My AppleTV's hard drive has started failing on me. It's time to make a decision.
In practice, we mostly use the AppleTV to get music from Pandora (we run Boxee on our AppleTV, which coexists nicely with the normal AppleTV system). We occasionally use the AppleTV to access our music library, on the Mac upstairs, via Apple's various walled-garden services (iPhone Remote, etc.). When I download the occasional video from BitTorrent (mostly Top Gear), I stream it through Boxee.
Option #1: buy a new laptop-class hard drive ($60-ish) along with a PATA/USB adapter ($15-ish) and then
clone my old hard drive to the new one. Given how hot the AppleTV runs, I'd appreciate advice on whether any laptop hard drives might have particularly lower heat output. (Link for posterity:
template for getting at the screws without removing the rubber foot.)
Option #2: wait for the
Boxee Box to come out.
Option #3: buy some other sort of set-top media box like a
Popcorn Hour.
Option #4: wait to see if TiVo's new software magically turns my current TiVo HD into a decent streaming box. I originally got the AppleTV because I was unsatisfied with the TiVo's ability to do much of anything over the network, but TiVo has
announced Pandora support "in the coming months", which might well work.
A buddy of mine has the Popcorn Hour and loves it, particularly with it's ability to play ripped Blu-ray. I'm okay, for the moment, with playing my BD discs in my BD player, but ripping is definitely a longer-term goal.
The Boxee Box is attractive, since I mostly use my AppleTV to run Boxee, and the Boxee Box would support 1080i and 1080p, which the AppleTV can't handle. (Well, if I transcoded the video just exactly so, then maybe it would work, but at that point, I could also transcode for the TiVo.) I imagine the Boxee Box will be cheaper than a Popcorn Hour. It might even support Blu-ray playback at some point. The hardware should certainly be fast enough.
So... any thoughts on these different options?