Setting up Apple TV to use with your Home Entertainment System

A member asks…

I want to use my new Apple TV with my home entertainment system. I have a Bose receiver. Tried to do it myself and it didn’t work well, so I had to call the Bose tech support line. They helped me somewhat, but I’d like to make sure I have things setup ok, can you run me through the setup?

Bose and other ‘receiver’s in a home entertainment system have multiple HDMI inputs on the back for stuff like DVD players, cable boxes, and the like. That includes an Apple TV, although the Apple TV doesn’t come with an HDMI cable, just a port on the Apple TV that you can use with a cable to connect to one of the inputs on your Bose receiver. Read on for more detailed instructions.

I’m guessing you already have your Bose system connected to your entertainment system and working with other services (like cable TV), so you don’t need to mess with that. What you’ll need to do is:

1. Connect your Apple TV to an HDMI cable, and connect the other end of that cable to the HDMI input on the back of the Bose Receiver
   • Choose an input port that you can identify on the front of the receiver by name – likely there’s no port and button named “Apple TV” but you can use any other free port, such as DVD/VCR, Game TV, or Aux (AUX1, AUX2, etc.).
2. With your Apple TV also connected to electric power, turn on your home entertainment system, switch the Bose to use the port you connected to the Apple TV, and use the Apple TV remote to power your Apple TV on, so you can go through the setup.

You’ll need to do a one-time setup of your Apple TV, which includes connecting it to your home wireless network, logging into your Apple ID account, and installing any software updates it needs. If you use other services like Netflix, you’ll want to log into those as well. And finally, if you have iTunes on any home computer, you can turn on Home Sharing, and connect that computer wirelessly to your Apple TV. That has two big benefits:

1. You can play from your music library on iTunes through the Apple TV and your home entertainment system
2. You can set iTunes on your computer to show pictures from your digital image library (on a PC, the My Pictures folder, on a Mac, the Pictures folder), and then set the Apple TV to display those pictures either as a slideshow or screensaver.

And lastly, you can rent or purchase movies, TV shows (or complete seasons), and other digital media right on the Apple TV, they’ll get added to your Apple ID account and will be available to your computer as well.

November 2013 Update: Mike had the Apple TV’s HDMI cable plugged into the VCR HDMI port on the back of the Bose receiver, and everything was connected just fine. But when he switched the Bose receiver to the VCR input, nothing showed on the TV. The solution was very simple, just press any button on the Apple TV’s remote – the Apple TV is always powered on, but normally ‘sleeps‘ and shows nothing on-screen till you wake it up by pressing a button.

One of the value-added reasons our Practical Help has become so popular is that we cover the gaps between different brands and types of equipment. In Mike’s case, talking to Bose wasn’t very productive, because they don’t help with Apple products. Similarly if he’d tried to talk to Apple folks about this, they wouldn’t be able to guide him on his hookup to Bose equipment.