What is apple tv?

[mikef1182]

How difficult is it to stream your own movies or videos that I have saved on my hard drive to Apple TV? Do they need to be in your iTunes library or can they be in a virtual hard drive like time capsule?

Thanks for the help guys!

[aenti]

To answer mik, not too hard. I believe they need to be in your iTunes library.

But I got to say, Apple TV is a failure in my eyes. Even TV take 2 sucks.

[mikef1182]

So if they are on an external hard drive, how can they also be in my itunes library on my macbook wirelessly? Basically what I would like is to stream all of my movies on my hard drive, which are not on my my macbook's hard drive, to Apple TV. Does anyone know if this possible?

[smknSRT8]

Seems like a total waste of money if you ask me. If you want something like that, I would say go for the Sling Player. www.slingmedia.com.

Apple TV is a total rip off. $299 for essentially a 40gb hard drive in a box that connects to iTunes. Hmm.

Someone help me here, Apple TV plays movies etc from your computer, while slingbox allows you to watch tv that is streaming from a cable box. These are two different things, unless you record EVERYTHING you watch onto your computer then stream it to the Apple TV.
I wouldn't go and say that "If you want something like THAT, get the slingbox. I have a sling box and it doesnt play my movies on my computer.

[acosmichippo]

yeah, they do two totally different things. not to mention AppleTV plays HD, which the SlingBox can not even approach.

[ravman]

Umm, you may want to double check that. Yes Sling does stream HD channels.

Apple TV and Sling are two totally different devices. Apple TV is like Blockbuster Video for your TV. You rent and view movies. Sling Box is a device which streams your cable/satellite TV to a device. So unless you have DVR'd programs on your cable/satellite box, it's totally different to Apple TV.

They both have two totally different uses.

yeah, they do two totally different things. not to mention AppleTV plays HD, which the SlingBox can not even approach.

[acosmichippo]

sure, it'll stream HD channels, but not in HD, which was my point.

the best resolution you'll get is 640x480.

[ravman]

Does seem to be the case.

Netflix have launched an online movie player also. You don't have a large a library as say Apple TV, but it's all part of your monthly DVD rental package. So after the initial $99 cost for the Roku box, the service is actually free. But right now it only pumps out at 480P. But they are plans to extend it to full HD soon.

To answer mik, not too hard. I believe they need to be in your iTunes library.

But I got to say, Apple TV is a failure in my eyes. Even TV take 2 sucks.

[ravman]

That is true. Sling works on compression, so you're never going to get perfect picture quality. But it's cool when you're on the other side of the planet, watching "Flip This House".

sure, it'll stream HD channels, but not in HD, which was my point.

[smknSRT8]

Apple TV and Sling are two totally different devices. Apple TV is like Blockbuster Video for your TV. You rent and view movies. Sling Box is a device which streams your cable/satellite TV to a device. So unless you have DVR'd programs on your cable/satellite box, it's totally different to Apple TV.

They both have two totally different uses.

I know this, which is why I said it. You were the one that said the sling box can take over your apple tv