XBMC now installable on jailbroken AppleTV2

[owen-b]

Could somebody give me a totally blow by blow account of how to get videos to show up on XBMC when they are stored on an external drive connected to a Mac that's on the same network as the ATV2? I've got Rivet installed as it happens, for streaming to my Xbox, and so my media does show up via UPnP pretty painlessly - worth a try for folks having difficulty but Rivet isn't free - but I thought perhaps this method could be causing some problems and wanted to try a different way - I set my folders up for File Sharing as suggested but an SMB scan doesn't reveal anything in XBMC.


Anyway my two main problems are:

1) nothing is scraping. I set the folders up using the UPnP method described above and set them to TV or Movies with the right scrapers, autoscraping on, and so the folders show up in the Videos section but only as lists of files.

All my TV shows are generally: the.walking.dead.S01E03.XviD.avi for example. Movies are generally just the name of the movie, nothing else. The standard naming format, really. Plex can understand every single movie and TV show I have in my library, so any ideas why the XBMC scrapers aren't getting anything from them?

2) some skins have an extra couple of folders on the home screen - TV Shows and Movies. Despite being able to access my own TV and Movie folders via the Videos section (albeit without scraper info), these two extra folders never get populated with anything.

Any ideas? Many thanks

 

[spencers]

You don't say... How about the fact that you need to set up a name for your computer in the sharing menu in system preferences, and not use the ip? How about when you go to connect on the ATV you need to put in smb://name/folder/ - name being the name of the computer, and the folder, being the last folder on your external drive or internal drive without putting in the full path file. Is it really that hard just to explain it to people?

Futhermore, getting through the layout of the thing with the remote i an absolute joke. Sorry but it is. Just a joke.

All everyone wants is to be able to play different format files on their ATV's. Not have the thing downloading pictures of the actors, and summary's & actors names & ratings & producers & directors etc etc etc etc.

So I might be sounding a bit angry right now, but I have just spent the last 48 hours trying to get this done with absolutely no direction from the dev's other than to say try signing up to the forums and just searching.... I was on the irc help channel for 14 hours trying to get a response. Seriously it's as if you don't want anyone to be able to use the program. Like it's some big secret how to get it working. I can clearly see why that is now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HknqiTasOh8

You do sound frustrated! Again, I can side with you because when I started out, I was running into similar issues. Seriously, search around on the XBMC forums when you have problems.
I'll give you some help. Here's how I have my music shared from my mac. I created a user called xbmc, with the password xbmc.


And here's how the smb connection looks on my xbmc.


I'm willing to help if you have any other questions.

Anyway my two main problems are:

1) nothing is scraping. I set the folders up using the UPnP method described above and set them to TV or Movies with the right scrapers, autoscraping on, and so the folders show up in the Videos section but only as lists of files.

All my TV shows are generally: the.walking.dead.S01E03.XviD.avi for example. Movies are generally just the name of the movie, nothing else. The standard naming format, really. Plex can understand every single movie and TV show I have in my library, so any ideas why the XBMC scrapers aren't getting anything from them?

2) some skins have an extra couple of folders on the home screen - TV Shows and Movies. Despite being able to access my own TV and Movie folders via the Videos section (albeit without scraper info), these two extra folders never get populated with anything.

Any ideas? Many thanks

See my post here for details on #1. Having set up a proper naming scheme is paramount for scraping.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11768495/

With #2, those "folders" will become populated when you properly have your media scraped.

 

[owen-b]

Okay, so one solution solves both problems. This is a good thing.

However, reading that post, is that the absolutely only way that XBMC will recognise files for scraping? Most of the time I've no idea of the title of a particular episode of a show. And what if I don't happen to know what to put for the year, res and/or quality of a movie file? That's quite a lot of effort, especially for my TV collection, when Plex will understand absolutely all of it as it stands.

Are there tools that can do this for you?

EDIT: I've just installed XBMC for OSX onto my host iMac and run it. Because the drives are physically connected to the iMac I can access the movies and TV folders directly. I add them to Videos in XBMC and all the graphics and info starts scraping and showing up.

So, I think the naming is fine. There's something else particular to the way my AppleTV install is set up that's causing this problem I think.

 

[spencers]

Okay, so one solution solves both problems. This is a good thing.

