XBMC with apple tv 2

a) Put a notice above your router saying that you will cut off the hands of those who disconnect your hdd from the router.

b) Put the router and the hdd inside an electrified bird cage.

c) Super glue the usb cable connecting the router and the hdd.

d) kill all your housemates, just in case.

All great suggestions haha!

You can just plug any of the following directly into the Ethernet port of the Apple TV 2:

Airport extreme/time capsule + USB drive
NAS drive
Mac Mini

(2012-03-05 16:15)Ned Scott Wrote:  

Parrish416 Wrote:I don't know if that's the best idea since my router is downstairs and people could unplug my hard drive.

Someone could also walk up and punch you in the face. The questions to both situations are "why would they?" and "why are you in a situation where people would do that?"

This quote made my day.

Back to the topic at hand, I'm with the others on the recommendations - if your router has the USB capability, take advantage of that. If you are looking at adding more hardware, I'd go with a NAS solution.

You can either buy an off-the-shelf NAS solution or you can use an existing PC which would be on all the time as a NAS.

Personally, I run a low-power ION based computer in my living room as my main HTPC. I keep it on all the time as it runs all the main services I use (Sickbeard, Couchpotato, SABnzbd). That computer also serves as a NAS device - all of the hard drives that are plugged into it are served across the network. In addition to that, the main HTPC and the other XBMC nodes in the house (Apple TV 2) are all running off the same database on the main HTPC so all my content is synchronized throughout the house.

I find that I already have everything I need without any need for a NAS or sickbeard/couchpotato usenet solutions due to add-ons like 1Channel and navi-x.

Have you heard about powerline networking?. That is faster than wi-fi. My modem and router and media server (amahi) is in the basement which always on, my appleTV is in the main receiving room, desktop (win7 running xbmc on my kids rooms), appletv on master bedroom and an HTPC on the Rec room. They're all using powerline networking, no cabling and local/online streaming is fast.

if you don't like your local streaming source to be on all the time and you want online streaming, install 1Channel addons, its better than icefilms.

So help me. Assuming i have a Apple TV with xmbc, can i directly stream movies from a network drive (wired/wireless) directly to HDTV, without having a mac (or windows running iTunes) in between?
Something of this kind is possible through western digital...

(2012-07-15 06:31)dchandok Wrote:  So help me. Assuming i have a Apple TV with xmbc, can i directly stream movies from a network drive (wired/wireless) directly to HDTV, without having a mac (or windows running iTunes) in between?
Something of this kind is possible through western digital...

Yes, it's a full install of XBMC. See iOS FAQ and the general XBMC FAQs linked on that page.

(2012-04-02 19:48)go501 Wrote:  Have you heard about powerline networking?

But you have to be carefull with that since this may trigger other problems. The solution is quite good, if you have everything in place. But you need to know how your house is wired. I for one have two different power-cycles for my living room and the rest of the rooms, since my actual router is connected in the living room, I couldn't use powerline networking easily...
Just an example, but you have to be on the lookout.
You _can_ have problems with interference, noisy powerlines, etc. - in the end it totally depends on the wiring in your home.