Feed your Apple TV with Archive.org
The Internet Archive offers many treats to its visitors. These range from the WaybackMachine web page archive to a 38-thousand-plus live concert recordings collection to its nearly 200,000 eTexts, and that doesn't even touch videos. Archive.org's Moving Image archive is chock full of video already compressed to MP4 that you can load to your iTunes library and sync to your Apple TV without any further conversion or data massaging.
Yes, sure, the quality isn't great--but it's free, it's historical and a lot of the material is just plain fun. Expect a data rate around 350 kbps (more or less) and you won't be too disappointed by the results. For comparison, consider that a standard iTunes video runs at 1500-2000 kbps and a new High Def Apple TV video runs at closer to 4000 kbps.
Animations like Betty Boop, Looney Tunes and Felix the Cat are plentiful. Other standout items include old timey newsreel fodder and full-length features like My Man Godfrey.
