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aTV Flash

So then, functionally, they are the same?

If I were to purchase the Windows version (I have Parallels on my Mac), I would end up with the same features on my AppleTV as I would if I bought the "mac" patchstick?
 
MikieMikie said:
So then, functionally, they are the same?

If I were to purchase the Windows version (I have Parallels on my Mac), I would end up with the same features on my AppleTV as I would if I bought the "mac" patchstick?
Click to expand...

yes, in both cases you will have to create your own Patchstick
 
Does anyone dislike the fact that the ATV4Windows patchstick includes its own boot logo, etc.? It may sound trivial, but it was one of the things that deterred me from going that route, and consequently led me to learning a bit about creating my own patchstick.
 
aTV Flash

So, I'm not left with any choices then. I can't utilize existing software to create my own flash image as I have Leopard on a new iMac (I don't have Tiger). I don't have a windows pc so I can't utilize the available software to go that route. I guess there is no alternative but to spend the $49 for the aTV Flash from Apple Core.
 
***************
So this thread is almost a year old, but I didn't want to make any redundant threads.

Has anyone been happy with this?
Is it really easy to get a free copy of the patchstick?

I'm really most curious about the use of an external usb drive. Will this give me the ability to have my appletv with external drive be the location for an alternative itunes library? I hate having to plug in the drive on my laptop.

Hopefully this old thread gets seen.
Thanks.
 
mikeinternet said:
***************
So this thread is almost a year old, but I didn't want to make any redundant threads.

Has anyone been happy with this?
Is it really easy to get a free copy of the patchstick?

I'm really most curious about the use of an external usb drive. Will this give me the ability to have my appletv with external drive be the location for an alternative itunes library? I hate having to plug in the drive on my laptop.

Hopefully this old thread gets seen.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
There are free versions of ATV Flash out there but the best way is to just buy it if you can or go with a free version. Yes you can hook up external drives to store media on so you could have 1TB or more with that setup!
 
David R said:
I paid on 5/27, the order still says "Pending."

They have about a week to deliver the product to me or at least get me a tracking number. After that I will initiate a chargeback with Amex.

I know I could do this update myself, but I figured that I'll just go the lazy route and pay someone to make it all simple-stupid for me.
Click to expand...

There is no delivery involved. Check your account at the website. You have to download the file and create your own patchstick. It works very well and this is not a scam. Pay attention to your email. The acknowledgment has a link to download the product. Perhaps it went into your spam bucket.
 
mikeinternet said:
***************
So this thread is almost a year old, but I didn't want to make any redundant threads.

Has anyone been happy with this?
Is it really easy to get a free copy of the patchstick?
Click to expand...

Yes, download it here

mikeinternet said:
I'm really most curious about the use of an external usb drive. Will this give me the ability to have my appletv with external drive be the location for an alternative itunes library? I hate having to plug in the drive on my laptop.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can do that. Check this
 
I personally was very un-impressed with the software. Most especially how the different pieces all work. From what I can see, this is great if you have a windows shared folder, but from a NAS, it's not so good. Boxee I can get so see some of my movie files, but not all of them. Hulu playback on Boxee is so stuttery as to be unwatchable (to me). Their documentation on what all the different tools are for is abysmal, with a poor forum devoted to support. I'm actually happier that I paid for the software/patchstick rather than spending a lot of my time getting it all working on my own, then spending even more time figuring out the software was just not up to snuff.
 
tom1971 said:
Yes, download it here



Yes, you can do that. Check this
Click to expand...

Thanks Tom, this GUI is much easier than running terminal. Now I just trying to get my new patchstick (lacie 160GB USB Drive) to work. I'm taking the advie of the link you posted and plugging in the drive during the first few seconds of loading. No luck yet. Maybe I just need a thumb drive.
 
tom1971 said:
Yes, download it here



Yes, you can do that. Check this
Click to expand...

I think you might want to review this page first before committing yourself. Looks like you have to pay to get full functionality, which are free with other tools.

http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/full+version+vs+free+version

And then go to the following page and compare to the totally free version of ATVUSB-Creator. Also know that the bootloader all these Patchsticks use was created by the ATVUSB-Creator guy and can do everything the paid versions can do.

http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
 
TuckBodi said:
I think you might want to review this page first before committing yourself. Looks like you have to pay to get full functionality, which are free with other tools.

http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/full+version+vs+free+version

And then go to the following page and compare to the totally free version of ATVUSB-Creator. Also know that the bootloader all these Patchsticks use was created by the ATVUSB-Creator guy and can do everything the paid versions can do.

http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
Click to expand...

But I doubt you will get the updates everytime Apple TV updates ATV Flash will update their software. What do you think?
I think I plan on buying the real deal. It has dropped to $49.95 now.
 
if you want to include the updates for the lifetime of your ATV, you need to add 30 USD to the price of 50 USD, so you end up at 80 USD.
You might want to check the product of patchstick.ca, which offers a better UI and a smoother (online update) process for much less. They include lifetime updates n their product, respectively offer a yearly subscription which is a far better deal.
For 1 year of support, you pay only 29.99 at patchstick.ca
 
Huh? I'm still bedazzled and confused why anyone would pay for a Patchstick when a free one is available, by the same author who did the bootloader the others use, AND has the blessing of all the plugin dev's! It also uses the software menu where you can install & check for updates to software like NitoTV (I'm curious how others install Nito?).

