External USB Support

Legacy 2nd gen Apple TV
1

This is a must have feature for aTV Flash!!! I have a 2TB eternal hard drive that I use to store a few hundred movies as well as a bunch of TV shows. I do not want to have to have my laptop up and running every time I feel like watching a movie. I’ve held on to my 1st Gen AppleTV just because I can use my external USB drive. I’ve been with FireCore for a few years now but am finally getting the feeling that FireCore is simply waiting for someone else to come up with a fix. The 2nd Gen AppleTV came out in September 2010. How does a feature that seems like the very first feature that should have been added still exist only in random wish lists for features users would like to see?

aTV Flash for the 1st Gen AppleTV is a brilliant product that I have been more than happy about, and have had absolutely no problem supporting.

aTV Flash for the 2nd Gen AppleTV is a severely deficient product that lacks the basic features that made the 1st Gen AppleTV (& aTV Flash) such a great product.

 

I’m sure last.fm and a weather app are great features, but give us USB support!

2

USB drive support is unlikely to every appear for the ATV2 as it has no hardware support for USB Host capability, and as far as I know this cannot be worked around in software.

3

Then what is the purpose, or functionality, of the mini USB port on the back? Surely a port was not installed if it were to be completely dormant and unused. 

4

It is a USB Slave port. This is why the ATV2 can be connected to a PC/MAC and the firmware on it updated via iTunes (where the iTunes end is the Host).