alternative to apple tv?


I recently bought a new apple tv. Most of my music is on the iMac in my study. I wanted music in my living room, so I set it up to download wirelessly from the iMac to the apple tv and from there by component video to my 60" hdtv and by toslink to a dac and then to my integrated amp. I did it that way because I wanted to be able to read and control my music library (which was on the iMac in my study) while seated about 12 feet from the speakers in the living room. Because the apple tv displays this on the big tv, even I can read it, and can control it with the remote. It works well - when it works.

But today the apple tv crashed (no audio or video from it), and apple's "expert" told me that it crashed because it overheated. He said it has to be turned off regularly or it will get too hot. There is absolutely nothing in the manual about overheating - and in fact no instructions as to how to turn it off. Even the trouble shooting section has no mention of overheating. There is plenty of air around the apple tv. I can leave any other component on without it overheating. I think apple should be ashamed to put out a product with such a problem and hide the problem from consumers.

I just got the thing and can send it back. Here's my question: is there something else I can get that will do the same thing - (1) receive and store music wirelessly from the computer, (2) display the music library on my tv, (3) connect to my dac, and (4) allow me to control the music library remotely?
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I put my appleTV on some little rubber grommet spacer things - one on each corner to raise it up 1/4 inch so air will circulate under it. The thing does get really alarmingly hot. I turn it off at night sometime by switching off the power supply. But who know if that is an issue or not. I was thinking of adding a giant aluminum heatsink - but alas a very low SAF...

or a USB powered fan.
There is no fan in the ATV- so while the supervisior is right that crashing is abnormal- he isnt very familiar with the product.

My ATV runs hotter than I like, but October will be one year of smooth operation. (knock knock knock) I have found that adding some small rubber feet to the bottom to get some air flowing underneath will cool it down a few degrees. (Still runs hot though)

Also- in my opinion if you are using the ATV for music- your missing the boat if you dont get an iTouch with the "remote" application. This allows direct access to the ATV in the palm of your hand. You can access tunes much faster and there is no need to turn the big tv on.

-Rob
There are some freebie fan control / temp readout routines for Mac.....Google.
My IMac 24" ran hot at the start, maybe as hot as the Apple store demos. Fan speedup means I can now hear the fan or fans and it runs much cooler.

Could there be a similar readback for the Apple TV?
I talked with Apple again. Supervisor said the overheating thing was nonsense, if it overheated there is something wrong with it (probably the fan not kicking in), send it back. They are sending a new one. Thank you for the responses.
Sorry I vote for number one. About two weeks after I got my mac mini it crashed. The folks at apple fixed it for free but don't let thrm fool you even the apple equipment breaks.

Just get it fixed and go again. They got to say something.
I use the apple tv exactly the way you do and have had it over a year. What you were told is nonsense. Any computer can suffer a crash and the apple tv is a computer. There are instructions for rebooting in the manual or you can pull the plug for 10 seconds and then restart. If it crashes repeatedly something is wrong with your unit and it should be replaced.
My experience is with the AppleTV so can't help you with other suggestions. How long have you had the unit? My AppleTV has been running flawlessly for five months, and it is in a closed cabinet....

My experience with Apple iPods is that the quality control seems poor and some units go on forever and others fail quickly.