Here is a little tutorial on how to Hack your Apple tv, to run Boxee, XBMC and enable a external-hard-drive.
This tutorial is an alternative to atvflash and is completely free!
After you hacked you apple TV with this you can play the following video formats:
- AVI, DivX, Xvid, FLV, WMV, RM and RMVB
- MKV formats supported up to 480p resolution (hardware limited)
- MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-3 and MPEG-4
- DVD files (VIDEO_TS/VOB)
- AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
- Subtitle support for SSA and SRT
We will install:
- FTP/SFTP/SSH Access – Transfer files to and from the AppleTV
- NitoTV – Play DVD files, enable USB storage and much more
- XBMC – A fully customizable media center software
- Boxee – Watch and share media with your friends
- Sapphire 6.5 – Play and organize media using IMDB database
What you need:
- AppleTV running software v2.3 or later
- Mac running OS X v10.4 or later
- USB Flash Drive – sized 256MB – 2GB recommended drives
- Internet connection
Step 1: Make a usb patchstick
First we need to download the uber USB flash drive creator for the AppleTV, witch can be found onhttp://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/The usb flash drive creator will make a patchstick that enables SSH on your Appletv (so you can access the apple tv’s file structure) and installs Boxee and XBMC. The creation of the patchstick is pretty straight forward, just follow the onscreen instructions.
Update: manually download the Apple TV .DMG from iClarified and then manually select the dmg. Thx Clark
Step 2: Install the patchstick
1) turn of your apple tv (unplug the power)
2) Place the patchstick in the apple tv
3) Turn on your appletv (wait for the patchstick to do its thing)
4) After a minute or the patch should be installed (wait for instructions on your screen)
5) Remove the patchstick and restart your Apple TV.
Boxee, XBMC and SSH should now be installed and enabled on your Apple TV.
Step 3: Access your Appel TV
Because we enabled SSH on the Apple TV , we can now remotely access the Apple TV with Coda or Cyberduck on your Mac computer.
In coda (or an other SSH application) connect to the Apple TV via:
1) Select SFTP (SSH)
2) server: yourappletvip (or the ip-adress of your Apple TV)
3) username: frontrow
4) pass: frontrow
5) Press Connect (you will get access to the Apple TV)
Step 4: Enable external USB drives
Now we have remote access to the Apple TV we can enable external USB drive support.
We will do this by installing NitoTV.
You will need to download Nito tv to your Mac. Download.
1) Download Nito tv and unzip.
2) With Coda or Cyberduck login to your Appel TV and copy the content of the nito TV folder (installme and nito TV ) to the Apple TV
3) With the terminal Application>utilities> terminal login into the Apple TV.
4) ssh frontrow@yourappletvip
5) When prompted for a password, enter ‘frontrow’.
6) Now go to the directory where you placed Nito TV on your AppleTV and type the following command:
sudo ./installme (When prompted for a password, enter ‘frontrow’ again.)
7) Now restart your Apple TV. Now Nito tv is installed
Go To Nito tv and Install Smart Installer
That’s It, you can now watch almost any kind of video with your apple TV and use external hard-drives!
100 Comments
I also had problems getting nitoTV to show up in the menus. I have done the patchstick before (and did all the .kext copying etc myself etc.) and got it working but decided to go back. Now I am redoing it since there has been a lot of progress since then.
I’ll update if I get nitoTV to show up. It is there since I was able to update it, just not showing up in the menus. I’ll try restarting finder
Ok after several updates and restarts got it working. Just decided to show up finally.
I get the following error when I try and run it:
Downloading 2Z694-5573-24.dmg…
Download failed: HTTP Error 404: Not Found
You can try again to resume your download
Never mind I figured it out. The folks at Google hard coded it to download an old update that Apple took off their servers. Simply manually download from iClarified and then manually select the dmg.
So I installed smart Installer but I can’t get AFP or USB to work? any ideas?
How long does it take to make the patchstick? I have been waiting for over an hour and it is stalled (?) halfway through.
I downloaded ‘2Z694-5660-029.dmg’ to use as the DMG file. Is that right?
here is what I get every time I try to create the patchstick:
2Z694-5660-029.dmg selected
Extracting boot.efi …
Creating USB Flash Disk…
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
partition the target disk
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
install recovery onto target disk
Unable to mount image: hdiutil: attach failed – Resource busy
install_recovery failed
Failed! (0:01:59)
What am I doing wrong?
I’m running ATV 2.4 and successfully used atvusb creator 1.0.b10. I was able to install XMBC, Boxee and others, but Nito will not install through the ATV UI. So I downloaded 0.8.0 and SFTP’d it over into the frontrow directory on my ATV. When I tried to run, it fails! Here’s the result:
-bash-2.05b$ sudo ./installme
installer: Package name is nitoTV 0.8.0
installer: Installing onto volume mounted at /.
installer: The install failed.
Restarting Finder…
Any thoughts or help will be much appreaciated! I’m anxious to get my external USB drive going.
i am trying to install the patch stick but it only lets me get this far..
any ideas?
