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Apple TV 1st Generation Upgrade limits.

M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
Hi Guys.
Okay below is the list of upgrades and alterations to my Apple TV 1st generation box.

1. Replace the Wireless card with the Crystal HD CARD.

2. Remove the 40gb Hard drive, and replaced with Sata SSD Drive.
I have tried numerous SSD drives all with success, they do speed up the boot up, and the switching between programs etc.
I have installed a 60gb Msata SSD, which is a Mini PCi express drive, there are a number of Ide 44 pin to Msat SSD Adapters on the market, and will give details of where they can be purchased if needed.
A lot of upgraders are going for the (BIGGER THE BETTER APROACH) by installing a 1TB Drive, this I have done, but find that it is slower in every department, and is beaten hands down by simple adding a generous sized USB 3 External drive for all your downloads etc.
I have been working on (4) four box,s side by side, and all have different configurations, one with 1 TB Drive, one with 60gb 2.5 Sata SSD Drive,
one with 30gb Mini PCi express Msata SSD Drive, and one with same but 60gb.
Now the question I ask is has anyone tried successfully to install Dual drives by using a Dual 44 pin cable, I have tried with no success, even making the second drive a slave, the drive lights up when you boot up, but only the boot up drive shows up in the System, could it be the format, I'm using fat32 ??
Now you might say, there is no room inside for Dual drives, but there is.
By using the Msata SSD drive to install your software on, and a normal 2.5 sata drive as your second drive, this can be done easy.
And finally the installing of Crystallbuntu, and the new Source listed below.
http://xfinity.xunitytalk.com, using the Talk Wizard install's all the latest software you'll ever need.
If anyone can help with idea's on my Dual drive theory, it would be very welcome.
 
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M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
Doing my thing.

alent1234 said:
Why pour money into old tech?

Get a new Apple TV and airplay from a PC or Mac
Click to expand...


Hi alent1234,

I see where you are coming from, but that’s not me, I have always been more interested in how things work rather than what they produce, and will take what is a basic media player with modest hard drive capability’s, and try and turn it into something special, the Apple TV 1st generation is I believe with all the hacking and upgrading one of the best there is, and I’m still trying to squeeze out just a little bit more, ok I might not be able to get much more out of it , but will keep trying, that’s my thing, I purchased (4) four of this model, all on E bay and Amazon, all costing average of £100 each, so you see I’m sure I could have bought the best Media player with all the bells and trimmings in the world for £400, but no my fun is doing what I enjoy, and maybe it will help someone else, little things like using the Mini PC i express Msata SSD Drive, reason being, it’s a lot faster, it stays cooler, it’s tiny compared to a normal 2.5 Hard Drive, so fits in the case without taking up any extra room, I prefer to download any movies that I fancy onto a external USB 3 drive, and then when you watch it there is no stuttering or stopping that you sometimes experience with movie streaming.
So all in all I’m happy with this 1st generation model, and the media that’s available on XBMC is endless, so HAPPY DAYS MY FRIEND,
 
X

xdhd350

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2010
368
74
Mondeo Man,

I may need your help. I'm still using a first gen ATV, well, I was. The hard drive finally bit the dust and before that, it had issues of the video freezing while the audio continued to play. I'd have to reset the device to get it working again. The video would only freeze if watching a long video such as a feature film or towards the end of an hour long podcast. I opened it up once before and cleaned the fan and other dust residue out and it seemed to work okay for a few months after that.

In any case, I'd like to stick a new drive in it and reload the ATV software for it.

The reason I haven't upgraded is because my CRT based 65 Mits RPTV has a picture quality that spanks even the newest LED screens, mainly because the panel has no inherent resolution and 480P even looks pretty darn good. It's also a lot smoother to watch progressive video on an interlaced display than to watch interlaced video on a progressive display. Because this set was made in 2002, it has no HDMI, so I can't even use the newer ATV.

Any ideas on how to get this thing working again?

Thanks,

Greg
 
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M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
xdhd350 said:
Mondeo Man,

I may need your help. I'm still using a first gen ATV, well, I was. The hard drive finally bit the dust and before that, it had issues of the video freezing while the audio continued to play. I'd have to reset the device to get it working again. The video would only freeze if watching a long video such as a feature film or towards the end of an hour long podcast. I opened it up once before and cleaned the fan and other dust residue out and it seemed to work okay for a few months after that.

