Apple TV Hacks » XBMC

Use XBMC to extend your Apple TV’s hard drive (XBMC library integration)

umOuch — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:05:48 +0000

The power of XBMC is its ability to manage content weather on your Apple TV, N.A.S. device, or network connected computer. It does not matter if you have movies, television shows, music, or pictures XBMC is designed with the unique ability to incorporate this content into the software itself. This is an extremely attractive feature for those of us utilizing XBMC on our Apple TV, especially the Apple TV 2. With its limited storage and lack of USB drives, the Apple TV 2 is primed for taking advantage of XBMC’s custom Library features. Let’s start by looking at the primary libraries and what each offers.

VIDEO LIBRARY

The Video Library, one of the XBMC databases, allows the organization of your video content by information associated with the video files themselves. This information can be obtained in various different ways, like through Scrapers (ie. Movies, TV shows and Music Videos) and nfo files. Library view allows you to browse your video content by things such as; Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Directors.

MUSIC LIBRARY

The Music Library, one of the XBMC databases, is a key feature of XBMC. It allows the organization of your music collections using the information stored in your music file ID tags, like title, artist, album, genre and popularity. It also allows users to add network sources, such as Last.FM, to their library. Making this a much needed, and must have, feature.
Luckily, each library functions the same when it comes to Adding and Removing Content. So let’s take a quick look at the ins and outs of adding files to our libraries. If you are simply looking to remove items from your library you can skip to the bottom of this article.

ADD FILES

1) From within the correct category you will want to select “Files.” This will open a new window displaying any content that is already added. This will assuredly be blank.
2) Select the option that reads Add (content). Meaning, if you are in the Video section, you will choose Add Videos.

3) Here you will see a pop up window asking you to enter the path of your content. This best way to select this location is by clicking on the Browse.

4) You see a long list of options on the right. From here you can navigate to any folder located on your Apple TV as well as any number of network locations. This is how you will add a folder to XBMC. If you are adding Network Storage then you want to know what protocol the source is using. Typically SMB (Windows) or UPnP. By selecting these options, XBMC will scan your network for devices. For example, I will scan my network for UPnP sources. The results are below.

5) Now it is a simple matter of navigating to the folder that contains to content you want to add. It is important to note that you must be viewing the content WITHIN the folder when you select OK. You don’t want to select OK while merely highlighting the folder itself. Once you select the correct folder you will need to name it again within XBMC. For this example I am naming the source Network Movies Folder.

6) We will need to tell XBMC what type of content is in the folder we are adding to our XBMC Library. This is of the utmost importance for you to get the full benefit of Fanart, backgrounds, posters, and thumbnails. For the sake our my example we are telling XBMC that I am scanning a folder of (Movies). The last thing:

7) Lastly, we will want to select the option RUN AUTOMATED SCAN. This will let XBMC know that you want it to scan the content into your library and then update your Library at the same time. When you click OK you will be met by a POP UP Windows – fear not and select YES!

REMOVING FILES

1) To remove items from your XBMC Library, you must first tell XBMC to allow this functionality. By default, it is disabled to prevent accidental content removal. So, how do we do this? From your home scree go to the System menu option.
2) You will want to select the top option titled Appearance.

3) Now you will have access to the settings options for the Files controls. Here you can adjust multiple options, but we are interested, specifically, in “Allow file renaming and deletion.” Select this option and make sure the circle on the right becomes illuminated.

4) Now that the hard part is done, we will simply navigate to any Library within XBMC. To keep with our theme of movie content I will navigate to my Movies Folder. once there, navigate to the file you wish to remove and while the video selected hold down your MENU button until the context menu pops up.

5) This will now reveal a new option in this menu that was not previously available. The options will be one of two things, “Remove from library” or “Delete.” This will depend on the content type, its locations, amongst other things but this will now allow you to remove any specified content you wish to remove.

That’s it! I hope that you found this guide useful. Now it is time for you to get on your device and start playing around.

