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AppleTV Gen1 Thread

post #1 of 7
1/12/11 at 7:53am
Thread Starter 
I've been around AVS for a long time, and this is one area I'd like to learn more about... creating a "Video Jukebox" of sorts using a Gen1 AppleTV that would allow the user to call up a menu on his/her Home Theater that would then allow you to select & view a video from a remote HDD attached to your computer. In my case it would be an iMac.

As a start, I picked up a used ATV (40GB) a few months ago that had specifically been modded and had a fresh install of Boxee and XMBC on it. My intent is to hardwire the ATV via ethernet to my 3COM switch (or my Airport Router) and have a dedicated USB drive connected to either the Airport or the iMac. I have a bit of work ahead of me in that I think my ATV does not have the latest and greatest "OS" and I have to find out if I can (or need to) upgrade the ATV before I start trying to figure this all out. I've read someplace about something called a "patchstick" which entails getting a decent quality USB flashdrive of at least 256KB and loading a utility onto it that will flash the ATV into a very current state of usefulness; meaning you should be able to use either the internal HDD and/or an External HDD to stream decent quality (720p?) video and audio to your big screen TV. Have to search my desk and find an decent USB stick or wait out the blizzard and pick one up at Costco or Staples.

Anyway... this is going to be a slow process for me as I'm going to try and find out as much as I can and if things work, I will obviously post back here in the spirit of sharing information. Likewise, if someone has already made this leap and would like to help me (and others) learn how to "build" a Video Jukebox using a Gen1 ATV... please jump in and give us some pointers and advice. All I ask is that the advice be at the novice level rather than the full-blown technogenius level LOL!
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post #2 of 7
1/14/11 at 7:22pm
IronHorse,
I am not sure if I read your post correctly, but you may be confusing/combining two seperate issues.

First, to upgrade the iOS on your AppleTV, plug it in, scroll all the way over to the right in the menu and (I think) choose system or maintenaince to upgrade the iOS for the AppleTV.

Second, when you were refering to the USB drive, I think you may have talking about the software offered by Firecore:
http://firecore.com/atvflash?products_id=27

This allows you to hack the AppleTV and add Boxee, XMBC and a few others. Most of these are installed automatically using the software installed on the USB drive from Firecore.

I was originally planning on using either Boxee or XMBC to play my movies, but could never figure out how to play the DVD ISO files I created. I ended up just using iTunes and watching movies using the normal AppleTV method.

Personally, I rip my movies using AnyDVD, then transcode them using HandBreak. Once completed I just drag them into iTunes and then sync iTunes with the AppleTV.

Check out the forum on the FireCore or HandBreak sites for any help you need.

Joe
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post #3 of 7
1/14/11 at 9:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmhays View Post

IronHorse,
I am not sure if I read your post correctly, but you may be confusing/combining two seperate issues.

First, to upgrade the iOS on your AppleTV, plug it in, scroll all the way over to the right in the menu and (I think) choose system or maintenaince to upgrade the iOS for the AppleTV.

Second, when you were refering to the USB drive, I think you may have talking about the software offered by Firecore:
http://firecore.com/atvflash?products_id=27

This allows you to hack the AppleTV and add Boxee, XMBC and a few others. Most of these are installed automatically using the software installed on the USB drive from Firecore.

I was originally planning on using either Boxee or XMBC to play my movies, but could never figure out how to play the DVD ISO files I created. I ended up just using iTunes and watching movies using the normal AppleTV method.

Personally, I rip my movies using AnyDVD, then transcode them using HandBreak. Once completed I just drag them into iTunes and then sync iTunes with the AppleTV.

Check out the forum on the FireCore or HandBreak sites for any help you need.

Joe

Apple TV gen1 runs OS/X lite not IOS

its a totally different animal.

Gen1 is basically a PC
Gen 2 is basically an iphone

I don't understand how you say you could not figure out how to make boxee or xbmc play an ISO file. you just select the file and it plays...

avoid transcoding if possible, if you dont want to degrade the image quality.

Sean
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post #4 of 7
1/14/11 at 11:03pm
Also no need to pay money for hacks they are free and most of whats on the pay solution is just a collection of free stuff. if you want some of the other stuff besides XBMC or Boxee then that might be worthwhile but if you just want XBMC and/or Boxee use this..

works very well...

http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

Sean
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post #5 of 7
1/15/11 at 4:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean_w_smith View Post

Also no need to pay money for hacks they are free and most of whats on the pay solution is just a collection of free stuff. if you want some of the other stuff besides XBMC or Boxee then that might be worthwhile but if you just want XBMC and/or Boxee use this..

works very well...

http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

Sean

Yes, that is the way to go. Get ssh going, install software menu, install nitotv, put the combo 10.4.9 and a recovery image from an ATV1.0 ( if you have that) in ~/Documents and run smart installer from nito. This will enable the usb port amongst other things ( if you have the 1.0 recovery image then you get afp client and server). Before doing that you might want to upgrade to the latest
atv os (3.02). I am currently booting the ATV off a USB flash drive running XBMC Dharma on a distribution from OpenELEC. Extremely fast booting and operation and my 720p files run great on it ( I have a Crystal HD card in the ATV). This is beta 4 of OpenELEC's experimental ATV image. cpu and memory usage are insanely low.

philip
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post #6 of 7
1/15/11 at 7:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

Yes, that is the way to go. Get ssh going, install software menu, install nitotv, put the combo 10.4.9 and a recovery image from an ATV1.0 ( if you have that) in ~/Documents and run smart installer from nito. This will enable the usb port amongst other things ( if you have the 1.0 recovery image then you get afp client and server). Before doing that you might want to upgrade to the latest
atv os (3.02). I am currently booting the ATV off a USB flash drive running XBMC Dharma on a distribution from OpenELEC. Extremely fast booting and operation and my 720p files run great on it ( I have a Crystal HD card in the ATV). This is beta 4 of OpenELEC's experimental ATV image. cpu and memory usage are insanely low.

philip

cool. never knew about that stuff. Our appleTV is family device and is mostly used by wife and kid. I use the XBMC on it occasionally and use it for its airplay capability most of the time as part of my 8 zone whole house audio setup.

I dont think I have messed with it since 3.x came out. It just works...

Sean
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post #7 of 7
1/15/11 at 1:34pm
Here is a good link on how to install XBMC on a ATV1 and also other useful information. I have 3 ATVs all with XBMC and am very satisfied. Good luck.

Jay
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