In any case, I'd like to stick a new drive in it and reload the ATV software for it.

The reason I haven't upgraded is because my CRT based 65 Mits RPTV has a picture quality that spanks even the newest LED screens, mainly because the panel has no inherent resolution and 480P even looks pretty darn good. It's also a lot smoother to watch progressive video on an interlaced display than to watch interlaced video on a progressive display. Because this set was made in 2002, it has no HDMI, so I can't even use the newer ATV.

Any ideas on how to get this thing working again?

Thanks,

Greg
Click to expand...

Hi my friend,

Firstly a Very Merry Xmas and a Prosperous New Year to you and your family, and to all on this forum.

What kind of Geek am I sitting at my PC at 9.40 am on Xmas day writing about the ATV shortcomings, whilst her indoors cooks the traditional Turkey roast.
I know that that ATV of yours would be up and running in no time, in it’s original state it was pretty useless, unless you were paying top prices for films off Netfix etc, and we’ve all had that video freezing, sound only experience, and it still happens sometimes whilst streaming movies off XBMC, XUNITY, etc, this has a lot to do with a slow processor, not much memory etc, so there is not a lot we can do about them things, but upgrade the other parts that we can improve, firstly we need to change the wireless card for the Crystal HD Card, this is one of the biggest improvements you could make to picture quality, and if you have a full HD TV you will view in 1080 resolution, but even if you ain’t got a HD TV it will improve your viewing experience greatly, secondly change the IDE Drive by installing a low capacity Sata SSD Drive, the 30 gb ones are pretty cheap these days, this involves purchasing a Ide or Pata 44 pin to 2.5 Sata adapter, (will give you details where to purchase if you need ) you won’t have to screw the drive to the base, it will sit in the same space, making sure it is insulated by covering with normal electrical tape. Now you have a faster, smother, 200% in my view Media player, a nice USB external drive to download all your favourite movies onto, and bingo, no more stuttering, stopping, and farting about, I am sure friend, that I will be able to assist you in getting your ATV up and running again, and after your comment, (pretty darn good ) I realise you are living on the other side of the big pond, darn is a word not used in the UK, So my friend get tucked into your Turkey, and enjoy, and will speak to you after Xmas.

Cheers Mate.

Mansel.
 
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M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
Dual Disk drive for ATV 1st Generation

Hi Guys,

Anyone with idea's on changing the configuration of the Single Hard Drive into a Dual Disk Drive using a Dual Drive 44 pin flat cable, as I've stated before I have attempted this upgrade but only get as far as the second drive that is configured as the slave drive lighting up on boot up, but when I go into the System, the drive does not show up, it could be that this is an impossible task, or that I'm not formatting the drive with the correct format, any idea's will be welcome.

Mansel.
 
W

westrock2000

macrumors 6502a
Oct 18, 2013
524
22
xdhd350 said:
The reason I haven't upgraded is because my CRT based 65 Mits RPTV has a picture quality that spanks even the newest LED screens, mainly because the panel has no inherent resolution and 480P even looks pretty darn good. It's also a lot smoother to watch progressive video on an interlaced display than to watch interlaced video on a progressive display. Because this set was made in 2002, it has no HDMI, so I can't even use the newer ATV.
Click to expand...

I also had a 65" Mitsu RPTV and it was great aside from the dimness inherent in RPTV's. We eventually got rid of it because less and less things would work over DVI due to lack of HDCP. And you do not get full resolution Blu-ray if you use component.

Anyone with idea's on changing the configuration of the Single Hard Drive into a Dual Disk Drive using a Dual Drive 44 pin flat cable, as I've stated before I have attempted this upgrade but only get as far as the second drive that is configured as the slave drive lighting up on boot up, but when I go into the System, the drive does not show up, it could be that this is an impossible task, or that I'm not formatting the drive with the correct format, any idea's will be welcome.
Click to expand...

