Some time ago I wrote about encoding video files to suit both the AppleTV and Sony’s Playstation 3. It was a bit of a painful task back then, but now, it’s pretty simple.

First, install Handbrake (if you haven’t already)

Open your video file or DVD, open the presets in Handbrake, and choose “Regular -> High Profile”.

This preset will encode an MP4 to suit both the AppleTV and the PS3. Note that you will need to ensure you set the exported file name to .MP4 (will possibly be .m4v by default)

No other changes are required to the settings! The exported file will suit playback on AppleTV and on PS3.

One thing I noticed is, that when playing back using XMBC on the AppleTV, I can get the Dolby Digital audio track to work. But I cannot get the PS3 to find the same audio track, therefore playback on PS3 is stereo only. (does someone have some tips for getting this working on PS3?)

MPEG Streamclip is a free app that converts several types of video files into different formats.

I wanted to be able to play my files on both the PS3 and the AppleTV, so I created a preset that looks something like this (exporting to MPEG4)

My file is roughly half the size of the original source, looks good, and plays on multiple platforms. win!

“remote” lets you control your iTunes or ATV remotely, very cool. While I haven’t yet upgraded my ATV to 2.1, I’m looking forward to it! Makes you wonder what other cool tricks are planned for ATV and iPhone/iPod Touch!

1.1.0 – 2Z694-5248-45.dmg
2.0.0 – 2Z694-5274-109.dmg
2.0.1 – 2Z694-5387-25.dmg
2.0.2 – 2Z694-5428-3.dmg

The combo updated which contains files that assist with Apple TV hacking. Note: I believe Apple have removed some files from this update that makes hacking the Apple TV a little harder, to be confirmed.
MacOS X 10.4.9 Combo Updater

One has to question the legality of this? I mean, in order to hack your Apple TV, certain OS X system files are required to “enable” the device. I’m talking, files that are available from the Tiger operating system. I’m talking property of Apple Inc.

Now I COULD be wrong here. I mean, most of these files are easily downloadable from Apple’s own servers, by anyone from the public. The downloads are OS X and Apple TV updates which contain files that help hack an Apple TV. So is selling this software illegal? You be the judge.

So I spent half of Saturday hacking their v2.02 unit. it’s getting a little more complex as Apple works to prevent people from hacking them. I applied much the same technique as I did for my v2 ATV however a little more tweaking was required to get USB working correctly. (Mainly getting the right kernel and patching it with the right patches)

In the end after applying my own knowledge to the hack. I ended up using a neat little util that someone has put together to make it just really easy to enable USB.. check it out here

In my opinion, enabling the USB is the most important part of the hack. It means you can hook up a hell of a lot of hard disk to the Apple TV and not even worry about the internal drive. I like it! I have 1 Terabyte hooked up to my Apple TV, it’s just great.

I hope to have more information on this soon..

Brandon Holland has just released Couch Surfer 0.3.

Here are some new features:

• accelerated scrolling holds up and down
• improved Bookmark support, now with support for adding current page
• history support
• back menu
• USB keyboard support for text entry dialogs.

The best part is that once Couch Surfer 0.3 is installed, USB keyboard feature is available to all other plug-in’s.

You can get the new software update from Brian’s software page here.

The biggest issue at the moment is sometimes when using ATVfiles to navigate and play my movies, I loose the sound. A reboot of the ATV is required to get the sound working again. Strange!

If anyone has experienced something like this, let me know. In the meantime I guess I’ll go check the wiki over at http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/

Tags: appletv2.0, atvfiles