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AppleTV Limera1n

W

wodeh

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 18, 2007
223
0
Norwich
I'm gearing up to jailbreak my AppleTV this morning, it seems a lot of people have done so, but found no way to progress further.

Has anyone tested, yet, if a jailbreak of the AppleTV grants root filesystem access with the likes of Phonedisk?

With this access it should surely be possible to manually inject the correct scripts/files to get a working SSH/APT up and running. With access to the Cydia repositories, all command-line utilities would, in theory, work.

Edit: Ack, no afc2 support! The last hurdle to a flood gate of hackery.

Edit: afc2 support should be coming soonish, but when that'll be is anyones guess. Once this happens I'll probably be beaten to the punch- the punch being the copying of SSH/APT from either my iPhone4 or iPad (whichever decides to work) onto the Apple TV so that something can be done with it.
 
Hi, I would love to see the jailbreak community for the Apple TV flourish. I am looking forward to getting my mkv files streamed from my NAS without having to use home sharing and a converting them to mp4.
As I am somewhat a noob in this whole process, what does the AFC/APT mean and what implications does this have for the jailbreak community? When can we realistically start expecting apps?
 
I am willing to bet that most of the command line apps will work with the AppleTV out of the box. This isn't going to be much use for most people, though.

APT is the command-line package management system that underpins Cydia. You will have to SSH into your Apple TV (a remote way of gaining command line access to your AppleTV) and run APT to install applications until a GUI version of Cydia is made available.

There will probably be beta versions of AppleTV software installable via APT from some Cydia repositories long before Cydia, or anyone else, comes out with a GUI solution for getting apps onto you AppleTV.

I'm going to guess that it'll be at least a month, if not longer, before average Joe user will be able to get their hands on anything worth while... So I wouldn't hold your breath.

In the meantime, why not brush up on SSH and APT, I believe as the AppleTV is an always-on, home device these tools will be far more useful than they ever were on the iPhone. There are certainly some particularly geeky things I want to attempt with the AppleTV.

Finally, If the jail breakers are worth their salt the AppleTV will be preloaded with ADP, APT and SSH- everything you need to install and run software via your desktop commputer. It may well be that usable apps are available before there's any way to launch them directly on the ATV.

Most of what I have said is informed speculation, things could be faster and easier... But I doubt it!

Still no BETA5 of Geohots utterly irresponsible, unstable and largely untested jailbreak release yet, for example. Much less any way to functionally jailbreak an AppleTV 2.



EDIT: Well, limera1n just hit release candidate 1. (RC1) One of the features it purports to include is afc2, but I see no evidence to support that on the AppleTV. There would be no point including acf2 for the iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch because it can be added easily via Cydia. So... wtf!? I want root access to my AppleTV already! If Egohot is seeking adoration and glory, he might as well do it properly. Rather than leaving AppleTV owners in the dust.
 
From MuscleNerd: "For AppleTV 2G users, the goal is for PwnageTool to cover you by Funday/Sunday (but still very limited app capability)"

Looks like an AppleTV2 jailbreak will require a full restore of a "pwned" firmware. Not really a huge issue, as no content is stored on the device itself and stock firmware is readily available.

Exploitation and modification of the "Software Update" feature within the AppleTV2 to disable non-jailbroken updates and re-wire to update to new jailbroken firmwares would be a very worthwhile cause.

If this feature does anything more than display a "Please connect to your computer to update" message, then clearly we have evidence of OTA updates being possible in iOS.
 
wodeh said:
From MuscleNerd: "For AppleTV 2G users, the goal is for PwnageTool to cover you by Funday/Sunday (but still very limited app capability)"

Looks like an AppleTV2 jailbreak will require a full restore of a "pwned" firmware. Not really a huge issue, as no content is stored on the device itself and stock firmware is readily available.

Exploitation and modification of the "Software Update" feature within the AppleTV2 to disable non-jailbroken updates and re-wire to update to new jailbroken firmwares would be a very worthwhile cause.

If this feature does anything more than display a "Please connect to your computer to update" message, then clearly we have evidence of OTA updates being possible in iOS.
Click to expand...

I am exited about this, I am hoping to see a launcher, but it may be too early for it, and all we see is SSH server. Still exiting, I got a couple of ideas for Apps, I make finally make my way to Cydia store Woot!!
 
maturola said:
I am exited about this, I am hoping to see a launcher, but it may be too early for it, and all we see is SSH server. Still exiting, I got a couple of ideas for Apps, I make finally make my way to Cydia store Woot!!
Click to expand...

Right the with you!! I finally got my micro usb cable in today that I bought off ebay. Ive got my shsh backed up and waiting patiently for Sunday!(hopefully!)
 
This is the biggest reason I purchased a new apple Tv. I can't wait to jailbreak it. just jail broke my iPhone 4 using LimeRain, and my wife's phone using greenpoison, can't wait until Sunday , to jailbreak my apple Tv.
 
jlluna said:
This is the biggest reason I purchased a new apple Tv. I can't wait to jailbreak it. just jail broke my iPhone 4 using LimeRain, and my wife's phone using greenpoison, can't wait until Sunday , to jailbreak my apple Tv.
Click to expand...

Make sure to save your SHSHs, new firmware may be on the way soon.
 
jlluna said:
This is the biggest reason I purchased a new apple Tv. I can't wait to jailbreak it. just jail broke my iPhone 4 using LimeRain, and my wife's phone using greenpoison, can't wait until Sunday , to jailbreak my apple Tv.
Click to expand...

Same here! I bought the Apple TV just to jailbreak it. I guess some people do not find it logical/reasonable to do so but i find the jailbreak scene extremely exciting. I have mostly mkvs in 720p and some 1080p in low bitrate that I hope may squeeze by.
I currently use a Mac mini w/ plex and a 8tb NAS connected to my Airport Extreme. I would love to see the lowtide interface extended to the My movies/Tv shows section. I love how when you click on the iTunes store or the Netflix app you can see a wall view of movies organized by genre, recently added, etc. I also like how you can watch a preview/trailer and get more info about the movie and cast when you click on a movie in the itunes store. I would LOVE to see that ported to the My Mmovies/tv shows section instead of the standard list view. I am also looking forward to ditching home sharing and support for SMB shares with mkv files. I can't wait to see some apps developed.
 
apatel87 said:
Same here! I bought the Apple TV just to jailbreak it. I guess some people do not find it logical/reasonable to do so but i find the jailbreak scene extremely exciting. I have mostly mkvs in 720p and some 1080p in low bitrate that I hope may squeeze by.
I currently use a Mac mini w/ plex and a 8tb NAS connected to my Airport Extreme. I would love to see the lowtide interface extended to the My movies/Tv shows section. I love how when you click on the iTunes store or the Netflix app you can see a wall view of movies organized by genre, recently added, etc. I also like how you can watch a preview/trailer and get more info about the movie and cast when you click on a movie in the itunes store. I would LOVE to see that ported to the My Mmovies/tv shows section instead of the standard list view. I am also looking forward to ditching home sharing and support for SMB shares with mkv files. I can't wait to see some apps developed.
Click to expand...

Very similar situation as you but...

I have been using W7MC because I have 300 blu rays ripped as ISOs and using the powerdvd plugin is really the only, easiest way to play that the wife can figure out. However, music and photo integration with my itunes and iphoto sucks. So i have been looking to move to plex and buy a mac mini. Plex is great because of the automatic fetching for my TV shows (mostly MKVs) and i have tested converting my ISOs into MKVs which works nicely. I had planned to convert all my movies but then i bought an AppleTV2 with the hope that it would be jailbroken. You just cant beat the interface and the netflix implementation which we use sooo much is soooo good and fast.

Curious how you like your plex set up and why you think you might move to the appleTV instead? I am still uncertain what to do...
 
dhy8386 said:
Very similar situation as you but...

I have been using W7MC because I have 300 blu rays ripped as ISOs and using the powerdvd plugin is really the only, easiest way to play that the wife can figure out. However, music and photo integration with my itunes and iphoto sucks. So i have been looking to move to plex and buy a mac mini. Plex is great because of the automatic fetching for my TV shows (mostly MKVs) and i have tested converting my ISOs into MKVs which works nicely. I had planned to convert all my movies but then i bought an AppleTV2 with the hope that it would be jailbroken. You just cant beat the interface and the netflix implementation which we use sooo much is soooo good and fast.

Curious how you like your plex set up and why you think you might move to the appleTV instead? I am still uncertain what to do...
Click to expand...

