We at Apple TV Hacks have offered many guides that enable you to jailbreak your Apple TV, install XBMC, and even install addons, plugins and extras to your XBMC installation. So, now that we have given you the tools to increase the awesome of your little box, I figured it would only be fair to share with you what addons have proven to be the best of the best. So enough explanation… lets jump in to the good stuff.

Here is the list of 10 best XBMC addons for both 1st and 2nd generation Apple TV.

10.   IceLibrary

• Content Source:
  • Works in conjunction with the IceFilms addon
• Features:
  • Allows users to sync movies and television shows from the IceFilms add-on to their internal library
  • Offers the ability to refresh your library in intervals that you decide.
  • It offers filters so that you can scan for all movies released after a certain date… allowing to you have access to all movies released since 2003, should you desire to.
  • The possibilities are endless, making this one of my favorite add-ons.
• Download & Support:
  • IceLibrary Development and Releases come directly from xbmchub.com, via its development team. This add-ons has gone from a one man team, to a community driven project. You can download IceLibrary addon from here.

9.   HULU

• Content Source:
  • Hulu.com
• Features:
  • Access to all of Hulu’s website content
  • Access to all Hulu + content, for users who have signed up for the service.
  • This add-ons comes with the unique ability to add shows and movies, from Hulu, to your XBMC library. This enables you to do a lot of cool stuff!
  • Allows control of the amount of ads, or pre-roles, displayed.
• Download & Support:
  • HULU ADD-ON Development and Releases come directly from forum.xbmc.org, via its developer bluecop. This developer is known for having some AMAZING addons in his repos! You can download Hulu addon from here.

8.   Fast Pass TV

• Content Source:
  • Fastpasstv.ms.
• Features:
  • Though this add-on offers both television and movies. It is known for its movies.
  • Latest movie release are updated to FastPassTV at a rate that is second to none. If there is something you gotta see NOW(!) FastPassTV is a good way to go.
• Download & Support:
  • FastPassTv’s Development and Releases come directly from xbmchub.com, via its developer, who is also a developer for IceFilms. Its actual creator is always open to help with problems.Fast Pass TV addon from here.

7.   Live TV

• Content Source:
  • Combines live tv streams with a handful of 24 hour streams.
• Features:
  • Combines live tv streams with a handful of 24 hour streams of shows like Friends, King of Queens, and more.
  • 24 movie channels including Starz.
  • Live streaming sports
• Download & Support:
  • LiveTV’s Development and Releases come directly from forum.xbmc.org, via this add-ons developer. Its actual creator is always open to help and can be found either at xbmc.org or xbmchub.com. You can dowlnoad Live TV addon from here.

6.   Super TV

• Content Source:
  • Live TV Streams (think antenna TV)
• Features:
  • View live tv via your APPLE TV 1, 2, or 3
  • You can mark channels as broken so that the developer can fix streams if they go down.
  • Live streaming sports
• Download & Support:
  • SuperTV’s Development and Releases come directly from supercloudtv.com, via this add-ons development team. You can download Super TV addon from here.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

So you caved in and bought the new 1080p Apple TV 3 and were horrified to discover that you cannot jailbreak it yet. Perhaps you were fortunate enough to find your older Apple TV (1st or 2nd gen) sitting in a dark damp corner of your closet underneath your old PlayStation. Regardless of which device you are fortunate enough to have, you will need one simple skill in order to take full advantage of your XBMC experience.

XBMC comes with the unique ability to install extra tools within the confines of its system. This means that once XBMC is installed you can add new add-ons/plugins to your Apple TV in order to give it some new features such as streaming live television, streaming movies from external websites, Pandora, Sports Channels, and much more.

Installing, and using, XBMC add-ons and plugins is a very simple process that can sometimes intimidate newbies, or first time users. The good news is that, by the end of this post, you will be able to install, uninstall, and find any XBMC tools you want within the confines of your Apple TV (1 or 2). Before we begin, let’s go over what we need:

• Computer
• Add-On/Plugin Source
• Apple TV (1st or 2nd-generation)

XBMC does come with many add-ons/plugins preinstalled in its database for you to install and play with. If you would like to use these specific tools simply skip ahead to STEP #9. If, on the other hand, you would like to add specialized add-ons/plugins such as IceFilms, NaviX, SuperTV, FastPassTV, 1Channel, or even Watchseries you will need to follow these instructions from beginning to end.

The first step would be to find the add-ons you want to install. You can search XBMC’s forums for things like skins, movie scrapers, music add-ons, picture add-ons, and more.  Once you find what you want… download the .zip file to your computer and remember file location you save it to.

The next step would be downloading an SSH client onto your computer. This tool will enable you to browse the Apple TV menu from your computer.

• Windows – PuTTY or WinSCP
• MAC – CyberDuck

Once you install these tools, you will need to connect the SSH client to your Apple TV:

1. Open XBMC on your Apple TV and navigate from your Home Screen to Settings > System Information. You need to locate and take note of your system’s IP address:

2. You now need to open your SSH Client. You will likely 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:

• 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 that we located earlier.
• Username: root
• Password: alpine

3. Click on the “Connect” button and you will find yourself inside the File System of your Apple TV.

4. Next you will need to navigate to the location that XBMC associates as its Home Page. This location is found @  “/User”

5. Now we need to find the add-on that you download earlier in this tutorial. Once you have located the file, you will need to drag it from your computer into this file location as seen below. In this case I have copied XBMC’s repo from my desktop into the file location provided.

Now that we have copied all desired items from the computer into the ATV we are now ready to put down the computer and pick up the ATV remote. The rest of these steps take place inside of your XBMC installation:

Installing  Add-ons & Plugins

1. Open XBMC on your Apple TV and navigate from your Home Screen to the System Menu. From there you should see menu options similar to what is shown below.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!