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XBMC program add-ons: a treasure trove of software

umOuch — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:48:31 +0000

Getting the most out of XBMC on your Apple TV is a difficult thing to do. Whether watching the latest movies, looking to stream last nights TV episodes, listening to music on Pandora, or playing video games on your Apple TV 1 or Apple TV2, XBMC has the ability to handle the job. But wait, there’s more! What most people tend to overlook is that XBMC goes far beyond a stand alone media center. With this software installed you can use your Apple TV as a social media hub, a torrent controller, a Nintendo gaming console, or even the front end of an NZB client.

Though all these things can be added to your Apple TV with relative ease, almost nobody takes advantage of these features because it is located in a section that is often overlooked. The Programs category, within XBMC, is a treasure trove of software waiting to expand and multiply the level of enjoyment you get out of your little black box.

Most of these tools are available to you within the official XBMC repo. This comes preinstalled when you put XBMC on your Apple TV, meaning you need only go to the appropriate section and choose “Get More!” If you want even more, you can find countless others, and support for these add ons, by visiting forums.xbmc.org, as well as checking out the Fusion Installer from XBMC HUB. Below I am providing a somewhat-complete list of program add-ons. Simply read through the list below and see if anything grabs your attention. If it does, install and enjoy!

PROGRAM ADD-ONS

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How to install XBMC Frodo on your Apple TV 2

umOuch — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:11:14 +0000

Back in January XBMC released the long awaited Frodo 12.0 for all of your Apple products. Now you can install XBMC on your iPads, iPhones, iPods, and your, glorious, little Apple TV 2. The installation is almost the exact same as installing previous builds of XBMC with 4 subtle differences. Here we have put together a guide that incorporates these changes. So, sit back, relax and grab a cup of coffee.

Note: ~~XBMC is not yet compatible with the 5.1+ Apple TV software. XBMC Developer Memphiz said on XBMC forum that the team is “trying their best” to make XBMC running on Apple TV 5.2.~~ XBMC now available on iOS 6.1 for Apple TV

Upgrading An Existing Installatin Of XBMC EDEN 11.0

So you may be asking the question, “what do I do if I already have XBMC Eden installed on my Apple TV?” If this is the case, we have a few tips for you specifically. After extensive testing throughout the BETA phase, the team at XBMCHUB.COM has discovered that you will find the best results by simply doing a fresh install of XBMC Frodo. Yes, it is possible to back up your settings and reinstall your preferences but this often leads to many of the same issues.

It is not the happy news you may have wanted, but it ends up that XBMC Frodo plays nicest with your Apple TV when you uninstall XBMC, and all of your presets, from your device. Though I am unsure where the problem is located when upgrading directly… The problem is there all the same.

Installing A Fresh Version Of XBMC FRODO 12.0

Requirements

Jailbroken ATV2 running firmware 5.0.2 or older
Mac computer (use Terminal App) or Windows PC (use PuTTY App)

Step 1: Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.

Step 2: Ensure that your computer and your Apple TV are on the same network.

Step 3: Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu

Note: Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.

rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Step 4: Agree to any Security Prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations), then press Enter.

Step 5: When prompted for a Password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.

Step 6: Copy and Paste the Following Commands into your Terminal App, pressing the Enter key after each. It’s important that you wait for each one to finish before moving onto the next. Don’t worry… you will know when each line is finished.

1)      apt-get install wget
2)      wget -O- http://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -
3)      echo “deb http://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list
4)      echo “deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
5)      apt-get update
6) mkdir -p /Applications/AppleTV.app/Appliances
7)      apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2
8) mkdir -p /Applications/XBMC.frappliance
9)      reboot

Step 7: Once the Apple TV menu reloads, Launch XBMC into XBMC Frodo.

Step 8: To ensure the new build fits your screen, let’s enter the “Settings” sub menu under the “SYSTEM” heading.

Step 9: Select the “Appearance” tab from the left menu bar.