I would say it is because it simply isn't looking for it. If it's based on a Unix system then it may only be "looking" for hda (hard disk 1) and while hdb (hard disk 2) may very well be there, if the operating system isn't concerned about it, then you will never see it. And if the USB drive mounts as sda, then again it will never look at hdb.
 
X

xdhd350

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2010
368
74
Mondeo Man said:
we’ve all had that video freezing, sound only experience, and it still happens sometimes whilst streaming movies off XBMC, XUNITY, etc, this has a lot to do with a slow processor, not much memory etc, so there is not a lot we can do about them things,
Click to expand...

While I agree that it's not a high performer, it never had any issues for the first 5 years or so. I looked into the Crystal HD card and the IDE to SATA adapters on Amazon. I am well invested into the Apple ecosystem so I'd like to reload the original software whenever I get another drive. I don't think I can clone my drive because the system files are corrupted and it goes to the '?' status after startup. So will the newer 1080 capable Crystal HD card work with the older Apple TV software? That's what I'm wondering about.
 
C

cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,154
Apple TV 1st Generation Upgrade limits.

Honestly I rarely see people pop these things apart very often kind of making you the goto guy. However user Multifinder17 did some neat stuff with his gen 1 ATV as seen in this thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1654463/

Might be able to PM him and put your heads together.
 
M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
Completed the dual drive in Apple TV 1st Gen.

Hi Guys,
A little bit of success to announce today.

My setup on the current Apple TV 1st gen is as follows:.

Changed the Wireless card for a Crystal HD 15. 100% IMPROVEMENT.
Changed the Ide cable for a Ide Dual Drive type.
On the boot up connector installed Ide 44 pin to Msata SSD Adapter,
then installed the 30gb Msata SSD, next installed latest Apple software, next stage installed the Jailbreak software containing XBMC, Proceeded to install the extra's Navix etc. 100% improvement in boot up, and switching between programs etc. and now the part they told me was not possible: installed a 1gb Sata hard drive formated with a Mac format, attached it to a Ide 44 pin to 2.5 Sata adapter, this is the attached to the slave end of the ide cable, the drive is not screwed into its normal place but just sit's on the base. the Msata SSD drive being tiny is just covered with insulation tape and sits between the power supply and the fan, bit tricky but its possible with practise.

So overall this is what we have a nice media box with a fast Msata SSD drive, a Crystal HD 15 card and a large Sata drive for all our Movie Downloads.

Now tried this setup with Crystalbuntu , everything works ok but lost my 1gb hard drive, this is probably due to the hard drive format, can anyone help me here, WHAT FORMAT DO I NEED FOR THE SLAVE HARD DRIVE TO BE RECOGNIZED IN CRYSTALBUNTU. ??

Mansel.
 
B

billhinge

macrumors member
Dec 27, 2013
51
10
Mondeo Man said:
Hi Guys,

Anyone with idea's on changing the configuration of the Single Hard Drive into a Dual Disk Drive using a Dual Drive 44 pin flat cable, as I've stated before I have attempted this upgrade but only get as far as the second drive that is configured as the slave drive lighting up on boot up, but when I go into the System, the drive does not show up, it could be that this is an impossible task, or that I'm not formatting the drive with the correct format, any idea's will be welcome.

Mansel.
Click to expand...

Just a guess, OS X aka apple tv is unix, so everything is a file ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_is_a_file

Have you tried creating /etc/fstab and rebooting ? (what we did in old unix days)
OS X claims to support fstab according to man pages


On ATV there is no /etc/fstab just a /etc/fstab.hd

-bash-2.05b$ cat fstab.hd
IGNORE THIS FILE.
This file does nothing, contains no useful data, and might go away in
future releases. Do not depend on this file or its contents.
-bash-2.05b$
-bash-2.05b$
-bash-2.05b$
-bash-2.05b$ pwd
/etc
-bash-2.05b$ whoami
frontrow

Google shows it has worked for others using OS X (different context than ATV though) and we know there will be no later releases for Gen 1 ATV

Personally I would say it would be GUID partition scheme and HFS journaled like the OSBoot and Media partitions


Not sure why you are doing this though ? Wouldn't you also need to tell the kernel & applications where you plan to put your files and edit any necessary configuration files (if you know what they are?)

Why not just buy a bigger disk if you need it ?
 
