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Native appletv 1080 xbmc support (broadcom crystal HD)

First build of the kext has just been posted at google code- get it whilst it's fresh!

Just ran some apple hd 1080p trailers on my appletv using latest nightly xbmc build- absolutely amazing.

Big shouts go out to Davilla at xbmc for making it all work.
 
I just helped a friend with one of these cards on an atv.
He had been unimpressed with the unit out of the box and it wasn't being used, I've a feeling it's going to be running 24/7 now - he had no idea how well you could display your media collection on your tv/receiver.

I'd like to second the thanks to davilla and the rest of the xbmc crew - just getting broadcom to play ball was utterly amazing, let alone the working, finished product.
 
This sounds interesting... if Apple ever gets around to releasing new hardware, I think I'll see just how well it works with one of my two existing AppleTVs.
 
booyaaah said:
I'm anxiously waiting for this card to arrive after ordering it from eBay. :)
But I'm a little worried about the installation because I have an iMac. Here's a guide about the installation:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-iMac-Intel-20-Inch-EMC-2105-and-2118-AirPort-Extreme/1084/1
Is there anyone else who has opened up their iMac and could calm my nerves a bit? :p
Click to expand...

What are you using this in an iMac for?

Anyways I might try this with the appletv :) I can't wait for the flash drivers to come to help hulu.
 
I dont think I'd recommend trying it on an imac mate- really for use in low end netbooks, mac mini and appletv... Is your performance for hd really that bad? You should be alright with any core duo as far as I know.
Remember crystal HD has to be used with SVN builds of XBMC to make it work currently. As far as I know there isn't any other support on the cards really, although it should drip through onto boxee and maybe even plex soon enough.
 
srexy said:
Echoing the above 2 posts - what are the specs on your iMac?
Click to expand...

It's this one:

iMac_g3-neale6-15-05.jpg
 
How long until the ATVFlash and Patchstick.ca shills start saying "they've" gotten hi def working on their stuff and once again make more money off the hard work of Davilla and other XBMC devs? :mad:
 
srexy said:
Echoing the above 2 posts - what are the specs on your iMac?
Click to expand...

It's an iMac core duo 2 GHz (early 2006).
It can play 720p fine but 1080p is a hit or miss. I also use boot camp so I would imagine I finally will be able to play blu-ray through Arcsoft TotalMedia, PowerDVD (if they fully support the card in the future) or mpc-hc (have support).:eek:
 
booyaaah said:
It's an iMac core duo 2 GHz (early 2006).
It can play 720p fine but 1080p is a hit or miss. I also use boot camp so I would imagine I finally will be able to play blu-ray through Arcsoft TotalMedia, PowerDVD (if they fully support the card in the future) or mpc-hc (have support).:eek:
Click to expand...

Ah, ok, well, if you do open it up keep in mind that if it does have a PCI-Express (it probably does) that it's most likely occupied by the Wifi card so you'll be losing wireless.

Other than that why use bootcamp when you can stay in OSX and just use XBMC which has great eye candy and will be able to handle the encodes?
 
robotartfashion said:
Ah, ok, well, if you do open it up keep in mind that if it does have a PCI-Express (it probably does) that it's most likely occupied by the Wifi card so you'll be losing wireless.

Other than that why use bootcamp when you can stay in OSX and just use XBMC which has great eye candy and will be able to handle the encodes?
Click to expand...

Yeah the airport express mini-pci will be gone but I dont use it anyway.
And I will use XBMC in OSX to play encodes but hopefully I will be able to play blu-rays with my external drive in Win 7.
 
TuckBodi said:
How long until the ATVFlash and Patchstick.ca shills start saying "they've" gotten hi def working on their stuff and once again make more money off the hard work of Davilla and other XBMC devs? :mad:
Click to expand...

We never claim to develop plugins or functions that we did not develop ourselves (contrary to ATVFlash)
In fact, we give credit to Davilla and his team.
Btw, no one forces you to buy our software.
 