Step 10: Under the “Skin” menu, you’ll now want to choose “-4%” for the “Zoom” field so that your XBMC configuration will properly fit your television display. Depending on the television, you might have to play around with this, but it should work flawlessly at the “-4%” setting. Press “MENU” on your Remote Control to return back one level once this is done.

Step 11. Also worth noting: in XBMC 12.0 you will need to set up your sound. For this simply navigate to Settings/System/Audio Output go to the second option from the bottom and sleet the audio option that is right for you. Afterwards, go to the very first option and select between HDMI and Analog. If you are unsure… you are on HDMI.

Congratulations! Your Apple TV now has XBMC Frodo installed on it, and fitting on your screen. Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?

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XBMC Frodo (12.0) is officially released

umOuch — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:58:26 +0000

If you are one of our faithful fans who have XBMC Eden (11.0) installed on your jailbroken Apple TV 1, Apple TV 2, or any other device for that matter, we have some exciting news for you: the development team over at xbmc.org has been hard at work, this past month, preparing to release the latest iteration of their multimedia center software known only as Frodo (12.0). This update comes complete with a great deal of improvements, bug fixes, and extended hardware support. The real question is what will this mean for us Apple TV junkies. Well, this new build offers:

HD audio support, including DTS-MA and Dolby True-HD, via the new XBMC AudioEngine (OSX/iOS not yet available)
Live TV and PVR support
h.264 10bit (aka Hi10P) video software decoding for anime
64bit support in OSX to match the 64bit support in Linux
Improved image support, allowing the database to accomodate numerous additional image types and more interesting and complex skins
Support for the Raspberry PI
Initial support for the Android platform
Improved AirPlay support across all platforms, including AirPlay audio in XBMC for Windows to match the other platforms
Improved controller support in Windows and Linux
Advanced Filtering in the library
Video library tags to complement movie sets
Advanced UPnP sharing
Default video languages now match the language being used by XBMC
Translations now powered by Transifex

For you Apple TV fans, one of the biggest adjustments is the extended support for H.D. audio. This latest builds helps enable you to make the most of the audio capabilities that the Apple TV has to offer. Aside from these listed improvements, you will see many changes under the hood. Some of these are great to see, others are a bit frustrating. One of the more exciting features, to me, is the inclusion of something known as skin.widgets. This tool makes skinning a much better experience. If you want to get a real idea of what this means for skins in Frodo, look no further than SiO2 by a developer named fastcolors. This skin is designed with you in mind.

In contrast, one of the frustrating items is the fact that we lose the use of last.FM playback in this latest build. They explained this on their blog, at xbmc.org, as something that was unavoidable do to the changes in the coding, but it is missed none the less. It is also worth noting that there are quite a few add-ons/skins that are not currently supported in Frodo. Usually, this is not a problem as developers can easily make changes to get their add-ons/skins working in the latest XBMC build. Sadly, there are quite a few devs, of some well known add-ons/skins, that are no longer actively keeping their items up to date. This means that we may lose some of our favorite add-ons/skins in the upgrade. Time will tell.

All in all. It is worth the update. As a rule, we should always upgrade as it only improves the overall experience. If an add-on, or skin, is missed enough, someone will get it working again!

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XBMC on Apple TV: How to navigate XBMC’s menus options

umOuch — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:19:58 +0000

XBMC is, without a doubt, the nest thing you can add to your Apple TV. XBMC opens your iOS device to a world of multimedia management, live streaming television, movies, sports, music, and much more. As amazing as XBMC is, until you learn how to utilize XBMC to its fullest potential, it can feel like a digital doorstop. It is with this in mind that we have decided to do a series of pieces that walk you through the essential parts of XBMC. So, if you are already a pro, read on and then correct my mistakes in the comment section. If, on the other hand, you are a novice/n00b… just read on!