M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
Proof of the Pudding.(Slave drive working)

Hi my friend,

Firstly could I wish you and all on this forum a very good New Year.
I tried taking pics of my configuration on my Apple TV 1st gen, but very poor result, so typed out Storage sizes etc.

STORAGE ON MY APPLE TV 1ST GENERATION.

Filesystem........Size.....Used.....Avail Capacity Mounted on

/dev/disk1s3....500M....471M....420M....53%.... /

/dev/disk1s4....27G......520M....26G......2%....../mnt

/dev/disk0s1 ....932G....1.7G.....930G.....0%...../mnt/Scratch/Volumes/HD_1000G

The 27G is the 30G Msata SSD Drive, and the 932G the Sata Slave Drive.

So you can see, ATV can see and use my Slave drive, this is when it is Jailbroken, and XBMC also see's the drive, and allows me to download to the drive. the drive was formated with: Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but when I install Crystalbuntu, I cannot find the slave drive, so I'm figuring out that there must be another format that I need to use to be able to see the drive.
And that is my question. WHAT FORMAT DO I NEED TO BE ABLE TO SEE MY SLAVE DRIVE IN CRYSTALBUNTU.
Mansel.
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
Mondeo Man said:
And that is my question. WHAT FORMAT DO I NEED TO BE ABLE TO SEE MY SLAVE DRIVE IN CRYSTALBUNTU.
Mansel.
Click to expand...

Crystalbuntu is based on Linux 8.04 Hardy (as is my atvcloner image). Hardy does not support Journaled. So you can do HFS + but not journaled. Linux Hardy should then recognize the drive.
 
M

Mondeo Man

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 23, 2013
11
0
Swansea, South Wales, UK.
Slave Drive works on Openelec and Jailbroken XBMC but not Crystalbuntu.

Hi Guys,

My new Storage configuration on the APPLE TV 1st Gen using OPENELEC, I know that this post should be about Crystalbuntu, but my problem is: I cannot recognize my Slave drive in Crystalbuntu, it is recognized in the Jailbroken version of XBMC, and now its installed and active in OPENELEC, so therfore it should show up in Crystalbuntu, but I cannot find the correct format, ANYMORE IDEA'S GUY'S ?

And once more to those guy's that want to know why I want to do this, the answer is: By using a 30gb Mini MSATA SSD to install the programs on, so it speeds up Boot up, switching between Menu's etc, and using the large 1tb drive for the downloading of Movies etc, you guy's all know that the downloaded movies all play with no interruption's, or stopping half way through the movie, so in the evening before retiring to bed I select the film's that I might like and start downloading them, sometimes about half a dozen, so when we get up in the morning, even if there had been a number of slow downloads, the job will have been completed.

The 26.7G drive is the Mini Msata SSD drive, and the 931GB is the slave drive. The format of the 1TB Slave drive is HFS+

FILESYSTEM...........SIZE.............USED.............AVAILABLE...USE%...MOUNTED ON

/Dev/SD1............200.OM..............115.1M............84.9M...........58%......../Flash

/Dev/sda2...........26.7G.................525.6M............24.8M...........2%........./Storage

/Dev/sdb2...........931.1G...............3.1G................928.0G..........0%......../Var/Media/1TB

SO ANYMORE IDEA'S GUY'S ON THE POSSIBLE FORMAT NEEDED FOR THE SLAVE DRIVE TO BE RECOGNIZED BY CRYSTALBUNTU.

Mansel.
 
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MagnusVonMagnum

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
alent1234 said:
Why pour money into old tech?

Get a new Apple TV and airplay from a PC or Mac
Click to expand...

The AppleTV Gen1 with a CrystalHD card added is better in at least one respect than a new AppleTV and that is it can output true 16-bit 44.1kHz audio (DTS CD compatible and straight out sound quality instead of an upsample) plus AppleTV Gen3 still cannot be hacked to use XBMC and an AppleTV without XBMC is an AppleTV without AVI and MKV support among other things. My AppleTV Gen1 units have been upgraded for full Airplay video support as well so the only thing I'm missing, really are the new channels (which I don't watch on my ATV Gen2 anyway) an Netflix, etc., although I think a Gen1 changed over to full Linux + XBMC can probably run many things via Linux as well. Frankly, it's a shame Apple doesn't get with it and offer App upgrades to ATV at which point it would be a lot more flexible. I have no idea why it cannot output pass-through 16/44.1 audio for that matter when a simple Airport Express can.

