Pimp my Apple TV

by Volker Weber

appletv

Next week I want to give an Apple TV a chance to compete against my EVA. While the Atv shines at user interface design and iTunes integration, it will have a very hard time if I don't add some capabilities. Not everything but the kitchen sink, but I would like two features:

  1. play unsupported media from iTunes on my Mac across the network, especially DivX and Windows media
  2. play files from an SMB share, UPnP AV or Home Media Streaming Server

I would like to keep the Apple UI, just add the codecs and transports. Any Apple TV users out there who have done this?

Comments

What about HD material, say, in 720p?

Daniel Haferkorn, 2008-11-16

Have you tried Boxee or XBMC?
Via Lifehacker

Joachim Bode, 2008-11-16

- The Apple TV is way too slow for real HD material, not enough CPU power.
- Keeping the Apple GUI is no problem - most if not all hacks are geared towards extending it with extra functionality.
- Fastest and easiest way, but rather expensive ($49,95): http://www.atvflash.com/ Worked like a charm for me.
- If you have time to spare and enjoy the challenge, follow the instructions available on http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/
- Once hacked, you can access smb shares on your local network without problems. Extra frontrow plugins like Sapphire will allow you to access mounted volumes (network shares or external disks)
- Btw, Sapphire is also a great addition for Frontrow on regular Macs.

Conclusion: As a stationary iPod attached your TV and limited to play iTunes content the Apple TV downright sucks. As hacked device it has a great GUI and is fun, but lacks the CPU power to play HD content.

Lutz Lademann, 2008-11-16

Having to turn your TV on to use ATV to play music sucks - use the IPhone / iPod touch with Apple's "Remote" control application and it is a pleasure to use.

It's a pity, however, that Cover Flow doesn't work in "Remote" for the ATV, only for iTunes on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

John Keys, 2008-11-16

Joachim, Boxee is in alpha and not yet stable enough.

Lutz, I need to learn what the minimum hack is. ssh, Perian, WMV, and Sapphire?

John, I am not going to use it for music at all. It's video, and maybe photos. Music is played through Sonos.

Volker Weber, 2008-11-16

Use atvusb-creator to easily make a patchstick and install ssh, then copy NitoTV (http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/NitoTV_Take_2) to the atv. That should take care of all you need.

San Dema, 2008-11-16

I do all of those things on my 2.2 aTV using Boxee with no problem... it's alpha but I have found it to be very stable on mine... used it to view podcasts, hulu, cbs, movies/tv shows off of a connected usb drive and over smb. Sapphire is also excellent but unfortunately they haven't released a version compatible with the 2.2 firmware yet... I have used it many times with 2.1 however and it works great also. You can build the patchstick yourself or do what I did and just purchase from applecorellc.com. For me it was worth paying for the convenience but others would certainly disagree.

Kirk Kuykendall, 2008-11-17

I wanted to patch my Apple TV for quite some time now. Vowe, your post finally pushed me over the edge. Last night I created a patch stick myself.
I found these two videos found on the boxee blog quite helpful:
- http://blog.boxee.tv/2008/11/02/how-to-creating-the-patchstick-for-apple-tv/
- http://blog.boxee.tv/2008/10/06/how-to-video-boxee-on-apple-tv/

I updated to the latest boxee version and it works just fine. I was able to watch videos residing on my Netgear ReadyNAS. I just wish Hulu wasn't so restrictive from a European point of view...

Markus Dierker, 2008-11-17

I know of a guy who cracked his Apple TV to make it do all the stuff he wanted. Just weeks later, he bought an iStarHD like mine.

Ben Rose, 2008-11-17

I thought about the AppleTV for a couple months - but decided against getting it.
For alternate network media player, I am quite impressed with my NeurosOSD and my PS3 - though the PS3 doesn't play all codecs, it does play the divx and xvid quite well and upscaled through the HDMI connector as well. NeurosOSD unfortunately is still without DVI/HDMI.

Serge Tailer, 2008-11-17

The Awkward TV wikis are your friend - there are details there on how to get ssh installed, then add on perian (for unsupported video) and SMB access. They are somewhat version dependent though.

I've hacked ours to use Boxee, which is fairly - but not totally - stable, but to be honest, I just use my macbook to re-encode all the video to mp4 now. If you're watching TV, the last thing you want is for anything strange to happen, so simplest is best for us!

Warren Elsmore, 2008-11-17

I agree on the simplest is best. But re-encoding is simply too much of an effort.

Volker Weber, 2008-11-17

This may help you: http://www.applecorellc.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=27

Karen Hobert, 2008-11-17

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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