Well that didn’t take long at all. Someone on the something awful forums was able to get his Apple TV to play videos in various encoding formats by adding codec support with Perian (a codec pack for QuickTime). Apple TV essentially runs a stripped down version of OS X. As we all know, Apple TV also runs a modified variant of Front Row, which utilizes QuickTime. By adding codecs to QuickTime with Perian you effectively allow the Apple TV to recognize and play any video file that Perian supports.
The forum thread goes over in detail what was required for the hack and overall, I was surprised that it was so easy. In a nutshell, you need to open up the Apple TV, take out the hard drive and plug it into your computer. That is most easily done with an external USB enclosure for 2.5-inch hard drives which can be found at Newegg inexpensively.
Once you can access the Apple TV hard drive on your computer (probably Mac-only since Perian is only offered in dmg format), drag over the Perian codecs to the QuickTime folder then install an FTP client and open up some firewall ports for further tinkering.
I have always been in the mindset that I have no use for an Apple TV, but with the newfound capabilities I might be convinced. $300 for a OS X media device with HDMI/component outputs and WiFi – not bad at all. Oh and if you think that 40GB of storage is nowhere near enough, the hard drive can be upgraded. According to the Perian wiki the following types of video encoding can be played: MS-MPEG4 v1, MS-MPEG4 v2, MS-MPEG4 v3, DivX 3.11 alpha, DivX, XviD, 3ivX, MPEG4 video, H.264, Sorenson H.263, Flash Screen Video and Truemotion VP6.
If you’re adamant about following along with this hack, pick up your Apple TV today since there is a possibility that Apple might “fix” this very soon.
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Great stuff, I don’t know if Apple will “fix” this though, because judging the comments on the interblogs, the inability to play odd formats was holding most people back.
Either way, if you can hack it, I’m sold.
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@Adam: I doubt weather they’ll really try and fix this hack — they knew it was coming. If someone (especially hackers) want to get something, given enough time they’ll get it.
In fact, though, this makes me consider an Apple TV more, now that I know I’ll be able to play a lot more media formats.
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@zzap: That was what I was saying, although you made the point far more eloquently. Cheers!
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Indeed, playing back your own saved/downloaded high-definition TV programs is about the only use I can see for the Apple TV at the moment, just like the iPod was only useful for playing ripped CDs and shared MP3s — and that remains its primary use.
Mind you, this hack isn’t really useful until someone figures out how to do it without requiring you to open up the unit. There’s got to be some way to gain access via network or USB.
This hack might not be as critical as lets say the Xbox360 being opened up. When game consoles get hacked like this it’s bad because of you’re selling software for it… Apple has already shown that they know how to make a legitimate market off of a hardware device that essentially exists because of pirated media.
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So that’s what .FSV means…
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I’m almost sold.
I’m still holding out tho till more details about the Slingcatcher leak. Slingmedia seems to release solid stuff that like Apple, just works.
Anyone got the 411 on the Slingcatcher?
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Is there reason to believe we may get 1080i / 1080p eventually?
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This sounds like Apple’s philosophy to everything else – you buy it – you do whatever else you want to. We’re not going to offically support Linux on the ipod or let you play Doom on it but you buy, you do whatever you want. For 80% of people, it’s simply plug ‘n play and don’t care about anything else – for 20% of people, hack away – after all, Apple sells nothing at a loss so a product sold is a product sold.
Andrew, FYI, ATV supports 1080i (which is 540p) now. Unstated, it also supports 480i (for what it’s worth). From Apple’s page:
http://www.apple.com/appletv/connect.html
Compatible TVs
Apple TV works with widescreen, enhanced-definition or high-definition TVs capable of 1080i, 720p, 576p, or 480p resolutions, including popular models from these manufacturers.
That is some damn fine news! I was hoping this would happen sooner than later. I’ve been seeing people posting unboxing photos on Flickr over the past couple days – that’s a pretty quick turn-around!
I’ll definitely be picking up an AppleTV in the months to come. It will replace my Xbox with XBMC nicely.
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Lurker deep – Of course it will work on a TV that itself is capable of 1080i. But it is my understanding that the content that you play is limited to a resolution of 720p. And 1080i is not 540p. Interlaced and progressive = Different.
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The funny/sad thing is, a hack like this will probably sell more Apple TV units than Apple can sell themselves, especially if this hack becomes easy to do.
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@Montoya – Seems like the only reason Apple didn’t do it themselves is because of licensing issues; it’s not like they didn’t make the hardware and the interface which is the whole allure of it to begin with.
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great post.. it won’t be long before apple fixes it though
;)
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Interesting. If they make this sort of thing official, then the unit might actually be worth buying.
In the meantime, I’ll stick to my hacked XBox with XBMC. It’s been doing this same sort of thing for years now.
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maybe apple left it hackable for this very reason. they know that a huge number people have divx/xvid moves and tv shows which they want to play on tv, this allows them to do just that. could be good for apple tv sales.
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We have just purchased AppleTV mainly for playing .mov files containing a “slide show” of photographs edited with Final Cut Express.
I’ve been fiddling around with the encoding, have read and heard lots of different advice ranging from mp4 to H.264 and nothing has really turned out clear as of yet.
I’m interested in knowing what encoding would work best for playing back the .mov files through iTunes. Has anyone had really good results as of yet and if so what settings did you use for encoding?
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