Creating USB Flash Disk…
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
partition the target disk
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
install recovery onto target disk
Unable to mount image: hdiutil: attach failed – Resource busy
install_recovery failed
Failed! (0:01:02)
Thanks so much danuputra and Danny!
I’m going directly to the WalMart buy a 2gig Cruzer and now it’s work!!!
I tried with 2 sticks before!
Thanks, thanks, thanks!!!!!!! Yeeehhhaaa!
And Thanks for this tutorial.
Hello, {newbie here}
I am looking into purchasing an AppleTV. The only tasks needed are:
1.Connect to AFP/SMB share to play Videos in various encodings
2. Play content from NetFlix
3. Connect to shared iTunes Library to play Music ONLY
4. Play content from Hulu
Are all of tasks possible with the hacks mentioned in “Hacking Apple TV Take 2 Tutorial”?
My understanding of AppleTV is that ‘out-of-the-box’ the AppleTV can only play what is in a shared iTunes Library or downloaded directly to the AppleTV.
Are there any good explanations of what exactly the end result is of the steps in “Hacking Apple TV Take 2 Tutorial”? What does the interface become when the AppleTV is booted? Is it normal, but just with the extra menu options for Boxee and NitoTV etc?
Thanks for the help!
will this work with the 2.4 version of Apple TV software?
Well I went trough the entire process and the text in the terminal indicates the Nito package was installed succesfully, but I simply can´t find the app on the atv. Where should I find it?
bruno
I am confused on step 4 (#2). How do I move the NitoTV folder to my Apple TV?
Figured it out….
However, now I am having trouble running the installer through Terminal. I connected to the Apple TV through ssh, copied the nitotv folder over, but when I go to run it, I keep getting, no such file or directory. Can anyone tell me what I have to type in terminal for this to work?
Sorry you guys,
Did’t find the time to replay to you all.
For the people having trouble making a patch stick, Clark found a solution, you have to download the .dmg manualy http://www.iclarified.com
Hi there
Installed everything fine but cannot see Nito TV? also it is still staying my .AVI file cannot be played on appleTV…..Any help with this will be greatly appriciated.
Matt
Just twigged…..does the movie have to be played via the usb interface?
This tutorial is AWESOME! I was up and running in NO TIME. I set aside 4 or 5 hours to make this work but i did it in 45 minutes.
It took me a while to find this page though. Contact google and inform them this should be the number one hit for hacking appletv.
Thanks Danny!
Awesome!!!
OK..Day 2.
I’ve lost all ability to ssh into my apple tv. “connection refused” in all cases.
I have tried Terminal, Cyberduck, Fetch, Transmit, Fugu and all say connection refused. I’ve also tried to force the connection with Terminal ssh -1 frontrow@appletv.local and with fugu as well. To no avail.
Does anyone have any info on how to fix this?
This looks great however if you have apple TV and don’t own a Mac it looks like you are outta luck!
Brain, so to go to the nitoTV folder on your appletv, you need to change directories. so you will want to type: cd Library/nitoTV into terminal.
So then you type: sudo ./installme
Then you might get something that looks like the following:
installer: Package name is nitoTV 0.3.2
installer: Installing onto volume mounted at /.
installer: The install was successful.
Restarting Finder…
SO I made it that far. I turned off the appletv, but now it doesn’t start up all the way. I tried turning it off and on again, but that didn’y work either.
Any ideas?
By the way, Thanks folks. this is a cool site!
I have created the patchstick, didn’t get any obvious errors. However, when I plug it into my Apple TV and power up, the Apple TV just boots up normally. I have tried this a few times and can see that the USB stick is being seen (the light on it flashes a while). The Apple TV reboots about 4 times, then starts normally.
What did I do wrong?
AppleTV firmware 2.4
Can’t download the 2.4 firmware from http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-6242.20090624.Aq20P/2Z694-5660-029.dmg
404 Not Found
Any alternative? Does anybody have a link for the .dmg file? I’ve upgraded by mistake to 2.4 and now I’ve lost boxee and all the stuff.
Does anyone know at least a manually method to hack the AppleTV without the firmware file?
Thanks a lot! Great site!
4th USB stick worked, even though all the files were on the others. I went out and bought a new $10 stick, and this one worked.
J
Heya. I was having an issue installing nitoTV on my system because I’m running version 2.4 and the link you provide above is for the 0.3.2 version of nitoTV, which is for version 1.x; the correct link to nitoTV for TV Take Two is:
http://nitosoft.com/nitoTVInstaller_tt.zip
(Note the _tt in the file name)
When you ./installme you should see:
—
installer: Package name is nitoTV 0.8.0
installer: Installing onto volume mounted at /.
installer: The install was successful.
Restarting Finder…
—
(Note the “Restarting Finder” line, which eliminates your last step of rebooting the system)
**If you don’t see version 0.8.0 when installing nitoTV you won’t see the nitoTV option show up in your menu.**
Thanks for the AWESOME information here and all the help, Danny. You rock!
I tried 8 times. The patchstick is ok but in AppleTV the patchstick don’t work. My AppleTV don’t boot from USB patchstick.
Any help?