General Navigation

Moving through XBMC is as easy as any system you can install on a PC these days. Though the process can vary dependent on the hardware you are using, the concept is the same. You have your default sections when you first boot XBMC:

Weather
Pictures
Video
Music
Programs
System

WEATHER

The first item in your menu is Weather. This gives you real time information on the weather for you area. By default, you are given the ability to track the weather for as many as three different locations. When in the Weather section of XBMC you can click to the left to open an extra screen that allows you to adjust settings within this section. This also allows users to cycle through options and locations. It is also worth mentioning that this special window that appears when clicking left is available in every section. It holds unique content dependent on which section you are in.

PICTURES, VIDEOS, MUSIC, PROGRAMS

Within any categories that offer content (Music, Pictures, Videos) you are given the same three options when you first open it: Files, Playlists, & Add-ons. Each option offers a unique set of features, choices, and functions for your Apple TV. It is worth noting that the Programs section only provides Add-ons. There is no option to add personal content.

Files

These all add some IMPORTANT functionality to your system. The first item, Files, is where we will go in order to addour own content to XBMC. So, if you have pictures, movies, television shows, or music on a hard drive/external drive and you want to add it to XBMC, this is where you go. From within the Files section you are given the option to view the files that are on your machine, or to add sources. This option will enable you to navigate to the content directory and scan it into your Apple TV.

Playlist

We will cover this in another article, but this option will enable you to view any playlists that you have already created.

(Content Type) Addons

This section enables users to view all of the addons/plugins that you have installed, or that have come preinstalled, onto your Apple TV. This section will always end with an icon, and text, that says GET MORE.

If you follow this GET MORE option, you will be taken to a list of all the addons/plugins that are available to you. The repositories that are installed on your device determine the addons that are available. If you would like to add more repositories, and addons, check out our list of Top 10 best XBMC addons for Apple TV 1 and Apple TV 2.

SYSTEM

This section is where all of the settings, and customizations, are stored. Think of this section as the brains of XBMC. If you want to edit, change or adjust anything in XBMC, you can do it here. This section will open to a list of options, such as:

Appearance:

Here you will find the ability to adjust things such as your time zone, sound effects, zoom in (zoom out), screensavers, and what skin you want installed.

Video:

Here you will find the ability to adjust your library, playback, files, subtitles, and DVD options.

Music:

Here you will find the ability to adjust your library, playback, files, subtitles, and song submission options. Here you can also activate Last.FM features within XBMC.

Pictures:

Here you will find the ability to adjust things such as your file lists as well as photo slideshow options.

Weather:

Here you will find the ability to adjust things such as your weather location and weather addons.

Add-ons:

Here you will find the ability to adjust things such as enabled addons. You can install new addons, uninstall existing addons, and add repositories to XBMC.

Network:

Here you will find the ability to adjust things such as your network options. This includes the ability to enable AirPlay, UPnP, SMB, and other file sharing options. You can also add proxy servers in this location

System:

Here you will find the ability to adjust things such as your video output resolution, audio input/output methods, debugging features, and much more.

Skin:

Finally, in the skins section you are able to edit the skin to your hearts content. The options that are made available vary from skin to skin but this usual includes customizing menus, changing backgrounds, home screen widgets, and much more. (Read also: How to change skins in XBMC on Apple TV)

As you can see there are a lot of options within XBMC. I highly recommend that you all dive in and get to know your system as well as you can. The more you know about XBMC, the better your Apple TV set will be. XBMC truly is a case of software that is so simple, it’s hard.

More on XBMC on Apple TV:

(This article is also available in Spanish / Este artículo también está disponible en español)

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How to clone the XBMC installation on Apple TV 1 and Apple TV 2

umOuch — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:03:45 +0000

Do you have more than one Apple TV in your house? Are you the techy in your community, forced to install and set up XBMC on Apple TVs for all those people you know and love? What if there were an easy way to simply clone the XBMC installation from one device to multiple others? Well, you can. This process can be used for a variety of reasons, but the most popular would absolutely be:

Backing-up your current XBMC set up (allowing you to restore to it at any time)
Building an XBMC template (if you will) to help setting up other Apple TV’s quicker & easier
Creating a standard of XBMC, including add-ons, for installing on your other iDevices (iPad, iPhone, etc.)

