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Alright, a few days ago I got my AppleTV. You might wonder why:
- Easy to use (important if you're married)
- Plays all iTunes Videos/Music out of the box
- Plays more or less all Videoformats you can find when you install XBMC or Boxee. This requires a very easy hack (and a Mac at the moment)
If you need a Boxee invite, please leave a comment below or send me an email.
The only downside is that it does not have enough power to play High Definition Videos, unless they are in a standard Quicktime format, i.e any Matroska (MKV) or AVI file won't play smoothly, Video with 720p might play, but 1080p is just not possible.
Though all HD content from the iTunes store plays flawless. Why? Well Apple knows how to utillize the graphics chip to accelerate the Video. XBMC/Boxee only use the CPU, which is not fast enough.
Goal of this tutorial
I have to give credits to all the great guys who made this now so easy. Over at AwkwardTV tyou can find many more Guides etc. This tutorial is just a quick summary of thw 2 most essential points in my opinion:
- Install XBMC/Boxee, this automatically enables SSH, so you can remotely log into your AppleTV.
- Setup Samba (SMB) so you can copy files fast to the AppleTV.
I wasn't able to install AFP, but SMB works just fine.
Requirements
- AppleTV, mine came with Firmware 2.2 preinstalled
- 1GB Memory Stick or something similar (I used a card reader and a 1GB Compact Flash Card).
Please note some memory sticks don't work!
- Mac with OSX 10.4 or 10.5
Update Windows should now also work!
AppleTV Jailbreak
My AppleTV was brand new so I connected it to the TV first and started it first normally to select my language and to check whcih fimware is installed.
- Go to the website of ATVUSB-Creator and download the latest version. Please read all the information over there as well.
- To be safe you should disconnect all external Hard Discs from you Mac. Some people used the ATVUSB-Creator and accidently wiped their HD empty. Better be safe than sorry!
- Connect the USB Stick or Card reader to your Mac and start the ATVUSB-Creator.
- Select the correct USB Target Device! If you are not sure,
- start Diskutil and do a right click on the available USB Disks.
- Choose Information.
- A window will open, look for Disk Identifier, this will show the name of this USB Disk.
- No need to change the other options, ATV-Patchstick should be selected, and AppleTV 2,1 though I have a 2.2 there was no problem.
- Click on Create Using. Now a AppleTV update will be downloaded which might take some time and the USB Stick will be prepared afterwards.
- Now unplug your AppleTV from mains power and plug the USB Stick into the AppleTV.
- Connect the AppleTV to power again and it shouild boot.
If the USB Stick is recognized the ATV USB Creator Logo will appear with some console messages. After a few seconds this should be done.
- Read the Messages on your screen to double-check that there was no error.
- If everything was fine. disconnect power and the USB Stick from your AppleTV.
- Connect power to the AppleTV again and it should boot normally.
- Your Main Menu shoud have XBMC/Boxee and SSH should work now.
Test SSH
Open a Terminal on your Mac.
- Type
ssh frontrow@appletv.local
- If this does not work use the IP address of your AppleTV instead, e.g.
ssh
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- Enter the Password: frontrow
- If everything worked you will see a command prompt.
Install XBMC/Boxee
XBMC and Boxee are both based on the same XBMC Framework, so there is no difference in playback performance. Boxee has some "Social Networking" features, e.g. recommend something to friends, see what they have watched. Also a Hulu player is now integrated. But currently you need an invitation to use Boxee.
- To install this go to the XBMC/Boxee item on your AppleTV and choose Update.
- You should see a selection of 3 items. I couldn't download XBMC and Boxee immediately so I recommend to install the XBMC/Boxee Launcher first.
- When this is completed download XBMC and/or Boxee the same way.
Install Samba (SMB support)
Note: This is done on a Mac, it should also work with Windows, you'll need Putty for the SSH access and some software to extract the .bz2 file.
If you only want to copy a few files to the AppleTV you don't need to install SMB. Once SSH is working you can already transfer files to the AppleTV. But I noticed that SFTP is quite slow. With SMB you'll get a very noticeable speed improvement.
- Download and install Cyberduck to transfer some files to the AppleTV with the SFTP protocol.
- Download Macports Samba.
- Open a Terminal on your Mac and write this command:
tar -xvpf ~/Downloads/samba3_macports_bin.tar.bz2
- This will create a folder "opt" in your user folder.
- Start Cyberduck and create a new connection:
Protocol: SFTP
Server: appletv.local (if this does not work, the IP address of the AppleTV)
Username: frontrow
Password: frontrow
- User Cyberduck to connect to your AppleTV
- Go to the root ("/") folder of your AppleTV.
- Copy the "opt" folder which we extracted to this folder.
- Connect to the AppleTV with ssh frontrow@appletv.local.
- You can download this configuration file (smb.conf) and copy it to the AppleTV folder: /opt/local/etc/samba3/
Or rename the file smb.conf.sample in this folder to smb.conf and edit it either on the Mac or with the command nano smb.conf
- Create a SMB password for the Samba user:
sudo /opt/local/bin/smbpasswd -a frontrow .
- Start the Samba service with these commands:
/opt/local/sbin/smbd -c /opt/local/etc/samba3/smb.conf
/opt/local/sbin/nmbd -c /opt/local/etc/samba3/smb.conf
- Try to connect to the AppleTV from your Mac, Go->Connect to Server.
Enter the address smb://appletv.local. After a few seconds you should be asked for a username/password.
- Check if you can browse the AppleTV and disconnect the Network shares from your AppleTV again.
Enable Samba automatic loading
- You'll need to edit /etc/rc.local on your AppleTV. Enter
sudo nano /etc/rc.local
- Insert these lines:
/opt/local/sbin/smbd -c /opt/local/etc/samba3/smb.conf
/opt/local/sbin/nmbd -c /opt/local/etc/samba3/smb.conf
- Save the file and reboot your AppleTV.
- When the AppleTV has rebooted try again to connect to it from your Mac.
Done, now you can enjoy XMBC, Boxee and a Samba network connection.
Disable AppleTV Auto-Update
If you don't disable AppleTV Auto-Update, your AppleTV will sooner or later update to a newer firmware. Which means you won't be able to use XBMC and Boxee anymore, until somebody finds out how to hack the new fimware.
- Open a terminal on your mac and enter:
ssh frontrow@AppleTV.local
password: frontrow
- Enter below command (incl. the quotes)
sudo bash -c 'echo "127.0.0.1 mesu.apple.com" >> /etc/hosts'
- done
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5:51 on ttys000
Every-time i try to SSH into my AppleTV it hangs for a good 3 mins then