xboxuser
04-03-2007, 04:16 PM
Very excited to read about OSX on Apple TV! :)
I have a few pretty obvious questions if anyone can help, as I'm new to the concept of using a computer as a media center as I've always used the excellent XBMC on an Xbox.
I have a Sony Bravia HD LCD TV - it has one HDMI port and one regular set of hi-def inputs. At the moment, I am always unplugging my XBox 360 from the component inputs so I can plug in my regular modded Xbox 1 that I use for XBMC to watch all my media files on the TV. This means I have an unused HDMI socket on the TV - if I can use an Apple TV running OSX as my media player, connected by HDMI, I could leave my Xbox 360 permanently connected via component. This would be great!
But before I go and buy an Apple TV, I've got a few questions regarding usability after installing OSX on it:
1) - I already have a USB Apple keyboard and mouse to hand, but I see that the Apple TV has only one USB. Can I connect a hub to this first, then my keyboard and mouse to that hub, as well as a USB HDD? I ask this because I have most of my media files on external USB hard drives in enclosures already, so it would be very convenient if I could have a mouse, keyboard and external HDD connected to the Apple TV so I could drag files from my external drive over onto the Apple TV's internal HDD.
2) - I'm a bit confused about audio - is it accepted that this works? A couple of the forums I've seen say it's not working but I can't beleive this. I am going to get sound and video out of this thing, right? :p
3) I can't remember what the native resolution of my Sony Bravia is, but I think it's something like 1366x768, which I'm told is a fairly standard panel TV resolution. At the moment, I have a PC connected to it via the standard VGA input, and am running Power Strip to set that exact resolution. As a result, I get lovely perfect pixel mapped graphics from the PC - looks amazing, like a huge great TFT monitor :) Can I expect the same kind of display quality via HDMI? I've never connected a computer to a panel via HDMI before, only stuff like DVD recorders etc.
4) I'm also pretty new to networking. I read that wi-fi is working great under OSX on the Apple TV, does this mean it would be possible to set up some kind of wireless share between the XP PC in my bedroom, and the OSX Apple TV in the next room? Would be great if I could browse and play content on the PC, wirelessly on the OSX Apple TV. A shared folder / folders or whatever.
Sorry for these basic questions but I'm very keen to try this Apple TV hack and just wanted to know that my basic requirements from it would be met before I drop the $300 :D
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
Mark.
I have a few pretty obvious questions if anyone can help, as I'm new to the concept of using a computer as a media center as I've always used the excellent XBMC on an Xbox.
I have a Sony Bravia HD LCD TV - it has one HDMI port and one regular set of hi-def inputs. At the moment, I am always unplugging my XBox 360 from the component inputs so I can plug in my regular modded Xbox 1 that I use for XBMC to watch all my media files on the TV. This means I have an unused HDMI socket on the TV - if I can use an Apple TV running OSX as my media player, connected by HDMI, I could leave my Xbox 360 permanently connected via component. This would be great!
But before I go and buy an Apple TV, I've got a few questions regarding usability after installing OSX on it:
1) - I already have a USB Apple keyboard and mouse to hand, but I see that the Apple TV has only one USB. Can I connect a hub to this first, then my keyboard and mouse to that hub, as well as a USB HDD? I ask this because I have most of my media files on external USB hard drives in enclosures already, so it would be very convenient if I could have a mouse, keyboard and external HDD connected to the Apple TV so I could drag files from my external drive over onto the Apple TV's internal HDD.
2) - I'm a bit confused about audio - is it accepted that this works? A couple of the forums I've seen say it's not working but I can't beleive this. I am going to get sound and video out of this thing, right? :p
3) I can't remember what the native resolution of my Sony Bravia is, but I think it's something like 1366x768, which I'm told is a fairly standard panel TV resolution. At the moment, I have a PC connected to it via the standard VGA input, and am running Power Strip to set that exact resolution. As a result, I get lovely perfect pixel mapped graphics from the PC - looks amazing, like a huge great TFT monitor :) Can I expect the same kind of display quality via HDMI? I've never connected a computer to a panel via HDMI before, only stuff like DVD recorders etc.
4) I'm also pretty new to networking. I read that wi-fi is working great under OSX on the Apple TV, does this mean it would be possible to set up some kind of wireless share between the XP PC in my bedroom, and the OSX Apple TV in the next room? Would be great if I could browse and play content on the PC, wirelessly on the OSX Apple TV. A shared folder / folders or whatever.
Sorry for these basic questions but I'm very keen to try this Apple TV hack and just wanted to know that my basic requirements from it would be met before I drop the $300 :D
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
Mark.