Archive for 2008-04

That title might be slightly misleading if you think “mods” are hardware changes. None of the changes I discuss in this article have to do with modifying the hardware of the Apple TV. But many of the changes to the software go beyond simple hacks. They change the behavior of the device. So, I went with “Hacks and Mods.” You can gripe in the comment section all you want.

Okay.

The Stage

Allow me to briefly expound on my network and devices. My Internet connection is from Comcast cable with advertised speeds of 5Mbps/1.5Mbps. Lately, I have seen much faster speeds at fairly regular intervals, something I am not complaining about. Perhaps one hidden feature of the Apple TV is a handshake with the ISP that gets a hot connection for all those savvy HD downloads. Or not.

From the cable modem, I run into a Linksys WRT54G wireless router. The firmware is stock Linksys, last updated sometime last year, so likely up-to-date (haven’t checked though.) I use DHCP to dynamically assign local IP addresses to all devices except my main PC which takes the static local IP address of 10.10.10.100. If you see instances of a local IP addresses in any of the tutorials or articles linked here, be aware that you will need to modify that to reflect your own local network setup. Using hostnames for devices on the network seems to work without any problem on the Apple TV, even when connecting to a Windows PC using the local hostname. At least, it has been no trouble for me.

My main machine on the network is fairly modern, home-built PC running Windows XP Professional SP2. We have another PC and an old iBook G3 on the network as well, but all the hacks and mods done to the Apple TV were successfully achieved with the main PC. There are a couple of hacks that require frameworks and plugins from a machine running OS X 10.4. For those, I consulted friends who delivered the necessary files. I also had an install disc for OS X 10.4 that came with my wife’s iBook. I used that disc on one occasion. The hacks that require files directly from an OS X install disc or machine have to do with installing Flash, Quicktime and other rich media plugins in CouchSurfer, a WebKit-based web browser for Apple TV. We’ll get into specifics on that in a moment, but if you are not really interested in having Flash in a browser (you can still have the browser!) then you really don’t have to worry about having access to OS X as mentioned above.

Source

None of the hacks or mods that I used on my Apple TV were discovered or created by me. There is a fantastic community of folks who work really hard to make this magic happen. Up front, I’d like to give full credit to the folks in the Apple TV community who have made these things possible. Hat tip.

The majority of my information came from ATV4Windows and the ATV4Windows wiki, a site based on hacking the Apple TV using a Windows machine as the main rig. Much of the information compiled there has come from other popular Apple TV resources, like iClarified, AwkwardTV and others. As of yesterday, ATV4Windows has moved to a subscriber model. I wish the developer there lots of luck making money off of Apple TV hacks, but I prefer free information so I’ll try to disclose as much as I possibly can right here. However, I do plan on linking you up with many of the same tutorials I followed. I won’t reinvent the wheel. Unless that wheel now costs $15. If you do have a Mac that you’ll be manipulating your Apple TV with, no worries. There is a ton of information and iClarified currently seems to be one of the better resources. AwkwardTV is similarly geared toward Mac enthusiasts.

Enough yammering. Let’s do this.

The “Patchstick”

The patchstick is simple really, it’s a disk image that fits on any 1-4GB USB flash drive. When connected to the USB port on the Apple TV, the patchstick will install a few basic applications to help get you rolling with hacks and mods. The main thing you’ll need is SSH support. That’s the primary goal you should have at the onset. Get SSH up and connect to your Apple TV from another machine on the network. If you get there, the sky is the limit.

I used the Patchstick that is freely available from ATV4Windows. Since the author has chosen to hold the new version ransom, the older version of the Patchstick will have to do. Honestly, you only need SSH anyway. As of a few weeks ago, the tutorial he gives on the Patchstick page was accurate. I followed his steps verbatim. The new Patchstick he has made does install a lot of nice software, but at this point, it seems to be stuff you can do on your own (and for free). More than anything, I like the idea of having a more controlled install. Get what you want and only that. For another option, you can use this tutorial.

So I hope you have been able to get SSH installed on your Apple TV. Once you have that, connect to it using PuTTY (Win) or Terminal (OSX). Use the IP address of the Apple TV or the hostname, AppleTV.local. The username and password are both frontrow. You’ll have that memorized in no time. Trust me.

Once you’ve connected, you are ready to start hacking it up. What I did is not necessarily what you might do. Please browse the documentation at AwkwardTV and the other fine resources for Apple TV hacks. It’s only by knowing what is available to you that you can really make a decision about what you would like to achieve with your Apple TV. My goals once seemed radical, but as I studied I realized they could be rather easily accomplished:

• Have root control over Apple TV.
• Copy files to the Apple TV outside of iTunes “syncing”.
• Play media files encoded with alternative codecs, like DivX and Xvid.
• Play media files that use different file formats, like Quicktime, MPEG-4, AVI and WMV.
• Stream files directly from my PC to the Apple TV.
• Browse the web with a Flash-enabled browser (on the “bonus” list).

