Apple TV will play any type of content you want. ISO, CUE, BIN, MKV, AVI, OGG, whatever format, codec, container you want. It will also be able to access most streaming media from places like CNN, BBC, CNET, Rev3, Last.fm, and more. Before the end of the year you’ll be watching Hulu via your AppleTV…
How?
…with a social media center called Boxee. Scott Davilla, head of the ATV bootloader project this morning announced that he’s hacked the AppleTV and made it possible to install both XBMC and Boxee onto your AppleTV via a simple USB flash drive. You can find out more about XBMC here (http://www.xbmc.org) but it was originally an open source hack for the Xbox to turn it into a media center back in 2002. Boxee is based off of the XBMC code and aims to bring social networking features and streaming content to the platform as well as a more visual and intuitive interface.
Boxee is still in an invite-only Alpha. The developers promise to do their best to accommodate MacDailyNews readers and get them invites as quickly as possible, but they’d also like to encourage users to share invites with each other. Alpha users can invite other users by logging into http://www.boxee.tv and then using the “email boxee to a friend” box on the left side of the page. This will also automatically make them friends, enabling them to share information about what they’re watching and/or listening to with each other.
The process for updating an AppleTV with boxee/XBMC the steps are as follows:
Step 1 – Download the ATVUSB-Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ (NEW URL!)
– this is a different link than the Bootloader (http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader/)
– this ATVUSB-Creator site will go live at 8am ET Wednesday morning.
Step 2 – Insert a “bootable” USB drive into your Mac
Step 3 – Run the ATVUSB-Creator
– select which plug-ins you’d like to install
– this list will grow over time, but currently includes SSH, boxee, XBMC, and some binary utilities
Step 4 – Remove the USB drive and plug it into your AppleTV
Step 5 – Power on your AppleTV and the patchstick will run the ATV bootloader
– previously the patchstick program was unavailable
– people had to manually format their USB drive to be bootable and install the ATV bootloader.
Step 6 – After the bootloader finishes, remove it from your AppleTV
Step 7 – Restart your AppleTV
Step 8 – It now has options for Boxee / Xbmc on the main menu
Step 9 – Click on boxee, then select update (this will download boxee from the Internet)
Step 10 – Once boxee is done installing, restart your AppleTV
Step 11 – Click “boxee”, then select “boxee” in the sub-menu to start boxee.
Boxee in action:
More info here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Andrew” for the heads up.]
hmm, would love to be able to play other formats, don’t really need all the other crap
Does this allow for rentals and original Itunes media to be used? What happens after Apple updates the AppleTV? This is exciting.
I just want a program that lets me group movies and password protect my pr0n collection to keep my kids out of it.
I’ll be your “friend” if you show me your boxee.
Gee, that’s really swell! Now all six of us who use OGG can finally play our crappy music in this format!
ALPHA???
ALPHA is useless…… lets see at least a BETA before we all jump in here…i dont feel like bricking my ATV.
For those of us who get our content from the torrents in all kinds of formats, this is good if it works.
For those of us who rip our content from DVDs, Apple TV already plays the best format there is available.
I have my entire DVD collection copied in “Apple TV” format, yet half my library wont play…
so no, it doesnt play the best formats.
I have also converted by DVD collection. I don’t have any problems. There must be a hiccup in your encoding process. I love my AppleTV. H.264 is the best format.
How is this different than the already available ATV Flash?
I’m more interested in how to get the PS3 to play all those formats…
Gave it a try. Much easier than my previous ATV hacking experience. About a 10 minute investment and almost a no brainer. As long as you have an ATV, Intel Mac and a <512m USB stick.
Have to wait for my Boxee …unless someone can spare an invite.
alas, On the internet, no one can hear you grovel
Can this work on a regular mac?
Just go get “ffmpegx” convert any format into AppleTV/iPhone/whatever format you want. EASY….
VisualHub does an excellent job of converting anything I want into an ATV playable format – sure, it would be nice not to have that extra step, but I’m not sure I want to risk bricking my ATV in the future just for that luxury. Now, if you can prove to me that I’d be able to watch content from sites like Hulu, well then – that might be worth something to me.
Nice hack, the next hack that I hope comes along will be add video codecs to be able to play any downloaded content. mlm lead generation