Apple TV 2 + XBMC = WIN!

[ericlp]

I have a moded xbox not using. works good hate to get off subject but if you need an extra one let me know. PM me if you want to know more.

 

[dcpsoguy]

got a couple questions. very intrigued with the apple tv. but got a few questions.

want to put sabnzbd on it. and sickbeard. to automatically download tv shows to my network. is this possible on the apple tv?

also, will a linkstation pro work on this? is it supported?

 

[poofyhairguy]

Sabnzb and Sickbeard are designed for x86, I don't think they will install on the Apple TV.

If you want those programs, you want an ION system with XBMC Live.

 

[slackerinabox]

got a couple questions. very intrigued with the apple tv. but got a few questions.

want to put sabnzbd on it. and sickbeard. to automatically download tv shows to my network. is this possible on the apple tv?

also, will a linkstation pro work on this? is it supported?

I use an iMac as a server - sabnzd and my media files are on my iMac, and my iMac is shared on the network. Automatically downloads and extracts without problem. I want to get a NAS and some point but it's fairly convenient as is. Since no transcoding's required you can use an old pc as well

 

[dclive]

If I bought an ATV2, I'd need to crack it and then I'd need to do what on every bootup?

How does the ATV2 with XBMC handle simple SMB shares with all of my TV and movie .MKV/.MPG files? How does it know to get the IMDB information to populate the show info? Every time I go into XBMC and bring up the listing of all the movies, does it need to re-download the IMDB data, or is the data kept locally on the ATV2? (If locally, how? ATV2 has no local storage - where is the IMDB data kept?)

 

[Aikouka]

Quick question. I'm going to use seas0npass on my ATV2, but should the ATV2 already be at firmware 4.2.1 before I flash the jailbroken 4.2.1 onto it?

If I bought an ATV2, I'd need to crack it and then I'd need to do what on every bootup?

Currently, you would need to do what's called a tethered boot whenever you lose power to the device (i.e. unplug it).

http://support.firecore.com/entries/387605

If you scroll down to the section on tethered boot, you'll see what it involves.

 

[slackerinabox]

Quick question. I'm going to use seas0npass on my ATV2, but should the ATV2 already be at firmware 4.2.1 before I flash the jailbroken 4.2.1 onto it?

This caused me a lot of confusion for me- apple tv lists version numbers differently, I don't know why but 4.1.1.? Apple tv version = ios 4.2.1

My advice is to just run seas0npass and see if it let's you jailbreak or if it gives you an error.

 

[slackerinabox]

If I bought an ATV2, I'd need to crack it and then I'd need to do what on every bootup?

How does the ATV2 with XBMC handle simple SMB shares with all of my TV and movie .MKV/.MPG files? How does it know to get the IMDB information to populate the show info? Every time I go into XBMC and bring up the listing of all the movies, does it need to re-download the IMDB data, or is the data kept locally on the ATV2? (If locally, how? ATV2 has no local storage - where is the IMDB data kept?)

The key is jailbreak in the spot you want to use your appletv. You'll need to tether boot just if there's a power loss or if you force a reboot (did that by accident). AppleTV never really turns off (unless unplugged, of course), it just goes into standby (which is ok, it's so quiet), so no need to worry about that part of it.

If you do unplug it you'll just need to to a tethered boot again - it doesn't break or brick the unit, it just will get stuck at the apple logo until you tether boot it again.

 

[Aikouka]

What a bummer. I've got the Windows beta for Seas0nPass, but it seems to have some bugs in it. I guess celebrating the hacking of my ATV2 will have to wait .

EDIT:

Actually, greenpois0n RC6 is out now with ATV2 support. Let me try that and see what happens!

EDIT 2:

I got it hacked using GreenPois0n RC6 and have XBMC installed. There seems to be problems with anime subtitles (MKV + SSA). I also noticed when opening an episode of Top Gear, it didn't bitstream the Dolby Digital soundtrack; however, it did properly bitstream the DTS soundtrack from a movie.

 

[dclive]

Anyone know this:

How does the ATV2 with XBMC handle simple SMB shares with all of my TV and movie .MKV/.MPG files? How does it know to get the IMDB information to populate the show info? Every time I go into XBMC and bring up the listing of all the movies, does it need to re-download the IMDB data, or is the data kept locally on the ATV2? (If locally, how? ATV2 has no local storage - where is the IMDB data kept?)

??

 

[Emulex]

atv2 has 8gb flash. how much storage do you need? the xbox1 only had 8gb hard drive

 

[Aikouka]

I don't even enable scraping... don't really see a need for it.

Although, I'm not even sure how you go about getting back to the Source Options menu on the ATV2. On Windows, I have to right click with my Gyration remote to get to it!

I also need to figure out if the option to allow resuming videos is disabled by default on the ATV2.