However, reading that post, is that the absolutely only way that XBMC will recognise files for scraping? Most of the time I've no idea of the title of a particular episode of a show. And what if I don't happen to know what to put for the year, res and/or quality of a movie file? That's quite a lot of effort, especially for my TV collection, when Plex will understand absolutely all of it as it stands.

Are there tools that can do this for you?

Yes. I used a java applet called FileBot in the past that worked wonderfully! For TV Shows at least.
http://filebot.sourceforge.net/
Give it a shot.

For movies, look on IMDB for the year. Resolution and quality isn't necessarily required, but good to have, if you'd like to distinguish between blu-ray and dvd within the xbmc interface. Again, it's not required, but nice to have with a mixed-resolution library.

 

[owen-b]

I've just installed XBMC for OSX onto my host iMac and run it. Because the drives are physically connected to the iMac I can access the movies and TV folders directly. I add them to Videos in XBMC and all the graphics and info starts scraping and showing up.

So, I think the naming is fine. There's something else particular to the way my AppleTV install is set up that's causing this problem I think.

 

[RoarinRow]

After 2 nights of trying to jailbreak my ATV2 I finally did it lol. I installed XBMC and see there are plenty of cool features. Just wish I could play .avi files.

I posted a thread on the XBMC forum. If there is a fix, then I'll share the link here.

Another posted stated that .avi files can't be played through the ATV2 interface. Oh well, I'll just keep searching.

 

[spencers]

I've just installed XBMC for OSX onto my host iMac and run it. Because the drives are physically connected to the iMac I can access the movies and TV folders directly. I add them to Videos in XBMC and all the graphics and info starts scraping and showing up.

So, I think the naming is fine. There's something else particular to the way my AppleTV install is set up that's causing this problem I think.

Hmm. How do you have your SMB settings set up on your mac? Perhaps permissions are preventing XBMC on the ATV2 from scraping.
See the first part of my post to verify (screenshots). That's how I've set up mine, at least.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11772311/

Check this video for a proper setup procedure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTBspxh7CgI

 

[owen-b]

Another posted stated that .avi files can't be played through the ATV2 interface. Oh well, I'll just keep searching.

.avi files play just fine as far as I can tell on my own installation.

 

[iKennett]

.avi files play just fine as far as I can tell on my own installation.

+1 all OK here also

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Best jailbreak ever.
The only thing keeping Windows 7 Media Center/MediaBrowser HTPC out of the closet is Video_TS playback and 2.0 audio.

 

[owen-b]

Bingo! I set up the new account and the Windows sharing, entered the path exactly as you did and POW it started working. So I guess the UPnP method was getting in the way somehow.

Thanks a lot, Spencers!

Now then, how do I go about installing skins that aren't in the officially supported list? I liked the look of 'refocus'. I read something about SSHing into the ATV (which I understand) and 'dropping' the file somewhere (which I didn't understand). Can you help with that by any chance?

 

[iKennett]

anyone have a fix for the wrong time issue?

 

[HarryPot]

Can you stream from a hard drive connected to an Airport Extreme?

Most of the time I leave my Mac at the office, so this would be a big one for me.

Thanks.

 

[spencers]

Bingo! I set up the new account and the Windows sharing, entered the path exactly as you did and POW it started working. So I guess the UPnP method was getting in the way somehow.

Thanks a lot, Spencers!

Now then, how do I go about installing skins that aren't in the officially supported list? I liked the look of 'refocus'. I read something about SSHing into the ATV (which I understand) and 'dropping' the file somewhere (which I didn't understand). Can you help with that by any chance?

Great!
See this thread
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=91639

Can you stream from a hard drive connected to an Airport Extreme?
Most of the time I leave my Mac at the office, so this would be a big one for me.

See post below
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/11768943/

 

[anim8or]

anyone have a fix for the wrong time issue?

Have a good explore in the system settings i found an option to change region format from USA to UK.... Once I relaunched xbmc the time had changed to reflect current uk time.

 

[slffl]

Wow why am I not surprised at how complicated this all is?

Here's a tip. The BEST media center experience available right now is a MacMini running Boxee. Simple and everything 'just works'.

If you can't afford a MacMini, hopefully Boxee will make its way to the ATV soon.

 

[RoarinRow]

.avi files play just fine as far as I can tell on my own installation.