Whatever your reasons, this is a worthwhile skill to have. For the sake of clarity, for those of you who do not know, the Apple TV 1 and the Apple TV 2 differ from each other in that they bother run on different operating systems. The Apple TV 1 was originally build on the OSX platform, same as the older MACs. The Apple TV 2 on the other hand is built on the iOS platform. Same as the iPad, iPhone, & iPods. These differences will cause the process of cloning your Apples to vary dependent on which devices you own. That said, grab your ATV, your computer and let’s go:

Requirements

If you are using a Windows Machine

WinSCP – File Manager
PuTTY – Terminal App

If you are using a MAC machine

CyberDuck – File Manager
Terminal App (preinstalled)

[Extract The Items Needed For Cloning]

Step 1: We first need to open your File Manager. You will be met with either an option to open a Connection, if so select this option, or a group of boxes requiring input. Fill out the boxes using following sample. Note yours may look different but the information will be the same.

At the top you will likely see a drop down menu that says “File Transfer Protocol.” Here you will need to select the option that says “SFTP” or “SSH”
Server: Here you need to enter the IP address of your Apple TV
Apple TV 1 (SILVER BOX) = Username: frontrow & Password: frontrow
Apple TV 2 (BLACK PUCK) = Username: root & Password: alpine

Step 2: Now we will need to navigate to the following file location, and save a copy of the folder titled “XBMC” to your desktop, or any other location that you will remember. This will take some time as this file contains EVERYTHING pertaining to your XBMC installation:

Apple TV 1 (SILVER BOX) = /Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/
Apple TV 2 (or any iDevice) = /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/

[REMEMBER] this is your CLONED XBMC folder. It is important that you take good care of this item as this is what we will use on the next machine… or your current machine should you simply be making a backup. Once this is done, all following steps will take place on the device you want to install the CLONED FOLDER on.

Installing The CLONED XBMC Folder

Step 1: Start with a blank canvas:

Factory restore your target device (making sure you don’t upgrade to an un-jailbroken firmware)
Jailbreak the Apple TV again
Do a fresh Install of XBMC on the device.

Step 2: Launch XBMC… THEN EXIT XBMC… on the same device.

Step 3: Connect to your to the Apple TV using the File Manager as we did in beginning of this guide.

Step 4: Navigate to the following file location:

Apple TV 1 (SILVER BOX) = /Applications/XBMC.app/Contents/Resources/XBMC/
Apple TV 2 (or any iDevice) = /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/

Step 5: Once you can see the XBMC folder on your current machine we need to do two things:

Rename the XBMC folder, on the Apple TV, to “OLDXBMC”
Upload the CLONED XBMC FOLDER, from your desktop, that we saved on your computer earlier in this guide. This may take some time to upload as this file contains EVERYTHING pertaining to your XBMC installation. So give it time

Step 6: Now we will need to connect to our device via the Terminal App, via SSH, using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]
Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
- This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu
- Note:Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.
  - rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Step 7: Once connected we will input one command.

chown -R mobile:mobile /private/var/mobile/Library/Preferences/XBMC/

Step 8: Reboot and Enjoy

Congratulations! Not only do you have a safe backup of your XBMC installation, but you can now set up twice as many devices in a quarter of the time.

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XBMC! So Simple, It’s Hard?!

umOuch — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 19:02:43 +0000

For many of our reads, there is no question regarding what XBMC is or how to use it. That said, we never find a shortage of folks who don’t understand XBMC’s add-ons, plugins, tools, menus, skins, libraries, third party extras, etc. It was with this in mind that we have decided to dedicate a bit of time every month to breaking down ALL THINGS XBMC. Our goal is to give information that could greatly help new comers, and veterans, alike. I, personally, aim to bring tips and tricks to shed light on many items that have seemingly alluded many users of XBMC as a home multimedia solution. So, if you find yourself always helping fiends and family with their XBMC systems, bookmark this page, and stay tuned for the months to come! We are going to get the masses ready to use, and comfortable with, Xbox Media Center (XBMC).

