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XBMC now installable on jailbroken AppleTV2
- Thread starter spencers
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Ok, this is new to me and looks very interesting but what is a 10-foot interface?
Thank goodness it's not just me.
Is this a new measurement like ems in css?
Thank goodness it's not just me.
Is this a new measurement like ems in css?
I too am not sure, but my guess is that it means the interface is designed to be controlled from 10 feet away, in other words, from the couch. The text would be big enough to read and not to cluttered. Unlike a normal computer interface that is basically unusable on a tv from normal viewing distances.
Edit: Sweet! Looks like I guessed correctly as the link was posted while I was typing up my response.
It's more of an XBMC term. When adding media to XBMC, you add "media sources," or more simply put, locations to the folders containing your media.
For example, let's say I have 2 external hard drives; one with movies and one with tv shows. I add those as separate media sources and designate each one as either movies or tv. The media sources can range from local folders, attached storage, and network (samba) shares. Another example: For music, let's say I have my iTunes Media folder shared over the network on my Macbook Pro. I just point XBMC to that share by adding a media source, and all my music is available on my XBMC.
What ultimately comes from separating out the library is the ability for meta info (aka media info, thumbnails, movie posters, etc) to be pulled down in an efficient way.
Ok, this is new to me and looks very interesting but what is a 10-foot interface?
Looks great, and is readable, even from 10-feet away!
Check out the "refocus" theme; it's gorgeous!
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My questions are:
1) Why is Plex not doing 1080p? Plex has always been better than xbmc since the Mac developers left the XMBC team.
2) why won't apple use either technology native, plex or xbmc in their OS
1) Why is Plex not doing 1080p? Plex has always been better than xbmc since the Mac developers left the XMBC team.
2) why won't apple use either technology native, plex or xbmc in their OS
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My questions are:
1) Why is Plex not doing 1080p? Plex has always been better than XMBC since the Mac developers left the XMBC team.
2) why won't apple use either technology native, plex or xbmc in their OS
1) Plex does do 1080P The ATV2 is the one that only supports 720P
2) Apple wont use it because its similar functionality as front row. They would never admit that someone makes a better program than they do.
My questions are:
1) Why is Plex not doing 1080p? Plex has always been better than XMBC since the Mac developers left the XMBC team.
2) why won't apple use either technology native, plex or XMBC in their OS
1) Plex still can read/play 1080p files as far as I'm aware-- the same limiting factor for both systems is that the ATV can't output 1080p. Personally I don't like Plex's current model of a media server having to run software to distribute content, and even more so that the media server then has to transcode everything for iDevices. I think it's crap IMO. I prefer the external storage just being connected to the device or network shared as-is, not having to be hooked up and indexed to a "server" (another computer) which then distributes content to other devices via transcodes, etc. I feel like it just adds an extra layer of unnecessary use.
2) The day that Apple uses their own APIs (which is mostly what XMBC is doing here) as well as appropriate file decoders, demuxers, and general support for a large plethora of formats is the day that hell freezes over and becomes a winter wonderland, complete with ice castle and all.
It's more of an XBMC term. When adding media to XBMC, you add "media sources," or more simply put, locations to the folders containing your media.
For example, let's say I have 2 external hard drives; one with movies and one with tv shows. I add those as separate media sources and designate each one as either movies or tv. The media sources can range from local folders, attached storage, and network (samba) shares. Another example: For music, let's say I have my iTunes Media folder shared over the network on my Macbook Pro. I just point XBMC to that share by adding a media source, and all my music is available on my XBMC.
What ultimately comes from separating out the library is the ability for meta info (aka media info, thumbnails, movie posters, etc) to be pulled down in an efficient way.
Looks great, and is readable, even from 10-feet away!
Check out the "refocus" theme; it's gorgeous!
XPERIENCE is nice too.
Thats really helpful, thanks very much.
I actually previously used XBMC to organise and view media on my PC, so I'm familiar with media sources. I abandoned it eventually because the upkeep became too fiddly, such as scrapers not finding info and duplicate files etc. I'd find myself spending hours at a time just trying to get artwork and info for everything I'd downloaded.
Being able to stream to ATV2 will be an incentive to have a look at it again and try and get it working for me.
