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My 750 gig Apple TV

Still having issues...

Well, I'm beginning to think my PATA2SATA card has issues with ribbons. I rec'd the 44-pin crossover ribbon and when it's connected my eSATA drive does not boot. However, if I have the adapter/PATA2SATA directly connected to the ATV's ATA bus, the eSATA drive boots just fine. Here's a screen shot with a 1 TB eSATA drive connected.

I think I'm going to have to get that other card - what do you think, dyna?
 

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I think that sucks. I can only assume your pata to sata bridge has some kind of an issue. Assuming you have everything I have besides my bridge, it is the only logical conclusion :( . Honestly, the wife and kids have been watching it most of the evening and now going on two weeks and it is working wonderously with nothing changed from my pics. I can only assume that your bridge has some kind of an issue with the cable. I know you have everything oriented correctly. So that has to be it.

Hang in there. Trust me ... once it works its freaking awesome :)
 
As well I see from your pics that you have wired power directly from the power supply, so that shouldn't be an issue (am I seeing the pic correctly ? ) . I don't know what else to say. One note on getting the bridge I have, its smaller and should fit better into the atv case than your bridge. Hope that lessens the disappointment at least a bit. Those screenshots I posted are literally taken right before I last hooked it up so I know there was nothing changed afterwards.

Sidebar: I would wager you had to trim that shroud. Correct ?
 
OK, I don't know WTF is going on. I changed the jumpers from single drive to master/slave with the drive connected as slave on the SATA connector. It booted just fine. I thought, "too good to be true." So I rebooted. And it rebooted just fine. "Sweet" I said. "Third time's a charm!" No boot. WTF? Reboot - nothing. Repeat 4 more times and nothing. I got junk coming across the TV as illustrated in the attached photo. What the hell could be going on? I don't understand why it boots twice in a row, then not for 6 more attempts. Could it be my connection? I'm going from the PATA2SATA with an iSATA to eSATA cable, then from that cable to the SATA drive via an eSATA cable. Is there a length limitation to SATA cabling?

And yes, I had to mod the shroud to get the ribbon on...
 

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I'm pretty much convince now that I have a bad ribbon cable, an issue with the PATA2SATA card, or a combination of both.

I have tried a direct SATA connection to the drive and it will not boot.
I have tried the ribbon in both directions and it will not boot.
I have metered the power to the SATA card and it is now getting 5 V with the ribbon between the logic board and the 44-pin/40-pin adapter.

I think I'm just going to have to buy dyna's SATA adapter to see if it will work. In the meanwhile, I managed somehow to get a login screen on the Apple TV. I had to do a factory restore to get it to go away.

I have also built a small footer that's about 1.5" high to accommodate an eSATA port. I had some walnut laying around and just milled it to size in the shop. It attaches to the ATV via three of its four bottom screws. Eventually, the aluminum panel will go on the bottom with rubber feet for ventilation. I think it'll look nice, if I can ever get past this controller issue...
 

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Cool looking footer :) As far as your experiences with the login screen, that debug screen and your pata2sata card I have no clue why its not working. FYI I never changed any master/slave jumpers on my WD just used it right out of the box.

I *really* hope you get it to work. Believe me, I understand how frustrating it is when your so close. You would think your bridge should work fine with that ribbon cable, the pinout is exactly the same as the logic board. Afaik your bridge shouldn't know the difference. <perplexed>
 
Dyna - The bridge you're using is out of stock at the source you provided. They tell me it'll ship in a week (yes, someone was there on a Saturday and called me after my order!). Can you tell me its height (along with the 44/40-pin adapter) out of the bottom of the ATV? If it's less than 1.5", I won't even have to use the ribbon cable.

I am committed to getting this done. I am astounded by the performance increase with the eSATA drive. 2x FF is really, really smooth. I suspect it's more about the 7200 rpm and 32 mb cache of the drive, and less so the SATA interface.

BTW - the jumpers were changed on the PATA2SATA, not on the hard drive.
 
without measuring it I can guarantee you its more than 1.5 ". That new pic they have is misleading.

Yes, the performance increase is definitely impressive.
 
dynaflash said:
I do believe that my pata-sata bridge is this one http://www.syba.com/Product/Info/Id/295 from Syba. It looks *exactly* like it down to the chip identifers I can make out in their pictures. Maybe there is another source were you can get it quicker. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Hey dyna,

I found it at another source and it should ship today. It's $16.20 including shipping from:

http://www.outletpc.com/c5573.html

They also have a 44-pin to 40-pin adapter with +5v.

http://www.outletpc.com/c6608.html

I suspect it'll be here in a couple of days.

I'll give the new HB build a try tonight. Thanks for the heads-up.
 
Those are good prices. Cool. Am excited to hear how it works. Hope you enjoy the new HandBrake, the audio is alot more flexible among other things. Oh, and x264 uses vaq which basically means there is little to no macroblocking, which has always plagued x264. But, I digress ...
 
AliensAreFuzzy said:
I am really temped to do this to my :apple:TV. I just have to decide if I want to void my warranty this soon.;)
Click to expand...

It's a bit nerve-wracking to do, but man is it fast. I am simply amazed at how quickly 2x ff goes with sync'd content on a 7200 rpm 32 mb eSATA drive. Very responsive.

Now all we need is for HB to take Blu-Ray video and smash it down to 720 HD with AAC/AC-3.

Get to work, dyna. :D
 
Cave Man said:
It's a bit nerve-wracking to do, but man is it fast. I am simply amazed at how quickly 2x ff goes with sync'd content on a 7200 rpm 32 mb eSATA drive. Very responsive.

Now all we need is for HB to take Blu-Ray video and smash it down to 720 HD with AAC/AC-3.

Get to work, dyna. :D
Click to expand...
Take a look at the HB forum... :eek:
 
Dyna,

Can you tell me if this will permit me to install a Blu-Ray drive (reader only) in my Mac, then convert a Blu-Ray movie, such as "Pirates of the Caribbean" into a 720HD/AC3/AAC file compatible with my Apple TV? If so, all the more reason for an eSATA solution for the ATV.
 
Well, realize as I said, there is *no* decrypting capability. None whatsoever. So you would have to rip it first.
Plus, with the stock atv software at least, your are limited to 540p afaik. er, at least at 29 fps. At 24 fps you could get 720p if you decrypt it first.
 
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