 

[slackerinabox]

Anyone know this:

How does the ATV2 with XBMC handle simple SMB shares with all of my TV and movie .MKV/.MPG files? How does it know to get the IMDB information to populate the show info? Every time I go into XBMC and bring up the listing of all the movies, does it need to re-download the IMDB data, or is the data kept locally on the ATV2? (If locally, how? ATV2 has no local storage - where is the IMDB data kept?)

??

It works fine with smb shares and seems to have cover art and info for most of my movies. The info doesn't seem to get lost whenever I exit/enter.

 

[Kaido]

RC6 is out for ATV:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/12/greenpois0n-rc6-breaks-new-apple-tvs-bonds-performs-untethered/

Warning: Some users having issues (Wifi, booting). Might want to wait & see.

 

[dclive]

It works fine with smb shares and seems to have cover art and info for most of my movies. The info doesn't seem to get lost whenever I exit/enter.

Help me understand:

I have hundreds of movies. That would take time to catalog and then download all the IMDB data every time I want to view the directory listings of those hundreds of movies. Where is the IMDB information kept for all my movies?

With XMBC on a computer, it caches the information locally, I think in the All Users profile, so every time you open XMBC, it simply reads this database file locally. How does this work on the ATV2?

 

[Kaido]

Help me understand:

I have hundreds of movies. That would take time to catalog and then download all the IMDB data every time I want to view the directory listings of those hundreds of movies. Where is the IMDB information kept for all my movies?

With XMBC on a computer, it caches the information locally, I think in the All Users profile, so every time you open XMBC, it simply reads this database file locally. How does this work on the ATV2?

The ATV2 is just a streamer. It loads the data from your network share. Personally I like picking the images myself, so I create my own TBN files from Google Images for each movie. I believe the scrapers work over a network, however (anyone verify?).

 

[Aikouka]

RC6 is out for ATV:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/12/greenpois0n-rc6-breaks-new-apple-tvs-bonds-performs-untethered/

Warning: Some users having issues (Wifi, booting). Might want to wait & see.

I'm having no problems with it, although I don't use WiFi.

 

[dclive]

The ATV2 is just a streamer. It loads the data from your network share. Personally I like picking the images myself, so I create my own TBN files from Google Images for each movie. I believe the scrapers work over a network, however (anyone verify?).

Oh...shudder. So you have to manually build the files and such, and you've got to make subfolders and whatnot for each movie? I just have directories (A-F, G-O, etc.) with the movies directly in them. What would make this easier and better?

My clients are PS3 and XBMC(PC). The sharing device is a Windows Home Server and a WHS2011 test machine.

 

[dclive]

I've tried a PS3 Media Server plugin called MovieInfo with horrid results (this is the best it gets?) and was hoping for something *MUCH* better.

 

[Kaido]

Oh...shudder. So you have to manually build the files and such, and you've got to make subfolders and whatnot for each movie? I just have directories (A-F, G-O, etc.) with the movies directly in them. What would make this easier and better?

My clients are PS3 and XBMC(PC). The sharing device is a Windows Home Server and a WHS2011 test machine.

No no, XBMC can work like that. It's pretty flexible. I'm just OCD and like to pick out my own graphics and whatnot I haven't gotten into scrapers too much, but here's a link I found on their wiki page:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Scrapers

Youtube might have some tutorials, or maybe someone here will care to comment on their setup.

 

[poofyhairguy]

So you have to manually build the files and such, and you've got to make subfolders and whatnot for each movie?

There is no need to do it manually. Programs like Coachpotato and Ember Media Manager will do it for you.

 

[yllus]

Hmm, I guess I'll be getting on the bandwagon - the girlfriend will pick up an Apple TV 2G on the way home and we'll try jailbreaking it and installing XBMC tonight via one of our Windows PCs.

Been using our Xbox 360 streaming from a UPNP server on a D-Link DNS-323 NAS to date - kind of annoyed at how loud the Xbox is.

 

[Aikouka]

Did anyone else have to go through the jailbreak process more than once? The first time, I messed up the timing since it only gives you 2-7 seconds per step. I felt like a Formula 1 pit crew the second time!

 

[yllus]

Hah, yeah, I succeeded on like my fifth try. Frankly I had no idea what was happening the first couple of attempts.

For the record, I jail-broke my Apple TV 2G using a laptop running Windows XP using the instructions detailed here:

http://veryrite.com/2011/02/13/how-to-jailbreak-apple-tv-2g-ios-4-2-1-greenpois0n-rc6/

After gaining root and SSH by injecting the software mentioned in the last step, I had a "nitoTV" option that I selected and it listed XBMC 10.0 right there - no need to use a shell to install anything. Super convenient.

 

[sourceninja]

I'm really interested in this, can the apple tv with xbmc handle netflix/hulu?