Life is a State of Mind

I’ve been very happy with our AppleTV since I got the thing hooked up over a year ago. I like it mostly for viewing internet content on the big screen, though we have rented a movie or two and dumped some dance videos and photo slide shows from the computer into the AppleTV for big-screen shared viewing. When Apple updated the software to “Take 2″ it made direct movie renting and YouTube viewing possible, and that added a lot of value to our AppleTV. It did not open the AppleTV to adding my own software nor third party software, and that has been a letdown. As good as Apple’s software is, I want to play with a few ideas they apparently have not figured out as possible yet.

One of the small annoyances has been in ability to surf the web directly for more flash content. So I reviewed some AppleTV hacker sites:

• iClarified’s article on installing SSH with a Take 2 Patchstick; this is the key first step. You’ll need:
  • A USB flash drive, of at least 128MB capacity
  • A Mac running OS X 10.4 or newer, that has both a powered USB slot and a connected optical drive
  • Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.9 or 10.4.10 install CDs (note, the older PowerPC based 10.4.3 DVD will NOT work); or an installed 10.4.9 or 10.4.10 intel based Mac.
  • Some understanding of ssh commands, scp commands, and Apple DMG files.
• awkwardTV (web site with various hacks, ideas, plugins for AppleTV)
• AppleTV Hacks (web site with forums, news, and tips about the AppleTV)
• AppleTV Bootloader (still figuring out all the stuff here)
• iClarified’s other AppleTV tutorials (very useful stuff)

Anyway; I was able to build my own USB patchstick using the instructions on the iClarified website (I have an AppleTV with v2.0.2 and several Macs running 10.5.3) that got my AppleTV rebooted with all my existing content, v2.0.2 and ssh access. With ssh access I was able to scp Couch Surfer into the AppleTV, and add a couple of browser plugins (Flash Player and QuickTime Player) and the CoreAudioKit.framework; and now my AppleTV can surf the web and play flash and quicktime movies from inside the browser. It makes Blood Ties from Lifetime Network available for free; though so far the viewing is a bit blocky and slow.

Yes, I can easily watch this from any computer using existing web browsers; but the point is to get more content on the big screen so we can watch from the couch and comfy chair. Yes, the videos are also available as iTunes rentals and as DVDs; but this is a new series to us and we want to watch a few episodes for free before we decide if it is worth buying or renting for cash.

This effort is also about having my device open to new software as I want to add it. I suspect I will not stop with just a simple browser; but will find new ways to use the AppleTV now that I have ssh access.