Hi,
I am planning to buy AppleTV and I like the ATV Flash concept.
My questions are:
Is this worth?
what are your experiences with the product?

I heard some people complaining about the customer support.

I appreciate any feedback.
Thanks

Hadn't heard of that. You can do all of what they are offering for free (looks like the same applications in fact) and it ain't rocket science. I can't imagine their install method is much different than the freely available methods.

-Trouble

thanks for trying to answer.
I like the idea behind ATV Flash just because is one single package and all software based. So it looks like a simple thing to do.

I just want to avoid the idea of going many different places and fooling around with different solutions. I was just curious to see if anybody here used it and their impressions about it.

Cheers.

I use the boxee software on my ATV. Actually, I use the boxee patchstick which installs boxee and XBMC.

Generally I use the ATV software and XMBC. I find XMBC to be really nice for playing non apple compliant stuff.

I suspect you can get most of the good stuff from this ATV flash thing for free.

I suspect you can get most of the good stuff from this ATV flash thing for free.

For me the most important stuff is the support for external drives. Where can I get this for free?

Is it worth what? It's free. Of course it's "worth it". You are adding additional functionality to your ATV for free that wouldn't be there otherwise.

Is it worth what? It's free. Of course it's "worth it". You are adding additional functionality to your ATV for free that wouldn't be there otherwise.

ATV Flash is not free, it costs $50 :rolleyes:

Hi,
I am planning to buy AppleTV and I like the ATV Flash concept.
My questions are:
Is this worth?
what are your experiences with the product?

I heard some people complaining about the customer support.

I appreciate any feedback.
Thanks

Did you or anyone end up getting the AtvFlash bundle? If so any feedback?
Thanks

I just bought a new Apple TV and I'm also now looking at ATV Flash as one option...question is - what are the other options?

I'm aware that with a lot of hacking (patchstick etc.) much of the functionality of ATV Flash can be accomplished for free.

Here's what they say ATV Flash can do -

Key Features:
Play More Video Formats
Go beyond iTunes and enable your AppleTV to play media formats such as DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, RMVB & many more.
Enjoy DVDs the Simple Way
Store all your DVDs on a single device for easy viewing. No more searching through stacks of discs. Includes support for menus and special features.
Surf the Web
Visit your favorite sites, check email, and update Twitter all on your TV. Your couch is your new workspace.
Create Video Playlists
Keep tabs on your newly accessible media with playlists, which you can loop and shuffle as you please.
Expand Capacity with External USB Hard Drive Storage
Running low on storage space? Attach an external USB hard drive and gain access to more storage capacity.
Access Media Anywhere
Don't depend on iTunes any longer. Drag and drop media onto your AppleTV, or even stream it directly from most NAS devices. This feature includes support for FTP, SMB and NFS protocols.
Add More Apps
Extend the functionality even further by adding applications such as Firefox, Hotspot Shield, Vine Server and Mobile Air Mouse.
Take Control
Use the Loop™ pointer from Hillcrest Labs to gain enhanced control of all AppleTV features. Learn more about the Loop here.
Stay in the Know with RSS News Feeds
Keep track of your favorite news feeds by viewing them on your AppleTV.
Manage Your Plugins
The installed options on your AppleTV can be easily adjusted as needed.
Control the Show
Use an iPhone or iPod Touch to control your AppleTV with Apple's Remote app. Learn more about Remote here.

All I really need are the external USB access/drag and drop - and *maybe* ability to play different formats, though I think with Handbrake exporting into Apple TV format is easy?

The browser looks like it sucks. LOL

The idea of using it for a network storage/server is interesting but I'm not sure how that works. Bottom line - I just don't know if it's worth it other than for the convenience of doing an all in one mod packaged to be easier than DIY, at a price. (Plus $30 = total $80 if you want lifetime software upgrades).

http://patchstick.ca Patchstick 3.0 is one other I've found now...

