TheMacJedi

I look forward to owning an Apple TV. First I’m going to have to get a widescreen TV which is the only kind they work with. They also work with 480p TVs but what’s the point in that?

I don’t currently own an Apple TV but I do own an Xbox 360. And as it turns out the Xbox is one hell of a good video device. I have a 500GB external USB hard drive formatted as FAT32. It must be FAT32 for you to be able to connect it to your Xbox 360. Once connected to your Xbox 360 over USB you can watch many video types. I’ve been using Handbrake to convert my DVD movies to M4V video files. I’m using Handbrake’s Apple TV Take 2 settings with 2-Pass. Then I transfer the video files to the Movie folder on the external hard drive.

I can easily select the hard drive from the Xbox 360 menu and play any movie or TV Show (Firefly) I have on it. And they look fantastic. You can also put image files on the drive and view them from the Xbox. I plan on getting a PS3 (maybe) by the end of this or beginning of next. The PS3 will also read this same drive connected over USB and play the same video files or view image files.

The Apple TV has been out for a year now and it’s one USB port currently serves no purpose. When I get an Apple TV I want to be able to connect my pre-existing 500GB external USB hard drive to it. And have it play the movie files I’ve already encoded. I am making sure to select Apple TV specific settings.

Why does it matter. Because I really like the idea of all my movies accessible from one location. This is taking time and effort to setup. It would be nice not to lose the effort when it comes to the Apple TV. If the Apple TV never supports external storage, the drive will remain connected to the Xbox 360 and will continue to be my main source for video content. I already rent more movies from Xbox Live than iTunes or TiVo.

“Apple, by the time I get an Apple TV could you enable external storage through the USB port? And make sure it can read FAT32 so I don’t have to reformat and transfer all of my video files.”

My previous article is about the iPhone connecting to my TV. This would give me the ability to watch TV shows and Movies from the iTunes store on my television.

But why not take it one step further? Apple has already given iTunes similar functionality to that of Sony’s LocationFree. With an Apple TV you can connect to different iTunes enabled computers to stream audio and video. And you can stream audio from iTunes to different Airport Express (Airtunes) routers. That indicates that data flow can be both directions. Apple TV pulls data from your iTunes enabled computers and iTunes pushes data to the Airport Express.

Apple, give me the ability to browse iTunes media on my local network with my iPhone and the iPod touch.

Let’s say that I have an iPhone (and I do) or iPod touch and I want to view something on an iTunes enabled computer. I wake my iPhone or iPod touch and click the SHARED button (Apple already uses the SHARED directory in iTunes when it detects other iTunes on the same network). After pressing the SHARED button I would be presented with a list of all iTunes enabled computers. Upon selecting one I would be presented with the options to choose between the different types of media: Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts and so on.

I think this is similar in functionality to the way a PSP can view media from LocationFree or a PS3.

This would give me the ability to watch or listen to anything on any of my iTunes enabled computers on my local network. This would work the same way if I was at a friend’s house and he was sharing from iTunes.

Or what about the new deal with Starbucks. Imagine going into Starbucks and being able to listen in full to the same music that’s being played instead of 30 second clips of the previously played songs.

I doubt I’m suggesting something that those Apple Ninjas haven’t already thought of but I want to go ahead and say I want it. Apple likes to claim they think of stuff we want before we even know we want it. Most of the time they really do give me something I hadn’t thought of or knew I needed but when I have it I can’t do without it.

This time I want something before Apple told me I wanted it.