ATV - Perian Codec vs XBMC

[Fallenman]

So, I have just received a 1st Gen AppleTV. I love it, but have a lot of movies I share with friends and family that dont use the iTunes format. I have installed XBMC, and its pretty good, a bit fiddly, and the music/photo functionality is sluggish.

Given that the only reason I want XBMC is to play other formats, am I better off installing a codec pack like Perian?

Once I do that, can I still stream my films that sit on an external HD on my iMac? Or would it expect me to use iTunes somehow?

 

[ehurdler]

So, I have just received a 1st Gen AppleTV. I love it, but have a lot of movies I share with friends and family that dont use the iTunes format. I have installed XBMC, and its pretty good, a bit fiddly, and the music/photo functionality is sluggish.

Given that the only reason I want XBMC is to play other formats, am I better off installing a codec pack like Perian?

Once I do that, can I still stream my films that sit on an external HD on my iMac? Or would it expect me to use iTunes somehow?

What OS version is running on your aTV? Probably the latest, 3.0.2? Regardless I would install nitoTV if you haven't already. You can always play any video type through there....just install perian, etc. If you run the smart installer you can even plug a usb HD to the aTV and just play everything that way. This is what I do. I have a 1TB usb drive connected to my original aTV at all times. I have mostly avi files and full DVD rips on there.