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[AlteredBeast]

I have had my Apple TV for over a year now and am finally tired of having to leave my computer on to use it. I have a NAS Drive that acts as an iTunes server. Is it possible to set up the library and files to make the AppleTV see the drive and therefore allow it to be used as the AppleTV syncing or sharing computer?

Pretty lame of Apple to limit this thing so much. Would it be worth it to hack the Apple TV and if so, is there a hack out there that will let me do what I am asking?

 

[Burger]

I have had my Apple TV for over a year now and am finally tired of having to leave my computer on to use it. I have a NAS Drive that acts as an iTunes server. Is it possible to set up the library and files to make the AppleTV see the drive and therefore allow it to be used as the AppleTV syncing or sharing computer?

Pretty lame of Apple to limit this thing so much. Would it be worth it to hack the Apple TV and if so, is there a hack out there that will let me do what I am asking?

Yes, you can install XBMC onto it, and make it better.

http://xbmc.org/download/

 

[mrklaw]

install boxee which can be done simply by inserting a USB stick with the software on and rebooting. That also installs XBMC so you can choose which to use - boxee has access to streaming sites too

Then you can stream via SMB etc

 

[Teddman]

What I never understood was, why can't you just download/copy all your movies & shows to the AppleTV hard drive itself, or an external HD connected via HD?

 

[AlteredBeast]

so with XBMC, I can just have my NAS on and not have my computer on and it will still stream all of my content to the AppleTV?

 

[Particle Physicist]

Yes, you can install XBMC onto it, and make it better.

http://xbmc.org/download/

isnt plex supposed to be better on macs?


EDIT

upon further investigation, it seems that plex is not supported for apple tv but xbmc is!

 

[infiniteloop]

What I never understood was, why can't you just download/copy all your movies & shows to the AppleTV hard drive itself, or an external HD connected via HD?

You can.

 

[AlteredBeast]

You can.

So if I hack my Apple TV, I can just hook up (and daisy chain?) USB hard drives to the Apple TV itswelf and then not have to have my computer on?

That is really my only priority. If XBMC doesn't do this (or any other hacking option) then I am liable to not do anything. In any regards, it is ridiculous that the Apple TV can't already do what I am asking. Damn Apple neutering product features until 3.0 and so on!

 

[AlteredBeast]

I was searching through awkwardtv's forums and there are a few ways to get a USB external drive to function but all of the explanations are in terminal commands and such. Has anyone here done thing before? I believe my Apple TV is updated to the latest version, too.

 

[Burger]

I was searching through awkwardtv's forums and there are a few ways to get a USB external drive to function but all of the explanations are in terminal commands and such. Has anyone here done thing before? I believe my Apple TV is updated to the latest version, too.

If you have a NAS, why do you need it to be connected to your Apple TV via USB ? It would be better to use a networked hdd, as multiple devices could access the content. Setting up the device on XBMC would then be easy, either via SMB sharing or some sort of built in UPNP/DLNA server.

 

[AlteredBeast]

ahh, so XBMC will access an external hard drive on my network without my computer being on? If it does, I will install it right now!

 

[Burger]

ahh, so XBMC will access an external hard drive on my network without my computer being on? If it does, I will install it right now!

As long as it can be accessed via SMB (Samba) or some other method that both XBMC & your NAS support (AFP, Bonjour, UPNP, etc).

eg, if your NAS was sharing a folder called Movies, you might connect to it like this

smb://192.168.1.2/Movies

You might have to use your computer/nas workgroup name instead of an ip address, but yeah, essentially that is it.

Good luck

P.S. As long as the HDD is on a NAS, and not on a Computer, then yeah, it will be ok. Obviously you cannot access content on a computer that is turned off.

 

[AlteredBeast]

thank you, I am basically retarded in this regard as far as setup and put into practice mode goes, so hopefully I can accidentally push the right buttons to get this working. To have the Apple TV access all of my movies on my NAS (and any drives connected to it) without having my computer on would be sweet.

 

[mrklaw]

google boxee patchstick appleTV

there is a zip you download and unzip to a USB stick, switch off your appleTV, put the usb stick in the back, switch on the appleTV and it installs. No terminal, no FTP/SSH. Its really simple.


edit http://blog.boxee.tv/2008/11/02/how-to-creating-the-patchstick-for-apple-tv/



edit2: installing boxee also installs xbmc, so you can use this one method and then choose which you prefer using

 

[Burger]

What he said.

I don't have any experience with boxee, but it's an offshoot of XBMC, so I assume it will be reasonably similar.

From what I've read on the XBMC wiki, installing it on an AppleTV is realatively straight forward, and doesn't touch the AppleTV OS.