Basically, given the price of the current AppleTVs, I'd probably want BOTH (the old one for high-end audio and 1080P video with no limitations on file format like AVI/MKV and the new one to run the Apple interface and whatever new channels).
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
ATV Gen 1 w/chd running linux and xbmc 12.3 frodo can run netlfix etc. and actually more than what the stock apple offerings are on the atv 3 via the addons.

As well while the atv 3 can technically run 1080p fairly well, it cannot playback raw decrypted bluray. Its two different approaches to the same end. Also as noted above, xbmc frodo allows full airplay functionality on the modded atv 1 ... I use it all of the time. Works great.

----------
Mondeo Man said:
SO ANYMORE IDEA'S GUY'S ON THE POSSIBLE FORMAT NEEDED FOR THE SLAVE DRIVE TO BE RECOGNIZED BY CRYSTALBUNTU.

Mansel.
Click to expand...

... and you tried hfs+ non journaled like I mentioned above ? Works for me.
 
MagnusVonMagnum

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
dynaflash said:
ATV Gen 1 w/chd running linux and xbmc 12.3 frodo can run netlfix etc. and actually more than what the stock apple offerings are on the atv 3 via the addons.
Click to expand...

But you can no longer rent Apple movies, unless you do the Linux install via a USB key and remove it to boot the old interface. Frodo does do Airplay well, but with the 1st Gen Apple interface you can still install RemoteHD to get full Airplay support plus full app navigation via iOS if you want to keep the Apple Interface and use XBMC Eden instead for now.
 
T

tdiaz

macrumors 6502
Feb 7, 2006
477
73
USB 3? .. unless you're doing that to use the drive somewhere else, too, there is no benefit. The thing has not got USB 3.0.
 
MagnusVonMagnum

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
tdiaz said:
USB 3? .. unless you're doing that to use the drive somewhere else, too, there is no benefit. The thing has not got USB 3.0.
Click to expand...

Care to elaborate? I don't see ANY references to USB3 in this thread.... If you're looking at my signature line, that drive is for my Mac Mini server, not any AppleTV. And it most certainly is handy to have a USB3 interface there since it's as fast as an internal model. I can play commercial Blu-Rays (thanks VLC!) directly or rip them to encode with Handbrake for AppleTV/XBMC playback.
 
MagnusVonMagnum

MagnusVonMagnum

macrumors 603
Jun 18, 2007
5,193
1,442
Cave Man said:
I think he was referring to the OP:
Click to expand...

Ah, I guess i searched USB3 instead of USB 3 with the space. Yeah, the speed wouldn't make any difference with the AppleTV, but it might for transferring things locally to the drive itself before putting on the AppleTV. I had USB3 media drives long before I had a USB3 Mac. That's just the way they came (handy now, though).
 
D

dynaflash

macrumors 68020
Mar 27, 2003
2,119
8
MagnusVonMagnum said:
But you can no longer rent Apple movies, unless you do the Linux install via a USB key and remove it to boot the old interface.
Click to expand...

Correct, accessing the iTunes store is disabled. So that is a loss if that is important to you.

----------
Cave Man said:
Man, this thread brings a big smile to my face! :)
Click to expand...

Hey Cave ... long time no atv 1 hack ;) Still running the old stuff but modded with linux / xbmc frodo ... still going strong! Miss the old hardware hacking days ( yes the esata modded atv is *still* going strong even without the fan which burned out three years ago). Good times ... Good times.
 
I

IceAce

macrumors newbie
Jan 29, 2013
3
0
Hi guys, I got a 160gb atv1gen and I've ordered these pieces:

- brdcm crystal hd card
- 44 pin dual ide cable
- msata ide 44 pin adapter
- msata 60gb hd
- 1 tb 2.5 hd
- sata ide 44 pin adapter

I'll hope to contribute since I'm interested in running cb2, or at least openelec, with all this things.

:apple:
 
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