Apple TV
13/10/08 21:19 Filed in: Hardware
Ah my Apple TV we where together for such a short
time, oh for the time to get to know you better.
Okay from that introduction you would be thinking
maybe that I liked my Apple TV.
Well I guess I kind of did, it’s just that we sort of had this love hate relationship. Let me explain...
Through a complex series of debits owed between a friend and me, I ended up with an Apple TV. Even before I had the thing it had lived an interesting life, an e-bay purchase it had been hacked and basically ‘bricked’, but that didn’t put the buyer off, in fact it was nice challenge to get it back up and running, which he did.
It still wasn’t quite right since due a missing or empty partition it could never update beyond version 1 of the software. This didn’t really bother me, I wanted so I could listen to my many podcasts with out having to have cables running across the room or Mac running at the time.
So I got the thing and straight away had problems firstly due to the fact I had the firewall up on the mac then my very slow B only wireless connection caused all sorts of problems. Ah, it looked like the bad lay lines that run through my flat where effecting my equipment again. I kid you not, new gadgets that work fine else where start to have all sorts of problems when used in my flat!
Anyway I finally got the thing running on wired network, this was no real problem since I have network ports by my hi-fi stack.
I finally started to like the little silver box, now that I could use it. This didn’t last long!
The dam thing started blowing fuses every time I switched it on. Out came the power supply. I figured one of the capacitors in had gone short circuit (you can tell I used to be hardware geek can’t you!) But nothing looked wrong on the power supply, so it ended up on the back burner and lost on the surface of my desk for while. In fact it even found it’s way in to esktops">this post.
Months passed. I had started to bond with the thing, but it hadn’t reached the point where I needed it, so the poor little beasty sat unpowered and unloved...
Anyway my friend finally persuaded me to try it again and after a few more blown fuses I found that 2 amp fuses where not quite enough, but 3 amp fuses just worked. So it was up and running again and once again I started to bond with it.
There where still problems however, like the fact that because I was using HDMI to connect it to my TV (it was the only input I had left), it would only play back with the TV on. Switch the TV off or change away from the HDMI input and the out put was muted, the playback wasn’t paused or anything like that, just the output muted. Wired!
Just as I though I was getting to like the box, it decided to try something else.
I have a timer connected to my hi-fi, it’s a 70’s vintage bit of kit and in fact it’s been in my hi-fi stack as long as I’ve had one! I used to use it to switch the hi-fi on and off to record radio programs, now days I can do that with my cable box an TVIO, so the timer is now just central switch for everything than doesn’t need to be on all the time (basically everything but the TVIO and cable box). This timer uses a relay to switch the power and the Apple TV decided to weld the contacts on this closed.
I now couldn’t switch the dam thing off without pulling the plug. Garrrrr
I put up with this for a few days and then having put me through all of this pain, the Apple TV’s hard drive then decides to die! So I had the box for maybe 5 months and got to use it for maybe 3 weeks. Okay so a lot of that time was me not really bothering to sort out the problems, but that shows that I didn’t really care that much about not having it!
True is was nice to see Cali Lewis on the big screen, but all this has convinced me of what I first thought about the Apple TV, it’s half a good idea.
Next time, if there is next time (and if there is it won’t be anytime soon) I’ll go for a Mac Mini and put XBMC on it, that way I get all of the cool stuff the Apple TV could do, plus everything that a full Mac can do. Okay it would cost more but...okay yes that is the point I couldn’t afford to do it right now, but maybe some day soon....
Oh in case your wondering the poor little thing has gone back to the friend I got it from in the first place where one day it will rise again and curse my life once more!
Well I guess I kind of did, it’s just that we sort of had this love hate relationship. Let me explain...
Through a complex series of debits owed between a friend and me, I ended up with an Apple TV. Even before I had the thing it had lived an interesting life, an e-bay purchase it had been hacked and basically ‘bricked’, but that didn’t put the buyer off, in fact it was nice challenge to get it back up and running, which he did.
It still wasn’t quite right since due a missing or empty partition it could never update beyond version 1 of the software. This didn’t really bother me, I wanted so I could listen to my many podcasts with out having to have cables running across the room or Mac running at the time.
So I got the thing and straight away had problems firstly due to the fact I had the firewall up on the mac then my very slow B only wireless connection caused all sorts of problems. Ah, it looked like the bad lay lines that run through my flat where effecting my equipment again. I kid you not, new gadgets that work fine else where start to have all sorts of problems when used in my flat!
Anyway I finally got the thing running on wired network, this was no real problem since I have network ports by my hi-fi stack.
I finally started to like the little silver box, now that I could use it. This didn’t last long!
The dam thing started blowing fuses every time I switched it on. Out came the power supply. I figured one of the capacitors in had gone short circuit (you can tell I used to be hardware geek can’t you!) But nothing looked wrong on the power supply, so it ended up on the back burner and lost on the surface of my desk for while. In fact it even found it’s way in to esktops">this post.
Months passed. I had started to bond with the thing, but it hadn’t reached the point where I needed it, so the poor little beasty sat unpowered and unloved...
Anyway my friend finally persuaded me to try it again and after a few more blown fuses I found that 2 amp fuses where not quite enough, but 3 amp fuses just worked. So it was up and running again and once again I started to bond with it.
There where still problems however, like the fact that because I was using HDMI to connect it to my TV (it was the only input I had left), it would only play back with the TV on. Switch the TV off or change away from the HDMI input and the out put was muted, the playback wasn’t paused or anything like that, just the output muted. Wired!
Just as I though I was getting to like the box, it decided to try something else.
I have a timer connected to my hi-fi, it’s a 70’s vintage bit of kit and in fact it’s been in my hi-fi stack as long as I’ve had one! I used to use it to switch the hi-fi on and off to record radio programs, now days I can do that with my cable box an TVIO, so the timer is now just central switch for everything than doesn’t need to be on all the time (basically everything but the TVIO and cable box). This timer uses a relay to switch the power and the Apple TV decided to weld the contacts on this closed.
I now couldn’t switch the dam thing off without pulling the plug. Garrrrr
I put up with this for a few days and then having put me through all of this pain, the Apple TV’s hard drive then decides to die! So I had the box for maybe 5 months and got to use it for maybe 3 weeks. Okay so a lot of that time was me not really bothering to sort out the problems, but that shows that I didn’t really care that much about not having it!
True is was nice to see Cali Lewis on the big screen, but all this has convinced me of what I first thought about the Apple TV, it’s half a good idea.
Next time, if there is next time (and if there is it won’t be anytime soon) I’ll go for a Mac Mini and put XBMC on it, that way I get all of the cool stuff the Apple TV could do, plus everything that a full Mac can do. Okay it would cost more but...okay yes that is the point I couldn’t afford to do it right now, but maybe some day soon....
Oh in case your wondering the poor little thing has gone back to the friend I got it from in the first place where one day it will rise again and curse my life once more!
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