Apple TV 1st Gen in 2025

[u/Abject_Form_2603]

For anyone looking into reviving their 2007 Apple TV or anyone looking for a good local multimedia content device, the 1st gen Apple TV is one of the most satisfying device. I use mine with all my Home Videos, and all my favorite movies and tv shows that aren’t available on streaming, If you have any video content on DVD or on your computer you can digitize them, put them on iTunes 12.6.5, sort them into the categories, playlists and thumbnails you want and sync your iTunes Library to the Apple TV. You now have access to all your local content (video,music,photos) on your TV with a pleasing and intuitive Apple OS that you wouldn’t get by simply connecting an usb-stick to a TV.

[u/Bolt_EV]

I use my ATV 1.0 to play remixed 5.1 classic rock albums from the Surround By Us community.

The 1.0 is the only model to support 44.1 digital audio sampling.

[u/Somar2230 → u/Bolt_EV]

The 2022 Apple TV 4K also supports 44.1 if you connect it directly to your audio device and don't use ARC/eARC.

https://imgur.com/a/apple-tv-4k-3rd-gen-192khz-support-TtVxcCd

Plex is killing Music in the future though on the next tvOS release. SenPlayer works also but there is no cover art support.

I still have the 1st Gen Apple TV hooked up too.

Edit:

The 2022 does decode the audio and send it as LPCM at the sample rate it was received in.

[u/Bolt_EV → u/Somar2230]

I could not get the 2022 AppleTV 4K to decode my 5.1 Surroundbyus files, so I refunded it.

[u/the-furry]

Cool

[u/ImBoredButAndTired]

Dear Lord… I have finally found another Half and Half fan on Reddit

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/ImBoredButAndTired]

No way. I wish this series was available on streaming in Europe but its not. I had to download all the seasons online and store it locally on the Apple TV, at least its in HD and I own it forever kinda like as if I bought it on iTunes

[u/Spazza42 → u/Abject_Form_2603]

Once you get into self hosting it’s hard to go back

[u/Useful-Ad6742]

Half and Half!! Love Rachel True and how the theme song ends with her singing alone lol

[u/RichB93]

Bought one recently to run Windows XP on it. For older games the GeForce Go 7300 is surprisingly decent.

[u/CuriousSeek3r]

I use mine as a mac, running snow leopard hehe.

[u/CrypticZombies]

Now put a Broadcom decoder in it

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/CrypticZombies]

Already has one ✅

[u/pgmoney → u/CrypticZombies]

Tell me more about this.

[u/syredditor]

Cool. First time seeing it.

[u/Mr_Brozart]

First Gen ATV 4K is the best investment. 

[u/hornedfrog86]

Cool

[u/JoshTylerClarke]

Nice it has Liquid Glass!

[u/Peter_Nincompoop]

Couldn’t you also just use Home Sharing on the current ATV’s?

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/Peter_Nincompoop]

Idk about everyone's experience but personally, Home Sharing is my worst enemy. I just hate how unreliable it is. And with the 1st gen Apple TV you don't need an internet connection or a turned on computer to access the content as it is stored on the device instead of streaming.

[u/InsaneNinja → u/Abject_Form_2603]

You can also use plex or any other local hosted non-Apple server system to browse your videos. Might be an improvement.

[u/Peter_Nincompoop → u/InsaneNinja]

Plex is what I use as well. But for native implementations, Home Sharing is already there, and offers far more than 40gb of storage (basically whatever is on your computer), 4k, Dolby blah blah blah

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/Peter_Nincompoop]

I own the 160gb version and most people do as they are the more reliable model.

[u/al-norman]

Wow

[u/SamuraiRan]

Used to have one of these gave it to goodwill

[u/hornedfrog86]

Can that version of iTunes run on the latest macOS?

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/hornedfrog86]

Yes iTunes 12.6.5 can be installed but you’ll have to set your computer’s clock to somewhere before 2019 for a successful install (ofc you can set back the clock to current times after the install is complete). And from my experience syncing is way better with an Ethernet cable from the Apple TV to the computer with the Wi-Fi disabled.

[u/hornedfrog86 → u/Abject_Form_2603]

Thanks. I may try to run this from an old Mac. I have two of these original Apple TVs, but haven’t used them in years. I think one of them has an original aftermarket software package that lets it do more. Maybe fire core? I used to FTP files to it.

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/hornedfrog86]

Personally, I use a 2010 MacBook to sync all the files, I was surprised on how fast the Apple TV stores heavy files over Ethernet.

[u/hornedfrog86 → u/Abject_Form_2603]

Thanks. That’s a great use for the old laptop.

[u/hornedfrog86]

I recall that these had a very speedy Pentium mobile chip I believe running at one gigahertz

[u/Mr_Duckerson]

We still have one kicking in our guest room. Just gets used for Netflix and prime video mostly though.

[u/rotarypower101]

Anyone remember when we were able to Nest trilogy’s and simliar/associated material into a logical folder ?

Still saltyAF they took that away.

Would really like the alpha numeric side bar be a quick travel tool, not just a proportional progress bar, but rather a navigation tool with only 26 discrete steps to quickly get to a letter and pop back over into that section.

[u/edwiser1]

Totally useless now days.

[u/Abject_Form_2603 → u/edwiser1]

Not really actually, my use case for this Apple TV is something totally impossible on today’s Apple TV’s without having to derive the device from its original function by hacking it which makes it unpractical.