Filed under: Cool tools, How-tos, Open Source, Apple TV
Boxee is updated for Apple TV 2.3
We've covered boxee, a fantastic media center application that can run on your Mac or Apple TV. With its attractive interface and support for Hulu, boxee is what convinced my boyfriend and me to order an Apple TV. Predictably, the day our second Apple TV arrived from Apple (the first unit broke after watching just one movie), the 2.3 software update was released, nullifying our boxee goodness.Fortunately, the boxee team has updated boxee to support 2.3. Even better, the geniuses behind USB Creator -- a tool that makes installing boxee and the XBMC on an Apple TV a snap -- have updated their awesome software to make the whole process seamless.
If you want to install boxee and XMBC on your Apple TV, this is what you want to do. You will need a USB flash drive (minimum of 512 MB, though 1 GB or higher is recommended):
- If you haven't updated your Apple TV to 2.3, go ahead and download and install the update via the General, "Software Update" menu.
- Download the latest version of USB Creator (available for Intel and PPC Macs and there is now an interrum solution available for XP and Vista users).
- Insert a USB flash drive into your Mac (to be safe, disconnect any other external drives before running creating the patchstick -- the drive is formatted first and if the wrong disk is selected, you could wipe important data).
- Run atv-usbcreator.app (as of this writing, the current version is 1.0b10) and leaving all the preset options in place, click "Create Using." Wait for the program to do its magic.
- If you've never created a USB patchstick before, unplug the USB drive and plug it back in, and check to make sure the files copied over correctly.
- Unplug your Apple TV and insert your newly created USB patchstick into the USB port. Plug the Apple TV back in.
- Wait for the tools to install (the screen will tell you when the process is over).
- Unplug the Apple TV again and remove the USB flash drive.
- Plug back in the Apple TV and wait for it to boot up. You should now have a new Boxee/XBMC menu. You can update boxee and XMBC as well as the ATV-Launcher program from that menu.
- Start boxee and enter in your user credentials.
- Enjoy the ability to watch Hulu and buy content from the iTunes Store!
To solve this problem, you need to SSH into your Apple TV. To do this, open terminal and type:
ssh frontrow@appletv.local Enter the password
frontrow. Enter the following:
rm -rf /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/UserData
Restart your Apple TV (unplug an re-plug it). I also had to re-run the patchstick, but then everything worked beautifully.
Boxee is free but is currently invite only. You can sign-up for an invite at boxee.tv or ask a friend with an account to send you an invite.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
emil said 2:19PM on 11-24-2008
My only concern with Boxee is this: if I decide at some point that I wish I hadn't installed it, can I restore the Apple TV to factory status?
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Christina Warren said 2:24PM on 11-24-2008
Absolutely! You can run a factory restore and remove everything or uninstall the stuff using the SSH tools.
My first Apple TV died two hours after we got it (it worked the next day but the fact that it wouldn't boot the night before still made me call and get a replacement) and I just took everything off it before shipping it to Apple.
emil said 7:28PM on 11-24-2008
SSH tools? Sounds... umm... fun.. :(
Jet Tredmont said 11:32AM on 11-25-2008
You don't NEED to use the SSH tools. If the command line scares you (as it does a good 90% of the world), you can do a factory restore right from the Apple TV interface (Settings / General / Restore Factory Settings or something similar).
Remember that everything you currently do on the AppleTV is kept intact with Boxee added. Boxee just shows up as another application alongside Movies, Music, and TV Shows!
Mark said 2:35PM on 11-24-2008
What's the quality of the hulu video on an HDTV? Is it okay? Pretty poor? What you'd expect? I have the boxee alpha on my laptop, but i'm just curious what the hulu video looks like on on 40 inch plasma tv.
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balls said 2:42PM on 11-24-2008
I use Hulu on my PS3 via PlayOn, and it's so-so quality. The better def is 480p, while the standard stuff is like 320p (or something).
It will depend mostly on the quality of your TV's upscalar, or the upscalar in your video source.
Christina Warren said 3:02PM on 11-24-2008
The quality is actually better with the latest release. I'm viewing it on a projector that is probably about 50 inches -- Hulu looks pretty good. Not outrageously amazing, but it looks pretty darn good.
Shiva said 2:56PM on 11-24-2008
Excellent instructions. All set. Now to find someone to invite me.
Boxee say they are backlogged and it will be a while before they catch up on the people waiting to try the alpha.
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Stickyd said 3:14PM on 11-24-2008
Is there no other way to get the Boxee download other than waiting on Boxee to email you when they are caught up from their backlog?
Tariq said 7:12PM on 11-24-2008
I'm a member with invites, so just message me your e-mail or something and I'll invite you!
Adam S said 10:47AM on 11-25-2008
Tariq - I wanted to email you, but I couldn't find your address. Any chance of an additional invite?
Syncer said 3:00PM on 11-24-2008
Just tried it and my Apple TV's status light is just blinking amber over and over... (I'm not a new comer to patchstick). No bootloader output or anything.
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Christina Warren said 2:59PM on 11-24-2008
OK, are you using the newest version of the bootloader? Your USB drive might not be compatible (some are, some aren't and there is no hard fast rule). Try reformatting the stick in disk utility using HFS Journaled or whatever the default is, then run the atv-usbcreator again and try. If that doesn't work, try another USB stick if you have access to one.
Jet Tredmont said 1:20PM on 11-25-2008
Have you used a patchstick before? If so, was it created using atvusb-creator or ATVFlash/Patchstick.ca/etc?
The different patchsticks are not all compatible, and the first couple revs of the atvusb-creator stick is not compatible with ANY re-patches. With other patchsticks, a common conflict is that ATVFlash et al install OpenSSH for ssh and atvusb-creator uses dropbear (a lighter-weight ssh server); the two both try starting up and battle for the ports.
In short, you might have to do a factory restore this time. Moving forward, so long as you stay in the same patchstick "family" you shouldn't have any problems.
Syncer said 3:03PM on 11-24-2008
Strange... after rebooting the AppleTV, I have the menus, but it's incomplete. The applications didn't get copied over.
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MattShoots said 3:05PM on 11-24-2008
Hulu is pretty poor, in fact all the streaming TV seems to be. I'm not sure if it's a screen size thing. I know Comedy Central shows stutter a lot. I have a great connection so it's not that.
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antiorario said 3:06PM on 11-24-2008
It's "interim", not "interrum". Just FYI.
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Syncer said 3:15PM on 11-24-2008
After a couple of tries, I finally got it installed, although I had to run the update before the applications were there.
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Gargs said 3:16PM on 11-24-2008
Christina, I just saw your Flickr stream, and think you look great with your boyfriend.
:)
PS: Any word on MKV support in Boxee?
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Jason Stiles said 3:19PM on 11-24-2008
I got my Boxee invite about 3 weeks ago and patchsticked the 2.2 ATV to play with it. Ehh... It was ok. I didn't really feel like setting up shares and stuff for all my media, when it was already setup for iTunes. Hulu, on my 46inch toshiba DLP looked like crap and was choppy. I've got 20Mbit internet, I stream HD movies from apple, but Hulu was choppy... For me Boxee was interesting but it just wasn't all there for me. Now, make it read my iTunes library and iPhoto library like ATV so its a plug and play replacement and I might be interested. I'll try it out again in a few releases. I'm sure it will get better and better. Maybe my ATV is slow, its a first gen box, have the updated the processor since then?
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