I love my ATV as is but I have to admit ever since I ATV flashed it I'm lovin it even more. The ability of using my large library of existing Xvid Encodes is really nice. I have an Archos 605 and the same files I play on it encoded in all their 720x whatever glory look wonderful playing now from my ATV. The ability to add a USB drive is great as it give me extra storage space to throw a few seasons of a show I've yet to watch and then watch it at my leisure. The other stuff is nice too for casual viewing of Web pages (althought the ATV was not designed with that in mind) But it's the ability of dropping a file without converting that's really nice.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I have to admit the ATV Hacked is a Beautiful thing
- Thread starter Scarpad
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
how did you 'flash' it to allow it to play .avi (Xvid, divx?) files
does this void your warranty
did it cost anything?
does this void your warranty
did it cost anything?
Yes that's what I used. Basically they assembled all the utilities needed to do this, they are available on the web, but they built an installer which creates the flash on a thumbdrive. With it it modifies the ATV to allow for all those features. It works well. It does probalby void the warranty, but worse comes to worse you can always reset it to factory settings by doing a restore. I had two ATV's so it did not really matter.
A hacked appletv is by the far the best streamer/media player than anything I have used in the past. Trust me, I used everything because I am addicted to home theater pc stuff. But now my system is a bunch of tivos around the house (can transfer shows between them), and appletvs. The appletv has such a beautiful interface, and my movies encoded at 720p look pretty darn good. Not quite blue ray, or 1080i movies on comcast sometimes, but pretty good nonetheless.
I used applecorellc patch to patch mine up. Can use AFP to access networked drives to playback .avi files, and dvds (dvd playback isn't that great).
It beats media center, and sage if you ask me.
Mo
I used applecorellc patch to patch mine up. Can use AFP to access networked drives to playback .avi files, and dvds (dvd playback isn't that great).
It beats media center, and sage if you ask me.
Mo
I've managed to connect an external drive to mine but could get the sharing of a network drive to work, can you give me some tips.... Are you encoding your movies to .avi's ? or still using H264? I encode my TV shows to .avi because I own a couple of Archos players, but keep my movies in the H264 format...
Can I just ask a couple of Q's?
1 - Does this void the warranty?
2 - Can you restore to the Apple TV's former firmware?
3 - How well does it handle DVD folders (TS Folders)?
Think that's it!
Cheers
1 - Does this void the warranty?
2 - Can you restore to the Apple TV's former firmware?
3 - How well does it handle DVD folders (TS Folders)?
Think that's it!
Cheers
Can I just ask a couple of Q's?
1 - Does this void the warranty?
2 - Can you restore to the Apple TV's former firmware?
3 - How well does it handle DVD folders (TS Folders)?
Think that's it!
Cheers
exactly what i've been wondering. i was worried about voiding the warranty on something in the $300 range. i was also considering getting a macmini to play my dvd files, but if this works it's a couple hundred dollars cheaper. then we can hope that there is an update for 1080p in the near future.
Hey guys,
Getting the afp to work is kind of a pain, but thanks to a guy in the applecorellc forums, was able to figure it out. It kind of depends if you have a factory 1.0 versus 2.02 appletv. If you have 1.0, you really don't need to do too much, but I would suggest you look at the applecorellc forums. If you have 2.02, you need to get a hold of the 1.0 appletv image from somewhere (bitorrent). I can try to explain more once you get those things going, but the first thing you need to do is patch your appletv to get ssh access.
This should not void warranty because you are not opening the appletv, and you can easily do a restore on it. I wouldn't use it to playback dvds, because it stutters a little bit. FPs needs to be 23.9. I encode my movies in x264 format because it works great with itunes.
Lates
Mo
Getting the afp to work is kind of a pain, but thanks to a guy in the applecorellc forums, was able to figure it out. It kind of depends if you have a factory 1.0 versus 2.02 appletv. If you have 1.0, you really don't need to do too much, but I would suggest you look at the applecorellc forums. If you have 2.02, you need to get a hold of the 1.0 appletv image from somewhere (bitorrent). I can try to explain more once you get those things going, but the first thing you need to do is patch your appletv to get ssh access.
This should not void warranty because you are not opening the appletv, and you can easily do a restore on it. I wouldn't use it to playback dvds, because it stutters a little bit. FPs needs to be 23.9. I encode my movies in x264 format because it works great with itunes.
Lates
Mo
Nice......I'm downloading it now
What do you use to edit tags for avi? I juse MetaX it doesn't accept avi files...any suggestion? Thanks
It comes with a utility that will search for the meta information for all your shows from within the apple tv, its called sapphire
It sees my computer I just cannot log into it with what should be user name and Password.
I've yet to flash my ATV but I'm curious if you can get the ATV to play 1080 or 720 MKV files without any complications. Some have said it can handle 1080 but will be very touch and go.
Any comments?
Any comments?
My BIG question is can you now have a movie available in multiple Genres ?
meaning can I have a genre for a movie of say Comedy and a genre I setup for my son ????
I have really wanted this 1 feature more then anything else,
thanks
meaning can I have a genre for a movie of say Comedy and a genre I setup for my son ????
I have really wanted this 1 feature more then anything else,
thanks
I would also like a feature similar to this so I can keep the adult movies separated from the mainstream movies.
No the ATV has problems with Larger than 1gb sticks , I used a 1gb SD card I had in a reader and it worked. If you have 256 or 512 cards sitting around use those.
Avoid sticks bigger than 1 GB - tey are known to cause problems, respectively not being recognised by ATV
Before going and shelling out for what I'd consider an overpriced Patchstick from these commercial sites, I'd wait a few weeks to see what this guy davilla comes up with. He's claiming he's working with the plug-in devs to come up with a free, easy-to-use method for everyday ATV owners. I tend to believe him as he's the one who came up with the bootloader all these Patchsticks are using to get around Apple copyright restrictions. Info and "some" progress reports are up on atvmod.com and the awkwardtv forums.
http://forum.awkwardtv.org/
http://www.atvmod.com/forum/index.php
And a wealth of info:
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Main_Page
In regards to voiding warranty...No
Restore to former firmware...Yes, hold down the minus and menu button for 5 seconds
And Video Folders can be played through the NitoTV plugin
http://forum.awkwardtv.org/
http://www.atvmod.com/forum/index.php
And a wealth of info:
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Main_Page
In regards to voiding warranty...No
Restore to former firmware...Yes, hold down the minus and menu button for 5 seconds
And Video Folders can be played through the NitoTV plugin
I'd really would like to part with the cash and purchase this (mainly for the use of an external hard drive to add more movies) but is it really as easy to install as it suggests - whilst I use my mac all the time, I'm generally just using software that provides step by step instruction and nothing more than user interface deep - Any real life experiences that could be shared ?
You are correct in regards of davilla's experience. However the site is not moving since months.
There are solutions out there that are fully compliant with copyright regulations, whereas CiscoTM still distributes copyrighted material on his site.
Hack ATV - help
long time reader - first time poster.....
just got the ATV.....geting dizzy reading all the different methods of hacking to play divx. xvid etc file types.
i'm not too savvy with the hacking thing; can someone please point me in the right direction to do this easily and safely?
many thanks
ryan
long time reader - first time poster.....
just got the ATV.....geting dizzy reading all the different methods of hacking to play divx. xvid etc file types.
i'm not too savvy with the hacking thing; can someone please point me in the right direction to do this easily and safely?
many thanks
ryan