Oh yeah, seems like everyone is switching to use XBMC (and it's little cousin Boxee) these days, do any of the other Patchsticks build in installs & auto-updates for those tools as well?

Free, best out there, autoupdating, :apple:TV dev approved and etc.

Just bedazzled this is still a subject!
 
aTV flash response

[IDoes anyone have experience with this product?

http://www.applecorellc.com/product_...products_id=27

At $59.99 for what it claims, it looks very compelling. I'd like to be able to add things like couch-surfer without any major hacking to the machine, but am leery that it may not work as advertised, or may kludge up my AppleTV[/I]

Yes... I am starting to have a real bad experience with this company. I purchased it last Saturday and could not get it to work. I sent an email and received a reply 3 days later (so much for the 24 hour response time). I tried to do what their email told me to do today and I am now getting a different error so I called their 'One on one' support desk and received a message to leave my number and that someone from "SALES' would call me back... Within 24 hours! The thing is I called them during the time they said they were open. What good is a product if you cannot get support for it? If I do not get this straightened out by noon tomorrow I am getting Paypal to refund my money. They talk a real good game but when it comes down to support... They just have not been there.
 
I've used http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ for free and have been very happy. You have to do some additional tweaking if you want things like Firefox, Skype, Google Earth, and Adobe Flash Player installed. It automatically includes things like XBMC, Boxee, Couch Surfer, aTV files, Sapphire (my fav.), NitoTV, etc.
 
Well ATV has worked well for me in the past 72 hours. I decided to make the purchase instead of rolling my own for the larger install base. I'm fine with the terminal and no doubt it would be fun to compile it myself -- but $59 was an easy price point for support and (hopefully) updates.

I also installed a larger drive (320 from 40) so its great to finally unload my poor laptop form all those video files and load up the aTV. Works smoothly so far bar the rebooting on video_ts files. I'm probably using the wrong application.

I"m a happy camper.
 
kadeschs said:
I've used http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ for free and have been very happy. You have to do some additional tweaking if you want things like Firefox, Skype, Google Earth, and Adobe Flash Player installed. It automatically includes things like XBMC, Boxee, Couch Surfer, aTV files, Sapphire (my fav.), NitoTV, etc.
Click to expand...

I also did it this way (took about 5 mins!). However copying movies over using CyberDuck takes about 40mins for a 1GB file, is this right? On my Xbox it takes about 3mins!!!

Also having trouble connecting to an SMB share so I can stream straight from my Mac. Keeps throwing an error from XBMC and Boxee.
 
dickovski said:
I also did it this way (took about 5 mins!). However copying movies over using CyberDuck takes about 40mins for a 1GB file, is this right? On my Xbox it takes about 3mins!!!

Also having trouble connecting to an SMB share so I can stream straight from my Mac. Keeps throwing an error from XBMC and Boxee.
Click to expand...

Well, all of my movies and TV Shows are streamed over Ethernet cable from my NAS server. Therefore, I haven't monitored transfer rates of large files being copied over to ATV. SMB shares used to be a little glitchy for me until I dumped Windows OS for FreeNAS. Under Windows, ATV would drop the SMB shares, and I had to reboot constantly. Since I've been on FreeNAS, I've had no problems with this.

Try using AFP instead of SMB temporarily. You can always set it back. Check wireless verses Ethernet cable to see if there are any differences. If so, probably interference, switch channels on router. The router between your ATV and your Mac may not be playing nice with ATV. There are lots of things to try to pinpoint where the problem may be.

Good luck!
 
Cheers for that. I messed about a bit and now have streaming working through SMB sharing from my Mac and a networked drive.

Copying files to the ATV is still painfully slow though I think because I can only connect over SFTP and not plain old FTP which is 4-5 times faster apparently. I need to enable FTP access on my ATV somehow but think I'll leave it for now as I have streaming working.

Cheers again
 
I hear ya. Can be aggravating sometimes. I use WinSCP on Windows for what file transferring I do (TV Show cover art, firefox stuff, etc.). I use the Putty add-on for administrative command line stuff. It's definitely not the fastest thing, but it seems to work pretty good. Hard to check since I don't transfer very large files as a rule. I don't know how FTP differs from SCP protocol in transfer rate.

Let me know if you come up with a "fast" transfer solution.
 
My attention was drawn to this product because I would like Internet access through my tv. Anyone know anything about the eyetv functionality. Does it simply create a way to get eyetv files from mac to the atv or does it allow you to connect eyetv stick to the atv and run from that solely?

Sorry if that seems a stupid question but I M not very good with technology and am looking for the simplest way to enhance my atv. If it is possible to run eyetv direct from atv AND get internet search then I am sold
 
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