Boxee / XBMC now available on Apple TV

If you were curious as to why Boxee suddenly became available for OS X 10.4 users, here's your sign. The underpinnings of the Apple TV are indeed based on Tiger, thus paving the way for Scott Davilla, a developer for the aTV-bootloader project, to announce that Boxee and XMBC can now be installed on Apple's set-top-box. In order to take advantage, you'll need the aTV Flash bootloader on a bootable USB drive, an Apple TV and the software in the links below. Currently, things are setup to run on Mac only, though PC / Linux versions are promised for next week. After signing up for a Boxee invite, jump on past the break for the step-by-step guide to getting this going.

Gallery: Boxee / XMBC now available on Apple TV

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Read - ATV Bootloader site
Read - Boxee Alpha signup

How-to installation guide:


Step 1 - Download the ATVUSB-Creator from http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/
Step 2 - Insert a "bootable" USB drive into your Mac
Step 3 - Run the ATVUSB-Creator
- select which plug-ins you'd like to install
- this list will grow over time, but currently includes SSH, Boxee, XBMC, and some binary utilities
Step 4 - Remove the USB drive and plug it into your Apple TV
Step 5 - Power on your Apple TV and the patchstick will run the ATV bootloader (previously the patchstick program was unavailable; people had to manually format their USB drive to be bootable and install the ATV bootloader.)
Step 6 - After the bootloader finishes, remove it from your Apple TV
Step 7 - Restart your Apple TV
Step 8 - It now has options for Boxee / XBMC on the main menu
Step 9 - Click on Boxee, then select update (this will download boxee from the Internet)
Step 10 - Once boxee is done installing, restart your Apple TV
Step 11 - Click "Boxee", then select "Boxee" in the sub-menu to start boxee.

[Jazza @ Oct 1st 2008 9:03AM]

Good stuff. Might be something to replace my ageing Xbox XBMC, and the Apple TV is powerful enough to decode HD content.

[Andrew @ Oct 1st 2008 9:35AM]

My thoughts exactly. I still have my old Xbox running XBMC, never bothered to do anything with my Xbox 360. So maybe I can use my aTV for something more interesting!

[blkmgk @ Oct 1st 2008 9:52AM]

Why not just setup XBMC on Linux? Or Windows? Or OSX? heck, it even runs on aTV hardware too - Davilla worked on that as well :-)

[Bitman @ Oct 1st 2008 9:09AM]

I hope that the ATV flash loader adds these to it's collection of hacks. Looks promising. Not sure if I can add this to what the ATV flash loader has already. Anybody know if just the XBMC can be me manually added to an already hacked ATV? I'll search but I'm lazy and somebody might already know the answer.

By the way, if you have an Iphone/Touch then the Apple Remote App can be used as a remote keyboard. I use it in Couch Surfer on the ATV to cruise the web. Works great. I also found that you can use the AppleTV to play Itunes remotely as a "speaker". Very cool. And free.

http://www.apple.com/itunes/remote/

[Luke @ Oct 1st 2008 4:15PM]

I'm in the process of manually adding it to my atvflash modded AppleTV. Seems to be working so far. When complete, I'll post my installation steps on this page: http://forum.atvflash.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=489

[trainwrecka @ Oct 1st 2008 9:12AM]

Apple TV is still under warranty, so I have yet to venture out into hacking. What is Boxee . XMBC anyway?

[bob @ Oct 1st 2008 9:36AM]

plex would be nicer

[htd @ Oct 1st 2008 9:40AM]

I dont think apple tv is powerful enough to decode HD, any test has been done about that?
I use ps3 for those hd stuff...

[BLKMGK @ Oct 1st 2008 10:00AM]

Yes, it can do SOME HD and certainly more 720P than it can 1080. The CPU is fairly weak in it though. I think they got SOME GPU acceleration going under Linux actually which helps. The XBMC forums have a good bit of discussion about this and it's something Iwant to try too. Davilla was going to do a bootable flash stick for XBMC on the aTV but creating the stick runs into issues with Apple IP to get it to boot so I'm not sure where he stands with that right now...

[Bitman @ Oct 1st 2008 10:11AM]

The Apple TV does HD fine but that depends on your definition of "HD". It is highly compressed but on my 1080P LCD it looks pretty darn good. I've only viewed my own H.264 stuff but Apple does "rent" movies in Itunes in HD for Apple TV.

[don @ Oct 1st 2008 9:49AM]

Would it have been too hard for the first sentence to have been, "If you were curious as to why Boxee, the thimgamajig that does this and that, suddenly..."

I come to this site every day and I have no clue as to what 'Boxee' is. Come on guys, are you trying to be difficult and arcane?

[Brent @ Oct 1st 2008 10:07AM]

Is it XMBC or XBMC? Methinks this article has a mistake or two.

[aaron @ Oct 1st 2008 10:47AM]

You thinks wrong Junior.

[konshuss @ Oct 1st 2008 5:12PM]

it's 'hit google before you hit add comment'

xbox media center.