I got it to work. User error

 

[kramerica2]

Can someone that installed XMBC give a short review?
I'm basically pondering between ATV and Boxee Box. The ATV has the price and air-play advantage and Boxee Box pretty much everything else.
The XMBC install can make or break the deal.
The most important thing is - can you really play everything without conversion?
Do 1080p mkv files run smoothly? I don't care that the output is limited to 720p, my TV is also limited to that resolution, but I have many movies, some of them are 1080p and I want to be able to play them without conversions.

Thanks a lot.

 

[dhy8386]

Can someone that installed XMBC give a short review?
I'm basically pondering between ATV and Boxee Box. The ATV has the price and air-play advantage and Boxee Box pretty much everything else.
The XMBC install can make or break the deal.
The most important thing is - can you really play everything without conversion?
Do 1080p mkv files run smoothly? I don't care that the output is limited to 720p, my TV is also limited to that resolution, but I have many movies, some of them are 1080p and I want to be able to play them without conversions.

Thanks a lot.

Ill just tell you that 1080p through XBMC will not play smoothly. There are repeated drop frames and some judder. Its not terrible and totally watchable. They play better than 1080p m4vs that I made through Handbrake but its not the same as running boxee of plex on my hackintosh which is butter. That is a fact as it stands right now.

FYI, I am wired to my ATV2

 

[aussiedj]

Can someone that installed XMBC give a short review?

Absolutely piece of rubbish without question. Near non-existent support from dev's including the poster of this thread. It is absolutely clear they have no idea about setting it up, or they are just arrogant & actually want bad reviews like this so that they fail. I'm guessing more so the second one. The software has been released publicly when it is no where NEAR ready for the public. Now they have every mac forum FILLED with people having problems & less than 10% actually getting it working. So XBMC has absolutely annihilated itself & it's reputation GONE COMPLETELY out the window. 48 hours almost straight trying to get this thing to work, finally got it working & it was the most disappointing piece of software I have ever encountered on OSX in my entire life. Get this, the menu on OSX takes 30% of CPU when it is not connected to the ATV, and it is just sitting idle! Now if that doesn't prove it is the worst coding you have ever seen then I don't know what will. Apart from the fact that you cannot use any mac network protocols to connect to it. You have to set up ancient windows protocols on your mac and ATV.

I'm basically pondering between ATV and Boxee Box. The ATV has the price and air-play advantage and Boxee Box pretty much everything else.
The XMBC install can make or break the deal.
The most important thing is - can you really play everything without conversion?
Do 1080p mkv files run smoothly? I don't care that the output is limited to 720p, my TV is also limited to that resolution, but I have many movies, some of them are 1080p and I want to be able to play them without conversions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HknqiTasOh8 - 1080p right there that I tried last night.
Even tried 480p - STILL rubbish.

*ducks*

 

[ashy7]

Absolutely piece of rubbish without question. Near non-existent support from dev's including the poster of this thread. It is absolutely clear they have no idea about setting it up, or they are just arrogant & actually want bad reviews like this so that they fail. I'm guessing more so the second one. The software has been released publicly when it is no where NEAR ready for the public. Now they have every mac forum FILLED with people having problems & less than 10% actually getting it working. So XBMC has absolutely annihilated itself & it's reputation GONE COMPLETELY out the window. 48 hours almost straight trying to get this thing to work, finally got it working & it was the most disappointing piece of software I have ever encountered on OSX in my entire life. Get this, the menu on OSX takes 30% of CPU when it is not connected to the ATV, and it is just sitting idle! Now if that doesn't prove it is the worst coding you have ever seen then I don't know what will. Apart from the fact that you cannot use any mac network protocols to connect to it. You have to set up ancient windows protocols on your mac and ATV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HknqiTasOh8 - 1080p right there that I tried last night.
Even tried 480p - STILL rubbish.

*ducks*

I think you being far to critical. If this was software that you had paid for, then you could expect a better service. As it stands, this is something that a group of people have spent time on for nothing, and have let people have it for nothing.

The OP has been as helpful as he can, and the post he gave you about setting up the SMB share has certainly helped me get everything up and running.

 

[spencers]

Absolutely piece of rubbish without question. Near non-existent support from dev's including the poster of this thread. It is absolutely clear they have no idea about setting it up, or they are just arrogant & actually want bad reviews like this so that they fail. I'm guessing more so the second one. The software has been released publicly when it is no where NEAR ready for the public. Now they have every mac forum FILLED with people having problems & less than 10% actually getting it working. So XBMC has absolutely annihilated itself & it's reputation GONE COMPLETELY out the window. 48 hours almost straight trying to get this thing to work, finally got it working & it was the most disappointing piece of software I have ever encountered on OSX in my entire life. Get this, the menu on OSX takes 30% of CPU when it is not connected to the ATV, and it is just sitting idle! Now if that doesn't prove it is the worst coding you have ever seen then I don't know what will. Apart from the fact that you cannot use any mac network protocols to connect to it. You have to set up ancient windows protocols on your mac and ATV.

