To repeat, do not upgrade your Apple TV to 3.0 if you’re running hacked ATV plugins like XBox Media Center or Boxee. I’m sure this will be fixed in a matter of days – if not hours – but as of right now it means a ride on the Failboat to Sad Trombone Town. That’s right: this update destroys the only thing that makes Apple TV usable and good.
Also, as an added bonus, Apple TV firmware 3.0 is insignificant. It adds Internet radio to the package and improves the UI. It also adds Genius playlists. My cup, as they say, runneth over.
I started to really like the Apple TV recently because I built an entire infrastructure for watching TV and movies using shell scripts, RSS feeds, and spit. Apple’s ham-fisted hegemony has destroyed all that.
But I do have Internet radio! Welcome to 2001, Apple TV! When I’m old and bitter I can listen to AM talk radio from all over the world!
Yipeee!
That said, you can easily hack any 2.x AppleTV with the ATVUSB Creator, a Windows or OS X app that takes the hard work out of hacking. You just run it and insert the resulting USB key into the Apple TV. A few minutes later you have Boxee and XMBC installed. We also have an older How-To here.
For now, keep your eye on this and this for updates. I’ll do the same. Together, we can fight this menace.
If you accidentally update to 3.0, run ATVPatchstick on your 3.0 machine, ssh into it using frontrow@appletv.local password: frontrow. Then enter these commands, ideally one at a type:
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-6242.20090624.Aq20P/2Z694-5660-029.dmg
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/EFI/009-7567.20080212.Vc45T/LOCKED_ATV11_00DA_00B.scap
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/EFI/061-3046.20080212.U7tgG/AppleCapsule.efi
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/IR/694-5484.20080708.hnji4/irrxfw-0x0244.irrxfw
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/IR/061-3045.20080708.Aq12D/IRReceiverUpdaterTool2
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/SI/061-3618.20080212.Pk8Bn/hdmiutil
wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/SI/061-3617.20080212.Qvh6u/FW29050_20080205_dse_hex.sihex
mv {2Z694-5660-029.dmg,LOCKED_ATV11_00DA_00B.scap,AppleCapsule.efi,irrxfw-0x0244.irrxfw,IRReceiverUpdaterTool2,hdmiutil,FW29050_20080205_dse_hex.sihex} /Users/frontrow/Updates/
wget -c http://ericiii.net/sa/appletv/osupdate
chmod 755 osupdate
sudo chown root:wheel osupdate
sudo ./osupdate
This will downgrade your system to 2.4 without touching your content.
UPDATE – If your remote stops working after loading 2.4, you can either factory restore or:
1. Allow the normal 3.0 update to download but do not install it. A screen will appear asking you if you want to update later. This will place a set of files, including the 3.0 firmware, into /Users/frontrow/Updates/ (these files will include IR updates as well)
2. Remove the .dmg file containing the 3.0 firmware.
3. Download the 2Z694-5660-029.dmg from here and place it into /Users/frontrow/Updates.
4. Follow the last part of the above update:
wget -c http://ericiii.net/sa/appletv/osupdate
chmod 755 osupdate
sudo chown root:wheel osupdate
sudo ./osupdate
Can we listen to any internet radio with Apple TV? Is there place to put a link to one’s favorite station? or Is it all pre-programmed by big brother Apple?
If you make a playlist containing the radio station it will showup in the playlist on your ATV. This is how I’ve been listening to internet radion through mine for a while now.
dude, just make a playlist with the stations in it. sync that playlist. done.
am i right?
It works great if you like something already linked in itunes.What if radio station is not in apple’s master list? There are lots of international stations in Europe but not listed in iTunes. I tried adding my own URL but no luck.
Maybe we should be glad that Apple has left Front Row for dead. It’s basically abandonware: Apple hasn’t touched Front Row since February 2008, despite releasing 2 major front-end updates for the AppleTV since then.
Sure, I know about Plex/Boxee/XBMC, but that doesn’t excuse Apple’s laziness here. It’s one of several examples of Apple releasing a half-assed product and then letting it languish to the point of embarassment.
Yeah Apple TV is definitely sad. I feel like with the new big iMacs they just want to integrate apple tv into the iMacs and make them sort of a media center computer with built in TV…
Apple TV really has no place. It’s kind of expensive for the little it does and they clearly don’t care to support it.
