Got a Apple TV ?

[covert]

Who else on Austech has a apple TV. I am seriously looking to get one to use as a MythTV front end and also to replace me Xbox with XBMC on it. Also just to have another device to hack and make it do what it was not supposed to do. Prices in the US are $229 USD atm. $449 AUD is purchased from the AU apple store. Apparently the price in the US is subsidized by movie rentals on iTunes. So don't expect to see that type of price drop in Aus. So far the best way I can see to get one it on ebay.com . Should get one landed for less than $300.

MythTV running on the apple TV can apparently handle 720p. I am not looking for a 1080p device so it is great for me. Might even get 2. One for another room. Only problem I have seen so far with MythTV on the AppleTV is no Audio over HDMI. This is a issue with the Nvidia drivers under linux. Issue will not be fixed until ver 177 of the nvidia driver. Currently it is at 173 so I will have to stick with component for the mean time.

[jimbo123]

Hi covert,

Caught a response from you in this regarding Myth and the AppleTV, which has now got me motivated again with getting my media setup happening - been static for too long.

Then I read the comment about the NVIDIA drivers and HDMI But that's ok given it's gonna get fixed and that it works ok over component.

Less than $300 is quite an acceptable price if it is able to run as a myth frontend in all its glory. Is that from eBay ?

Have you ended up getting one yet ? Do you need numbers if wanting to drive a more beneficial price,.. I could go 2 ?

Cheers,

Jim.....

[covert]

Just got a phone call from Apple. They have canceled my order for a referbished 160GB since there was no stock. It was $369 shipped. I did get a $25 coupon for the trouble so when I order it next it will be $25 less

For ~$300USD you can get 40GB ones. Either from ebay.com (not .au) or $310AUD from (quick order list on the right) or 160GB models for $420.

I did not order mine from priceusa since there agent in the USA is on holidays atm.

If you get it from ebay check there negative feedback. Look up the user on ebay.com.au (yes au) and you get a dropdown on there feedback page for 12 months/6 months/1 month. Select 6 months and you will then have options to show only negative/natural/positive. Select negative and check there not shipping used ones as new. This is not a feature found on the .com site !

I am going to keep trying from the apple store. I have a PHP script checking it every minute and it will email me when it finds one listed. Past experience I have found they last there for about 3-4 minutes max. Listing time can be any time of the day or night. They are not listing 40GB ones in refurbished section at all. There listed on the refurbished mac page when they are there.

No audio over HDMI is the only big issue and it was almost a show stopper for me. Current drivers are 1.73 and it will (should) be fixed in 1.77 drivers. How long it takes for that is anyones guess. I intend to just use composite output for the meantime or use SPDIF audio to a amp+speakers.

I have decided to stick with the 160GB one since my music collection is only about 80GB so it will fit nicely on it.

It would be hard to build a frontend for less than $300 with all the features of apple TV. Composite/component/hdmi, IR, Small form factor, WiFi.

I picked up a few ATV images from torrents so when I do eventually get one I will have what is needed to get ssh access to it and start hacking it up.



I will take a look at buying bulk but I don't think it will be very beneficial.

[jimbo123]

Thanks for that,.. much appreciated.

Totally agree with the comment:

It would be hard to build a frontend for less than $300 with all the features of apple TV. Composite/component/hdmi, IR, Small form factor, WiFi.

Will now have to keep an eye out for another gadget.

Cheers,

Jim.....

[covert]

This post is just a log of what I did to make it work for me. It might not work for you and it most likely is not the best way to do it. I am new to the ATV. Hope someone gets some good info from it.


Lets begin..

AppleTV arrived today, 40GB for $229 after my $100 discount for being stuffed around (a second time). I figured the 160GB one was overpriced for the extra HD space when I can purchase a 320GB laptop drive for less than the amount I save on the 40GB model and install it myself, Also be left with a bonus 40GB laptop HD and change.

First stop was getting ssh running on it. I got hold of a version 2 patchstick from a torrent. It was a while ago now I downloaded it but it is still around. Google for PatchstickATVT2.img.bz2

I don't have a Mac or a Hackintosh so I have to do this all without a mac. The patchstick is in a img format so the dd command under linux sorted it out.

First insert a 4GB usb stick. It was the first one I grabbed. img file is 512MB. So pen drive needs to be at least that. I used a Toshiba one from z80. Ran dmesg in the linux console to see what device ID the USB pen drive was given. It was sdc. Then ran dd if=PatchstickATVT2.img of=/dev/sdc . Please make sure you get the right /dev/* value for you pen drive..... Let it complete (5-10 minutes) and then remove.

Unplugged the power to the ATV, Inserted the pen drive, Plug back in power. ATV starts to boot up like a computer, console text scrolling, After a few minutes it stops. Remove power from ATV, Remove USB pen drive, Plug power back in, ATV boots up as normal, I check the IP address from the menu and then ssh into port 22 with putty on the XP machine. username frontrow password frontrow .

OK. Now I am in. Looking for MythTV binaries and xbmc binaries. More posts to come.

[jimbo123]

Let me add,... apparently the type of USB stick you use can be a bit 'touchy',... I spent a few hours messing with a 1GB Kingston one I had lying around without much luck.

Repeated it with a spare 4GB and all good in a few minutes.

