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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:10 pm Post subject: Apple TV

Well, Christmas saw one of these show up under the tree. They're actually rather old, what, 3 years old? They're cheaper than they used to be. And I had heard that one could induce it to play the BBC iPlayer, which was the real reason for getting it.

Imagine my underwhelmedness when I booted it up and found out that you can watch YouTube, or buy media from the iTunes Store. Surely the hardware can be induced to do more.

Well, indeed it can.

XBMC and Boxee (the latter being a derivative of the former) can be installed onto an Apple TV to give a much richer streaming IPTV platform. Personally, I've been going the XBMC route, although I did register on Boxee.

Some shenanigans with newer Apple TVs and the XBMC USB stick install, it breaks the installer, but there is a fix for it. You also get ssh for the Apple TV, which should have been provided with the basic OS, but hey, they're cheap.

It's underpowered for HD, but I am in the UK which doesn't actually do proper HD anyway, unless I buy Sky+ or something. This is basically a slightly more expensive set-top streaming box, capable of streaming from the internet - iPlayer is working fine (in the UK) - and it can find shares with XBMC and play any local online DVDs. Oh and most of the streaming content isn't worth trying to render to 720p anyway, but I do have it set to 720p and it looks acceptable on our miniscule 34" LCD.

It won't replace the Freeview box or the DVD player, and probably only slightly offloads the HD recorder. However for this house it seems to work well, and I'm at least satisfied that we got a ton of extra variety with a USB stick update and some configuration.

I was surprised they still sell these things, especially in the UK where they don't come with iPlayer out of the box. If I were a picky hardware purist I'd have built something to do my streaming, but really I couldn't be arsed given this was so cheap and it works.

Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2009 2:58 pm Post subject:

happy hacking Very Happy

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 7:48 am Post subject:

I've used an AppleTV for a few years but ended up setting up a mac mini running Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)

if you have a Mac lying around i highly recommend giving plex a try.

you might also wan to look at XBMC they also offer hacks for the apple tv.

Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 8:02 am Post subject:

soup4you2 wrote:
I've used an AppleTV for a few years but ended up setting up a mac mini running Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)

if you have a Mac lying around i highly recommend giving plex a try.

you might also wan to look at XBMC they also offer hacks for the apple tv.

1st post of '01 for soup.... and shaking things up with a new avatar. Does that picture look familiar...... it sure does

http://www.littleblackdog.com/member3920.html

Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 5:20 am Post subject:

fear_nothing wrote:
soup4you2 wrote:
I've used an AppleTV for a few years but ended up setting up a mac mini running Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)

if you have a Mac lying around i highly recommend giving plex a try.

you might also wan to look at XBMC they also offer hacks for the apple tv.

1st post of '01 for soup.... and shaking things up with a new avatar. Does that picture look familiar...... it sure does

http://www.littleblackdog.com/member3920.html

Figured about 5 years was enough for the squirrel avatar, so I picked something that closely resembles my dog. She is a husky after all Smile

Guide Dog Joined: 08 Nov 2003 Posts: 9204 Location: MN

soup4you2 wrote:
fear_nothing wrote:
soup4you2 wrote:
I've used an AppleTV for a few years but ended up setting up a mac mini running Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/)

if you have a Mac lying around i highly recommend giving plex a try.

you might also wan to look at XBMC they also offer hacks for the apple tv.

1st post of '01 for soup.... and shaking things up with a new avatar. Does that picture look familiar...... it sure does

http://www.littleblackdog.com/member3920.html

Figured about 5 years was enough for the squirrel avatar, so I picked something that closely resembles my dog. She is a husky after all

Hang on, you are telling me that you aren't seca?

hhmmm I just assumed you were.

(I picked the picture that looks most like myself for my avatar.)