[Brent @ Oct 1st 2008 5:38PM]

What I was trying to say was, maybe Engadget should proof-read this article, as they refer to XBMC as XMBC in two cases:

"Gallery: Boxee / XMBC now available on Apple TV"

"to announce that Boxee and XMBC can now be installed on Apple's set-top-box"

Oh well, pobody's nerfect.

[strang @ Oct 1st 2008 10:21AM]

Maybe the 2nd generation AppleTV will support all the popular containers native and we won't have to go about hacking the bootloader and use 3rd party apps.

Although XBMC kicks ass. I kind of want something "Apple" that plays my DivX files.

[b @ Oct 1st 2008 11:23AM]

c'mon now really - what does it matter if the device has 'apple' stamped on it or not as long as it plays the desired media formates. get the fsck out of here with that bullshit.

[strang @ Oct 1st 2008 1:04PM]

Well you sure are polite.

[Neeko @ Oct 1st 2008 10:25AM]

Iv been using my mac mini with PLEX and that is wonderful. the mini can handle all 720p and some 1080 videos. but i wonder how powerful the ATV is with HD videos. if it can play all my 720p then id be very very happy. And PLEX is 100x better with the Aeon skin and theme.

ill wait to see the HD reviews if this now. Tv in the bedroom could use ATV.

[Asher69 @ Oct 1st 2008 1:21PM]

ATV will do 720p (max) and 5.1 surround, although the surround isn't advertised. I found it through trial and error. They've only just recently (since the iTunes 8 announcement) been offering HD content with the 5.1 surround on the iTunes store. Before it was just Dolby surround, which is OK for most applications, but not so much if you have a surround system already (which I'm guessing most folks on here probably do).

[Najakwa @ Oct 1st 2008 10:52AM]

hopefully I'll be able to get fullscreen hulu from my appletv that isn't choppy. Heres to hoping and waiting a few weeks until I get the email.

[johnzilla @ Oct 1st 2008 11:51AM]

Sheesh, I just realized how old and unhip I am. Everything in this post and the comments is gibberish to me, I barely even understand what an AppleTV does let alone all the other stuff people are mentioning.

Do people really spend that much time sitting around a TV watching movies and video clips over and over?

[Najakwa @ Oct 1st 2008 3:05PM]

We have forgone cable/dish at our house in lieu of broadcast HD and a set top box for our other needs. With all the services out there now through the computer, its much cheaper to go that route. Netflix now streams movies through the web. Granted it doesn't work for Macs and AppleTV just yet, but it does thru others. There are sites like Hulu and others that stream TV shows and movies for free legally. We get the Daily Show and Colbert a day late, but we still get it.

Its not that we spend that much time watching clips and stuff, we don't watch a ton of TV anyways. but we are saving like 800 bucks a year. The only thing I will miss is watching local St. Louis Blues hockey. Even if I get Center Ice Online, local games will be blacked out. Stupid Blackout Rules.

[Asher69 @ Oct 1st 2008 1:17PM]

I went the Divx route early in my DVD conversion days, but found Handbrake to be a much better option for working with the Apple TV. The best part is that I get DVD quality with 5.1 surround (which looks great on my 42" LCD) without having to hack the ATV (and subsequently void the warranty). I'm not too bent about the ATV doing HD above 720p at the moment as I don't have much true HD source (no blu-ray). So long as I get at least the quality of the DVD as if playing it through a regular DVD player, I'm happy with the results.

[Ethan @ Oct 1st 2008 1:33PM]

This be a stride towards useful.

[dave @ Oct 1st 2008 4:15PM]

This does not "hack or disrupt your existing Apple TV experience, or the purchased media. You boot up in Apple TV mode, same features as before, but you get a couple new options. XBMC or Boxee that you can download and install as "extra" menu options.

Best thing is that the two other new options play formats outside of the iTunes world, attach to NAS boxes (that can be SMB or UPnP, etc) that are not required to run the iTunes server protocol that Apple TV on its own requires...

It's classy! :) And you don't need to take it apart...

[Peter @ Oct 1st 2008 4:58PM]

Hmm.

I did as explained, and now I have boxee, which I can not use before monday, and more disturbing: what happend to my old stuff an atv, and can I still use the store from it?

[kashifshaikh2.1 @ Oct 1st 2008 9:34PM]

Does this work

[Jorge @ Oct 22nd 2008 10:25AM]

Hi,

Anyone care to share a Boxee invite?

[Angel @ Oct 22nd 2008 8:39PM]

i just made this possible! can anyone spare the time to send me an invite?

[todd @ Oct 26th 2008 11:36AM]

can anyone please send me a boxee invite, thanks!

dmb_follower at yahoo.com

[JOHN SANTOS @ Nov 23rd 2008 9:16AM]

I'AM CURRENTLY STATIONED OVERSEAS WHERE OUR TV OPTIONS ARE VERY LIMITED, HOW LONG DOES IT USUALLY
TAKE TO GET A BOXEE INVITE ?. I HAVE BEEN WAITING A MONTH
THANKS J