So that's step 1 - we have access.

[covert]

Stuffed around with it last night and got nothing but iScripts working.

Lots of info on hacking the ATV is for frontrow v1 and does not work on frontrow v2. I can not seem to find the main place/forum where there is upto date info.

Still reading up on what options I have so I can make the best choice.

xbmc LiveUSBv2 looks like a good choice since it has lirc, so I will not be stuck with the 6 button atv remote.

It should not be to hard to get MythTVFE working on linux either, and again, not stuck with the 6 button remote.

Both xbmc and mythtv can be compiled on a Mac but it will be limited, No lirc, Limited gfx acceleration. I guess a few other reasons too.

My aim now is to get a Linux system booting on the ATV. Booting from an external USB drive/key looks like a good option to start with. Then if I find a setup I am happy with I could partition up the internal HD and have both frontrow and linux running on it. Maybe even completely drop frontrow and just have it boot in Linux.

I hope to get rid of my xbox(xbmc) and put the big MythTV FE/BE system out of sight so all the TV stand will have is the ATV. Big space saving

Links:

[jimbo123]

Hi covert,

Tried to get ATVFiles going on mine last Friday and couldn't get Finder to display it.

Gonna try with v1.1.1 tonight, (think mine was an earlier version and I opted to do the update to ATV v2.1),... have you given it a go ?

Jim.....

[covert]

I updated my ATV from the menu to the newest version (v2.1 I think ?, was v2.0) and used the PatchstickATVT2 to get ssh working. It has allowed me to have a play but it has not got me any closer to my goal.

Keen to just boot into linux since frontrow (atv 2+ firmware) does nothing I really want. XBMC + MythTV will cover me for everything I want the ATV for.

Lirc will allow me to run scripts from remote button presses so I can have a Startup Myth+ Shutdown XBMC and vise versa on one button press.

Booting linux directly of a USB drive will be the way I will do it at first and leave the internal HD untouched.

I want the ATV to be a device I can move from TV to TV around my house and have access to my MthTVBE and my NAS with all my TV/Movies/Music on it.

[Frank Drebin]

do any of you have a mac os 10.5 machine around?

[jimbo123]

I want the ATV to be a device I can move from TV to TV around my house and have access to my MthTVBE and my NAS with all my TV/Movies/Music on it.

Yup, same here. Not so much the move from place-to-place. I hope to fix it to the wall behind the wall mounted flat panel and have no AV gear visible.

However, I was after an intermediate function, where I could just mount a share and play media from my NAS,.. while I get the back end re-done.

[jimbo123]

do any of you have a mac os 10.5 machine around?

Think I may have access to one in the lab here,.... but you'll need to dumb down instructions if you want me to do anything on there. Think its something that's been on auto-pilot, no-one looking after it, about to be decommissioned.

[Frank Drebin]

ok double check there is 10.4 or 10.5 is installed on it. There is a patchstick floating around that is mac only but still needs a flashdrive to install to.

I found patchstick does the job well.

(mods pls remove if inappropriate)

Download the image, double click to mount - then double click the app contained in the image. Follow the onscreen instructions to create the patchstick - simple.

[Frank Drebin]

just to add - ive had varied success lately with mounting SMB or AFP shares. Once ive nutted out a surefire solution though I will post it here.

[covert]

Had some more time to play today. Installed Ubuntu i386 on a spare machine, disconnected it's current HD and put a old 8GB hd in it. I don't want to risk running parted -s on one of my working linux machines. Installed ubuntu of the live cd, followed the guides to get parted working with the atv partition flag patch, followed the backup guide and backed up my ATV HD to a 1GB USB key.

Followed another guide on installing Linux via a USB key with no USB CD-Rom drive. Plugged the USB key into the first USB KB I found with a built in hub. Plugged the KB into the ATV and fired it up. Started as normal, Held Menu + minus buttons on the remote and it rebooted with a little tux sitting on top of a ATV

After stuffing around with the mythtv backend to get it talking with the installer on the ATV it is now installing Mythbuntu onto the ATV HD... And taking it's sweet time. I guess this KB's hub is only USB 1.

Will tell you how it all goes.

[jimbo123]

Tried to get ATVFiles going on mine last Friday and couldn't get Finder to display it.

Gonna try with v1.1.1 tonight, (think mine was an earlier version and I opted to do the update to ATV v2.1),...

Followed the guide here:

Downloaded ATVFiles-1.1.1.run and installed ok,.. it now plays xvid,..

Next step, point to my NAS box.

[covert]

I now have MythFE and XBMC running on Mythbuntu on mine. Just need to configure a remote for it and a few tweaks.

This is a nice MPC

[jimbo123]

How does it cope with watching a HD FTA stream from your backend ?

Or saved recordings? rips?

[covert]

Only done a small amount of testing. Watched 10HD today and it was good most the time, Had a few sound glitches. Should be able to sort that out with some tweaking to the profiles. Got XvMC running but not configured.

Only just got xbmc on so yet to even watch anything with it. I don't think xbmc will do any better than 720p. For my purpose that is just fine.

[covert]

Just some notes for anyone reading (and me when I break it all and start again)

Install xbmc into Ubuntu/Mythbuntu

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/team-xbmc-hardy/ubuntu hardy main