Apple TV

[media]

So, I just bought one of the old lame Apple TVs off ebay for a grand total of $60 shipped. Why buy an old piece of hardware like that, you ask? Well, I plan to hack it. You can load Hulu+, Netflix, Boxee, and xbmc on it. attach external drives for movies, music, and pictures you have saved on them.

My ultimate goal is to cancel cable and just have this which ends up being $25 a month (Hulu plus and netflix) which is a fraction of the cost uverse is. I'm going to try this out and have fun tinkering with it, then upgrade to something 1080p (atv is 720p) and put it in my office. I download a lot, so I figure it will work out great.

I love doing this stuff with electronics. I've modded every gaming console I have ever had, rooted my android phone, flashed my psps firmware, you name it. I love taking a product and making it better. It's all legal btw.

Anyone else mod their apple tv to better their entertainment pleasure?

 

[Troggie]

Why not just buy a Playstation 3 you get Hulu +, netflix and 1080p plus you can use it as a game console and a blue ray/DVD player .

I understand the obsession to tinker I have a out of service PC just begging to be converted to a home media node so I can get rid of my Directv.

 

[DamnFineBob]

I can't speak to all this rooting, flashing and hacking... I haven't a clue what your talking about, in fact.

I DO watch Hulu, though. I currently have my laptop PC hooked to the flatscreen TV through a VGA cable, and to external stereo speakers through the headphone jack. A small wireless keyboard does duty as my new "remote".

It works well, and Hulu has plenty to keep me occupied. If I ever get through the new Outer Limits, there's always the old series, Hitchcock, and many old sitcoms. I don't foresee running out of viewing material anytime soon.

I will eventually cancel my basic cable, just as soon as I can get a converter box and antenna going on my 2 TVs so I can watch the local news and PBS.

Cable TV is dead. It killed itself with 300 channel packages with nothing on.

 

[media]

Why not just buy a Playstation 3 you get Hulu +, netflix and 1080p plus you can use it as a game console and a blue ray/DVD player .

I understand the obsession to tinker I have a out of service PC just begging to be converted to a home media node so I can get rid of my Directv.

I download a lot of video online. PS3 has very limited codec support for files besides avi. Those are old more or less and a lot of video found online is in another format. Plus $60 for the apple tv beats over $300 for a ps3. I already have an xbox 360 and nothing on the ps3 interests me. I already have a Blueray/dvd player as well.

Plus, through boxee on the apple tv I have a dedicated channel for MLB.TV when the season starts up again next year. To get it on ps3 you have to pay an additional $40 yearly for a service like playon to watch the games over a gaming console. I gotta watch my Dodgers.

 

[Defend Tacoma]

I'll assume you found out how to do this online, can you reccommend any good resources, forums etc so I can see a little more what this is about?

 

[media]

I'll assume you found out how to do this online, can you reccommend any good resources, forums etc so I can see a little more what this is about?

I found the guide on here

All you really need is a usb thumb drive over 256mb.

 

[Y2K]

What codecs does it support? Even though I have Xbox 360, Popcorn Hour, and a few other media streamers - my very old original Xbox that has been running XBMC for years now is still the best out of all of them in terms of interface; with the exception that the processor in it can't handle HD content. If the old Apple TV can run XBMC and can handle HD content this would finally be a worthy replacement. Then again, what about all those Xbox games that I can play now

 

[Phog Allen]

Hey Nick, great idea. You know, this is one of those moments when you feel like jumping up and down and screaming as loud as you can to no one in general; I BLOODY WELL SAID SO! I have been wanting to do something similar for some time and got nowhere. I suggested something like this on a build your own pvr type forum and was politely told that people would only accept a pc at the tele if it could do their own version of TiVo. To some extend they are right. A dvr is beyond handy and the only part of Dish Network I miss. My how things have changed. Now everyone wants in on set top boxes that do nothing more than grab net video or Netflix or stuff you have stored on your pc.

My idea was to use a modern mother board that has built in graphics that will render 1080 HD native. And nothing else. No add in cards of any kind. You could use a ridiculously thin case and one of those Pico PSU power supplies to keep the ps out of the case and eliminate most of its heat issues as well. Under clock an AMD low wattage processor and bingo, no fans, no heat to speak of and totally silent.

These motherboards are everywhere now and dirt cheap too. If you can get one with the right a/v out ports you have your own set top box just waiting for a free firmware type distribution such as XBMC or Boxee. Lo and behold we have the Boxee Box out now and a tonne of BluRay players that deliver Netflix on demand.

