Apple Movie Junkie » How-To

The More You Know: Use Cinemira’s Movie Search Without Registering

Eddie V. — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:46:17 +0000

If you’ve been interested in giving Cinemira a try, but you don’t want to register, your in luck you don’t have to. Just click “Start Here” on the Cinemira home page and when the app loads close the Register/Login welcome window. All of the search tools will be available to you, including the Todays New Movies column. The features not available to the unregistered users are use of the Will Call Stack notifications and use of the Favorites Stack.

The More You Know: The Apple TV Status Light

Eddie V. — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:03:22 +0000

Have you ever wondered what it means for that little light in the front of your Apple TV to be blinking and changing colors? Below is a list of actions that your light might be indicating.

1. If the Status light is solid white, your Apple TV is on.

2. If the Status light is off, your Apple TV is off or in Standby Mode

3. If the Status light is blinking Amber, your Apple TV is starting up

4. If the Status light flashes white once, your Apple TV is accepting a command from the remote

5. If the Status light flashes amber once, your Apple TV is rejecting a command from the remote (you’ve paired a remote with Apple TV but you’re using a remote that’s not paired).

6. If the Status light alternates between white and amber, your Apple TV is having issues, refer to this Service FAQ

The More You Know: Standby Mode

Eddie V. — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:26:48 +0000

If your new to the Apple TV, you may be wondering how is it you turn the box off? If you haven’t discovered the fact that this little box runs kind of hot, you will. The short answer to this question is there is no way to turn it off, unless you unplug it completely. What Apple did though was include a Standby Mode, which is a way to turn it off without turning it off. To put Apple TV in standby mode, select Settings > Standby from the main menu, or If you are on the main menu, you can also press Play/Pause on the Apple Remote for about three seconds to put Apple TV in Standby Mode. Below is a list of things your Apple TV might be doing in Standby Mode, which will give you an idea of why it doesn’t cut power completely.

1. The hard drive spins down when not syncing or downloading content.

2. