AppleTV 1st Gen 40g (Jailbroken) running XBMC

[Exit34]

I have all my media (Movies, TV Shows) stored within iTunes (m4v) and tagged with identify on my Macbook Pro. Streaming the media from iTunes (open on Macbook) or syncing the media to the AppleTV hardrive all works great and plays perfectily in the AppleTV UI under ‘My Movies’ for example.

I began exploring XBMC and looking at the various skins and page layouts. Particularly interested in the different browsing views the skins can display your media in, grid view for example.

At the time I tested this, I had NO media storage on the AppleTV harddrive. All is stored within iTunes on Macbook, streaming to aTV.

With Cyberduck I sent a movie over to the aTV storing in the ‘Movies’ folder. Example (Fight Club.m4v)

I then opened XBMC and clicked on the ‘Movies’ menu. The only pulldown in the movies menu was ‘Browse’. I selected browse and it then pulls up ‘Files’ ‘Playlists’ ‘Add Source’

I selected Files > Movies and found (Fight Club.m4v) within. However, there was no meta data displayed or cover art. Nothing came up in the format of the new skin UIs I had downloaded and applied. Am I missing a step here?

Also is there a way to simplfy getting to my movies or my tv shows. For example simply being able to select movies from the main XBMC menu and going straight into your movie media? Instead of having to go through a file structure. (Movies > Browse > Files > Movies…)

 

[OmegaRed1723]

You'll want to choose that 'Add Source' selection. It will allow you to point to where your media is stored so XBMC can scrape the files and add all the metadata, fanart, etc. Note that for this to be effective you'll need to have your files structured appropriately. TV shows need to be separate from movies because you can only select one scraper for source (e.g., TMDB.com for tv showes and themoviedb.org for films).

Once you've done all that and your stuff has been scraped, you'll be able to access your stuff from the main XBMC menus (TV & Movies) without having to use the directory structure.

As an aside, if you watch any HD content I would highly recommend installing a Braodcom CrystalHD card into the Apple tv. It replaces the existing wifi card inside the AppleTV, which is a small trade-off for the benefits it brings.

 

[Exit34]

Thank you. One more question, I have an external HD attached to the aTV. I am having a difficult time locating the external HD in the 'Add Source' section. Would you happen to know what I should be looking for here, to point to the attached external HD?

 

[OmegaRed1723]

When you click 'Browse' to add your media, select 'Home folder' and then select 'Media'. Your drive will be located there.

 

[Exit34]

Thank you, I found it and linked successfully. Thanks again for your assistance, you have helped me a lot.

Similar question. By accident I have added multiple sources that I do not need. So now under my video sources for example it shows Movies, Movies(2), Movies(3) etc.

How do I remove these unneeded sources? I only need the single (Movies) source.

I also wanted to question power consumption. Is running XBMC more power consuming than the stock aTV UI?