As an original 40gb Apple TV model owner, I often think of how awesome it would be if I was able to plug in an external USB hard drive to that USB port on the back of the Apple TV, especially with HD movie purchases now available. So if it’s not possible to plug in an external USB hard drive or any other USB device, why did Apple even put it there?

Officially, the USB port on the back of the Apple TV is only used for service and diagnostics. A USB keyboard, mouse, hard drive, or any other device will not be recognized by Apple TV.

Unofficially there are hacks to enable the USB port for external storage, but how about Apple making it easy and just enabling the USB port for things other then service and diagnostics in their next update.

We post tips and how to’s about the Apple TV from time to time on the site, but over time they get buried, so we’ve decided to create a new section just for these tips called The More You Know. On this page you’ll find links to help you out with anything from installing Boxee on your Apple TV to setting up your own home media server. If there are any other Apple TV features you would like to see us cover please feel free to let us know. Enjoy.

First off, for those of you who don’t know what Airtunes is, Airtunes allows you to wirelessly listen to your iTunes music library through your home stereo or powered speakers. Usually this is accomplished with an Apple AirPort Express base station. But did you know you can use your Apple TV in the exact same way. You can stream music from your Apple TV as a source or you can stream music from iTunes to your Apple TV and use it as a wireless speaker.

Using Apple TV as an AirTunes source

To keep from interrupting playback, at the Now Playing screen, you can press and hold the Play/Pause button on the remote and choose Speakers from the menu that appears. Or if you haven’t started playback, you can follow these steps:

1. Choose Settings > AirTunes.
2. Apple TV will automatically detect and list your remote speakers available on your local network.
3. You can choose whether or not to allow your AirTunes remote speakers to control your Apple TV by toggling On/Off the “Control from Speakers” option.
4. Select the speakers you would like to use.
Note: AirTunes can only be used to stream music.

Using Apple TV as an AirTunes speaker

1. On Apple TV, choose Settings > AirTunes and set “AirTunes Speaker” to On.
2. On the computer, open iTunes preferences (Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences. Windows: Choose File > Preferences)
3. Click Devices and make sure to select the box next to “Look for remote speakers connected with AirTunes.”
Additionally, you can choose to disable the iTunes volume control for the remote speakers, as well as the ability to control iTunes from your remote speakers.
4. Click OK.
5. Choose Apple TV from the bottom right in iTunes .

Did you know that you can view content on your Apple TV from multiple computer sources. There are two ways to get iTunes content from your computer to Apple TV – Paring/Syncing and Sharing/Streaming. Knowing the difference between the two can be difficult to understand at times. Syncing copies content from your iTunes library and stores it on Apple TV. Apple TV can sync with only one iTunes library at a time.

Sharing/Streaming on the other hand sends content from your iTunes library to Apple TV to enjoy during the streaming process. Content is not stored on Apple TV. Apple TV can stream up to five iTunes libraries via streaming in addition to the one it syncs with. So if your looking to get content from multiple computers on to your Apple TV, streaming is the way to go. It is important to note that your computer must remain on and awake during the entire streaming process and iTunes must be running.

How to Set Up Streaming:

1. Open the Settings > Computers.

2. Highlight the Add Shared iTunes Library menu item and click Play to continue.

3. Apple TV generates a unique passcode. Make a note of the passcode.

4. Open iTunes on the shared computer.

5. Select Apple TV in the Devices list and enter the passcode.

Many of us have installed Boxee on our Apple TVs and in the process we’ve installed other utilities such as Secure SHell (SSH). Why care? Well it opens up a lot of possibilities for you to access your Apple TV. If you are comfortable with the Terminal on Mac OS X (or command line in Linux) then you likely know about SSH and have already logged into your Apple TV, if not, this might seem like UNIX gobbledygook. Not to worry, there things you can do with SSH that don’t require terminal commands at all.

The Apple TV runs Mac OS X 10.4.8 (not sure about .8 or .7, Darwin version is 8.8.2) which means when you log in you have most of the same terminal capabilities you have on a Mac. If logging in from a Mac your Apple TV will likely have a Bonjour address already – AppleTV.local (possibly AppleTV-2.local). If using Windows or Linux you will need to figure the IP address of your AppleTV. This can be done through a network address scanner or directly from your router.

Apple TV’s default username and password are frontrow and frontrow. You may wish to change this since SSH is now enabled on your Apple TV to make it more secure. To login to your Apple TV use the following commands from the Terminal:

Mac:
ssh frontrow@AppleTV.local
Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator)
frontrow@appletv.local's password:
frontrow

Linux:
ssh frontrow@IP address of Apple TV
Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator)
frontrow@appletv.local's password:
frontrow

Once you are logged in you should see:
-bash-2.05b$

Try a simple command to list the files:
ls

You should see:
Documents Downloads Library Movies Music
-bash-2.05b$

For those Windows users out there I recommend Putty which has a visual interface for logging into remote hosts. Select the SSH protocol, port 22, user “frontrow” and password “frontrow”. That should log you in – be sure to save this profile for next time.

That’s a start. I’ll follow up with using SSH to transfers files and to perform some tweaking to enable external USB drives and Apple Filing Protocol (AFP).

Are you tired of losing that little white Apple remote that came with your Apple TV? Sick of switching back and fourth from one remote to another? Did you know that Apple TV can learn other remote controls and use them in addition to the Apple Remote. Here’s How:

1. Choose Settings > General > Remotes.

2. Choose Learn Remote.

3. Set your remote to a device setting that doesn’t control any other devices in the area or identify other buttons that do not already control a function on your TV or other device. Many third-party remotes have an option to control different devices such as a VCR or DVD player or have an auxiliary option for an unspecified device.

4. Select Start (using the Apple Remote included with Apple TV).

5. Apple TV will display icons that represent the six buttons on the Apple Remote with the “Up” or “+” button highlighted first.

6. Using your third-party remote, press and hold the button you would like to use to control the “up” function until the blue progress bar is full as shown below.

7. Apple TV will then select the next button function. Repeat step 6 using a different button

8. After you have programmed all six button functions, you can now use your third-party remote to control Apple TV. You can optionally setup specific playback buttons for Fast-forward, Rewind, Next chapter, and more.

You can always program additional remotes to control Apple TV by repeating steps 1-8. At anytime you can rename, delete or revise your button choices for a selected third-party remote by choosing Settings > General > Remotes and selecting a third-party remote that Apple TV has already learned.