Just ordered one of these off eBay. £20 seems like a bargain to me. Hopefully come by the end of the week, and then come the challenge of me opening up my Apple TV for the first time :-s.
Also I take it this will improve 720p .mkv files I have at the minute which are unwatchable (video just jumps about 2 seconds at a time with audio in the background)?
 
zestytesty said:
looks like they already have
http://forum.atvflash.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2469
Click to expand...

Despicable. Especially how they make it sound like they've done all the work and the lemmings are falling for it and signing up for another year. And I notice their moderators don't have a clue as the issues their users are having can be fixed with a simple permissions fix.

tom1971 said:
We never claim to develop plugins or functions that we did not develop ourselves (contrary to ATVFlash)
In fact, we give credit to Davilla and his team.
Click to expand...

Okay, I'll give you that one. Good to see. Now, if you're still using Davilla's bootloader on your patchsticks, where's the recognition for that? And for the Turbo stuff, ATVFiles, nitoTV (and their SmartInstaller), CouchSurfer, etc.??

What just cracks me up is Davilla has now done the bootloader (which his own ATVUSB-Creator Patchstick uses), major contributor to the Mac/AppleTV XBMC development, and now the Broadcom CrystalHD development.

Speaking of bootloader....I'm curious if Patchstick.ca and ATVFlash are planning on going (copying?) into the next major patchstick development which is just around the corner for us AppleTV/XBMC users which will take us into the next realm?
 
JAWWC said:
Just ordered one of these off eBay. £20 seems like a bargain to me. Hopefully come by the end of the week, and then come the challenge of me opening up my Apple TV for the first time :-s.
Also I take it this will improve 720p .mkv files I have at the minute which are unwatchable (video just jumps about 2 seconds at a time with audio in the background)?
Click to expand...

There's several sets of instructions out there. Here's an older one which is detailed with pictures. Just don't *snip* your wires...they just unplug from the wireless card with a good tug. Then just electrical tape them off to the case.

Then just use Davilla's guide or another more detailed one for the software part.

Couple pieces to note:

<ATVFlash steal here>
- make sure permissions and owners are set correctly per the instructions
- make sure your rc.local is owned by root/wheel and not frontrow, otherwise the kext won't reload on restart
</ATVFlash steal here>

720 to 1080p play great, when they play, but there are growing pains involved and this is still a work in progress. I haven't updated my XBMC SVN in a couple of days but previously I had issues with audio playing, my first movies always skipped (I'd have to go to another one and then they'd play), and there's a report of major problems with interlaced content. YMMV and you may want to wait for the formal release.
 
JAWWC said:
the challenge of me opening up my Apple TV for the first time :-s.
Click to expand...
Don't worry too much about that- it's fairly simple as long as you make sure you've got the correct drivers- just be a little bit careful with the rubber or it might tear a little (like mine did!).

JAWWC said:
Also I take it this will improve 720p .mkv files I have at the minute which are unwatchable (video just jumps about 2 seconds at a time with audio in the background)?
Click to expand...
The 720p MKV's should be fine in the end, but remember there a zillion different formats out there and MKV is just a container for them. The ones that work now work great, but don't expect there to be no problems at this very early stage.
 
TuckBodi said:
720 to 1080p play great, when they play, but there are growing pains involved and this is still a work in progress. I haven't updated my XBMC SVN in a couple of days but previously I had issues with audio playing, my first movies always skipped (I'd have to go to another one and then they'd play), and there's a report of major problems with interlaced content. YMMV and you may want to wait for the formal release.
Click to expand...

All my movies (1080P) were in a MKV format until I Converted them to play via quicktime with Handbrake...I used the AppleTV presets but kept the resolution at its native 1080P. I'd assume the growing pains would be minimal with these as they are formatted for for quicktime. Am I correct in that assumption?

Thanks
 
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