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trustory
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 Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:44 am Post subject: What are the options for Apple TV hacking? |
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I'm thinking of getting an Apple TV and wondering what options are out there to enable it to play more codecs etc. I also want to play media from my external hard drive connected to my mac, is this possible?
Cheers trustory
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trustory
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| Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 12:08 pm Post subject: |
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Ok so after some more digging I found how to install Perian on the Apple TV, so this solves the problem of not being able to play many formats. But from what I understand you have to stream all you media from iTunes so how do I get non standard video formats into iTunes to stream them to the Apple TV, bearing in mind I don't want to convert all my videos!
Cheers trustory
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Mac Migs
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Joined: 08 Mar 2007
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Location: Bay Area, CA
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| Posted: Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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This is a nice option
www.atvflash.com
If you plan on loading up your AppleTV with a lot of movies, I'd also probably recommend doing the esata mod for a high capacity external drive. It'd also be much faster than the oem ide drive that comes with the AppleTV. Although you could use an external USB drive with the atvflash mod.
This company can mod your existing unit, or they also sell pre-modded units as well...
www.appletvandmore.com |
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trustory
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| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, I think I've got everything covered except how to get my .mkv's and .avi's into iTunes so I can stream them to the Apple TV....
any suggestions?
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Mac Migs
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Location: Bay Area, CA
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| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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| trustory wrote: | Thanks, I think I've got everything covered except how to get my .mkv's and .avi's into iTunes so I can stream them to the Apple TV....
any suggestions? |
Handbrake should be able to take care of your mkv and avi files for iTunes to get them into the proper format for your AppleTV. VisualHub is another great program that I use for ripped movies also. If you don't already have it, MKVtools is a great little program for examining mkv file containers and getting rid of extra sound tracks and subtitle files that aren't needed. |
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hackersmovie
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| Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 7:36 pm Post subject: |
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| trustory wrote: | Thanks, I think I've got everything covered except how to get my .mkv's and .avi's into iTunes so I can stream them to the Apple TV....
any suggestions? |
Umm.. I don't think iTunes will handle them at all. Using multiple formats would require an external drive or NAS. I have an ATV with ATVFlash and a 750Gb external drive. I put all my iTunes stuff in iTunes and stream those and the other format movies I put on the external drive using Cyberduck (FTP Client), I can even put uncompressed Video_TS files on there and play them back. I love it!
Good luck!
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trustory
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| Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 12:06 am Post subject: |
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| hackersmovie wrote: |
Umm.. I don't think iTunes will handle them at all. Using multiple formats would require an external drive or NAS. I have an ATV with ATVFlash and a 750Gb external drive. I put all my iTunes stuff in iTunes and stream those and the other format movies I put on the external drive using Cyberduck (FTP Client), I can even put uncompressed Video_TS files on there and play them back. I love it!
Good luck! |
Thanks HM, how does this set up handle HD files, and would you say its worth the $50 for ATV Flash?
Cheers trustory
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hackersmovie
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| Posted: Fri Aug 14, 2009 6:33 am Post subject: |
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| trustory wrote: | | hackersmovie wrote: |
Umm.. I don't think iTunes will handle them at all. Using multiple formats would require an external drive or NAS. I have an ATV with ATVFlash and a 750Gb external drive. I put all my iTunes stuff in iTunes and stream those and the other format movies I put on the external drive using Cyberduck (FTP Client), I can even put uncompressed Video_TS files on there and play them back. I love it!
Good luck! |
Thanks HM, how does this set up handle HD files, and would you say its worth the $50 for ATV Flash?
Cheers trustory |
I haven't played any HD content other than from the iTunes store but, it played those just fine. $50 is a bargain in my opinion because you get unlimited updates for one year. In the last year I've updated probably 7 or 8 times, each time they make it easier too!
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Sidha
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Joined: 23 Aug 2008
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Location: Nederland
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| Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:19 pm Post subject: |
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why pay $50 to hack it is something i will never understand..
first of all, as soon as Apple comes with an update the hack is gone and you can start over again or not ever ever update..
instead, for $25 you get Quicktime Pro.. strip a short movie from it's content and keep 1 second of nothing and store that as a master file.. now get one of your movies and paste that in your master file and save it as a mov file.. now it can stream to your AppleTV if it has Perian installed
or for $75 you get the Elgato Stick.. it converts even HD movies in 20 to 30 minutes at high quality and 5.1 surround.. that is what i do, as i have found out that only iTunes with AppleTV can keep everything in sync with 3 TV's.. it seems like a hassle but it really pays off in the end
or just get a MacMini instead with plex..  |
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hackersmovie
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| Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 5:45 am Post subject: |
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| Sidha wrote: | why pay $50 to hack it is something i will never understand..
first of all, as soon as Apple comes with an update the hack is gone and you can start over again or not ever ever update..
instead, for $25 you get Quicktime Pro.. strip a short movie from it's content and keep 1 second of nothing and store that as a master file.. now get one of your movies and paste that in your master file and save it as a mov file.. now it can stream to your AppleTV if it has Perian installed
or for $75 you get the Elgato Stick.. it converts even HD movies in 20 to 30 minutes at high quality and 5.1 surround.. that is what i do, as i have found out that only iTunes with AppleTV can keep everything in sync with 3 TV's.. it seems like a hassle but it really pays off in the end
or just get a MacMini instead with plex.. |
Good idea...... if the person is just starting their digital collection. What about people that already have a 100 or more digital movie titles in different formats? In that case, $50 for ATVFlash is a bargain.... 
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Sidha
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| Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| hackersmovie wrote: | | Sidha wrote: | why pay $50 to hack it is something i will never understand..
first of all, as soon as Apple comes with an update the hack is gone and you can start over again or not ever ever update..
instead, for $25 you get Quicktime Pro.. strip a short movie from it's content and keep 1 second of nothing and store that as a master file.. now get one of your movies and paste that in your master file and save it as a mov file.. now it can stream to your AppleTV if it has Perian installed
or for $75 you get the Elgato Stick.. it converts even HD movies in 20 to 30 minutes at high quality and 5.1 surround.. that is what i do, as i have found out that only iTunes with AppleTV can keep everything in sync with 3 TV's.. it seems like a hassle but it really pays off in the end
or just get a MacMini instead with plex.. |
Good idea...... if the person is just starting their digital collection. What about people that already have a 100 or more digital movie titles in different formats? In that case, $50 for ATVFlash is a bargain.... |
actually.. i do have 274 movies and 1556 tv episodes done that way.. took me about a week.. now i only have to keep it up to date
the main reason is actually simple, i have an iMac that hold all the files (on 4 external HD's configured as a Raid) and i want to watch it on my TV's in my living room, kitchen and bedroom.. i do not know of a system that can do this other then iTunes with the aTV's.. with XBMC and the likes i would have to configure each system seperatly and each system keeps it's own data files.. adding a movie means i would have to get the tags 3 times on each system.. now it is all centralised
and something else about ATVFlash.. paying $50 for software that contains software that is freely available is not my kind of thing.. actually, it would be $80 with lifetime updates.. maybe worth it if you don't know anything about ssh and such.. but i wonder how much the original developers get from it.. |
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