Apple TV hacked to enable USB

The Apple TV may go down in history as the most rapidly hacked Apple product ever; the news comes in so fast if we wanted to covered it all, we'd have to spin off Engadget Apple TV. That said, since upgrading the ATV's drive we've been tracking these hacks, and the first really big milestone since has been achieved: use of the disabled USB port. Apple claims the USB is there as a service port, and to make sure no one gets any funny ideas they disabled it in software. Thats where the crew at AwkwardTV come in. After six days on the case, they finagled a way to enable the port, and with it keyboards, mice, external hard drives, and who knows what else. Before you run out and expect to externally expand the storage on your Apple TV, you need to realize that the newfound space will only be available to the applications you added, and not (yet) for media playback. This is certainly an admirable accomplishment, but we wonder, what's the point? If you really wanted to run OS X applications with a keyboard and mouse in your home theater, wouldn't it be more sensible to buy a Mac mini? At least with that you get lots of other goodies, including the ability to make it a proper DVR. Regardless, for those who want a $300 Mac-like product that is small and quiet, this might be the best news you heard all day.

[elan @ Mar 30th 2007 3:01PM]

Hello, Ben, and welcome to Engadget!

[mattstl77 @ Mar 30th 2007 3:25PM]

Maybe if Apple would have thought to include a USB port and other functions, people wouldn't have been tempted to hack into it!

Silly company!

[andy @ Mar 30th 2007 3:40PM]

its for apple to use for system diagnostics etc, so not really as silly as you hey for commenting on a subject without a clue about that subjuect lol, a lot of people dont seem to get the point of this product, must be the same ones saying the gui and mouse and click wheel wouldnt.

[Tim @ Mar 30th 2007 3:33PM]

Ummm. did I miss something? The whole point of "streaming" is to keep the content (music, videos, etc) on a central storage device, ie your PC. Why the hell does this thing use a hard drive where I have to choose what files to "sync" to it. I have almost a terebyte of content on my PC, way more than the, what, 40Gb this thing holds?... This thing is hardly different than an ipod connected to my tv, minus the HDMI. I would rather buy an Xbox and stream content from my PC than buy this thing.

[Keirmeister @ Mar 30th 2007 3:52PM]

I'm really confused about the AppleTV. I went to the Apple Store in NYC a few days ago to see what the hype was about. I gotta tell you, I wasn't impressed. Let me explain:

The movies in my iTunes are in the 320x240 and 480x480 range - although my later additions are 720x368 (cropped DVD). But they are compressed for the iPod. Why would I want to stream this to a HD/Widescreen TV? I saw the demo movies and videos on display at the Appe Store, and they were HORRIBLE! The compression artifacts were obvious from a distance, and seemed like a total waste for the widescreen TVs these AppleTVs require. You would be better off buying the DVD.

What am I missing here?

[KC @ Mar 30th 2007 4:46PM]

@Keirmeister, exactly my sentiments! Why would anyone want to watch video that was cropped to be watched on a ipod video's 4" screen, want to watch that same video in HD on a 50" screen?

[Jeff @ Mar 30th 2007 5:16PM]

"convenience" is the concept you're missing.

I, for example, haven't been paying anything for TV for a while (the cheapest digital cable here is $70+ a month) and i really only watch about 4 shows.

So instead of paying someone 60 - 80 a month for the very few shows i'm interested in, i just buy those seasons from the iTunes store (which costs less than 2 months of cable) and watch them on my TV. Up until a week ago (when i got my Apple TV) i had to plug in my (girlfriend's) laptop to the TV.

Now i can just turn the TV on, grab my apple remote and watch my shows. :) much less of a chore. (this sounds lazy, but it really was a bit of a chore to grab the ibook and power adapter and my iPod to use as an external disk with the current episode on it, and plug in the miniVGA adapter blah blah blah.)

And i'll tell you, at least in my area, the "highly compressed" iTunes version, played through the AppleTV connected through component video at 720P (instead of through a single RCA from the iBook) looks leaps and bounds better than the crap OTA broadcast quality around here.

Sure, it's no HD (not even DVD quality) but on my 52" HDTV it's totally watchable, and much better than crap-quality SD broadcast TV.

to sum up: it's convenient, it works, and looks fine.
I even fancy myself as an AV snob, and have some high end AV equipment, but i'm not going to cover my eyes and plug my ears just because something isn't high def.
(However - when the HD Apple TV is released, i'll be all over it.)

