Safe update for Apple TV v2, Safari HD hacks released
By Ryan Block 
posted February 17th 2008 2:29PM
posted February 17th 2008 2:29PM
There isn't (yet) a way to hack Apple TV v2 (aka take 2), but if you were patient enough to wait for the "safe" PatchStick upgrade on your hacked unit, Safari HD is ready to go. Good luck, and take care, after those weeks of waiting for the new update it sure would suck to brick that device.Read - Safe update for Apple TV v2
Read - Safari HD available
People actually hack something like this?
It was quite popular to hack when it first came out. A simple Google search will find different hacks and even domain names created to showcase these hacks. SInce it runs OS X it is was considered the cheapest Mac available, at the time and since OS X is so well known it was a simple measure to add codecs, new apps, enable SSH, etc.
You mean you think people *wouldn't*? What kind of gadget enthusiast are you?
Below is an Engadget blog from almost a year ago, only weeks after the TV was released.
"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'."
• http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/30/apple-tv-hacked-to-enable-usb/
You realize that the safe update listed won't allow you to rent the HD movies?
Its not fully functional at the moment.
Is Safari HD just Safari for Apple TV? Why the HD? It won't be HD if you use the Apple TV on a Standard Def TV...
I mean, if you're gonna hack an Apple TV, hack it to play divX and enable the usb port...
Apple advertises that the TV only works with HDTVs. While it isn't true, it does only only have Component and HDMi for video which all HDTVs sets have, even though SD and EDTVs can also have these ports and have supported resolutions within the TV setup.
It's a marketing a perhaps legal, decision to avoid people buying one and then realizing that their antiquated, 25yo set won't work without a component to Composite, S-Video, or Coaxial switcher. If your SDTV has Component then more power to ya.
Apple advertises that the TV only works with HDTVs. While it isn't true, it does only only have Component and HDMi for video which all HDTVs sets have, even though SD and EDTVs can also have these ports and have supported resolutions within the TV setup.
It's a marketing a perhaps legal, decision to avoid people buying one and then realizing that their antiquated, 25yo set won't work without a component to Composite, S-Video, or Coaxial switcher. If your SDTV has Component then more power to ya.
Why can't Engadget fix this intermittent double-posting issue?!
I have yet to replicate it. Only seems to happen when people click multiple times to add comments. If we can identify the issue, though, I'll get our dudes on it right away!
Thanks for the quick reply.
I am not clicking multiple times. It seem to only occur when using the current user option. It does occasionally occur when there seems to be nothing wrong with the loaded page, but it almost always seem to happen when the page doesn't load correctly after submitting the comment.
Potential resolution?: Since it will definitely occur when one double clicks, could each page load also use a machine generated token that can only used once so any additional comments with that same token gets thrown out. Od course, the additional overhead for this may be too much with the traffic Engadget experiences.
Seems like a cool hack, but the lack of movie rentals is a deal breaker. I've thought about hacking mine before, but I haven't been able to find out if I can sync Divx movies via iTunes once I install the perian codec. I don't really want to bother if it's a pain to get Divx movies onto the device.
Once you install the Perian codec on your TV it will be able to play any codec that Perian supports (at least this was true in v1.0). The problem is that iTunes won't import files with certain extensions. Teh way around this is to use QT Pro to save the files as referenced .MOV file. This only takes a second as it does not re-encode the adio or video. It merely wraps a container around it, the same way .AVI is a container for DivX, XviD and 3viD.
Engadget has written many blogs on this:
• http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/23/apple-tv-reportedly-hacked-for-xvid-support/ • http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/10/how-to-play-divx-and-xvid-on-your-apple-tv/
Since these are for v1., I would head on over AwkwardTV.com to see if there any hiccups with v2.0.