Reader Jeff Heyl turn over add together to his stable of Apple gizmo but wish well to roll in the hay about configuring it for both grownup and pre - full-grown enjoyment . He writes :

I have an Apple video 2 and am thinking of append another one , depend on your answer . With two Apple goggle box I ’d like the Thomas Kid and adults to be capable to watch different programs in dissimilar suite drawing on the same repository of movies and television appearance ( on a MacBook Pro ) using the same WiFi web ( there is only one web in the house ) . Is this potential ?

Yes .

Much as I enjoy giving one - tidings solution , I can expand on that a bit . Not only can you play two different movies from the same source to two Apple television , you’re able to play different share of the same movie on the two devices . So , for good example , if you and your helpmate have settled down to watch a movie , find yourself half - way in , your daughter returns home after street - luging practice , and exclaims , “ Hey , I wanted to see this ! Start it over . ” you’re able to politely suggest that she move to the rumpus elbow room and look on the moving picture — from the beginning — on that Apple TV .

And you may because it ’s all just data . We ’ve developed this notion that the playback of sound and TV is necessarily a linear operation because of the medium on which we ’ve salt away and access that content . For object lesson , you listened to medicine on an LP by drop a needle at the starting time of a groove and let that acerate leaf run through the distance of the vallecula to move from start to culture . Or , in the days of tape measure , you watched a movie by playing a VCR tape recording from the beginning to the end . You could n’t play two parts of that content simultaneously because only one portion could be read at a metre .

But computers and the specialized computers we call by other names ( iPod , iPad , Zune , Mildred ) do n’t get at media that way . They have the ability to access multiple chunks of data . To them , playing both the eye and beginning ofThe Loved Oneis no more challenging than at the same time playing the first episode ofPolice WomanandTwin Peaks’unsatisfying finale .

And this may lead you to ask , “ If that ’s the eccentric , can two iPads using iOS 4.3 ’s Home Sharing feature bet different movies from the same rootage information processing system ? ”

Apple TV (2nd gen., late 2010)