[Tim @ Mar 30th 2007 4:03PM]

Yes,, my prior post was not quite inline with this Engadget post. My trail of thought was that with the hacked USB port you could add in more storage, then I thought.. "What for" this thing should be using your PC's storage for content. If it had a TV tuner.. then yes I could see a need for a hard drive so I guess you are correct... I see little point in this product.

[pagercam @ Mar 30th 2007 5:53PM]

Maybe you don't want your PC/Mac running to watch a movie???

[Aron Trimble @ Mar 30th 2007 4:03PM]

Well, the point good sir, is that with the new "frapplication" ATVFiles it is possible to set any folder (namely, a folder on your external HDD) as a drop point and browse/play them from within the AppleTV interface!

[Bryan Flocks @ Mar 30th 2007 4:09PM]

So Im supposed to pay 300.00 for a device that is supposedly so "simple and elegant", just I can spend hours "hacking" it to make it useful?

Having to tape and glue crap to this thing to make it good isn't a feature, it's a sign of total failure on the part of Apple.

[John Doe @ Mar 31st 2007 5:45PM]

All I want to know is if you can dump Boot Camp on this thing. Windows + Bluethooth dongle == DAMN small HTPC. Get the IR remote to work and you are golden.

[paralipsis @ Mar 30th 2007 5:06PM]

@KC - Yes. I agree. If Apple really wanted to make this thing worthwhile they should have provided some decent resolution videos to stream. They are just inviting hacking and piracy.

[touristique @ Mar 30th 2007 4:46PM]

Why are you all so mean? Life's too short people.

My mother in law missed this week's 24, so I told her to buy it on iTunes. She did, but then said "but I have to watch it on my computer..." If I gave her the Apple TV for her LCD tv, it would work nicely. Enough said. People who don't care what's in it or how it works, and just want to watch their downloaded shows from iTunes, will buy it, and it won't effect any of you.

[Jeff @ Mar 30th 2007 5:23PM]

word.

so many Apple haters here - i don't get it. ...and they're so angry!

I'll be getting another one of these for my father's birthday. It'll be perfect for him. (He's not the kind of guy who'd ever need to ask "why wont my AppleTV play my crappy wmv/avi pirated shows?")

[kreemail @ Mar 30th 2007 5:18PM]

Now we just need to get eyeTV software installed on it and attach a TV tuner to usb and BOOM, a media centre

[Leonard Nimrod @ Mar 30th 2007 5:40PM]

I like the idea but I think the 1GHz Celeron CPU would be pretty crappy to record and encode live A/V with.

[Jeff @ Mar 30th 2007 5:18PM]

I'm just waiting for the "boot from an external USB drive that has a script to automatically dump XviD support on to the Apple TV" hack.

I really dont want to re-rip and convert all the music videos from my DirectorFile DVDs. they already look good and are small files in Xvid. (and i just dont want to do the work again - and the iTunes store doesn;t sell most of 'em.)

[Argot @ Mar 31st 2007 6:39AM]

"(He's not the kind of guy who'd ever need to ask "why wont my AppleTV play my crappy wmv/avi pirated shows?")"

Yeah, having it play whatever you want to see in multiple formats and resolutions, that's just crazy, CRAZY!

[Leonard Nimrod @ Mar 30th 2007 5:46PM]

1) Apple cares nothing about hacking the software. They already made their money from the hardware.

2) Apple did have to appease it's iTunes Store content providers a bit here by not making it even more accessible than it already is. After all, does the AppleTV really need a "service port"? Of course not. How many of your other media appliances have service ports?

3) Give it no more than a couple of months. The iTunes store will be carrying 720p content once the content providers see how well the AppleTV is selling. I'm sure it has outsold the Zune by now, but that ain't sayin' much.

4) Since we know the USB port is in fact enabled by default and that Apple's "service team" can access the AppleTV via the service port, I'm waiting for the hack that will allow me access to the AppleTV OS without tearing it apart first. Maybe it's as simple as holding the Apple Remote's menu and play buttons down for 15 seconds while you have a USB cable connected between your Mac and PC or maybe it's more complex situation that requires command line authentication. Either way, I expect it to be found within the next two weeks.

