Hello All,

I have questions about AppleTV, and viewing the movies I've ripped to my MSS. I've ripped the movies in the original DVD file structure (audio_ts and video_ts folders). From what I've been able to find out, the AppleTV will not be able to play these movies, correct? I've heard about jailbreaking the AppleTV to add XBMC, but I'm not sure what the result would be. Would XBMC be a new "channel", or would it completely replace the AppleTV software?

Also, I'm finding it a little difficult to see what "channels" are available on XBMC. I've visited the XBMC website & poked around (a little), but don't see a list of channels or add-ins. Where can I find such a list?

I'm looking for a solution that will offer the following for our master bedroom:
1 Netflix
2 Hulu / HuluPlus
3 Amazon Streaming (I have a Prime account)
4 Watch my ripped DVDs (movies and TV series)
5 Others (Pandora, NBA, random others, whatever..)

We have a Roku which offers all of the above except #4. There does not seem to be a solution to get the DVDs in their current structure onto the Roku. Looked at Plex Media Server and the Plex channel for the Roku, but it won't stream in current format to the Roku. I'd have to convert them to .mp4 or something, but I'd rather not go through that for 150+ DVDs. I have an ASRock ION 330 in the living room, which works fine, but would rather not go this route / have to build another for the bedroom.

Main focus right now is researching the AppleTV. Once I've reached a conclusion on that, I'll look at other solutions (XBox 360, BoxeeBox, Dune, Popcorn Hour etc.) Has anyone hacked XBMC onto an AppleTV?

Thanks,

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Blair
EX485 + WD 1 TB & WD 2TB
HTPC: ASRock Ion 330, 4GB RAM, overclocked to 2.1GHz, Win7, WMC

I have and it works OK. It shows up as another menu item. When you select it, it starts XBMC and when you exit XBMC you're back in ATV. However, it does some amount of screen flashing so it's not real seamless. I also have Plex on the ATV and it works much more seamlessly. That's pretty much what I use for that reason. My rips are in mvk format which it handles quite nicely. Another option you could look at is aTV Flash. You do need to jailbreak the ATV for any of these options. I found that pretty straight forward.

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HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool

Thanks TxDot,

I'll start Googling for info on how to do it. I may run to the local Apple store to see if they've got any gen2's around. I think they've cleared them out for the new ones, so I may have to start searching Craigslist and my company's internal for sale mailer. Any ideas if the jailbreak for the gen 2 will work on the new Apple TV? I also may wait until someone does jailbreak the new AppleTV, and try that out.

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Blair
EX485 + WD 1 TB & WD 2TB
HTPC: ASRock Ion 330, 4GB RAM, overclocked to 2.1GHz, Win7, WMC

I doubt if there are JB procedures out yet for the new one. I would also wait until there is an un-tethered JB available. If you do a tethered JB, each time the device is turned off/on you'll have to have it connected to a computer until the boot process is complete. You can imagine what a pain that could be. This link is the place to start.

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HP MSS EX490, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, 1TB System drive, 6TB Storage pool managed by StableBit DrivePool