LaunchMore! - Our own custom plugin lets you manage plugins, scripts, applications, RSS feeds, supports firmware management and automatic web updates - no need to re-create your Patchstick and re-patch after an update (notarized procedure)

USB support - Extend the storage capacity of you AppleTV with an external USB drive


ATVFiles - Play your multimedia files with this sleek plugin


Sapphire - Organize your media files by accessing IMDB information on the fly


XMBC - A comprehensive media center plugin for your AppleTV


Boxee - A cool social networking tool that lets you access tons of video on demand sites (Hulu, ABC, BBC, Joost etc.) and share it with your friends


HotSpot Shield - a great tool to allow anonymous surfing. Our software allows to start and stop HSS conveniently with your Remote control


FTP/SFTP/SSH Access - Access your Apple TV remotely to copy files and execute commands


Flip4Mac Video Codec Support allows you to play Windows Media files (.wma and .wmv) directly in QuickTime Player


Perian Video Codec Support offers an open source QuickTime component that adds native support for many popular video formats


Rowmote - a remote control for AppleTV via iPhone and iPod Touch


Jaman Movies - Watch independent movies on your AppleTV instead of having to sit in front of your computer


Adobe Flash player - Required for certain Boxee functions and also for the AppleTV Web Browser


openVPN compliance - Extend your existing openVPN based vpn solution to your AppleTV


aTVitter - Read and send tweets on your TV instead of your computer with our cool plugin

A lot of people said "try to do it on your own before going to the commercial patchers" - so I did.

It took a good day or so to figure it all out - but I have managed to use atvusb-creator-1.0.b10 to "patchstick" the Apple TV and now have Boxee running on it.

I enabled file sharing from the Mac (folder on an external Firewire 1TB HD) hooked into Boxee and wireless streaming is working perfectly. Brilliant! No limit on storage - no syncing with iTunes on the ATV - unless I want to.

It plays many formats including M4V conversions from Handbrake (currently can't play Video_ts folders but there is a hack for that too). Don't need anything else...and the folks at Boxee are doing a lot of development - all good!

If all you want to do is play your various different media files on an Apple TV - why pay when the solutions are out there and it's free? :D

boxee is great! - i just did this myself yesterday. the information to do this is spread out over a couple of different sites, so here it is all condensed for those interested. you just need a usb flash drive.

quick steps for those that are interested. hope this helps! :)

1. download atvusb creator patchstick from:
http://atvusb-creator.googlecode.com/files/atvusb-creator-1.0.b10.zip

2. assuming your atv is updated to the latest 3.0.1 firmware, download the 3.0.1 firmware from
http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-7491.20091107.TVA31/2Z694-6004-003.dmg

3. run the atvusb creator program to create the patchstick on your flash drive. use the select dmg option and select the firmware you just downloaded.

4. power off your apple tv, plug in the flash drive, and then power on your atv. the patchstick will automatically start up. once the patchstick is complete, power of the atv, remove the flash drive, and then power on your atv again.

5. open up the terminal on your mac and ssh into your atv by typing the following:

ssh frontrow@your.atv.ip.address

(obviously replace everything after the @ with your apple tv's ip)

the password will be frontrow

6. download and install the launcher by typing
wget http : //atv-xbmc-launcher.googlecode.com/files/Launcher-3.2.1-debug.run

(remove the spaces around the : - the forum kept on making this a link)

chmod +x Launcher-3.2.1-debug.run

./Launcher-3.2.1-debug.run

Enter the appropriate password "frontrow" and answer "Y" when it asks to restart the finder.

7. From your ATV Menu> Launcher > Downloads, install Boxee alpha 0.9.14.6992.

8. Launch Boxee from ATV Menu >Launcher >Boxee

all of this is from
http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/issues/detail?id=411#c123
http://support.boxee.tv/forums/49599/entries/74649
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Beginners_Guide3

Hi bluez,

Thank you very much for your instructions, they are really helpful!

