If you want to make the most of your old Macs, you can recycle their parts for many uses, such as a router, signal extender, or media server. You can also stream videos to your Apple TV from old Macs. These ways will save you a lot of money and space.
Get Everything Out of Old Macs
Use as a Router or a Signal Extender
Instead of tossing your old Macbook Pro, repurpose Used Mac Parts as a router or signal extender. These devices are great for connecting to wireless networks, especially those without wired connections. The old Mac’s hard drive is ideal for turning into a network-attached storage device (NAS), which can store and share files between multiple devices.
To make the old Mac into a Wi-Fi hotspot, connect it to Ethernet, then place it in an area where you need a Wi-Fi signal. Once connected to the internet, use Mac’s System Preferences to configure it to share internet access. In a few clicks, you’ll have a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Streaming Video from Apple TV
If your Mac doesn’t have the Apple TV streaming capability, you can still connect it to a TV using your HDMI cable. The type of connection you use will depend on your Mac’s age. If your Mac is newer, you can use the Mini DisplayPort interface. Otherwise, you can use an HDMI cable and connect to your HDTV.
Connect the Apple TV to the Mac and adjust its screen scaling. You can adjust this setting in System Preferences. You can use the “Underscan” slider to zoom the TV display. You can also use the “Scaled” checkbox to select the resolution for your television.
If you want to use an older computer, you can find an old Mac and use its parts to upgrade your Mac. The newer models are more powerful and faster than the old ones. Apple has also started partnering with TV programmers to offer more channels. Once the new Apple TV launches next month, some channels will only be available on Apple devices. If Apple can disrupt the cable giants, it will have an exciting impact on the media industry.
There are a few minor problems with Apple’s Apple TV app. Some of these issues are related to metadata. Bad metadata causes the video to show the wrong image or skip an episode. In some cases, the Apple TV app cannot even find the video you’re trying to watch.
Using it as a Media Server
If you have a Mac with a large storage drive, you can turn it into a media server. You can load the computer with media and then use the server to share files with the rest of your home network. To set up the server, you must connect your Mac to your router through an Ethernet cable.
Macs with older CPUs are ideal media servers. Older Macs can also cache downloads for content client devices, reducing bandwidth usage. This will make it quicker for devices like iOS to install apps. In addition, you can use an older Mac to prevent your server from sleeping when it isn’t in use. You can disable the sleep feature in System Preferences to prevent this from happening.
You can buy a Mac mini if you’re looking for a media server with a large storage capacity. These can be converted into media servers with enough storage to back up your photos, videos, music, and movies. Some configurations will even allow you to share your media across multiple devices via the internet.
An old Mac can also be a media server if you install an appropriate media server app. Some of the best options for macOS include Plex and Emby. You can also use Universal Media Server, Kodi, and Stremio. These apps can help you stream paid content for free. However, it would help if you were careful while installing third-party add-ons.
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