I love my Samsung BluRay for delivering Netflix streams but its a/v codec package is very limited. It will not steam FLACs which I find stupid. A patent free codec and one of the most popular to boot? Come on Samsung. And it will not mount ISOs either. I have started ripping my DVDs to ISOs since I don't worry about compressing them. Storage is too cheap to spend HOURS of my life transcoding one movie to a compressed format to save space. Besides, chances are that codec will not render on the Samsung either. This is where XBMC and Boxee shine. The chew up anything you throw at them.

Best of luck with your project and do post results. If I get something going with set top box I will post it up as well.

Regards, Todd

 

[media]

Hey Nick, great idea. You know, this is one of those moments when you feel like jumping up and down and screaming as loud as you can to no one in general; I BLOODY WELL SAID SO! I have been wanting to do something similar for some time and got nowhere. I suggested something like this on a build your own pvr type forum and was politely told that people would only accept a pc at the tele if it could do their own version of TiVo. To some extend they are right. A dvr is beyond handy and the only part of Dish Network I miss. My how things have changed. Now everyone wants in on set top boxes that do nothing more than grab net video or Netflix or stuff you have stored on your pc.

My idea was to use a modern mother board that has built in graphics that will render 1080 HD native. And nothing else. No add in cards of any kind. You could use a ridiculously thin case and one of those Pico PSU power supplies to keep the ps out of the case and eliminate most of its heat issues as well. Under clock an AMD low wattage processor and bingo, no fans, no heat to speak of and totally silent.

These motherboards are everywhere now and dirt cheap too. If you can get one with the right a/v out ports you have your own set top box just waiting for a free firmware type distribution such as XBMC or Boxee. Lo and behold we have the Boxee Box out now and a tonne of BluRay players that deliver Netflix on demand.

I love my Samsung BluRay for delivering Netflix streams but its a/v codec package is very limited. It will not steam FLACs which I find stupid. A patent free codec and one of the most popular to boot? Come on Samsung. And it will not mount ISOs either. I have started ripping my DVDs to ISOs since I don't worry about compressing them. Storage is too cheap to spend HOURS of my life transcoding one movie to a compressed format to save space. Besides, chances are that codec will not render on the Samsung either. This is where XBMC and Boxee shine. The chew up anything you throw at them.

Best of luck with your project and do post results. If I get something going with set top box I will post it up as well.

Regards, Todd

Not a bad idea, I could take photos of the process/end result.

This project has been on my mind for a while and the cheapest option seemed to be the first gen apple tv. The specs arent really any different from the new gen of apple tv.

This was the other option I was considering:

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-a-silent-standalone-xbmc-media-center-on-the-cheap Lifehacker is an awesome site btw if you guys havent read it before. Getting things done on the cheap.

Acer caught on I think to what people were using these nettops for. The model he uses in the tutorial are not made anymore, they've since made improvements and raised the price of the box from $200 to $329 seen here

Using that unit would be cheaper and smaller than using a regular motherboard, etc. Plus you wouldnt have any noise from fans. Thought you might like that.

Also, using hulu plus you dont really need the dvr function since you just select what season/episode you want to watch.

 

[bradyarz]

i've been thinking of doing something like that. my current setup is much more lame though - original xbox with xbmc and a 120 gb hard drive with music, games, and movies.

 

[media]

Got a fedex notice on the door last night and went and picked up the apple tv. Got to play around with it before I had to go to bed for work this morning.

The apple tv is very small, about 1/2 the size of a small cable box. The remote is very small as well, but very responsive. It's also nice because it allows you to not only access your music collection, but you can get internet feeds from local radio stations. I just moved to Georgia from Los Angeles, I was able to listen to KROQ through the apple tv. It was so nice being able to get a taste of home and hear the radio shows and music I was used to.

Adding the xbmc and boxee to the apple tv was incredibly easy. You just have to use a tool to make a flash drive with the needed software. Unplug the apple tv, insert drive and reboot. It played all my videos from an external drive perfectly. I tried some 720p HD video, return of the jedi. Looked awesome and the boxee menus are very professional looking. Regular mkv and avi files worked flawlessly. Subtitles looked good as well, not pixelated.

I ran into a problem getting netflix and hulu running. After reading online, both have been removed from the stock install of boxee. BUT, if you get a service called playon (39.99 a year, 19.99 any following year OR 79.99 lifetime), it will stream both through boxee. Not to mention it streams just about any online service. Looks to be a great buy, I was using it for MLB.TV to the xbox 360 during this last season.

So here is what my monthly total is looking like. $23.31. That price includes playon, hulu, netflix You cant beat that.

My internet is paid for by my company so I am not at a loss there.