Though this article may seem ‘to basic’ for the tech elite that frequent this pages, please note that this article is simply a launching point for our ALL THINGS XBMC series. We will not be breaking down any walls today, but rather shedding light on XBMC in general. We want to take a broad brush and give you all an idea of what XBMC is and does. We will then use this article as a guideline for the pieces to come.

What is XBMC?

XBMC is an award-winning FREE, open source (GPL), software media player and entertainment hub for digital media. XBMC is currently available for Linux, OSX, Windows, iOS, & even Android. XBMC has been designed to be the perfect companion for your Apple TV (1, 2, and someday your 3). Supporting an almost endless range of remote controls, and combined with its beautiful interface and powerful skinning engine, XBMC feels very natural to use from the couch and is the ideal solution for your home theater – multi media center.

Essentially, XBMC offers users the ability to watch personal content, as well as content found on the web, on their Television. It makes itself a central interface for thousands, if not millions, of playable content. It is built with the ability to install add-ons, skins, scripts, and more, all with the purpose of expanding its functionality. The software is, by far, the most feature rich solution on the market. XBMC is only limited by the lack of understanding of its users. This is a situation where the more you know, quickly equates to an unparallelled television experience!

Items We Intend To Cover:

- How to install on Apple TV
- How to navigate & understand XBMC’s menu options
- XBMC’s library: how to add, remove, & customize it’s content
- XBMC scripts? Yes, they are useful!
- How to stream content from the Web within XBMC
- How to install add-ons & repositories
- How to change & customize skins on XBMC
- Using AirPlay & mobile apps with XBMC
- Watching live television on XBMC
- Watching movies on XBMC
- Supercharging your current XBMC installation with XBMC Hub Wizard

Stay tuned for the next tutorial! In the meantime, you can check out our list of Top 10 best XBMC addons for Apple TV 1 and Apple TV 2.

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Give Your Apple TV 1 New Life With OpenElec 2.0 (installing XBMC)

umOuch — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:22:35 +0000

It now seems as if it has been years since we began the wait for an Apple TV 3 jailbreak! The truth is, I have grown tired of the wait and decided to look into what I could do with my existing Apple TV 1 & Apple TV 2. What I found was an tool known as OpenELEC 2.0! OpenELEC is one of the projects that aims to give users the ability to install XBMC as a standalone operating system for a wide variety of devices. What OpenELEC has done is build a stable version of XBMC using Linux and then create an installable package, integrated with a host of drivers, for a growing number of machines, including: old & new laptops, old & new desktop computers, raspberry pi boxes, and, yes, even your old Apple TV 1! Sadly, due to the software/hardware, the Apple TV 2 is not supported.

OpenELEC is not, necessarily, new to the Apple TV scene. What is new is that they have recently released OpenELEC 2.0, a stable version of their software based on XBMC Eden. This gives the Apple TV a strong and stable, standalone, XBMC experience. With it being an Eden build, it even offers your little silver box AirPlay! The team has added a few functionality increases to XBMC and even has a custom group of add ons and services that are made available to OpenELEC users only. These tools alone, make this a project worth looking at! If you are interested, you can find more specific information for this project at openelec.tv. To save you the visit, here are some of the key points made by their team:

What is OpenELEC?

Open Embedded Linux Entertainment Center, or OpenELEC for short, is a small Linux distribution built from scratch as a platform to turn your computer into a complete XBMC media center. OpenELEC is designed to make your system boot as fast as possible and the install is so easy that anyone can turn a blank PC into a media machine in less than 15 minutes.

Key Features:

It’s completely free
Full install only 80-125MB
Minimal hardware requirements
Trivial install onto HDD, SSD, Compact Flash, SD card, pen drive etc
Optimized builds for Atom, ION, Intel, Fusion etc
Simple configuration via XBMC
Plug and Play external storage
File sharing out of the box

Required?

