xbmc/boxee on Apple TV
as we were just starting to work on boxee the first version of Apple TV came out.
it looked great, the boot video was amazing, but then it lacked some basic stuff (video format limitation, ability to connect to multiple sources, streaming of photos, connectivity to other Internet services, etc.). so we stuck to our Mac Minis, which are more expensive but don’t make you live in a closed garden.
when Scott Davilla told us he is working on getting xbmc/boxee to run on Apple TV we got really excited. we dusted off the Apple TV units..
earlier today Scott released the USB flash drive creator for the AppleTV, which makes it relatively easy to get your Apple TV to run xbmc/boxee.
it adds a new menu option to your Apple TV that enables the user to launch boxee (as well as keep on using the Frontrow stuff). once you run boxee on Apple TV you can do stuff like play almost any video format, get a much richer experience of browsing your media library, listen to music from last.fm, send recommendations to friends, and more. you get the full boxee experience.
how to install boxee on your Apple TV:
- download the ATVUSB-Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
- insert a “bootable” USB drive into your Mac (Windows and Linux versions coming soon)
- run the ATVUSB-Creator and select which plug-ins you’d like to install
- remove the USB drive and plug it into your Apple TV
- power on your Apple TV and the patchstick will run the ATV bootloader
- after the bootloader finishes, remove it and restart your Apple TV
- it now has options for Boxee / XBMC on the main menu
- click on Boxee, then select update (this will download boxee from the Internet)
- once boxee is done installing, restart your Apple TV
- disable your Apple TV screensaver (set it to ‘never’)
- click “Boxee”, then select “Boxee” in the sub-menu to start boxee.
update from Gidon Coussin:
try to disable the default Apple TV screen saver. it may cause xbmc/boxee to freeze (or more accurately lose control of the remote)
update from Scott Davilla:
Quick Help
1) if the sha1 checksum fails, then the download of 2Z694-5428-3.dmg failed and you need to delete it from the downloads folder.
2) WARNING DO NOT RUN THE USB PATCHSTICK TWICE, there is an error that will require a AppleTV Factory Restore to fix if you run the PATCHSTICK twice. Much apologies if this has happened and a new version is on it’s way up. Once again, DO NOT RUN a patchstick made from atvusb-creator-1.0.0.b1.tar.gz TWICE.
3) And take the spaces out of the name of the folder name in atvusb-creator-1.0.b2.tar.gz
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Is the apple tv powerful enough to play HD content?
Dumb question alert… (Context: I’ve got Boxee fully installed on my ATV now. It’s now prompting me, via the only interaction point I can figure out, to “add user”, at which point it prompts me for my username and password. Which I’m assuming I don’t have because I haven’t been granted access to the Alpha to enable myself to set up an account.) That so?
PS: On my first attempt to set up/signin to Boxee and get it running, I left open the “add user” screen while I went looking for answers to the question above. After about 5 minutes of being on that screen it froze up – screen grayed out a bit and I couldn’t quit, reboot, etc. by Apple remote and had to unplug/restart.
Thanks for guidance and the product itself – pscyhed to get started on it.
Follow up: as I was writing this I’d left the Boxee sign-in screen up and now finding that that too is frozen – can’t quit it or use remote (it just beeps, registering the connection but not responding) to back out of it to main ATV menu and going to have to restart again…
@jhj just sent you an invite. hope it will work in the next reboot.
@avner – I’m considering doing precisely the same thing jhj has done, and was grateful to find his post to avoid such an issue. If you wouldn’t mind sending an invite my way as well, I’d love to try it out. I’ve just registered for the alpha through the boxee landing page. Thanks, and good work!
This is extremely interesting to me as I have a lot of old XviD/x264 rips that I have made myself from old backups and it’s an absolute pain to have to re-encode.
Is there any way to go about increasing Alpha-invite chances outside of applying on the main page?
Thanks in advance!
@hamilton sent you an invite! please post your feedback to our forum at http://forum.boxee.tv
Hey everyone, I am currently using a hacked ATV 1.1. Does the Creator install ATV 2.1 plus the other stuff on my existing ATV? Does Nito exist on this version? How can I transfer files from my Mac to my ATV? Any invite codes available? Thanks and sorry for being a pain so early in the A.M.
@Mikey sent you an invite
Yup, 1080p count me in.
No 1080p, count me out.
Wow. Just a few days ago I was searching for a way to do this on my ATV. I couldn’t come up with anything that wasn’t too invasive and then, serendipitously, I find this through CrunchGear. Way to go!
I’m just a little sad about the possibility of having to wait “a few weeks” to be able to try it out while I’m in the invite queue.
Is there a way I could get an invite for the Apple TV? Love Boxee!!
@Gary no 1080p on Apple TV.. hardware limitations… better go with a souped up Mac Mini
@Nick, @Boxeer1 will send you an invite
booted up boxee everything is fine except for the password will not let me in , is this the invite you guys r talking about to get in and if it is would u mind sending me it
thanks john
Looking forward to trying this out soon. Would love to get an invite to start the process.
I’m in the same boat as most of the people here: downloaded, installed, updated, launched and now I’m staring at the “setup an account” screen on my ATV with no account or means of entering the data (it does not respond to the remote).
