Remote HD brings AirPlay to older Apple TVs

Well, we did not see that coming. Although there's been a flurry of development around the AirPlay service for iOS 4.2 devices, iTunes and the current iOS-based Apple TV model, expectations for ever seeing the instant-play capability on the older Mac OS X-based Apple TV models were quite low. Of course, where official support is not forthcoming, enter the legions of eager hackers.

The team at FireCore (producers of the aTV Flash unlock & enhancement suite for both original and new Apple TVs) have relayed the news today that the Remote HD iPhone app (US$3.99), when paired with an unlocked first-gen Apple TV, enables AirPlay video playback from iOS 4.2 devices to the older ATV models. Audio-only streaming isn't in this build, but is coming soon. You can unlock your Apple TV 1st-gen using the open-source atvusb creator, or with the $40 full-featured aTV Flash product.

It's not clear exactly how the Remote HD device-side plug-in is performing this fancy trick, but we'll try to get word from them and expand upon it soon. Meanwhile, if you've got an unlocked original ATV, check it out!

Thanks to Pratik & Tomek for the tip.

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Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote-hd/id310516183?mt=8

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Apple TV Jailbreak/pwnage

Well, we did not see that coming. Although there's been a flurry of development around the AirPlay service for iOS 4.2 devices, iTunes and...

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Leetrum

Daves comment worked like a charm.

Mr Lizard, you're missing a hyphen in front of your "set" (there should be two).

January 18 2011 at 3:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dan Woods

So,
$40 for aTV Flash, $3.99 for RemoteHD, a little bit of time and technical knowhow.
vs $99.00 for a brand new AppleTV 2.

This might be an option for some people, especially if you like how the Old Apple TVs work, (3rd Party DAAPD, Offline library mirroring), but this is definatly not a Consumer Option.

January 07 2011 at 5:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brandon

I wrote up a pretty detailed walt through on how to hack your Apple TV and install this to get AirPlay working today on my blog. Hope it helps some people out.

http://brandonmawhorter.com/post/2613782933/old-apple-tv-gets-airplay-hack

January 06 2011 at 1:21 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

renii

How do you make this run on the AppleTV without buying the app?

I installed on the AppleTV as per the instructions and then we I try to play video on it via AirPlay the AppleTV says I need to activate the app first by purchasing the iOS app!

So how do you make this work without purchasing the app?

January 05 2011 at 9:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alanjdaly

This is fantastic. I dont want to update to an Apple TV2 because it doesnt work with a NAS based iTunes library, but was missing Airplay. Having Airplay working on my current AppleTV gives me the best of both worlds. This begs the question - if it were this easy, why did Apple not enable this themselves? A cynical ploy to force us to upgrade to the new Apple TV?

January 05 2011 at 7:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mr Lizard

I like the AirPlay hack. As others have pointed out, it's completely independent of the iPhone app - you can just follow the instructions below to install the hack:

http://www.remotehd.com/AppleTV/Download

My only gripe is you can't change the name of the Apple TV. I have 2 first generation devices, and they both show up as 'AppleTV' when I tap the AirPlay icon.

It would be nice to be able to rename them, like you can in iTunes.

January 05 2011 at 6:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

3 replies to Mr Lizard's comment

ian3850

Works perfectly - interestingly i installed the hd app on my phone and followed the instructions for the apple tv - only to find that i can use airplay on my girlfriends phone...who doesnt have the app installed(?!) does this mean you dont have to have the app installed at all??!

January 05 2011 at 3:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to ian3850's comment

jaykern215

This is true. Installing the updated Remote HD hack in ATV is all that is required to make this work. The paid app is a nice one. But it doesn't have anything to do with Airplay working.

January 05 2011 at 3:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brandon

Sweet diggity dog, this actually works! I have just finished installing everything (already had my ï£¿TV hacked and had downloaded Remote HD in the past. I followed the instructions available on Remothe HD's website. http://www.remotehd.com/AppleTV/Download

So far I am able to stream video from the iPod app, Youtube app, from my iPhone 4 and iPad. Video from iTunes on my 10.6 MacBook Pro as well.

I did run into a bug of trying to send my ï£¿TV video form my iPad while it was already playing something from iTunes. I think iTunes was still connected to it and was preventing other devices from sending it. Quitting iTunes got the iPad able to send video again but I had to restart my iPhone to get it to work again.

January 05 2011 at 2:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David B Turetsky

I might just have to have to look into this now. Did not see the benefit of this before, but with Airplay it seems worthwhile.

January 05 2011 at 1:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply