Archive:HOW-TO:Install XBMC on Apple TV 1

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Revision as of 11:26, 10 December 2010 by >Mikeandjeny (Added not about support for ATV2)
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Thanks to lots of hard work by Team-XBMC's very own Scott Davilla and Stephan Diederich it is now possible to install and run XBMC Media Center on Apple TV (version one).

In short it is XBMC for Mac on Apple TV1 made easy for everyone to enjoy!

Note: Currently XBMC will not run on the Apple TV version 2

How does it work?

ATV USB Creator let you make a so called "patchstick", a bootable USB flash drive which you boot your Apple TV with to install XBMC for Mac to run nativly on Apple TV OS (which by the way is "Tiger based). After you "patch" your AppleTV a new Launcher menu will appear that allows you to download and install XBMC on your AppleTV.

Really Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

  • Question: What happens to original Apple TV software after the XBMC installation?
    • Answer: XBMC is installed onto the Apple TV built-in harddrive but you will still be able you use your Apple TV software as normal, XBMC will only be an extra option that you can launch from the Apple TV's original menu when you want to utilize the extra features and functions that are available in XBMC compared to the original Apple TV software. So XBMC will not replace the original Apple TV software, it instead works as complement the existing Apple TV software.
  • Question: Is XBMC running natively on the Apple TV or under an Linux environment?
    • Answer: This installs XBMC for Mac which is a native Mac OS X application, (Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger to be precise), this does not run under a Linux environment.

Question: Does this work for the newer, smaller black Apple TV devices?

    • Answer: No. The newer devices are not based on intel/OSX, they are based on ARM/iOS, and they are only USB slaves not USB hosts.
  • Question: Will the Apple TV playback 1080p videos encoded with the H.264 codec (like Blu-ray rips)?
    • Answer: No, the Apple TV hardware is only powerful enough to decode 720p videos encoded with the H.264 codec. However, with the Broadcom Crystal HD card and the latest unstable release of XBMC, 1080P support is possible.
  • Question: Does XBMC on the Apple TV upscale standard-definition and 720p videos to 1080p output?
    • Answer: Yes, XBMC on the Apple TV will upscale all videos to 1080p if that is your output resolution.
  • Question: How do I get XBMC to show full screen rather than in windowed mode?
    • Answer: Settings -> Appearance -> Screen -> Resolution -> Full Screen

Minimum requirements

HOW-TO install XBMC on your Apple TV

ATV USB Creator is currently available for Mac OS X and Windows ATV USB Creator and supports the latest AppleTV OS 3.0.2 even though it does not show it.

NOTE: Just to be safe, unplug any other USB drives just in case (as you do not want to risk the chance the patchstick utility to overwrite the data on any other USB drive you might have connected).

  1. Download the ATV USB Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
  2. Insert a USB flash memory drive into your Mac or Windows machine. Make sure the flash drive is formatted for FAT32 and remember that all the data on it will be erased so do the backup first.
  3. Run the ATV USB Creator.
  4. Follow the "ATV USB Creator" instruction to prepare a "patchstick".
    • It is recommended to update Apple TV to the latest software version which is 3.0.2 at this point before "patching" the Apple TV.
    • Remember to build a "patch stick" image exactly with the same Apple TV software version that is installed on your Apple TV.
    • Even though it does not say it ATV USB Creator does support the latest Apple TV OS 3.0.2
  5. Remove the USB flash memory drive and plug it into your Apple TV.
  6. Power on your Apple TV and the USB flash memory drive (now also called "patchstick") will automatically boot and run ATV boot loader.
  7. After the ATV boot loader finishes, remove it and restart your Apple TV.
  8. You Apple TV GUI will now have a new "Launcher" menu option on the main menu.
  9. Select "Launcher/Downloads" and click on XBMC. This will download and install the latest official stable XBMC from the Internet.
    • If you want to install the latest version from SVN follow this guide.
  10. Once XBMC is done installing, restart your Apple TV (this is not necessary but will make you feel better as in "task complete").
  11. Select "Launcher" then select "XBMC" in the sub-menu to start XBMC.
  • Check "Launcher/Downloads" periodically and whenever a new version of XBMC is available you can update it as described above.

Known Issues

  • The default Apple TV screensaver may cause XBMC to not respond when it kicks in , (more accurately it can cause XBMC to lose control of the Apple Remote)
    • Due to the way that the Apple TV handles its 'wakeup' from its screensaver mode different from an infrared remote event from the Mac OS X computer platform, we will eventually need to make a source code change to the XBMC software to sort this out, but until then you can workaround this by disabling the screensaver on your Apple TV, (that is, not from within XBMC, but in the Apple TV's own screensaver).
  • At the moment 1080p output can't be selected in XBMC 9.11 and SVN, even if the Apple TV itself is set to 1080p output. Output is limited to "windowed" mode or 720p@60 Hertz.

Development for XBMC on Apple TV

To help out with the development of XBMC for Mac (which runs on Apple TV) see here. To help out with the development of ATV USB Creator or ATV bootloader see their respective project sites on Google Code:

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