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Apple TV Booting off External USB

failsafe1 said:
I am missing something. I read the article but don't understand what this means about the benefit of the USB boot drive. Does this make the Apple TV a Apple computer that is controlled through your TV? Help me understand.
Click to expand...
If nothing else, it means you can use a much larger external drive for storage without opening the Apple TV.

It also means one could use the Apple TV, yes, as a computer with your TV as the monitor. Not an incredibly powerful computer with tons of RAM, but a usable computer nevertheless.
 
Pretty neat.

1. Download special open source Darwin install from Internet (someone will make one).

2. Install on USB thumbdrive, iPod, HD, or even your camera.

3. Boot AppleTV from the special install, and use it to hack the internal drive to your heart's content.

4. Custom AppleTV madness with no hardware hacking!

It's nice that Apple is keeping AppleTV simple by not SUPPORTING customization and 3rd-party apps, but is also not going to extreme measures to make it impossible.

Hopefully the iPhone will be the same way. Best of both worlds: a simple, predictable, reliable appliance with Apple quality control, AND, for the hard-core hobbyist, a platform they can monkey with--at their own risk.

After all, I enjoyed changing my iPod UI from blue to red :)
 
jsw said:
If nothing else, it means you can use a much larger external drive for storage without opening the Apple TV.

It also means one could use the Apple TV, yes, as a computer with your TV as the monitor. Not an incredibly powerful computer with tons of RAM, but a usable computer nevertheless.
Click to expand...

Thanks I was wondering what I was missing. Makes for interesting possibilities.
 
failsafe1 said:
I am missing something. I read the article but don't understand what this means about the benefit of the USB boot drive. Does this make the Apple TV a Apple computer that is controlled through your TV? Help me understand.
Click to expand...

The main benefit is that you don't have to physically open your Apple TV to boot a custom install.

For example, you could buy an Apple TV. Copy a special installer into a USB drive. External boot the USB drive on the Apple TV which will install additional drivers (Divx, Xvid etc...) onto your Apple TV. This way you could add functionality without physically opening your Apple TV itself.

arn
 
boot on other machines?

so does anyone want to weigh in on the possibility of eventually booting other machines with the apple TV OS? if you have an old machine around it might be attractive to run the stripped-down OS and just use it an el-cheapo AppleTV...
 
zap2 said:
Why on his AppleTV is he using the Yellow(composite) port(for vidoe)? AppleTV only support Red, Blue and Green(component) for Video(audio is the same on both)

He even say "use standard component" but the cord is 3(2 for audio) 1 yellow for vidoe, which is composite.


Here a pic if you don't want to watch the vidoe
Click to expand...

He has HDMI cable hooked up to HDMI port so HDMI take priority over component. Of course he does not yellow one to be plugged in but no effect anyway *shrug*

posting better picture here...

EDIT..........
alright I looked at Apple Tv's website.. I'll admit to say "whoops" those three are plugged into component ports not audio port. and that blue cable is either ethernet or usb not hdmi cable. SORRY GUYS! some previous posters are right that the cable used in video are composite cable not component cable.
 

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boult said:
He has HDMI cable hooked up to HDMI port so HDMI take priority over component. Of course he does not yellow one to be plugged in but no effect anyway *shrug*

posting better picture here...
Click to expand...

:confused: He has power and wired ethernet connected and is using a standard composite cable for component video only (RGB no audio). So he's limiting the bandwidth a bit by using the cheaper Yellow Red White composite RCA cables, but it's still component signals.

B
 
Macrumors said:
The most significant step at this stage has been the ability to boot the Apple TV from an external USB drive. A video demos the external USB drive on an (essentially) unmodified Apple TV.
Click to expand...

Cool! :D This almost seems too good to be true. Is anyone else's cynical senses tingling? Like, Apple's gonna come along with a software update and BAM no more USB booting without special Apple encrypted boot loader something or other?
 
issue is apple has already let a non-encrypted version out of the bag....that means that even if apple did start encrypting things, people could just put the old version on or not upgrade. At least with Rev.1 this is how things are going to be. And I personally don't see any reason Apple would want to stop this kid of stuff from happening.
 
mkjellman said:
issue is apple has already let a non-encrypted version out of the bag....that means that even if apple did start encrypting things, people could just put the old version on or not upgrade. At least with Rev.1 this is how things are going to be. And I personally don't see any reason Apple would want to stop this kid of stuff from happening.
Click to expand...

Apple has one way to force upgrades they have used previously. Introduce a new version of FairPlay.

Of course this would only affect people who buy iTS content.

B
 
cr2sh said:
Are there existing IR remotes that one can purchase to get around using the apple remote?
Click to expand...

Yes, some universal remotes have Apple Remote support built-in. (And others can probably be "trained.") I can imagine this could only imitate UNpaired remotes, but that's OK: pair your Mac and leave the AppleTV unpaired, but turned off when not in use.

Now, who's going to get Folding@Home going on an AppleTV? :)
 
justflie said:
Whatever sells more units for Apple is fine by me (maybe the halo effect will expand). I'm sure Apple Legal disagrees with me though...(ie torrenting the ATV OS)
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It took OS X for intel like a week for a torrent to hit. It took maybe 2 days for the :apple: TV OS to hit. Personally, I think the OS was leaked by Apple on purpose.
 
<Borat>That video was most impressive...
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Not. </borat>

Seriously though. I understand that technically this is meaningful, but it sure doesn't look very impressive on the face of it. Still, I'm glad I saw the video to get an idea of where they're at in their hacking quest.
 
Apple tv's market is not larger than MacOX. That can't be true.

One thing to remember here (in my mind). Is that this device is a lightweight. Apple offers a heavyweight that does EVERYTHING and more that you guys are working towards.
 
brucku said:
Apple offers a heavyweight that does EVERYTHING and more that you guys are working towards.
Click to expand...
The cheapest Mini is 2X as expensive as the :apple:TV and has a weaker GPU.

FWIW the iPod nano outsells the full size iPod by a huge margin, even though by comparison it is a lightweight.

B
 
brucku said:
...One thing to remember here (in my mind). Is that this device is a lightweight. Apple offers a heavyweight that does EVERYTHING and more that you guys are working towards.
Click to expand...

You fail to understand this device is an "extension"... not a standalone "powerhouse." It doesn't have to be. :rolleyes:

Consider the possibilities of :apple: tv combined with the new functions of iChat Theater, soon to be available in Leopard, for example. Presentations would be more easier done, and could be much more interactive than ever before. :)
 
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