Old Apple TV cannot connect any more to YouTube and Google claims responsibility

[michelangelo]

Hi. I have owned for a long time an Apple TV old generation, with a 500GB hard drive. Its system is up to date. I used to connect it gracefully to Youtube. That was, I believe, before Google purchased YouTube. I have not used this Apple TV for a long time and, now, revert to using it. I want to watch Youtube movies (like the "Security Now" serie) in my living room on TV. Alas, the Apple TV cannot access to anything YouTube so I started to (re)login to youTube from the Apple TV, using my Google account credentials. The mac, the iPad and the iPhone, access to YouTube. I do not remember ever configuring their access but they work (at least for watching movies). When I did my attempts (login and password) from the Apple TV, it failed and the Apple TV screen informed me that my password, or mi login, were wrong. 1/2 hour later I received an email from Google stating that someone in my area (I am positively sure that was ME) had attempted entering my google account and that Google denied this access on grounds of unsatisfactory security features of the attempting machine (I am positively sure that was my Apple TV). I did two further attempts:

1 - Reduce the security requirements on this Google account. According to Google, this is possible, but not recommended, but necessary for weak devices like iPhones. I did that, it failed but Google stopped informing me it denied my access.

2 - Create a specific one-time ever password (4 groups of 4 lower case letters which google created for me on internet access) for my apple TV with loose instructions on how to insert them in the Apple TV at login time. Again, this failed.

I did not find any hotline (advice on how wrong I may be doing, yes, but help, none), on Google.

Does anyone on the list have experience on this quite frustrating event (attempting to connect an Apple TV to youtube simply for the purpose of watching movies and failing repetitively) ? Advice to come through ? TIA

[Lifeisabeach]

You are on the ORIGINAL Apple TV? Egad, just get rid of that thing. It hasn't seen an update in years. It is actually running on a modified version of Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), which is quite ancient now.

[michelangelo]

Yes. Thanks for the advice, which hit me as affecting among my most important values. I proudly verified that, as you imply, mine is a grey apple TV (1st generation), identified on the back by its model number: A1218. It sports a 160 GB internal HD and proudly connects to the mac by WIFI or ethernet. Connects to the TV set by HDMI (or alternatively by a bunch of multicolored cables not provided in the box). I like it. I also verified on Apple website that newer models, starting from the black second generation, do not have internal HD anymore. I do not do video streaming at home except for slow youtube. The reason for that is I am a proud computer caveman with (since over 10 years) one of the slowest ADSL connections on earth (current test is 1.24 Mb/s down, 738 Kb/s up). IMHO, installing a more recent Apple TV without HD would compel me to upgrade my ADSL to higher values. This would cause France Telecom delight. Not mine. It seems, as you suggest, that the Apple website is not ready to help and I confirm this Apple TV never seems to require an upgrade. Time to go to a genius bar with this Apple TV 1st generation under my arm...

Unless anyone would have a suggestion for upgrading it... to the extent of satisfying the Google internet police.

[Slydude]

Before you take the Apple TV in to the Genius Bar, give them a call first unless you just want to make a trip there. I suspect they will tell you that there is nothing much, short of purchasing a newer Apple TV, that can rectify this problem.

I share your desire for keeping older gear running but I don't think much can be done here.