Is it worth jailbreaking Apple TV?

[CtotheP]

Any plex or xbmc plugins enable streaming TV?

[Pyromonkey83]

Originally Posted by dgalvan123

I have a jailbroken Apple TV. Here are the real benefits as I see them.

Thank you for by far the most helpful post in this thread by a mile.

[CocoaPuffs]

heh, already been said.

[philosopherdog]

Just use air video if you've got iOS and beam it to your Apple TV. Works great. Convert on the fly.

[StarDal]

Originally Posted by philosopherdog

Just use air video if you've got iOS and beam it to your Apple TV. Works great. Convert on the fly.

How do you beam air video to your Apple TV? or is it bouncing through an iPad / iPhone and mirroring?

[wknapp0924]

The biggest reason for me which I didn't elaborate on is being able to have my external HD hooked into my airport extreme and stream the music and videos in any format to my TV upstairs in the bedroom without ever having to turn on my computer.

[DP812]

Originally Posted by KylePowers

Most people jailbreak because they don't want to bother with converting their .mkv's to .mp4's (AppleTV compliant format). That's fine and dandy and definitely an option.

I, on the other hand, like having the latest firmwares and updates on my AppleTV and have other devices that I put my movies and TV shows on (iPhone, iPad, etc). So for me, the best option was to just convert all my movies/shows using Handbrake's AppleTV 3 setting (with a few modifications). It's super easy to queue a folder, so if you have a decent computer (I have a 2011 iMac), it's really no work at all.

From there, I use iDentify to add meta data info, which then automatically adds the file to iTunes. So yes, it's a multistep process, but it works for me

Many would argue that PLEX is more advantageous since they have a companion app for streaming to iOS devices. That's true, but I just use Air Video and point it toward my iTunes media folder.

But whatever works for you is best. I enjoy my setup and think it works wonderfully.

This right here. When I got my Apple TV 3, I was disappointed to find out that it couldn't be jailbreaked. But I've gotten past it and I've pretty much accepted that the likelihood of getting an aTV3 jailbreak is about on par with the likelihood of getting a visit from Santa Claus.

Besides, I didn't have any MKVs, all I had were DVDs, which I would have to rip and encode with Handbrake any way. So I just set Handbrake to encode them for the aTV and they work perfectly. I used iFlicks for metadata and everything is nicely set up in my iTunes library and on my aTV.

The main issue I have with the aTV is the way home sharing is displayed. No search feature, no way to view the artwork in a grid format or cover flow, just the boring old Front Row format.

Like the OP said, he doesn't mind using AirPlay for Amazon (and if you've got Netflix and iTunes, why would you need Amazon anyway?). The only real benefit I would see for using it is the Hulu plugin. The fact that Hulu Plus doesn't let me watch their entire library on my aTV is, to me, completely ridiculous. And the different display options, that's the one thing I keep praying will be incorporated with each and every aTV update. Still waiting.

[ashesfortears]

You senior JB's are a disappointing lot. Your arrogance does you no credit. "Do some research"? What kind of an idiotic answer is that? I am speaking from the position of a developer level, who can, frankly, make my iDevices sing, dance, and make a good cup of coffee at the same time.

dragonev has all but indicated that they do not have a lot of experience in this area, and is now seeking information. Their method of learning may be human interaction... you know, that thing homo sapiens did before the advent of Google? They may not have known where or *how* to start their search, and the more helpful members of this thread have given them a good jumping off point. An intelligent answer might have read, "Why not Google these terms, then come back with any questions?" Followed by said list, just 3 or 4 words long.

Instead, you're flaming someone who is starting off in the same position that *you* were once in. And on top of that, despite the answers that clearly had nothing to do with the original question in any conceivable sense and the disparaging and rude comments, they were still polite to you.

What an asset you guys are to the mod community.