TV Show Playlists
Now it’s easier than ever to pick up where you left off with your favorite show. After you decide which show to watch, simply hold the center button and choose the playlist option. That’s it! You’ll be taken to the first unwatched episode, and will continue playing until your run out of shows or your eyes turn into puffy white marshmallows, whichever comes first.

Super Customizable Favorites
Favorites provide a handy way to get to what you want as quickly as possible. They’re displayed right in the main menu, and just got a whole lot better in version 2.1. Need a quick link to season 4 of The Office? Check. How about having a list of celebration videos that contain the word word birthday? Done. With these new options for Favorites there’s really no limit on what you can do.

Full List of Changes

• NEW! TV Show Playlists – easily pick up from the last unwatched episode
• NEW! Custom Favorites – create favorites from almost anything, including search terms
• Big speed improvements while browsing movies/shows
• Library and Search items can now be hidden from main menu
• Now showing ‘Writers’ instead of ‘Producers’ on pre-playback screen
• .ite folders are now hidden from view
• Hidden files are no longer included in slideshows
• Better metadata fetching
• Better trakt syncing and scrobbling
• Better handling of network settings and errors
• Many search related improvements
• Many subtitle related improvements (special characters, performance, etc…)
• Fixed rare Last.fm scrobbling issue
• Fixed rare problems when playing audio files
• Fixed a few memory related issues
• iOS 6 support
• Many other bug fixes and improvements

If you’re already running a version of aTV Flash (black) the new 2.1 version can be installed through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu. Links for the new version can also be found in your FireCore account under the Downloads tab.

If you’re not yet using aTV Flash (black) you can get started here.

Here is a tutorial on how to install aTV Flash (black) on your jailbroken Apple TV 2.

IMPORTANT: aTV Flash 2.1 requires an ATV2 running Apple TV version 4.4 or later. It doesn’t work on the 3rd gen Apple TV. Once the Apple TV 3 jailbreak is available, your aTV Flash (black) license will cover both Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3.

The post aTV Flash (black) 2.1 for Apple TV 2 brings TV Show Playlists, Custom Favorites and more appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

In case you didn’t have enough fun hacking your boxes for 3.0 update, here it comes…another “revolutionary” update. Apple says it prevents content from temporarily disappearing. According to them, when you have to update to 3.0.1? “When you are using Apple TV software version 3.0 and all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be missing” or “When you are using Apple TV software version 3.0 and all of your movies, TV shows, and songs appear to be present, but you have not yet updated to Apple TV software version 3.0.1.” Interesting… Wasn’t it easier with “Don’t think too much, update your box immediately!”…?

Official Apple instructions here.

– XBMC launched beta 3 of Launcher 3.2.
We can confirm now – it’s compatible with 3.0.1

– Boxee says it is already working in 3.0.1 (with Launcher 3.2 beta 3)
Also confirmed.

– nitoTV released 0.8.2 version with 3.0.1 support
(RSS, USB and watchdog patches updated for 3.0.1 as well)

– aTV Flash released 4.0.1 version with 3.0.1 compatibility.

– Patchstick 3.0.1 is also available (with Sapphire and RSS)
You need to use LaunchMore version 0.4 or 0.4.1 to apply this update.

The post Apple TV 3.0.1 update appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

nitoTV

Released yesterday, 0.8.1 version (direct download) now supports 3.0 update.

nito says some features may have no chance of making it back in. Couchsurfer and RSS are not working, but they have restored the functionality for DVD, MPlayer, QuickTime, Weather, Network, download, installer and Application Launching sections.

Audio volume and sub toggling and resume returns in QuickTime playback! It is possible to turn off the volume control in General settings if this is not a desirable feature.

Guys warn things may be a little buggy from the OS transition.

Follow nitoTV thread at Hackint0sh.org

XBMC

Launcher 3.2 beta 1 (beta 2 is already on the way!) works with 3.0. However the new version is not ready for public use, and only people who are comfortable with the command line should install it.

Installing:
1) “patchstick” the 3.0 ATV
2) ssh into it and download Launcher-3.2.beta2-debug.run
3) install Launcher chmod +x Launcher.. ; ./Launcher-3.2…
4) install XBMC with Launcher or just re-symlink your old install (ln -s /Users/frontrow/Applications/XBMC.app /Applications/XBMC.app)
5) run XBCM

XBMC forum thread

Boxee

Today XBMC guys made it possible to run Boxee on ATV 3.0.

