“We just got xvid working on the Apple TV,” Awkward reports over in The Something Awful Forums.
“Hey, Sabretooth and I just officially got xvid/everything else supported by Perian working on the Apple TV,” Awkward reports.
Awkward reports, “We’re doing a writeup, but the short of it is…
1. Open it up (4 screws on the bottom, small Torx bit)
2. Put the 2.5″ drive into a USB enclosure or whatever you want
3. Mount the HFS filesystem
4. Install Perian in /Library/Quicktime (as you normally would)
5. Install Dropbear (or enable SSH if you know how… we gave up and used Dropbear)
6. Add a startup script to disable the firewall or open up the ports you need for SSH
7. Put the drive back in and boot it, ssh login as frontrow, password frontrow (or add an ssh key for yourself)
8. Use a reference movie (use QT Pro to save a reference movie) to bootstrap your xvid file
Voila!”
A writeup is promised for later today.
Full forum discussion here.
MacDailyNews Note: Xvid is a video codec for PC, whereas codec is an abbreviation for [co]der/[dec]oder, hence describes a program to encode and decode digital video. The purpose of encoding video data is to reduce redundancies – that means to make it smaller for faster transmission over computer networks or for more efficient storage on computer disks. More info: http://www.xvid.org/
Related articles:
Apple TV does not require Widescreen TV or HDTV, works with standard TVs – March 23, 2007
CBS looks at Apple TV on ‘The Early Show’ (with video) – March 23, 2007
Scoble: ‘Apple TV rocks’ – March 23, 2007
Apple TV hard drive upgrade works – March 23, 2007
Apple TV dissection photos – March 22, 2007
Apple posts Apple TV User’s Guide online – March 22, 2007
Enderle: ‘Apple’s attractive and well packaged Apple TV likely to set the pace’ – March 22, 2007
David Pogue demos Apple TV in humorous NY Times’ video – March 22, 2007
PC Magazine review gives Apple TV 4 out of 5 stars – March 22, 2007
NY Times’ Pogue: ‘Apple TV offers a gracious, elegant, effortless, delightful experience’ – March 21, 2007
Mossberg hands-on with Apple TV: ‘beautiful design, easy-to-use, classic Apple: simple and elegant’ – March 21, 2007
MikeK there was supposed to be an “n’t” there. DOH.
@ TommyBoy: “Of greater interest is: Let’s say I swap out the HD in my Apple TV with one that has a full-blown OS X load on it and I plug a keyboard and mouse into that USB port. Do I then have a Mac Mini Mini?”
Maybe, but it would be an even weaker Mini than what’s presently sold. The Apple TV has a single core ‘Core-lite’ processor, a feeble amount of main memory, and a video chip that makes Intel integrated graphics look like ‘GeForce XXX edition’. Plus I’d bet that hard drive is in the 4800RPM range, as it’s purpose is more as a buffer than anything else.
I’d bet all that adds up to problems for Tiger, but I’d love to see someone try to install it anyway.
Sorry to nitpick the MDN take, but codec refers to compressor/decompressor, not coder/decoder.
This is a good thing. While most would obviously not hack this box, some might want to. Now, knowing that they can get it to do more of what they want means more may purchase it. Good thing.
I think what’s cool is that this is done exactly the same way in mac os x. The fact alone that the AppleTV has /Library/Quicktime gives away that it’s running a version os Mac OS X. I think this is awesome. I wonder if AppleTV can run WebKit…
>> “This is not sarcastic, but why bother?”
>
>My point exactly. I made a decision to recode all my content for iTunes/iPod…
Ahhh… a great example of working for your gear instead of your gear working for you.
I’m not knocking anyone for that. Some people are perfectly happy doing that or at least willing to make those sorts of adjustments.
But for my $200, I’ll fork out $10 for a DVI cable and just attach my MBP to the TV and play back everything using VLC, which has features that make QT look like it were made by Microsoft the day before holiday break.
What I think will be awesome… a networkable DVR/DVD/HDD/Blue Ray player that has VLC built-in.
In my humble opinion, Apple TV is a big dud!
Apple stuff is so easy to use.
Here are instructions on how to play a DVD on Apple TV.
First buy one $29.95 DVD player.
Get large roll of duct tape.
Tape Apple TV to top of DVD player
Connect video cables to DVD player.
Connect digital audio out to DVD player
Connect power cable to DVD player
Turn DVD player on
Insert DVD into DVD player.
Once DVD is playing remove and discard Apple TV.
How to get DVR functionality with Apple TV
First buy a Tivo
Get a large roll of duct tape.
Tape Apple TV to top of Tivo
etc…
“What I think will be awesome… a networkable DVR/DVD/HDD/Blue Ray player that has VLC built-in.”
It’s called a Media Center PC.
Apple stuff is so easy to use.
Here are instructions on how to play a DVD on Apple TV.
First buy one $29.95 DVD player.
Get large roll of duct tape.
Tape Apple TV to top of DVD player
Connect video cables to DVD player.
Connect digital audio out to DVD player
Connect power cable to DVD player
Turn DVD player on
Insert DVD into DVD player.
Once DVD is playing remove and discard Apple TV.
How to get DVR functionality with Apple TV
First buy a Tivo
Get a large roll of duct tape.
Tape Apple TV to top of Tivo
etc.
“What I think will be awesome… a networkable DVR/DVD/HDD/Blue Ray player that has VLC built-in.”
It’s called a Media Center PC.
I never buy the first generation of ANYTHNG. Wait for the bug fixes, hacks and upgrades, you’ll not regret it, unless you are an early adopter with more money than sense.
From what I can tell, your Mac is already a media center, the ATV is just a receiver for your TV. How long until these features are integrated into a Mac Mini?
What I want is VLC for AppleTV. Putting DivX inside is all very well, but the Anime subbers are fast moving to Matroska containers with MPG4 encoded content and soft subs. Also, VLC does subs in .srt and such, too.
Wait, hold on a second. Hold the horses.
Step number 4 says…
“Install Perian in /Library/Quicktime”
I assume that the Quicktime library folder also comes with a particular folder called ‘Plugins’?
Now, if only someone with AppleTV would try putting DivX, Xvid, Flip4Mac codecs in it… That would be excellent.
Now for the other ogm, mkv, etc, etc….
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