I did the Patchstick, Uploaded NitoTV Take 2, Did the ssh ./installme commnd
and also ran the Smart Installer but like Mike I can’t get AFP or USB to work? any ideas?
Hey, guys i have a brand new apple tv, however i dont have a mac. can i still hack my apple tv with a pc using vista?!?!
Thanks!!
I have installed xbmc, boxxe, and Nito tv/ smart installer onto my apple tv. My question is, when I hOok my external to the apple tv, how do I watch the videos on my external hard drive on the apple tv?
Thank you, done a great job!
I got Nito Tv on my atv and installed Smart Installer, but I can’t get my external hard drive to mount, any suggestions?
THANKS
Anyone know if this works with the ATV 3.o update? Thanks.
I have followed the steps and every thing went smoothly. But when i boot the AppleTV no menu for XBMC, etc. Even the software menu has 4 items but when i click nothing happens. Any help is appreciated
Joe the newbie –
I did the boxee/XBMC hack and decided to take it off. The main reason I wanted to install the hack was to stream from Hulu. I really didn’t care to use the social aspects of Boxee nor did I really find any compelling content on the other available channels.
But as I found out, Hulu streaming through Boxee was awful. Choppy video was the standard result because the Apple TV processor isn’t powerful enough to handle running the Boxee client and the buffering needed for Hulu streaming. Other streaming sites worked fine but Hulu does things their own way and that way does not work well on Apple TV. At least not yet.
Finding the right version of the patchstick maker was a major headache. The most current version would not, for whatever reason, create a workable patchstick for me. So I went through each version until I found one that worked. That took quite a while because I didn’t know how long creating the patchstick should take in the first place. So I spent quite a bit of time sitting around and waiting.
Anyway, there are other reasons besides streaming Hulu to hack the Apple TV but, for me, Hulu was the only reason and it didn’t work well.
i have uploaded nitotv to my appletv but i dont know how am i supposed to go to the directory where the file was placed please help
atv 3.01 here: http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-7491.20091107.TVA31/2Z694-6004-003.dmg
I’m having a similar experience to JS, I have the new menu available, but no boxee, no xmbc. I can click on the items under the new menu, but nothing happens. Not sure if it’s me, or the AppleTV 3.0, since I just bought the ATV a couple of weeks ago and this is my first try at hacking one. Look forward to a little more hand holding on this one.
Thanks!
You can download firmware 3.0.1 from:
http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-7491.20091107.TVA31/2Z694-6004-003.dmg
I too get the following error:
Creating USB Flash Disk…
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
partition the target disk
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
install recovery onto target disk
Unable to mount image: hdiutil: attach failed – Resource busy
install_recovery failed
Failed! (0:01:02)
It seems to be tied specifically to a certain type of USB Flash drive. I have tried six different types thus far, with no success….PNY Attache, Cruzer Micro, Imation, WD. Any suggestions here? I am so close I can smell it! I just need a bit of “what the hell am I doing wrong here?” to fix my woes.
Oh, also, forgot to say, I used the 3.0.1 (2Z694-6004-003.dmg) as the chosen source. What am I doing wrong here?
So…I’m not terminal savvy.
I’m at the place in the walkthrough where you have to use Coda. Can this PLEASE get a little clearer to use? Maybe screen shots or a video?
Also, I don’t know how to copy the files from the mac to the ATV. There’s no help on this, it just says copy. How?
I’m all for short and sweet walkthroughs, but maybe this was a little too streamlined for a beginners walkthrough.
I really appriciate any help anyone can provide. You all do such wonderful work! Keep it up!
Hi there. So I have the software menu on the Apple TV but it is not clickable. I can access the Apple TV via SSH in terminal but my question is how do I move the files across. i.e. How to I get the ATV drive to mount?
Does the external hard drive patch still allow the apple tv to boot off of the internal hard drive like here?
http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/07/28/usb-patch-released-hallelujah/
please advise as to which I should use. Thanks
je
I followed steps as above.
Software menu appears no responses.
SSH is open and enabled me to install NitoTV.
but no Boxee or XBMC.. please advise
I’m new to mac and to hacking the mac/apple tv.
I just need the instructions to be a little clearer. I’ve made the patch stick and have loaded it onto the apple tv. But I’m not really clear on how to use the Coda program, and connect to the Apple tv. Also, the necessary code (and where to put it) to move the files from the computer to the apple tv.
I have the same problem as JS – followed the steps and every thing went smoothly. I see the software menu has 4 items but when i click nothing happens
Can I get this to work on a PC?
so, if you create the patchstick with 3.0.1 firmware (from iClarified) and install with Apple TV (already upgraded to 3.0.1), the install process is smooth but nothing works except that you see “Software Menu” and if you click on any menu item, nothing happens! So i factory restored my Apple TV to 2.0 and used an older firmware 2.x to create the the patchstick and it works like a charm.
With ATV 3.0 or later, you need to use a new version of NitoTV, wich you get here: http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/NitoTV_Take_2
or download the (at this time actual) file directly here
To install Nitotv it says to copy the NitoTV folder to the apple TV but it doesn’t say exactly how to do that. I’m so close to getting everything set up but I just can’t figure this part out. Can someone help?
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