Glad to hear you made the switch to Apple TV. To be honest, I loved the Plex ecosystem. With the transition to PLex .9, I found my TV shows/ Movies organized in a very efficient and eye catching manner. Plex was a great solution for me since I have about 4.5 tb of data stored on my Cisco NAS that I need streamed. I am keeping the Plex system for now but the reason I bought an Apple TV is because I currently cant afford to have a Mac Mini at every tv in the house. I use Plex on my main tv in the family room but plan on putting Apple TVs in the other rooms. I love the Apple TV interface, the small footprint, and the ease of use. My family finds it a bit difficult to start Plex on startup and to use their iPhone as the remote.

If there is an app that is developed that can handle my needs I would really be happy. I am really all about the interface and would love to see the Netflix interface with trailer view ported to the MOvies/Tv shows. I don't like how Plex displays music and photos. I think in the future with Airplay coming out I will find sending videos shot on my iPhone to the TV pretty useful.

In the meantime, I have also preordered the Boxee Box because that is a much cheaper alternative to the Mac Mini. If the ATV2 gets apps developed then I might cancel my preorder.

Very excited to see where the jailbreaking community goes with this. I wish I had some more experience in programming/writing code. It doesnt seem too difficult to port the already written code to the Home sharing option and add trailer support. Obviously I dont know but am just speculating.
 
apatel87 said:
Hi, I would love to see the jailbreak community for the Apple TV flourish. I am looking forward to getting my mkv files streamed from my NAS without having to use home sharing and a converting them to mp4.
As I am somewhat a noob in this whole process, what does the AFC/APT mean and what implications does this have for the jailbreak community? When can we realistically start expecting apps?
Click to expand...

You realize you can just use subler to reparse the mkv into a m4v container right? No re-encoding needed unless it has mp3 or dts audio (in which case you would just need to re-encode the audio)....
 
Diode said:
You realize you can just use subler to reparse the mkv into a m4v container right? No re-encoding needed unless it has mp3 or dts audio (in which case you would just need to re-encode the audio)....
Click to expand...

How would you do this with Subler?
 
Markusp said:
How would you do this with Subler?
Click to expand...

Create a new, blank m4v in subler, check 64 Bit chunk offset (if the file is over 4GB), and then drag the m4v into the blank template and select which tracks you want copied over. Finally just save your new file.

Since the new ATV plays most x264 encodes that are floating around you don't need to re-encode anymore.
 
Diode said:
Create a new, blank m4v in subler, check 64 Bit chunk offset (if the file is over 4GB), and then drag the m4v into the blank template and select which tracks you want copied over. Finally just save your new file.

Since the new ATV plays most x264 encodes that are floating around you don't need to re-encode anymore.
Click to expand...

Thanks - will try this tonight :)
 
There is a script to convert a DTS stream to an AC3 stream. It's called mkvdts2ac3. But I would prefer MKVTools, because you can do all the work within one tool. You can change the container (mkv->mp4), without reencoding (check your mkv file using mediainfo!), convert DTS to AC3, and add an 2 channel AAC stream, so you won't get any problems playing the videos on your iPhone or iPad.
After that you can modify your MP4 using subler or other tools...
 
@lixe:
Thanks for the tips!

Question: Is the "add a 2 channel stream" needed for the AppleTV2 or just for the iPhone/iPad?

I only ask, as I really only care about the AppleTV and I wonder if the process is faster without adding that extra 2 channel stream.

And is the Subler part needed? What sort of modifications would I being doing with Subler after I've done the MKVTools stuff?
 
turbineseaplane said:
@lixe:
Thanks for the tips!

Question: Is the "add a 2 channel stream" needed for the AppleTV2 or just for the iPhone/iPad?

I only ask, as I really only care about the AppleTV and I wonder if the process is faster without adding that extra 2 channel stream.

And is the Subler part needed? What sort of modifications would I being doing with Subler after I've done the MKVTools stuff?
Click to expand...

I think it depends on your sound system. Are you able to play Dolby Digital? Then as far as I know you only need to Pass-Thru your Audio Stream without adding a 2-channel stream. Adding a 2-channel stream will definitely take more time for converting, because MKTools has to create a new stream, but I think it will mostly depend on your mac specs.
Subler is cool if you want to set the audio language name (for example "English" instead of "Unknown"), also can subler add the HD tag, so iTunes will show you an HD icon and you can change all the other tags and sometimes most important add or delete streams (video, audio and subitle). I check my files all the time using subler, because editing and saving needs about a minute max.
 
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