Apple TV

[non-prophet]

I personally hate Mac products but the recent discussion with special ed and an ipod dock got me curious.  I have been researching the apple tv and in true Mac fashion its hard to find answers to questions, this is probably my fault due to the fact i am a minimalist.  Here is the idea, will it work?
Apple TV 160gb, to download music directly to the hard drive.  I can do this using an ethernet cable to my laptop.
DAC
Stereo
Ipod touch or Ipad for a screen and remote, NO TV or internet.

In theory this should work, I shouldnt need a screen if they make a remote app for both those devices(ipod touch and ipad) and what is the internet good for if I am not downloading or streaming movies or tv shows.  This seems it will be a cheap alternative to a dedicated laptop or desktop in my stereo room.  All help will be appreciated and i might be completely off on this idea.  Thanks all, Nick

[bmwr75]

Your thinking is correct.  The only reason you might ever need to hook it up to a TV is to do the initial set up.  After that, no TV connection needed, all control can be via the REMOTE app for the Touch and iPad. 

[Reverend]

I have a 160gig appleTV and love it.  It's synched wirelessly to my home network and laptop so any new music/movies in itunes will load onto the apple tv.  I use the optical out straight to my Theater Grand DAC and use my iphone to control it.  It works and sounds awesome.  I do have it hooked up to my HT system as well so I can watch movies.

You can't download something directly to the appletv (at least not my version I don't know about the ones without a hard drive), but you can rent/buy movies directly.

[non-prophet]

How does the sync work?  Via bluetooth?  wi-fi?  I barrow my internet connection at the house.  Will this all work without a proper internet connection?  My laptop is new so there shouldnt be a problem.  I just dont completely understand where the music comes from if its not downloaded on the apple tv hard drive.  If I have an ipad full of music it can instantly be played on the apple tv, without downloading?  Thank you

[Reverend]

The sync is wifi.  When you first setup the appletv you have to setup the connection to your wireless internet.  Then using itunes on your computer you would setup the wireless connection between the appletv and computer.  Once that is all setup, when you open itunes it will automatically find your appletv and be synched to it.

There are two ways to play music through you apple tv.  With the older version with internal hard drives you have two options: 1) Have itunes on your computer automatically update whatever is in your itunes library  to your appletv hard drive.  This is how I do it so I have my music saved at two locations.  Also, with the music on the appletv's hard drive it will work faster and stream easier.  You don't have to have your computer on, since everything is stored on the appletv hardrive, you can just use your iphone/pod/pad as a remote. 2) You can setup your appletv/itunes not to update each other.  You're computer is then the hard drive and the appletv is just a means to stream your music from itunes.  To have this work properly you have to have your computer open and itunes on at the time.  I'm not sure if this is the same for the newer appletv's without internal hard drives but i image it is.

[tinpan]

I have both 3 old Apple TVs and 2 new ones.

I leave my Mac on all the time anyway, but the new ones don't have hard drives, so you need to leave your PC on and stream wirelessly from your PC.

What is shocking with this set up is the quality of the sound you get by playing lossless audio files instead of MP3's.

The reason Apple did away with the hard drives is they are moving to streaming everything like NetFlix. I am on satellite for internet connection so i don't see that as a benefit, buut I haven't had any jitter problems with either version of Apple TV

The convenience factor is icing on the cake.

[tinpan]

I recently bought a Synology home NAS Server to hold all my digital media for sharing between
devices I have at home (PC/MAC/DROID/BOXEE).

- Masterblaster

Hmmm..... which one did you get?

We need to hear more about this set up. From what I am reading you can buy this and a WD 2 TB drive for about $ 250.

[bmwr75]

I barrow my internet connection at the house.  Will this all work without a proper internet connection?  My laptop is new so there shouldnt be a problem.

Since you are borrowing your internet connection, that could be a problem.  My understanding is you need a computer running iTunes and a wireless router for the new Apple TVs that don't have a hard drive.