I live in Canada, and as such can’t access Hulu or some other streaming video sites. Is there any real benefit to me hacking my ATV and putting Boxee or XBMC on?
Also, if I do hack it and decide I don’t like it or find it useless how hard is it to take off my ATV?
XBMC does not wipe the apple software, it simply adds an xXBMC option to the main menu.
And I highly recommend doing it so you’re not locked into iTunes videos. XBMC allows you to stream ANY video you get from anywhere (*cough torrents*)
Read http://xbmc.org/wiki/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual
you can use a vpn provider to access Hulu, even if you are located in Canada. We are in Canada, too ;-)
We provide openvpn integration, so you can easily watch Hulu.
http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/openVPN
You need to clean your screen, man.
People still use the Wii slant base?
I have kids, dude. Sorry.
Why should I care about Internet Radio when I can run Pandora through Boxee?
“the only thing that makes Apple TV usable and good”?
I realize that this is a general gadget blog and not an Apple fansite, but even that’s a little harsh, don’t you think? I will agree that it ain’t perfect (far from it), but if you agree with the iTS model, it works pretty well. It doesn’t let you play 1080p mkvs (I wonder which legit store you bought those at?), but as a way to stay away from the next dead physical distribution format, it works.
Boxee didn’t help, either, kids. It played some stuff well and opened up access to a lot of stuff that you can’t get to otherwise, but even when I had it installed and running, it left me, well, wanting more. There are other boxes out there that will do those things better, too. I guess my point is that the ATV has its supporters, and I hazard to say that it isn’t just because it can run Boxee or XBMC.
Apple should make an offer to buy boxee before someone else does
Let’s hope not. Why would we want apple fencing in a free, open source project???
The only reason apple would buy boxee is to shut it down.
Apple purchased SoundJam MP and turned it into itunes. They didn’t shut it down, they put money into it and made it better.
If Apple buys boxee – boxee gets hardware+funding. And apple gets a kickass media center.
Plus, the exposure would create a huge marketplace for boxee developers. It could turn out to be another iphone app store – Producing $ for developers, $ for apple – and cutting edge entertainment for us.
Ok, let’s look at it this way. Apple already has their own boxee and they call it by the crazy name of AppleTV. It is locked into iTunes so you can only play media purchased from their store.
Boxee is free and open, apple is the antithesis of free and open. Do you really want apple to monetize/kill boxee?
Thanks! I got that nasty upgrade notification last night. I ignored it (having had my hard wiped out last time).
Found this too late :( Any info or suggestions for running Boxee w/ 3.0?
After ATV OS 3.0 installed. I just restored the ATV to “Factory Settings”. Then installed Boxee again and it works
Can anyone else confirm restoring ATV to factory settings after the 3.0 upgrade also restores boxee? Didn’t work for me…
I followed the steps described above, ATV 2.4 installs but after I reboot, I can’t access the box via the remote.
i have the same problem as ovi – i followed the downgrade instructions but after rebooting the atv is not accessible with the remote
please help!
same problem here! :-(
http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/Oops%2C+I+updated+to+firmware+3.0
this worked for me
It worked for me too! Thanks.
I’m no expert, but it looks like the IR firmware version in CrunchGears instructions is not right.
Another problem–I restored to factory settings but have a box with version 2.3.1. When I tried to make a patchstick I couldn’t find the DMG image anywhere for this firmware version. Any help?
It does not matter which ATV firmware you use to create the patchstick itself.
You can use this http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/PatchStickBuilder
to create a working patchstick.
http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/Oops%2C+I+updated+to+firmware+3.0 will downgrade to 2.4, which is the recommended version
LaunchMore! 0.4 is available immediately.
http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/LaunchMore!+0.4
Supports firmware 3.0
Now that I’ve reset to factory settings, I’m trying to recreate the ATV USB creator and THAT won’t work. IT stalls at the second “copy target files to disk” line, and I’ve tried multiple USB drives. Any help?
Here’s the text:
: 2Z694-5660-029-1.dmg selected
Extracting boot.efi …
Extracting recovery seed …
extracting atv_recv.zip
Creating USB Flash Disk…
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
partition the target disk
umount_disk settling delay (10 seconds)
install recovery onto target disk
copy files to target disk
Use this instead to create a patchstick
http://patchstick.wikispaces.com/PatchStickBuilder