Apple TV 2

jprestonnaidoo

Active Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2008
Messages
55
I'm looking to buy an Apple TV 2, and load it up with XBMC, anybody here got one? and from where? I wouldn't mind importing it, just want to know if anyone has already done so, and how the process has been.
 

PaulMark

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
182
I've got one. Fantastic little device! I got a mate to bring one over for me from the states though.
 

macbook

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2008
Messages
117
Would like to know more about this setup, what all can you do with it? I was thinking about getting a Mac Mini as a HTPC but the Apple TV with XBMC would be a far cheaper option. Can you connect an external drive to store and play music/movies on?
 

clasqm

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
637
Bought one from expansys. I haven't heard that you can load nonstandard software on it, but then I don't really keep up with what the jailbreakers are up to these days.

Entering your Apple ID on the onscreen keyboard is a royal pain in the posterior, but you only do it once. After that it really is a great little thing. Mind you, closing down iTunes on your Mac will bring forth a howl of protest from the living room.
 

ScrnScrm

Expert Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2005
Messages
1,230
There is a plex client as well as an XBMC client available if you chose to JB. This seems to be the preferred route at the moment because you are not required to transcode your content to H264/m4v format to load into iTunes. The plex server app does the transcoding on the fly. If you don't want to jailbreak, you best have a pretty powerful machine handy, a copy of handbrake, and be prepared to spend lots of time tagging metadata.

However, if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can Airplay transcoded content via your iOS device to the TV and not have to worry about JBing your Apple TV (Plex, Airvideo). Note : you lose Dolby Digital sound when you go this route.

To import : look at refurbs on the Apple site. They are going for $85. (http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC572?mco=MTM3NTA5ODE)
To buy locally : look at have2have. They have the best local deal I have seen so far - R1076 (http://www.have2have.co.za/product/Apple-TV-MC572LLA/96620/)
 

mici

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
350
Can we rent shows through the Apple TV in south africa?
 

PaulMark

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Joined
Mar 11, 2009
Messages
182
I had the original AppleTV which I jailbroke and then used Boxee to play DivX content on an attached external HD. When it worked it was great but it was a buggy set up. Also without hardware acceleration HD content was unplayable. A year or so ago I took the step to transcode all of my content to H264, meta tagged it using iFlicks and then imported it to iTunes. It was a painful process at the time but it has been well worth it. Once you buy into the whole iTunes ecosystem everything works together extremely well. Also these days most HD content is H264 anyway so no transcoding is required. The most you may have to do is change the container from .mkv to .mp4
 

steco777

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2011
Messages
481
Playon for Appletv

Apple TV 2 is great .

If you have an iPad or iPhone as well get playon you can download it from my site http://www.playontv.co.za

This software will allow you to stream movies from your pc as well as internet channels to your apple tv without jb or xbmc.
 

Alien12

Active Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2009
Messages
41
Hey guys have2have is having a special on the apple tv 2 (R999) , was reading up here to see if anyone else got it from anywhere else.
Thinking of buying my own and jailbreaking and putting XBMC on it. Anyone got any other Wi-Fi enabled media player?
 

TYR

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
775
Hey guys have2have is having a special on the apple tv 2 (R999) , was reading up here to see if anyone else got it from anywhere else.
Thinking of buying my own and jailbreaking and putting XBMC on it. Anyone got any other Wi-Fi enabled media player?

Thanks, you just caused another impulse buy ...
 

TheRush

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
191
I am bringing this thread back to life...

So I just managed to jailbreak my apple tv2. That wasn't difficult. Now I am trying to install xbmc but I have no idea what I'm doing... Hopefully you guys can give a noob some step by step instructions?

I have a few online guides - not really helping that much. They say to enter commands in ssh terminal, so I downloaded putty. Now do I need to have the apple tv connected to the pc for the install?

It says to enter ssh root@apple-tv.local or something like that. When I did that I got an error. It says if that doesn't work you should enter ssh root@ip. Question is, how do I determine the IP address of the atv?

If I am completely on te wrong track can someone please help me out?

Thanks
 

TheRush

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
191
So I found the ip address... Also I have the arc connected to the tv and wifi network while trying this. When the terminal window opens up on my pc it does not allow me to enter any commands :/
 

Hemps

Honorary Master
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
11,194
So I found the ip address... Also I have the arc connected to the tv and wifi network while trying this. When the terminal window opens up on my pc it does not allow me to enter any commands :/

Where are you getting your instructions from?
 
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