Mac, or Linux, computer
USB Stick,with at least 1 Gig of memory (to be on the safe side)
Apple TV 1
Remote Control
10-20 minutes

STEP 1:
Connect the USB key to your machine, then open your Terminal app (For Mac it is located in /Applications/Utilities) and cut/paste the following commands to download the AppleTV SwissArmyKnife USB creator script for Mac OS X:

curl -O http://chewitt.openelec.tv/atv_swissarmyknife_osx.sh
chmod +x atv_swissarmyknife_osx.sh
sudo ./atv_swissarmyknife_osx.sh

STEP 2:

The script will ask you confirm the /dev/disk# for the USB Drive. It runs with root privileges so please be careful with your selection! You will see a list of all current drives available on your machine… so simply look for the name and size of your thumb drive. Once the target device has been confirmed the script will repartition the USB Stick, download files needed to boot the AppleTV (11MB) and then install them to the thumb drive. It should take no more than a couple of minutes to complete, at best.

PLEASE NOTE: If you choose the wrong drive, you could accidentally delete important content. Make sure you read the list of available devices carefully. Mine, for example was a 2 GIG drive that I named UMOUCH-ATVH. Once I knew the drive, I entered “/dev/disk2″ and hit Enter. You are then prompted to confirm the election… type in “Y” for yes. When complete, your output will match the image below:.STEP 3:
Power the AppleTV OFF and then connect the USB Stick to the single USB port, between the Ethernet port and the Power Cable on the back of your device.

STEP 4:
Power the AppleTV ON (Plug it in). After 10-15 seconds you should see the Grey/Blue OpenELEC logo on the screen, then the “SwissArmyKnife script” will start and confirm the current keyword function. The default keyword is “install”. This is where the device will download the OpenELEC software from the OpenELEC website.

STEP 5:
Before anything destructive is done, the installer will pause for roughly 30 seconds, and display a warning message; this ensures you enough time for you to power the AppleTV off (remove the power cable) before anything is changed. After the 30 second wait the installer continues.

What is Happening (advanced):

First it removes all existing partitions from the internal drive, then creates EFI, RECOVERY, BOOT and STORAGE partitions for OpenELEC. Finally it copies the OpenELEC software to the internal drive.

Once it completes, a message will be displayed telling you it is safe to remove the USB key and reboot.

That’s It! If you followed the steps correctly, you should have XBMC running as your standalone operating system! If you had any troubles with the process, openELEC has a great source for troubleshooting any, and all, issues: Troubleshooting USB Key Creation & Opperating System!

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How to install XBMC 12.0 Frodo (beta 1) on Apple TV

umOuch — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:00:05 +0000

We have had XBMC 11.0 Eden for 8 months now and, if you are anything like me, it is time to begin the process of upgrading our XBMC installations to the new & improved XBMC 12.0 Frodo. The process should be fairly straight forward and essentially identical to the process we used for install the previous version of XBMC. Before we get started let’s clear the air on a few points so that we are all on the same page:

This is a BETA release and as such may result in some unexpected behaviors.
This is the 1’st BETA XBMC has released, there will be more to come.
XBMC Frodo can cause a good time and may be habit forming.
To install Frodo to Apple TV 1 you will need to:

- Visit OpenElec.tv regarding their 2.0 project
- Visit Stnlabs.comregarding their 2.0 project

How to install XBMC 12.0 Frodo (beta 1) APPLE TV 2 (Running iOS 5+)

Requirements

Jailbroken ATV2 running iOS 5+
Mac Computer (use Terminal App)
Windows PC (use PuTTY App)

Step 1: Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.

Step 2: Ensure that your computer and your Apple TV are on the same network.

Step 3: Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu

Note: Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.

rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

Step 4: Agree to any Security Prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations), then press Enter.

Step 5: When prompted for a Password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.

1) apt-get install wget

2) wget -O- http://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -

3) echo “deb http://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list

4) echo “deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list

5) apt-get update

6) apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2

7) reboot

Step 7: Once the Apple TV menu reloads, Launch XBMC into XBMC Frodo!

