For a point of comparison, the original AppleTV debuted with a 40 GB drive. Then, Apple began offering it in 160 GB versions. We can upgrade either to 320 GB internally. And we can go up to 2 TB with an external drive.

You do still need to send us the AppleTV for us to prepare your unit with the external, since it requires an internal, reversible modification to route a cable out of the box for the external drive.

Final note: these upgrades only work on the original style of AppleTV, pictured above, with storage. The newer, black AppleTVs are streaming-only and can’t support local storage at all.

See our 2 TB AppleTV upgrades.

We’ve been upgrading AppleTVs to 320 GB of storage space for quite a while, but we’ve never gone beyond that, since no compatible internal drive has been released larger than 320 GB. But there was enough demand for more storage space that we developed our AppleTVs with external storage, using our single-drive external cases.

Beyond getting more space by going external, this also keeps the temperature of the AppleTV way, way down.

So why would you want the older AppleTV? The big difference is whether you want your storage local, and thus more dependable, or streaming, and therefore reliant on either a fast internet connection or a server elsewhere on your network.

If you want to just dedicate storage to the AppleTV, and make sure it’s always there when ready, this is the unit for you. We hear from customers in many situations who prefer the local storage approach for these reasons:

• The main computer in the house is a laptop, so if the laptop isn’t there and storage isn’t local, the AppleTV has nothing to stream.
• The AppleTV is in a business like a doctor’s office, so it can play songs endlessly with local storage, and doesn’t use internet bandwidth.
• Many use an AppleTV to store digital camera images for use in a home theater.

So what’s the drawback to the original AppleTV? So far, it’s that it doesn’t stream Netflix. And, since the new AppleTV is based on the iOS platform used by the iPhone/iPod/iPad, Apple is likely to develop more features for it down the road. But if you’re looking for a great way to store music, photos, and video right at a unit in your living room, with a great Apple interface, the original AppleTV with 1 TB of storage is the perfect product.

And, if you already have an AppleTV, we can upgrade it!

So we’ve added that option to our site in two ways. You can:

1 – Buy a complete AppleTV with 320 GB of space

2 – Upgrade your AppleTV to 320 GB of space

Either way, see our AppleTV Upgrade page.

If you have a unit, you do need to initiate the software download to get the new software (whether or not the hard drive has ever been changed). This only takes a few minutes, and you get a progress indicator.

Finally, now I can crash on my couch and watch Silver Spoons – with no commercials!