I have one more question though: Does this whole method void the Apple warranty or is it possible to "reset" the Apple TV back to its factory settings in case I need to send the device to Apple?

Thanks a lot!

I purchased ATV Flash after getting a little frustrated with the 'free' methods. I'm not an expert Mac user so it wasn't very easy for me.

ATV Flash, however, was very easy to setup and use. Painless, actually. And no, it shouldn't void the warranty. If you don't like it, you can just restore to factory settings. You'll have to re-sync when you're done, however.

Here are a couple of gripes, just so you know about my overall experience. The killer app (for me) should have been Sapphire. It's a lot like Plex, but as of version 5 (I think) it no longer supports Video_TS files which is a bummer for me because I've decided not to compress files via Handbrake so as to get the best video quality.

NitoTV, also included, handles the Video_TS file very nicely. Interface pretty bland, but that's not too big a deal. What is a pain, however, is that if the Video_TS file is widescreen, but not anamorphic (or "Enhanced for widescreen TVs"), the video will have black bars on all four sides, and I haven't found a way to get around that.

I haven't had great luck with Boxee or XBMC, either. However on my iMac, I didn't like Plex when I first tried it but am now a huge fan. YMMV.

At the end of the day, AppleTV, with or without ATV Flash, is an incomplete product in my opinion. If I could rip all of my DVDs to external HDD and have Apple TV be able to read them from the native interface (iTunes...) I'd be pretty happy with it. (Yes, I know I could enable ATV to use the USB drive as primary storage, rip everything to .m4v on my main machine and they sync ATV and this would work, but I don't want to have to do that. Can't imagine how long it would take to sync 300 movies, and I don't want to keep a copy on my iMac) Stupidly, Apple seem to have abandoned AppleTV. The fact they don't enable the USB port for this use is pretty annoying.

My plan is to wait for the next version of the Mini that I hope will have Blu-ray support and use it for my HTPC. If the next version doesn't have Blu-Ray, I'll buy it anyway. Just don't want buyer's remorse which is why I haven't bought it yet. In the meantime I'm using my time to rip all of my DVDs to my new OWC 2TB HDD. Maybe by the time I'm done ripping I'll have a nice new Mini to play with.

What is a pain, however, is that if the Video_TS file is widescreen, but not anamorphic (or "Enhanced for widescreen TVs"), the video will have black bars on all four sides, and I haven't found a way to get around that.

Your display should have a zoom feature. Try that.

Your display should have a zoom feature. Try that.

Thanks, that did work. However I'm not satisfied with that in the long term. The video adjustments in Plex are handy in that if you set it up once, it will work from that point forward.

The other way to do this would be to buy additional copies that are anamorphic and sell the old ones on Ebay/Half-Price Books, etc... just to get the best possible, non-BluRay, copies. Shouldn't be too much of an issue as most of the problem titles are relatively old and easy (cheap) to replace with better version.

BTW, just bought a 2TB OWC "Mercury Elite Pro Classic" HDD and love it. Firewire 400/800/esata/USB. Everyone needs one or more of these...

Another satisfied ATVFlash user:

1. Easy to create the patchstick with their instructions (my days of "hacking" everything on my own are well behind me).

2. Easy to install on the AppleTV

3. Frequent updates

4. And most importantly, they provide a source of income for the individual developers of the add-ons; giving them an incentive to keep developing and upgrades - which they continue to do!

4. And most importantly, they provide a source of income for the individual developers of the add-ons; giving them an incentive to keep developing and upgrades - which they continue to do!

That's a joke, as the author of atv-bootloader (the method all patchsticks use), atvusb-creator, co-author of Launcher (xbmc/boxee), developer for XBMC and now the prime mover on the Broadcom CrystalHD work. I've never see a dime from ATVFlash yet they continue to profit from my efforts.

They have never even seen fit to donate squat to XBMC either.