Step 8: To ensure the new build fits your screen, let’s enter the “Settings” sub menu under the “SYSTEM” heading.

Step 9: Select the “Appearance” tab from the left menu bar.

Congratulations! Your second generation Apple TV running iOS 5+ now has XBMC Frodo installed on it, and fitting on your screen. Now that wasn’t so bad… was it?

More on FRODO from Apple TV Hacks : XBMC 12.0 Frodo (beta 1) released: One media center to rule them all!
More on FRODO from XBMC.ORG
Installation on other platforms.

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

XBMC 12.0 Frodo (beta 1) released: One media center to rule them all!

umOuch — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:28:30 +0000

If a jailbroken Apple TV loaded with XBMC 11.0 “Eden” was not enough for you, we have some great news. XBMC has just released their first public BETA of XBMC 12.0 “Frodo”. The team has been hard at work pushing out one of their fastest, and most feature-rich, upgrades in history. As of the release of Eden, XBMC’s current stable build that is likely installed on all of your Apple TV’s, the team promised the beginning of a new monthly building plan that would hopefully expedite the process of fixing bugs and updated releases. As of this week, it would appear that this plan has, in fact, worked.

For those of you who have been following XBMC you will notice that the naming paradigm has shifted with this release. Up to now, XBMC has named all of their releases according fantastical points on the map, either real or imagined, such as Camelot, Babylon, and Eden. With the release of 12.0, now in the “F” category, the team did something special in naming it FRODO. Where I initially thought the name was chosen to pay homage to one of my favorite literary characters from a ‘certain collection’ of stories, I was surprised to learn that it was actually intended to honor a team member. I will let them explain:

Ten years ago, an individual with the username Frodo joined the Xbox Media Player team, bringing along his open source software project called YAMP. With the addition of Frodo’s project the three founders, Frodo, d7o3g4q, and RUNTiME, released the first non-beta version of the Xbox Media Player – XBMP 2.0 – as open source software. Frodo then spearheaded the move from XBMP to the more feature rich XBMC, including acting as the primary author for the initial UI engine.

XBMC FRODO FEATURES (that ATV owners will enjoy):

HD audio support, including DTS-MA and Dolby True-HD, via the new XBMC Audio Engine
Live TV and PVR support [this is awesome news!]
h.264 10bit (aka Hi10P) video software decoding for anime
64bit support in OSX to match the 64bit support in Linux
Improved image support, allowing the database to accommodate numerous image types
Improved Airplay support across all platforms
Advanced Filtering in the library
Advanced UPnP sharing numerous JSON-RPC updates, including PVR support, optimizations, better conflict handling, and better webserver support by Montellese
PVR timeshift support (if the backend supports timeshift)
the CD ripper now works in the background thanks to Spiff
panoramic photo panning support

PLEASE NOTE

In hopes to give you the best information possible, we felt it would be worth pointing out that, though this is exciting, this is a BETA release! This version has yet to be labeled STABLE for a reason. For many people these builds work out just fine, as XBMC is a fantastic team, but this can vary from machine to machine. So in the heart of full-disclosure, here are a few words of warning from XBMC Developers themselves:

Needless to say, this is beta software. You should absolutely expect problems to occasionally crop up. At present, we are anticipating a number of issues as we switch XBMC over from the Eden addon repository to a new Frodo repository, including partly broken skins and various scripting/scrapers errors. Please bear with us if these problems do crop up. Additionally, PVR users will not be able to switch channels via the channel up/down buttons using their remotes or CEC due to a slight change in the way PVR keymaps are being handled. We are aware of this issue and should have it fixed by Beta2.

For those of you who may be chomping at the bit to get a glimpse of the newest build, in action, on your Apple TV(1 or 2) simply check back with us shortly. We will be posting a complete guide on how to install Frodo on your Apple TV!

More news on FRODO from XBMC.ORG.

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!