[Gain_Bijou @ Mar 30th 2007 5:55PM]

So, how long until someone gets Doom working on Apple TV?

[Renato @ Mar 30th 2007 7:21PM]

So what does this do that my xbox doesn't anyway?

XBOX1 + Some kind of mod = The best media center ever ^^
You can stream media from your computer or put in dvd or get a bigger harddrive and put it in there.... and It costs like... 200 dollars less

[Goebbels @ Mar 30th 2007 9:23PM]

Video ipod.................................$300

Using A/V Cable from my Sony Camcorder.....$0

Watching Video and listening to music through my hometheatre...piceless ;-)

[james cordero @ Mar 31st 2007 1:36AM]

Has it ever donned on all of you AppleTV naysayers that Apple may not care if you hack it or not. It sure seems like they made it very easy to do so. They protected the material that they are obligated to protect, and are not responsible for whatever else we all do with it!

[Mep @ Mar 31st 2007 1:38AM]

My only question is, will it blend???

[Dogger @ Mar 31st 2007 2:49AM]

"The movies in my iTunes are in the 320x240 and 480x480 range - although my later additions are 720x368 (cropped DVD). But they are compressed for the iPod. Why would I want to stream this to a HD/Widescreen TV? I saw the demo movies and videos on display at the Appe Store, and they were HORRIBLE! The compression artifacts were obvious from a distance, and seemed like a total waste for the widescreen TVs these AppleTVs require. You would be better off buying the DVD.

What am I missing here?"

You are not missing here, you're just asking the wrong question. You're asking, "What's the least inferior content I can put on my HDTV?' And your answers are correct. But this isn't the relevant question. The relevant question is, 'What's the best way possible to watch my inferior content?'

I can see the artifacts on my compressed files no matter where I watch them. Why would I want to intentionally avoid watching them on my HDTV? To keep it "pure"? This seems like cutting off my nose to spite my face.

People have lots of compressed content and they're collections are growing everyday. If they didn't want to watch them, they wouldn't be collecting them. So your point is moot.

[Mark M @ Mar 31st 2007 2:23PM]

This is all very amusing, but as the article points out, why would I want to turn this thing into what is essentially a crippled MacMini, with a slowish CPU, only 256 MB memory, and no CD/DVD drive??? Maybe to web-browse on my TV?

In general, I think that a lot of people are missing the simple purpose of this device, and are not familiar with the flood of TV/video now becoming available via iTunes. I've just recently started purchasing more new shows and I LOVE it - NO COMMERCIALS!! Watch it when you want, as many times as you want, you don't have to remember to program anything in advance to record a show. The 640x480 MPEG4 isn't HD, but it isn't terrible either.

I love how Apple is trying an end-run around some of the largest corporations in the country with the iTunes / AppleTV combo: Cable and Satellite TV, DVD manufacturers, WalMart DVD sales, local TV stations. Will be very amusing to see if they can pull it off, as over time they release more powerful versions of the hardware, and start offering HD downloads.

[Max @ Mar 31st 2007 2:58PM]

All I need Is a FRONT END device for the media on my networked machines not another place that I have to put same media.I can buy a DIVX / WMA / everything else DVD player for $40 and burn an RW in not much more time than it takes to move over the files i want to watch. For 40 bucks I can put one on every tv in the house. I had such high hopes for this thing but its just so CRIPPLED! Thank the FSM for all the devoted hackers making this box worth buying.

[Stranger @ Mar 31st 2007 5:08PM]

It's a bit to expensive at the moment, but put in in the $200 range and with a lightweight version of Linux or a stripped down version of XP and this could turn into a darn fine computer for many of us. It's not like we need a core duo to listen to music, run word or surf the net.

And by the way, dvd-burners are for wankers.

[robik @ Apr 11th 2007 7:16PM]

I think this product is totally aimed at me. I am getting rid of cable and Tivo - about $100 per month in Standard def. I mostly watch movies and a few shows. Netflix + iTunes is just right. It's all a matter of time before the standard is established that your content is managed and stored on a desktop / laptop and played on a large AV system. I think there would be more of a market for people if not only iTunes is on your TV but a few internet related services or widgets were available - remember that slick Ameritrade commercial where the guy had the sick wall display of stock quotes and whathaveyou?