In a sweeping move of brilliance, apple decided to NOT include an "owner useable" usb port on the device (don't be fooled by the SERVICE-ONLY usb lying in the bushes to the rear).

Apparently (unlike the balance of the free world), apple feels that we have reached the point where wireless technology is reliable and expedient enough to render a usb archaic for even the largest data x-fers (53 gigs in my case).

This affords the consumer a myriad of benefits, please witness:

1. Insanely crippled file transfers. I have a lynksis 160n router that is the carl lewis of w-less routers imo (I've owned 6 in the lst 12 months). That said, with ONLY the apple tv operating on my network, 9 hours was not enough time to x-fer even 35 gigs.

2. The above scenario is particularly useful if you own a laptop and it actuallly needs to be taken to work in the morning. Br prepared to literally set aside an entire day to x-fer your files if you have to actually return to work within 24 hours (they actually expected me to come in on a Thursday?). Think you can just stop it and continue when you get back? Ha!! What a fool!!

3. Merely asking the device to stop syncing will lead to one of three options:

A. syncing will stop, and ALL of the tranferred data will be erased from the appletv.

B. syncing will stop, and ALL of the transferred data will be erased from the appletv.

C. syncing will stop, and ALL of the transferred data will be erased from the appletv.

Oh, I'm sorry, did I say three options? I meant 1, my mistake!!

Yes, you CANNOT stop the syncing process an pick it up later. That means you WILL transfer 40, 50 , 60, or 100 gigs wirelessly nonstop and you WILL like it.

I found this out the hard way of course (is there any other route?).

Ignorantly, I figured 9 hours would be ample time to allow the complete transfer of the 50 gigs (I was averaging 15 songs a minute for the first 20 mins or so). 15 a minute X 60= 900 hundred songs an hour X 9hrs = 8100 songs (I have about 7000 total, almost all mp3's ripped at 320). Cool. Go to bed, end of process.

Wrong.

I guess my math really needs work, cause NINE hours later, it was about 75% complete. Who knows what happened (or more precisely: what didn't), it was still x-ferring about 12-15 a minute upon my a.m. arrival. Awesome. Just awesome.


I had a proposal for work today that required my laptop. No problem! I'll just give it (the appletv) a long lunch break and finish it up tonight. That of course is when I awoke the beast. Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect $200.


Great, we can start all over again tonight. I guess I really dont have anything better to do. Hell, that's probably the main reason I got this thing in the first place!

Now, if you have a desktop and plenty of time on your hands, or you're a streaming junkie, who finds no practical use for actually storing your media within your home theater, I'm sure you'll find the omission of the usb trivial and a thoughtful, "cost saving measure".

If however, you live in the real world like me, you'll find the vacancy laughably shortsighted, maddening, and even arrogant.

I really hope this ends my discovery of significant shortcomings of this device. I was fully aware of its streaming/codec limitations from the beginning, but I purchased it anyway based on its ease of use and other strengths. I strongly urge others consdering it to think long and hard and and inform yourself of other options.

This is not a bash-a-thon, this is just some advice. It does what it does rather well. It's of course what It DOESN'T do that's got my beans steamed.


I am hoping that the future will reap (through a firmware update prhaps?) the installation (or conversion) of a useable usb to end this foolishness.

For $350, I don't think that's asking too much.

Consider yourself warned.

James

This is one of the reasons I would never Consider buying anything Apple - You pay $350 , and then they control how you use it - not good , but I guess this works for them with many buyers that dont think otherwise..

Regards..

Teddy

This is one of the reasons I would never Consider buying anything Apple - You pay $350 , and then they control how you use it - not good , but I guess this works for them with many buyers that dont think otherwise..

Regards..

Teddy


You know I think the same way, but I just loved the idea of being able to transfer all of my itunes files (apple lossless, apple acc's with the lovely id tags, etc) with no problems and the slick interface for the better half.

I haven't lost too much sleep over the codecs cause they're surmountable with a little energy (and $).

I do like a lot about it though, even while I fully acknowledge steve job's relentless pursuit of turning your entire entertainment experience into apple-world.

I'm a sucker for stuff just "working", and apple products seem to do just that...albeit with some intital shortcomings that are sometimes daunting (see above).

James

Apple is almost as bad as Sony....they like to control every aspect of what you do...and because its all done by committee it rarely works...Macs crash as often as PC nowadays...the only place they should be used is in a hairdressers' foyer...

I'm a sucker for stuff just "working", and apple products seem to do just that...albeit with some intital shortcomings that are sometimes daunting (see above).

James

Yes I agree totally.This has been the Key to Steve making the money he has and making Apple a Brand,sadly the impulse I have not to be told/controlled what I can do with my content, over rules it for me,but I respect/understand that this is not everyones view..

Yes I agree totally.This has been the Key to Steve making the money he has and making Apple a Brand,sadly the impulse I have not to be told/controlled what I can do with my content, over rules it for me,but I respect/understand that this is not everyones view..

No doubt Steve and Apple are in it for the money, but alot of the DRM stuff has been dictated by the content owners and not Apple. I think you will find most of the other content streamers discussed in this forum are probably playing pirated copies of content.

As for the OP, doesn't the appleTV have a built in ethernet port? Did you try using that to sync up?

It is silly to have a usb port labelled in the spec and unused, or was it that you could sync an ipod with it at some point?

No doubt Steve and Apple are in it for the money, but alot of the DRM stuff has been dictated by the content owners and not Apple. I think you will find most of the other content streamers discussed in this forum are probably playing pirated copies of content.

As for the OP, doesn't the appleTV have a built in ethernet port? Did you try using that to sync up?

It is silly to have a usb port labelled in the spec and unused, or was it that you could sync an ipod with it at some point?


who knows?

I'm into my 6th hour tonight and I've got about 4000 songs transferred. I'm praying that my wireless connection is good through the night, because I've also discovered that a lost connection ERASES everything on the a-tv too. wondeful.

If this fails I'll definitely go to the ethernet option.

james

ugh...the appletv has an ethernet port. What is the problem :confused:

Unfortunately, the masses will be lining up to buy their products thanks to advertising. For the most part people are uninformed sheep grazing on their cup of designer coffee as they type away on their airbook, sitting in a starbucks, grooving to whatever music is "in" this month.

You could direct connect it to your router and it would go a lot faster. Also, if you have a mac you can just plug ethernet to ethernet and it'll transfer faster too.

A. Has 10/100 ethernet. It will max it out at around 12mb/s, which means the total transfer should take around two hours.

B. Has 802.11n . I can get my Apple tv's to max out at around 16mb/s. 53gb would take around an around hour to transfer.

USB would be nice, but either way it would top out at around 21mb/s realistically, and you would have to have your computer near (15ft) your apple tv.

Apple is almost as bad as Sony....they like to control every aspect of what you do...and because its all done by committee it rarely works...Macs crash as often as PC nowadays...the only place they should be used is in a hairdressers' foyer...

Care to back up this statement? Not to turn this into a war, but with windozs users like this with their head up their a$$ making blind statements like this. Please give me a freaking break.. And of course you have been using Mac's for how long? You have a personal experience with this? Most likely not....

dear steamed beans,
youse pays yer money and youse takes yer chances!:eek:



i dont know if that applies but what the hey!:D