Tetsuo Time

I think I have the AppleTV squared away mostly. The previous flash drive I tried using to install software on it didn't work. However the one recommended by ATVFlash worked like a charm. It now has boxee (to access the internet video services other than youtube which comes built in). It has perian and flip4mac to access videos other than the quicktime\itunes approved ones. It can access network shares and any media files that are on them.

Right now I got about 50GB worth of movies\videos on my computer in a shared folder and it can see them all. I spent quite some time customizing how the folders\files display on the AppleTV... when you are going through the list it shows movie posters and for folders it shows PNG images of my choice. I did have some troubles at first of course with getting it to connect and then I had to change some settings to get some videos to play better but it works great now.

The only thing is I don't want to fill up my hard drive with just videos so I'm still planning on getting a network attached storage unit later which will make my video library independent of any computer. There's one that has 2TB and is about $320 that I have my eye on.

The USB support ATVFlash installs works good too.. and having keyboard makes entering searches a lot easier. I would like to get a wireless RF keyboard for the AppleTV to put on the coffee table. I found a mac specific one online that also has a trackpad that would be ideal for that.

I've even installed some emulators on the AppleTV.. basically it's a stripped down Mac running a special version of Tiger. The only emulator I haven't gotten to work yet though is the Nintendo 64 one. But I've hooked up a gamepad and played NES and SNES games already on there. They look better than they used to back in the day. The colors are much more pristine and clean. A wireless gamepad would be ideal for this.

I think I have the AppleTV squared away mostly. The previous flash drive I tried using to install software on it didn't work. However the one recommended by ATVFlash worked like a charm. It now has boxee (to access the internet video services other than youtube which comes built in). It has perian and flip4mac to access videos other than the quicktime\itunes approved ones. It can access network shares and any media files that are on them.

Right now I got about 50GB worth of movies\videos on my computer in a shared folder and it can see them all. I spent quite some time customizing how the folders\files display on the AppleTV... when you are going through the list it shows movie posters and for folders it shows PNG images of my choice. I did have some troubles at first of course with getting it to connect and then I had to change some settings to get some videos to play better but it works great now.

The only thing is I don't want to fill up my hard drive with just videos so I'm still planning on getting a network attached storage unit later which will make my video library independent of any computer. There's one that has 2TB and is about $320 that I have my eye on.

The USB support ATVFlash installs works good too.. and having keyboard makes entering searches a lot easier. I would like to get a wireless RF keyboard for the AppleTV to put on the coffee table. I found a mac specific one online that also has a trackpad that would be ideal for that.

I've even installed some emulators on the AppleTV.. basically it's a stripped down Mac running a special version of Tiger. The only emulator I haven't gotten to work yet though is the Nintendo 64 one. But I've hooked up a gamepad and played NES and SNES games already on there. They look better than they used to back in the day. The colors are much more pristine and clean. A wireless gamepad would be ideal for this.

I stumbled upon this. Speakeasy actually supports sharing your broadband with your neighbors giving them it for a low price and reducing your price in the process. The only type of connection they have available to me is T1. Their T1 costs $359 a month (around half of what I thought it would be). I think I was actually thinking of Bonded T1 (more than one line combined into one) when I was thinking of the price before. This actually sounds more attractive than getting a WildBlue Enterprise account ($200 for 38GB a month download and 10GB a month upload).

I would need to get gear from a place like here. Question is.. would a single 1.5Mbps T1 line be enough to share with a few neighbors? I'm thinking it's probably a more reliable and consistent 1.5Mbps and it's also probably synchronous with the uploads. If I charge 9 people $40 a month I should be able to make $360 a month.

Now only if I could find 9 people and get money for the initial investment in the line and necessary hardware.... it wouldn't work to invest in it and not have enough people to sign up. They advertise in their brochure that the user can get broadband for as low as $20 a month. I'd have to sign up 16 people other than myself to cover the cost of the T1 line at that price. That means less bandwidth per person. I'd rather go with $40 x 9 (including myself if I have to). They say they handle the billing. If they charged each user just $20 when using a T1 line making their part be $180 and stuck me with the rest (the other half) that wouldn't work out as well.

Of course with $40 x 9 people I'd pretty much only break even so it wouldn't be good as a business. Hmmm.....