Is Apple TV good for me?

Hi,

I am a new switcher to Apple, and would like to have the following function at my house:

Have my films that I downloaded/purchased sitting on my Samba (Linux) server, and watch it through my TV. Can Apple-tv just pull the file(s) from a networked drive and play it through my TV? If not, I guess I can just upload the films to the Apple TV's HDD and play it back from there? I would rather have the streaming though..

I have a semi-old TV, and will upgrade only next year. Semi old = SCART and RCA inputs only. Can Apple TV hook to my TV via SCART or a simple Stereo audio cable and a single (not component) RCA (yellow one) cable?

Thanks for all answers,

Ben

The Apple TV only has HDMI and Component outputs, so you you'll need a new (non CRT) TV to be able to use it.

Also, only material in Itunes or your Photo library can be synced to the box, this can take a while but does mean you can watch/listen to anything you have with out a computer switched on, or you can stream upto 5 computers to it, again from iTunes.

The new YouTube facility is quite fun and if you put HD material on it, it'll really show off your new TV!

Thanks for your answer,

Is there a way maybe to temporarily, until I have a new TV, connect it through some converter cable to my CRT TV? Its a semi-nice flat Wega TV and would wait to upgrade til next year.

As I am completely new to Macs, would you mind if I ask something dumb? Is there a way to have your iTunes library on a Networked drive elsewhere? My wife and I are both getting Macs, so it would be nice if we had only one iTunes library hosted on our Linux server. Then that could be synced to the Apple TV, and we would be brilliant happy

Thanks

Ben

UKDave said:

The Apple TV only has HDMI and Component outputs, so you you'll need a new (non CRT) TV to be able to use it.

Click to expand...

Not quite true, I had a JVC 32" CRT TV that had a component input, the green RCA jack could be switched by menu between composite and to serve as component, and the red and blue were also available for the remaining component hookups. AppleTV looked quite nice. Even better when I bought my 1080i HDTV a month later.

bence8810 said:

Is there a way to have your iTunes library on a Networked drive elsewhere? My wife and I are both getting Macs, so it would be nice if we had only one iTunes library hosted on our Linux server. Then that could be synced to the Apple TV, and we would be brilliant happy

Click to expand...

Your linux share would have to be mounted before you load iTunes.

Just change the library location in iTunes preferences to reflect the location of your Linux share.

You can also enable "Sharing" in iTunes preferences and load all your music on one Mac, and when iTunes is open it will be visible to the other Mac running iTunes.

Then you can get an Airport Express and enable AirTunes and broadcast your music to your home theater system.