Need to Sync Apple TV to a new Mac

Question

Dear all
I am sure that this has been asked and that there is a simple solution but I can't find it.
My problem is simple. I've an Apple TV that is paired to my 'family knock about' MacBook. This MacBook has recently been dropped and is broken. The iTunes purchased content on my Apple TV is now in a state of limbo. I want to transfer all of the purchased content (movies, TV shows) from my Apple TV to my new iMac and use that as my main household machine but I can not find out how to without re-setting my ATV and losing all of the purchased content.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Thank you.

Answer 1

JIMWILX wrote:
Dear all
I am sure that this has been asked and that there is a simple solution but I can't find it.
IMPORTANT
Please note if you try to set up the new machine to be the sync computer as I describe here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2560493&tstart=0
...then all existing content will get deleted from AppleTV.
Afraid there's no simple solution to transfer from AppleTV - AppleTV is not designed as a backup - if you have backups of iTunes content on external drives you would be better to use that to populate the new iTunes.
My problem is simple. I've an Apple TV that is paired to my 'family knock about' MacBook. This MacBook has recently been dropped and is broken.
Do you know if the hard drive is broken?
The iTunes purchased content on my Apple TV is now in a state of limbo. I want to transfer all of the purchased content (movies, TV shows) from my Apple TV to my new iMac and use that as my main household machine but I can not find out how to without re-setting my ATV and losing all of the purchased content.
Unfortunately there's no official way to do this which is why you;ve not found an answer.
Any help would be very much appreciated.
Your options are as follows:
1 - If say the laptop screen is broken but all else works ok just you can' use it, I would try starting the Macbook in Target mode assuming it has a Firewire port. Next connect it to the iMac with a Firewire cable and try to access the data in the individual user partitions.
2 - If Macbook won't start or no Firewire, try and get the hard drive out to see if it works and stick in in a USB caddy to read via the iMac.
3 - Contact support for iTunes store explaining you had an accident and that all purchases have been lost from the Macbook which no longer works - they may at their discretion re-enable all the downloads but MAKE SURE you do it on the iMac and not inadvertently to the AppleTV again.
4 - Unofficial unsupported route of applying a software hack/mod to allow network access to AppleTV from the new computer, or cracking AppleTV open and using the hard drive (note it's 2.5" PATA) as in 2, but make sure you only copy media and don't alter things.
Of course if you have backups of purchases etc on CD/DVD/external drive that would probably be the simplest way to get stuff onto the new computer.
Good luck.