Bugger off, get a life, and find something else that works for you.
I never said install/setup was easy. Perhaps you should stick with your normal ATV2 if you cannot figure xbmc out. This is exactly why I'm happy XBMC is open source, and not paid-for software: so I (nor xbmc devs) are required to help fools like you.
I'm not a dev. I'm just a user that is happy with his setup; happy enough to provide the kind souls on this forum with what little help I can provide. I've given my knowledge to you, and some others whom have achieved a successful setup.

Good luck to you sir.

 

[iKennett]

Have a good explore in the system settings i found an option to change region format from USA to UK.... Once I relaunched xbmc the time had changed to reflect current uk time.

No luck... I've changed the 'regional' for UK however the time remains for UK or UK (24) and infact... no matter what i change it too the time stays the same!

 

[VoR]

Absolutely piece of rubbish without question. Near non-existent support from dev's including the poster of this thread.

I love the software, I know many that do too and I see 1000s in posts/reviews/etc.
Developers are writing OSS for everyone, themselves and for free, they have no responsibility to give you support - especially if you refuse to read basic instructions/search for answers and give up, getting angry and talking nonsense

It is absolutely clear they have no idea about setting it up, or they are just arrogant & actually want bad reviews like this so that they fail. I'm guessing more so the second one.

The developers have no idea how to set up the software? The original poster who has a working setup, and many posts in this thread helping people (with thanks received) has no idea either?

The software has been released publicly when it is no where NEAR ready for the public. Now they have every mac forum FILLED with people having problems & less than 10% actually getting it working. So XBMC has absolutely annihilated itself & it's reputation GONE COMPLETELY out the window.

It's OSS software, if it doesn't work for you on a standardized platform, maybe you're doing something wrong, or maybe it'll be fixed - Either way, it's still (imo) far better than any other software solution, expensive, proprietary or otherwise. xbmc has been in development for like 9 years or something. My experience of xbmc on the arm/ios platform has been good, and all it's doing from my pov is getting even more people interested in controlling their own media and potentially selling more apple hardware (I'm still recommending ION boxes to friends though).

48 hours almost straight trying to get this thing to work, finally got it working & it was the most disappointing piece of software I have ever encountered on OSX in my entire life. Get this, the menu on OSX takes 30% of CPU when it is not connected to the ATV, and it is just sitting idle! Now if that doesn't prove it is the worst coding you have ever seen then I don't know what will.

I can download an xbmc distro and have it installed, running perfectly and be scanning my library onto a device in less than 60 seconds, literally. I've been using it for a fair while though, actually did a little reading and had the patience not to give up on it straight away.
CPU use on the home screen is a long time legacy issue that will be sorted eventually - why does it bother you? If it was 'the worst coding you have ever seen' there wouldn't have been so much too and fro code sharing between xbmc and pretty much every media related oss project.

You realise that it's not the end of the world if you hate the product? It's slightly irritating to read, but at the end of the day - honestly, it's your loss.

Apart from the fact that you cannot use any mac network protocols to connect to it. You have to set up ancient windows protocols on your mac and ATV.

samba is an ancient protocol is it? You dislike windows/microsoft/whatever, so assume/dismiss SMB as a 'rubbish' protocol and tar samba with the same brush?


I'm a happy user, I'm sure there are many more, and I'm sure they'll be even more happy consumers of all sorts of software on arm/ios/etc devices once their hard work filters down to other products

 

[fkntotalkaos]

I love the software, I know many that do too and I see 1000s in posts/reviews/etc.
Developers are writing OSS for everyone, themselves and for free, they have no responsibility to give you support - especially if you refuse to read basic instructions/search for answers and give up, getting angry and talking nonsense

There's that XBMC ellistist Jerk attitude that I have grown to love

I typically find Mac users in general to be much more helpful, but that is the exact response that drove the Mac people away from XBMC in 2008 towards plex. You will never see a response like that in a Plex forum, and I guessed you would never see it on a Mac forum (I was wrong)