will work well. The Apple TV box will connect to 802.11b (Airport), 802.11g (Airport Extreme), and 802.11n but, in the spec sheet, Apple warns that 802.11g or 802.11n is required to stream video. 802.11b will probably have trouble sending data fast enough to stream high quality video to the Apple TV box.

Of course, that's just for streaming content. The device has a 40 gig hard drive that can be used to store content locally. Even if you're limited to an 802.11b connection between computer and Apple TV, it should still be possible to copy high quality content to the Apple TV and play it back just fine. Only catch is you'd have to wait until it finishes copying.

Of course, I suppose that depends on whether the content is copy protected and how Apple handles that eventuality.
 
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