I applied for an account on the Boxee website, but it said it might take weeks. Is there any way I can get an invite sooner than that?
@Potter pls send me your email and i’ll send you an invite avner [at] boxee d0t tv
Hi, I’m like many others I see waiting for an account. I’ve applied for it over a week ago, but still did not get an account. Can you please help me on this, I have everything installed on my AppleTV?
Awesome, thanks for the invite Avner. I will set it up tonight.
Okay, created the patchstick, install went perfectly, and I’m at the Add User screen. Any way can get one of those expedited invites? Thanks!
Neat. Do you use an SSH tool to get non-itunes stuff over to the Apple TV?
I too would like one of these expedited invites and look forward to playing with this tonight.
Alright, I received the invite (thanks, avner!) and set up my account, but how do I connect to my mac? Anyone have a link on how to set this up?
I’m wanting to get past the login screen on my ATV, anyway I can get an invite? I applied for an account earlier today.
@Ian no need to get your hands dirty with SSH, you can stream your media from a network drive.
Created the patchstick, ran it and now all I get is a screen with the ATV logo. Nothing else. Should I do a factory restore before trying it again. Thanks.
Make sure you create a patch stick with a Mac OS format; as most USB drives are Windows formatted. Also, unplug any other Mac formatted USB drives just in case. You don’t want the Patchstick utility to write an image to a spinning disk…
My ATV screen has Boxee and XBMC listed only, no Movies, TV shows, etc. Is this correct?
I am currently running aTV Flash (Enables Jaman, Nito, Couch surfer, etc), will the Boxee aTV flash work with this…as in layer ontop of that patch?
Maybe you could talk to that company and get them to add your software to that as well.
Look forward to adding it, if it will work with aTV Flash.
Thanks,
Scott
Ah, we too noticed that the Apple TV doesn’t wake up from a sleep mode in the same way that the Mac PC line does. So we need you to disable the screen saver in our initial AppleTV build of boxee.
Here’s a how to for you, if you want the quick and dirty.
http://forum.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=2921&postcount=4
Hey guys, this release is awesome, I’ve been messing around with hacking ATV for awhile and am really glad to see this come about. Anyway, I’ve been messing around with it a bit and I’ve got nearly 800gigs worth of movies that I have ripped from my personal collection just waiting for an opportunity to try this out. Is there any way I could be forwarded an invite to truly test its functionality?
Btw, I have noticed the above issues with leaving Boxee at the login screen, requiring the ATV to be powered down and back.
Thanks again, this is looking great, I can’t wait to get inside of Boxee.
And the how-to on formatting a typically Windows formatted USB stick to that of a bootable OS-X format can be seen here: http://forum.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=2919&postcount=3
Remember you need 512MB, but a 1GB or higher will work fine…
I haven’t installed Boxee yet because I see that you need an invite. Can someone invite me –I’d be grateful
Thank you
sup guys , i was reading some posts , whats up with the alpha version ? the version you guys have on the site is older ??
i would like to get an invite if possible, i’ve using a lot of hacks for atv and this one really got my attenction. thanks !!
I am also in the pickle, downloaded and installed, but can’t proceed any further.
This looks fantastic! Anyone got an invite for me?
Hi I have an ATV 2.1 just finished creating the usbstick can someone mail me an invite?
This looks extremely promising.
Much thanks!
great! maybe this will finally convert ATV into something that can compete with my ole’ modded Xbox running XBMC?
would really appreciate an invite, if one is required for this.
Hi! Anyone got an invite for me? Looks really good!
Thanks
sorry guys, how do I stream video from a network drive?
also, can it be a shared folder from my mac?
Would love to test this on my appletv and my mac… any invites left?
Same here – am keen to test this on my own atv – it looks great! Could I receive an invite?
Would love to try this out as well… any chance I could get an invite?
Wow, looks great – all installed, but requires user….signed-up for one, but may take weeks ;-( Any help would be appreciated!!!!
cheers,
J.
i hav the same prob as robert (posting 26). only boxee and xbmc on my atv.
what happend to my Itunes stuff. how can i enter that? or is it lost?
btw. anyone an invite for me
peteronn (at) gmx.de
Cheers
Just got my ATV yesterday. Still trying to decide to patchstick or not and then I ran into boxee. is it different? Can it play 720p mkv?
I have just installed Boxee and desperately need an account. Please help! Thank you guys for a great work!
Hi, I’am reading through all of the postings and having the same issue, can someone please send me a invitation for Boxee?
Is there somewhere a manual or something like that for using the old Itunes stuff in Boxee and XBMC?
Cheers,
Marcel (NL)
I’m setting up Boxee on my ATV now. Can someone please send me an invite so I don’t run into some of the above posters have.
Thanks
Any suggestions on recovering my menu bar? I only have Boxee & XBMC showing. They both look great, but would love to have my apple menu back.
juppp that sucks.
please help!!!
Wow… installing wasn’t so hard. Now just have to wait for next Monday for an invite, unless someone is kind enough to give me an invite
Is anyone having a problem with xbmc and screen resolution?
when i first opened it the screen was extremely small (i have a 37″ plasma) i set the res to 1080i and now the screen is way too huge… i am trying to change the res so i can get it small again but i can not see any menu options…. aggravating, anyways i am trying to reinstall and see if that resets everything.
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