If you can find an old ATV with hard drive, you could sync to it from your laptop using a router and hard wire ethernet cable.

[MasterBlaster]

I recently bought a Synology home NAS Server to hold all my digital media for sharing between
devices I have at home (PC/MAC/DROID/BOXEE).

- Masterblaster

Hmmm..... which one did you get?

We need to hear more about this set up. From what I am reading you can buy this and a WD 2 TB drive for about $ 250.

I got the DS 411J. Its a 4bay unit $350 without the drives.
I thought about one of the 2 bay units, but I wanted more capacity, and fault tolerance.

Synology's web site goes over the features pretty thoroughly. Do you have any specific questions?

They offer a wide range of models for home and business use to fit anybody's needs.
The entry level model is a single drive unit, with their high end system can support up to 15 disks.

Here's a shot of the connections on the rear. As you can see there are 2 USB, 1 Ethernet, and power.
I have it connected to my Fubar IV USB Dac. It worked without any fuss at all.

[OldiesButGoodies]

No surprise here,  thegreek and OGB are not entirely on the same page on this,  I love Apple stuff, as well as Windows and Linux and anything with a processor inside (and I am running all three on my Macbook Pro right now  ).  No beef against Apple from me - stock has gone up 13x in the last 5 years so they are doing something right.  I have an original Apple TV since it was introduced.  It is a great device for playing audio or video files and for browsing podcasts.  I have Boxee installed on mine and enjoy that user interface (a usb hack).  The orignal AppleTV will not run Netflix on Boxee,  BTW - the processor is too weak for that.  For what you are describing it should work fine.  

The ATV you are using needs to be on the same subnet as your laptop.   If your laptop or iphone are borrowing the same internet connection then they are in the same subnet and should work fine (but you are going to eat up bandwidth on that subnet if you are streaming).  The protocol used by Apple is proprietary - DMAP (Dig Media Access Prot),  but other apps had reversed engineered it (Ex. Songbird) - until iTunes 7 came along and added a hash check that no one has figured out yet (but you can still install itunes 6 from oldapps.com,  if you want to circumvent that).

I like the fact that I can walk with my laptop or ipad to my AppleTV connected to my setup and use the ATV as "speakers"  for playing stuff on itunes.

AppleTV2 is a streaming device - no storage there - and not a fit for what you are looking for,  IMO.  Apple believes users were confused by ATV 1's functionality,  so they dumbed it down to pure streaming,  but made it easier to use.  This made it less of a niche product,  in theory.

Hope this helps.

Pepe

[non-prophet]

Ok, one more time.  No TV or internet, whatsoever.  An older 160gb Apple TV (with music downloaded onto the hard drive).  Will I be able to use and ipod touch or ipad to control the Apple TV?  If so, will the music from the ipod touch or ipad (not downloaded onto the Apple TV) be able to be used? 

[Reverend]

Will I be able to use and ipod touch or ipad to control the Apple TV?

No.  You need a tv and wireless to setup the appletv to recognize the ipod or ipad.

If so, will the music from the ipod touch or ipad (not downloaded onto the Apple TV) be able to be used?

No.  Since you have no wireless and you can't setup your appletv to recognize you're computer you won't be able to use it.

So, no wireless internet, no tv = you can't use it.

[OldiesButGoodies]

Agree,  not Lan setup thus no way to control the ATV from the Touch.  But...  you can always get a used wireless cheap router and set up a local LAN to facilitate that,  not requirement that the LAN be connected to teh internet for that to work...

[non-prophet]

OBG, you are saying a wireless router will work without any internet...  These are the kind of questions i need answered. 

[bmwr75]

OBG, you are saying a wireless router will work without any internet...  These are the kind of questions i need answered. 

That is correct......you need a wireless router.  No internet connection needed.  And, you only need the ATV connected to a TV to do the initial set up.  After that no TV needed if you have an iTouch running the REMOTE app.