SSH

With SSH access to Apple TV, you have all the the root you can handle. All your base are belong to us. Again, this is a rather fundamental step in the process. For me, I was really quite excited just to get here. It was even more fun to connect to the Apple TV using WinSCP and browse the root files and folders. The main access point for the Apple TV seems to be in the frontrow directory:

/mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow

You’ll become comfortable with the structure of the files and folders in the Apple TV fairly quickly. You’ll find it is mostly simple, although there are a couple of tricky folders with the same names under different paths. Just check the paths carefully when performing any modifications. Don’t just haphazardly hunt for folders to dump stuff in. You might dump something in the wrong place, which could lead to some frustration and troubleshooting.

ATV Files

This application allows you to add folders and files to the /frontrow directory and have direct access to these files from the Apple TV main menu. ATV Files will also play media files using the native Apple TV player, provided the proper codecs are installed. For that, we look at Perian.

Perian

Perian is really quite wonderful. I’ve used it on OS X since day one. It really is a Swiss Army knife for playing media in Quicktime on OS X. It works just as well on Apple TV. With Perian installed on Apple TV, you can really open up the device to become a more true “media center”.

CouchSurfer

If it’s sounds like a web browser, it probably is. And that’s exactly what CouchSurfer sounds like. Formerly known as SafariHD, CouchSurfer is a WebKit-based browser that will allow you to load and view web pages right on your television through Apple TV. The experience is nifty, but not really amazing. You’ll find yourself wanting a keyboard and mouse. Interacting with websites with the Apple remote and scrolling around the silly alphanumeric table quickly becomes rather mundane. There is a workaround that will apparently bring support for simple peripherals to the Apple TV, but I’ve yet to give it a shot.

I did manage to get the Flash plugin working with CouchSurfer. It was a pain to get there, because of the need for some proprietary Apple frameworks from the very specific OS X version 10.4. But I did finally accomplish it. It’s not exactly the experience I expected. I loaded up the fun hulu.com to try it out. Two problems emerged: 10 frames-per-second (at my visual estimation) and no full screen. I’m not sure if either of those problems will be repaired in later releases of CouchSurfer, or if there is just some weird bug with Flash in this environment, but it seems hardly worth my time to try and enjoy the tiny frame that most streams appear in or the sluggish frame rate.

It’s still cool! It just might not be quite the experience you thought you’d have.

Shared Network Drives

This one is amazing. Using the tutorial at ATV4Windows, I managed to get some of my media in shared folders accessible by the Apple TV! This means I can stream files right across the network from the original folders in which they reside without having to copy them to the Apple TV! I bet you can sense my excitement over this, and truly it is a notable accomplishment for several reasons.

1. You do not have to worry about the remaining space on the Apple TV’s native hard drive. Let’s face it, even 160GB can be used fairly quickly when it comes to media. I probably have half of that in photographs alone! And my music database isn’t far behind that. That’s not even counting the heaviest of all files, video.
2. You can maintain your current file and folder organization structure without concern for re-adapting it the Apple TV or having iTunes import and “manage” it all. Essentially, it all works right where it already resides.

The one problem with streaming from shared files across a network, particularly mine, is the latency that can often occur with slower networks. I’m on wireless-G here which both the Apple TV and my main PC use (my PC being wireless is a long story for another day.) So without having a hard cable in the house, other than from the modem to router, my network speeds are fairly slow compared to a nice 10/100/1000 wired network.

Streaming media to the Apple TV doesn’t always deliver smooth playback. I will experiment with some options (including getting everything hardwired—which for me means a visit from a cable technician to fix a few coax outlets) but until then, I have opted to copy over media with higher total bitrates directly to the Apple TV. They stream from that disk flawlessly!

That said, the option of playing back media on the Apple TV directly from a shared file or folder over a network connection is absolutely terrific.

In Conclusion

Like I said at the beginning of this now-lengthy article, I chose the hacks and mods that would give me the most value and that achieved the goals I set out to accomplish with my Apple TV. I just wanted to get a “media center” experience out of the device and I believe I have. I realize there are quite a few details missing from this article. I do have step-by-step instructions on each hack. If you have the slightest difficulty in tracking down a solid tutorial on any of the hacks I’ve outlined, please let me know. I can publish details about each. Obviously, this article’s length is well beyond the typical blog entry here and so I wanted to abbreviate it somewhat. It’s most important that you realize how potent the Apple TV really is under the hood. Yes, it takes a little time and energy to pull the greatness out of it, but once you do you will really be amazed at what you can accomplish with this tiny box!

Good luck with yours.

