Watch any video on Apple TV 1
Out of the box Apple TV 1 supports only a few video formats. It could be a pain to convert videos and sync it. Also this would mean you are limited by the amount of storage available on the Apple TV. Now there is a solution for this – XBMC. This would allow you to play practically any video from your local storage, NAS, external drive or PC.
Apple TV gen 1 runs so called Apple OS which is a specialized version of Mac OS X that XBMC for Mac can run on. However in order to install XBMC on Apple TV it has to be "patched" to turn on certain software options required for XBMC to run. The "patching" is done by using ATV USB Creator that let you make a so called "patchstick", a bootable USB flash drive which you boot your Apple TV with to install XBMC for Mac to run natively on Apple TV OS. After you "patch" your Apple TV a new Launcher menu will appear that allows you to download and install XBMC on your Apple TV.
There is also a similar post for Apple TV 2 on XBMC website.
- Download the ATV USB Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
- Insert a USB flash memory drive into your Mac or Windows machine. Make sure the flash drive is formatted for FAT32 and remember that all the data on it will be erased so do the backup first.
- Run the ATV USB Creator.
- Follow the "ATV USB Creator" instruction to prepare a "patchstick".
- It is recommended to update Apple TV to the latest software version which is 3.0.2 at this point before "patching" the Apple TV.
- Remember to build a "patch stick" image exactly with the same Apple TV software version that is installed on your Apple TV.
- Even though it does not say it ATV USB Creator does support the latest Apple TV OS 3.0.2
Firmware URL: http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-7495.20100210.TAVfr/2Z694-6013-013.dmg
Note: The DMG can be downloaded from here
This version is comes with ssh, bin tools, and two plugins (XBMC/Boxee Installer/Launcher and SoftwareMenu). That's right, two full blown OSX applications with their own AppleTV plugin to launch AND get updates. And not only that but previous problems with launching an application into the front under all display resolutions has been resolved.
Remember that some USB flash drives just will not format correctly and if you have problems try another brand. Minimum flash size is 512MB. Follow the GUI and select "ATV Patchstick", make sure to select the correct disk and hit the circling arrows to the left of the drive menu if you insert the USB flash drive after launching atvusb-creator.
The contents of the patchstick will look like the following, if yours does not look similar or is empty, then the creation failed and you need to create again either by pre-formating two hfsplus partitions using disk utility or trying a different brand flash drive. All USB flash drive are different, some work, some do not work.
- Remove the USB flash memory drive and plug it into your Apple TV.
- Power on your Apple TV and the USB flash memory drive (now also called "patchstick") will automatically boot and run ATV boot loader.
- After the ATV boot loader finishes, remove it and restart your Apple TV.
- You Apple TV GUI will now have a new "Launcher" menu option on the main menu.
- First update Launcher to the newest version from the "Launcher/Downloads" menu. Both XBMC and Boxee are net installed from XBMC/Boxee launcher so remember to first select "Update" and install the individual applications.
- Now install XBMC by selecting "Launcher/Downloads" and clicking on XBMC. This will download and install the latest official stable XBMC from the Internet.
- If you want to install the latest version from SVN follow this guide.
- Once XBMC is done installing, restart your Apple TV (this is not necessary but will make you feel better as in "task complete"). Remember that Boxee requires an account so if you don't have one, head on over to http://www.boxee.tv/atvusb and register for an account.
- If you installed the CrystalHD card you now need to install a driver for it. Follow this guide and restart Apple TV after finishing installing CrystalHD driver.
- Select "Launcher" then select "XBMC" in the sub-menu to start XBMC.
You can now watch practically any movie that is saved on your NAS drive, any external drive and your computer through XBMC or Boxee.
NOTE: You will need to enable USB on Apple TV if you want to use an external USB drive. To enable USB please follow the post “Enable USB on the Apple TV”
NOTE: Turn off Apple’s automatic software updates as an update will overwrite XBMC/BOXEE and all related settings.
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