That’s how to do it:
1) “patchstick” the 3.0 ATV (You should just use your old patchstick you used previously on the ATV )
2) ssh into it the ATV and download 3.2 Launcher
Type:
wget https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/858897/XBMC/Launcher-3.2.beta2-debug.run

3) Install the Launcher
Type:
chmod +x Launcher-3.2.beta2-debug.run

Type :
./Launcher-3.2.beta2-debug.run

Enter the appropriate password “frontrow”  and answer “Y” when it asks to restart the finder.

4) From your ATV Menu> Launcher > Downloads, install Boxee alpha 0.9.14.6992.

Note: Please do not select the Launcher 3.1

5) Launch Boxee  from ATV Menu >Launcher >Boxee .

[via Boxee Support forum]

Others working in 3.0

• Patchstick created with OS 2.1 (SSH enabled; accessing AppleTV with Cyberduck (sftp) works great)
• Patchstick created with OS 3.0
• QuickTime components
• Composite Colour
• AppleFileShare Server (AFP) (working using afpinstall.sh and ATV-Recover image)
• LaunchMore! 0.4 (with ATV firmware 3.0)
• atvPWN (Not all of the plugins that can be installed through the latest atvPwn are actually compatible with 3.0)

Not working:

• ATVFiles
• aTV Flash (they say an update should be available by the end of the week)
• Sapphire
• Software Menu

In case you needed to downgrade back to firmware version 2.4.

UPDATE:

aTV Flash 4.0 Released!
Highlights: 3.0 AppleTV compatibility, improved update process, VNC server + bug fixes.

UPDATE 2

Patchstick 3.0 Update 3.0 released.
ATV 3.0 support, MobileAir Mouse, Bit torrent incl. Web UI, Boxee, XBMC and more.

UPDATE 3

Sapphire Browser beta 7.6 now supports AppleTV 3.0

The post Apple TV 3.0 – nitoTV, XBMC, Boxee and others now working appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Well…, as we all already know, new Apple TV software release didn’t bring anything really interesting to our shiny boxes, so let me not focus on the new features and start with a short article our friend wrote for HDTV Biz-News.com. More details about this poor update to come later.

***

After months of speculations whether Apple will release completely new Apple TV device making it a high-end media center for our living rooms or rather leave it, more or less, as it is (means without all the latest true HD capibilities, IP streaming, Blu-ray, live TV ability, HD recorder, 1080p support, etc.)… we still don’t know the answer.

The company introduced new Apple TV 3.0 software that gives us not more than a redesigned main menu – which is said to give a faster access to the content, possibility to watch iTunes Extras and enjoy iTunes LP in fullscreen and listen to the internet radio (including stations in high-quality HE-ACC formats).

Adding only cosmetic changes to a device with such a huge potential doesn’t mean Apple gave up developing Apple TV and converting it to a set-top box with all the capabilities offered by the HD market, but it gives a next signal that the company will do nothing that would pull people away from iTunes.

On-demand HD movie rentals and purchases, HD TV shows, music and podcasts from the iTunes Store give Apple a millions. According to the company, Apple TV gives direct access to a catalog of over 8,000 films on iTunes including over 2,000 in HD video available for rent or purchase. Users can also choose from a selection of 11 million songs, 10,000 music videos and over 50,000 TV episodes. Renting a movie in iTuens runs from $3 to $5, buying will costs us $14,99. And there are 65 million users of iTunes out there.

“HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV,” confirmed Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services.

Adding anything that would take Apple from iTunes revenue (like additional drive –  Blu-ray or, at least DVD, IP streaming or live TV) wouldn’t have any sense from the economical point of view. The only thing can happen is that Apple will add to the Apple TV an access to App Store to maximize revenues from the application market.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicts that Apple will sell 6.6 million AppleTV units this year.

***

The new Apple TV software is available immediately free of charge to existing Apple TV owners. Apple TV with 160GB capacity is available for $229.

Apple TV requires an 802.11b/g/n wireless network or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet networking, a broadband Internet connection and a high definition widescreen TV.

Apple has also released iTunes 9.0.2, adding support for Apple TV 3.0.

Originally appeared on HDTV.biz-news.com

The post Apple TV 3.0 Update appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

NitoTV appliance is a front end for the popular mplayer media player perian and Apple’s DVDPlayback.framework (if installed).

You can create/edit playlists and add files or folders of your choice. By now it should support just about any media format. Create afp, nfs and samba mounts (with bonjour support) Install the kextloader, a variety of kexts/frameworks/binaries, perian, mplayer codecs, play nes, snes, genesis, game gear and gameboy advanced roms, view RSS feeds and 3-day Weather forecast, Launch Applications, and much much more!

Click here to read whats new in 0.6.4

Installation instructions and more information can be found at here

The post nitoTV take 2 – For AppleTV Take 2 appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.