• Awkward TV

Technorati Tags: apple, tv, hacks, mods, modifications, software, SSH, WinSCP, Windows, OS X, Mac, media, Perian, codecs, CouchSurfer, WebKit, ATV Files

Last month, I received some disposable income for getting older. I had really become interested in doing something to make my digital media more accessible on the traditional medium of our living room television. While I really enjoy working on the computer all day long, sitting at a desk to watch podcasts and movies is really not a great experience.

So I started researching a few of my options. I really like the idea of a Sony PlayStation 3 and started to just save up for one. Then I thought about Apple TV. It’s moderately priced, would likely handle the “iTunes” side of things in a cinch, would certainly have good hardware and likely good software. I’m no Apple fanboy. I like the diversity of operating systems and believe each serves well in unique ways. But I do love iTunes and the way it handles media (generally speaking). And once I looked at what the Take2 upgrade to Apple TV enabled the device to do, I was sold.

Using craigslist, I managed to locate a 160GB model at a decent price ($250, new-in-the-box condition). Once I arrived home, I noticed the factory restore the seller had initiated put the firmware back to the original version, Take 1 so to speak, so I started the upgrade option immediately. Once it was all patched up and rebooted, I toured the menu, set up access to my wireless network and shared iTunes resources from my main PC. Then I perused the features, watched a couple of YouTube videos and linked up my Flickr account.

Take 2: YouTube and Flickr

I am really impressed with both the YouTube and Flickr features. While it is not very efficient to have to “type” in searches using the tiny remote to scroll around a few rows of alphanumeric characters, once you are in, each experience is really great. For what they are, YouTube videos generally look great and even the sound seems improved. But the real winner here is Flickr. Wow! This experience is stunning. The speed at which they are able to grab really great looking images for viewing on the TV is impressive. Though it has a few imperfections, like a bad habit of cropping the top and bottom from photos, overall it really makes the Flickr experience even better. It’s so handy when family is over to start up a slideshow to view Andrew’s latest antics or talk about an event I shot. When Apple TV goes idle, it goes into a screen saver mode with a cascade of my photostream! So even when we aren’t using the Apple TV, it becomes a part of our lives just like the pictures in frames strewn around our rooms. That is such a nice touch and though seemingly insignificant, it really adds value to the experience for us.

iTunes Integration

Smooth as silk. Yes. It was just so easy. All my tunes, videos, and podcasts synced to the Apple TV in just a few minutes. The iTunes Store is there too, albeit in quite a unique form. The UI is really slick and geared toward simple manipulation with the remote. I can rent movies, even in HD, right from the store and begin watching within just a few moments. The picture quality of an HD movie is quite stunning on my Samsung 32″ 1080i HDTV. In fact, I’m probably more impressed by how Apple gets the image to look so good and still stream to me so quickly and with zero buffer! It’s hot. A couple of small gripes are the way movies are displayed in the store. Essentially they show the cover art as a thumbnail for each flick. It can be a little hard to read the titles of each movie. Once you hover the cursor over one, a plain text title appears as a caption, but you must hover over it. So I generally find myself hovering over each cover to see what the title is, as opposed to scanning the screen for what I want. Perhaps on a larger screen, this problem is less noticeable.

Podcasts are really well done on the Apple TV. I love browsing the store and grabbing at some of the top podcasts and just sitting back and seeing what happens or throwing on my personal favorites to listen or view. There really is some fantastic content in the podcast space. Apple TV makes accessing that content fairly simple.

Conclusion

Apple TV is okay. Apple TV Take 2 is quite good. I have extended my Apple TV to make it great and I’ll cover some of those modifications in another article. Stay tuned.

If you are in the market for a $300 media center, I’d definitely encourage trying out the Apple TV if you have a store nearby. You probably will not be disappointed. Are there better media players out there? Well, given the recent developments on the PS3 front and given some really interesting things I’ve seen done with a Mac Mini and given the impressive abilities of a Linux box running MythTV, I’d say there probably are better setups. But each has it’s own price, either in cold cash or in an investment of labor. I feel like the Apple TV is a shortcut on both fronts, time and money, but has a significant ROI. I’m happy. When I explain the mods, you’ll learn why I am ecstatic.

• Apple TV

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, Apple, take 2, media, itunes, PC, Mac, upgrade, center, TV, television, technology, podcast, movie

Breaking Update: Looks like Blockbuster might be trying to weave into the Apple TV space. (Article)

Well, it’s that time of year again. So I let loose of these stylesheets to get to the bottom of things.

Many web standards enthusiasts from across the globe will do the same thing over the next day. Don’t be surprised if some of the sites you know and love have a plain look about them. It’s all for the opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of the semantic web and the standards that provide a healthy set of best practices that make the web a better place for everyone.

CSS Naked Day

Technorati Tags: css, web standards, dustin diaz

Not bad while paying for a 5MB/768k connection. Looks nearly three times that. I hope it stays this way for a very long time. (Well, at least as long as 14MB/s is good download speed.)