Hi there, I'm waiting on my Apple TV to arrive and before it does I thought I'd ask for some help on hacking it.

I don't require that much out of it really, mainly just USB Support so I can play movies off my External HD, but any other additional hacks that'd be useful to me are cool.

I've had a look around and I've found various hacks that will enable me to do what I need, I just don't know which one to choose or how I'd go about installing it, I assume I have to install SSH first? But then what? I'm fairly knowledgable about computers, so I should be okay with all of this - I just like to be sure that I'm doing everything correctly!

So, if someone could give me some short, simple instructions on everything I should do, I'd be extremely grateful.

Thanks

you will need a usb thumb drive and some patience for this process.

http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

start there, make a patchstick. patch

http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/NitoTV_Take_2

scp over to the AppleTV, install. run the smart installer (nitotTV-> Settings -> Install Software - > Smart Installer)

Reboot AppleTV

i would also recommend installing Software Menu, it enables you to install other plugins without doing it manually in the terminal, it also has many other useful features as well.

http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/SoftwareMenu

after that USB will work and nitoTV has both mplayer and QuickTime playback support. You can also check out Sapphire, ATVFiles, XBMCLauncher for media playback as well.

Alright, cool, thanks. I've managed to do it all now I believe.

One more thing, how would I go about accessing the movies on my USB Ext HD in the Apple TV interface? I know I can do it in Boxee or XBMC, but I don't really wanna use them.

Thanks!

NitoTV, ATVFiles, Sapphire can all play files off a USB drive from within the ATV interface without needing to run a standalone app like Boxee or XBMC.

__________________
Please read the stickies and search the forum before posting!
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iPhone 3GS 32GB factory unlocked (3.1; Pwnagetool, Cydia, OpenSSH)
iPhone 8GB (3.1.2; Pwnagetool, Cydia, OpenSSH)

I've installed Sapphire now which is working fine, but where do I find the option to choose my External HD?

As a matter of fact, I'm not entirely sure I have enabled USB access, how can I be sure?

Have you run the smart installer that is part of the nitoTV plugin? You need to run this with at least an intel 10.4.9 combo updater in the ~/Documents directory on your AppleTV.

http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/NitoT...mart_Installer

Once you run this and restart, the kernel is repatched and the required system files to mount USB drives are loaded.

Then you should be able to plug in a USB drive and see it is available in nitoTV (and other plugins)

__________________
Please read the stickies and search the forum before posting!
----------
iPhone 3GS 32GB factory unlocked (3.1; Pwnagetool, Cydia, OpenSSH)
iPhone 8GB (3.1.2; Pwnagetool, Cydia, OpenSSH)

Yeah, I think I've done that. Where about would I see my HD in NitoTV and Sapphire?

Edit - Nevermind, got it! Thanks!