The question I have about this is the processor and both the ipad and iphone can transcode the video for HD fast enough. I will admit i never tried the iphone/ipad version of XBMC but i did try VLC and I kept getting processor not powerful enough errors for HD content. In plex for iphone since I have a mac mini doing the transcoding over wifi I can watch perfect HD and 3G SD works great.
Can you attach these to Windows Media Center 7? I'd like to play some live tv from this lil guy
Anyone confirm?
Anyone confirm?
You're welcome! XBMC has come a long, long way. If the movies and tv shows are named properly, scrapers will have no problem pulling info and data. I've had no problems since I learned how to name files.
Looks like it works pretty darn well! Did you check the TUAW link in the Macrumors article?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEKR-FJAlnI&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2nrKJd5jeMU
Well that was part of the issue really, I found I was having to rename half the stuff I was downloading. What I want to do is be able to automatically move completed torrents to the XBMC source folder, then let the scrapers do their work. Using ATV2 will be an incentive to have another look at getting this working. Any pointers on this would also be much appreciated
Also, if you're using just a NAS and ATV2, which device is doing the legwork with scraping? Surely the ATV2 lacks power for this? Even my PC would take quite a while to refresh the library at times.
Not even close to the truth. Get your facts straight before you start spewing this kind of nonsense.
Well that was part of the issue really, I found I was having to rename half the stuff I was downloading. What I want to do is be able to automatically move completed torrents to the XBMC source folder, then let the scrapers do their work. Using ATV2 will be an incentive to have another look at getting this working. Any pointers on this would also be much appreciated
Also, if you're using just a NAS and ATV2, which device is doing the legwork with scraping? Surely the ATV2 lacks power for this? Even my PC would take quite a while to refresh the library at times.
Look into Sickbeard (for TV shows) and CouchPotato (for movies). It's exactly what you're looking for!!
The ATV will do the scraping. But typically, you only need to scrape your entire library just once. Unless you're adding a bunch of files each time you update your library....
Awesome, thanks. Will have a look at both of those.
Yes thats the thing, I was having to refresh the whole library each time I added new files. Thinking about it though, if I have XBMC running on my PC with a NAS as the media source, I can just do the library maintenance and scraping on the PC, so no scraping necessary on the ATV. Is that right?
Thanks again for the help, looking forward to trying all this out (once there's a windows jailbreak tool!)
While I haven't done it myself, I've read about people sharing a single library with multiple XBMC setups. With my default XBMC Live setup, all meta info and data is stored on the internal drive. What those people do, I believe, is have that happen on one machine, then subsequently just point each other machine to the xbmc data of that first machine... An alias or shortcut, if you will.
This is the part where Plex may come in handy. They have their "Plex Media Server," which allows sharing. I'm not sure if it shares the library data or not, but it's an interesting feature.
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What version of iOS do you need to be on for this to install?
I'm on a JB 4.0 and I get this error when trying to install XBMC:
W: GPG error: http://apt.awkwardtv.org ./ Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 89711CE585F73AB5
edit: whoops - Google is my buddy: "Running XBMC on an Apple TV requires a jailbroken ATV2 running version 4.1 or 4.2.1 of Apple's iOS operating system – installation instructions are available on the XBMC web site. A video of the second generation Apple TV running XBMC is available on YouTube."
I'm on a JB 4.0 and I get this error when trying to install XBMC:
W: GPG error: http://apt.awkwardtv.org ./ Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 89711CE585F73AB5
edit: whoops - Google is my buddy: "Running XBMC on an Apple TV requires a jailbroken ATV2 running version 4.1 or 4.2.1 of Apple's iOS operating system – installation instructions are available on the XBMC web site. A video of the second generation Apple TV running XBMC is available on YouTube."
I assume you're on iPhone/iPad if you have 4.0 installed? Try installing through Cydia.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Install_XBMC_on_iPhone/iPad
Agree, SickBeard and CouchPotato are awesome. The fact that you can manage them from ATV via plugins is a massive bonus!
xbmc is far and away the best media center software about - There's now an absolutely massive incentive to get an ATV2.
What I didn't realise was the price in the UK (and the 720p hardware limitation) - I'd seen the $99 US price tag, £101 doesn't really translate too well for me. I think I'd still rather pay a small premium and get an ION box.
What I didn't realise was the price in the UK (and the 720p hardware limitation) - I'd seen the $99 US price tag, £101 doesn't really translate too well for me. I think I'd still rather pay a small premium and get an ION box.