AppleTV Upgrade Kits from WeaKnees: 160GB for $249

/ Adam Nash

So, in case you missed my earlier post, I got an AppleTV last month and it is just awesome. For a 1.0 product, phenomenal. I think Apple is really onto something here, but that’s a topic for another post.

One of the biggest criticisms of the AppleTV has been the relatively small 40GB hard drive. The AppleTV can stream video content from your computer, so it doesn’t actually need to download everything. But, it can’t stream photos or music (yet), and so if you have a big media library, you can get into an issue where you are micromanaging which content will appear on the AppleTV and which won’t.

I’ve used the AppleTV to be a personal, video-on-demand solution for my son, who at 2 1/2 man-handles DVDs to the point of destruction. I’ve ripped most of his movies to iTunes using MacTheRipper and HandBrake, so he has his own video library easily accessible

My son Jacob (who is 2 1/2 years old), loves the AppleTV. In fact, it’s one of the few phrases he’ll reliably hit on in the morning.

However, each movie takes up about 1-2GB, so we’re already maxing out the storage. There are instructions online on how to swap out the drive, but WeaKnees goes one better.

For a fairly small premium, WeaKnees will swap out the drive for you, and hand you back a 160GB AppleTV. Or, if you haven’t bought one yet, you can buy one new from them for $549.

I became a WeaKnees fan in 2002, when I realized that while I could upgrade Tivo drives myself, it wasn’t worth the time & effort. Just buy the drive pre-formatted from WeaKnees, and do the rest yourself.

Definitely worth checking out.

One thought on “AppleTV Upgrade Kits from WeaKnees: 160GB for $249”

  1. Correction: It does stream music. It just doesn’t stream photos.

    I ended up getting one for my birthday, and so far am pretty pleased with it. The only thing that really sucks is that the TV episodes don’t come with the “nest time on…” clips that you get on broadcast TV. For most shows, that’s not a big deal, but for shows like Heroes or Lost, I think I’ll be sticking to TiVo for those for the foreseeable future.

    If I had a Mac and the time to scan in the couple hundred physical photos I have sitting in a box somewhere, the 160GB upgrade would be awesome. Even if they are overcharging for the stand-along version ($100 extra for not buying the @TV from them? Crazy). But I’m surprised someone hasn’t come out with an external 3.5″ drive enclosure that has the same form factor and can plug in through USB, like LaCie and others did for the Mini.

    While I have a few small gripes here and there, I have to agree with you. For a 1.0 product, this puppy is kicking some serious butt.

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