# Looking for an Apple TV + Time Capsule solution



## Phat Bastard (Jan 3, 2003)

I'm in the market for a digital media centre to play music, videos and view photos on my TV, without the need for a computer. Of course I'm looking at the Apple TV.

I just bought a Time Capsule and I'd like to use it for storing my media since the 40 or 160 GB hard drives on the Apple TV are too small...unfortunately Apple TV requires iTunes to locate media, which means the Apple TV won't be able to find and use the Time Capsule storage.

I don't want to leave a Mac on to act as an iTunes server for the Apple TV since I primarily use a Macbook--this computer moves from home to work.

Of course I could sync the Mac with the Apple TV, but again, the built-in Apple TV hard drives are too small to store all my media. If only the USB port actually worked...

Am I correct here? Can anyone suggest a solution? What solutions have others been using?

It seems silly that, at least at this point, the Apple TV can't communicate directly with the Time Capsule and its ample storage.


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

outside of cracking it open and replacing the HD or hacking it to use a USB external drive there isn't a solution (and both of those limit you to a finite storage amount).

I like my Apple TV, but i think the fact that it needs iTunes running on a host machine to access & stream remote data is a real weakness.


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## Maverick (Sep 18, 2007)

I don't have, nor have even used, an Apple TV so this is purely speculative but if you could access the Apple TV and put an alias to the network volume in its "movie" directory, it would probably let you navigate it correctly (I did this with a version of Front Row on my Mac sometime ago)... just a thought.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

You either have to crack the Apple TV to open up its options or buy a Mac Mini as your head unit. I went the Mac Mini route as it gives me the DVD player for legacy titles I don't want to bother ripping, supports more formats and is just as easy to use given the Front Row update in Leopard.


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## 20DDan (May 2, 2005)

So there are those who have successfully hacked an appleTV and inserted lets say a 250GB HD in there... or even more? If you've done that... can you include the link?


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## guytoronto (Jun 25, 2005)

The better option is a Mac mini with a 1TB external FireWire harddrive.

No need to crack open the AppleTV. No hacks required.


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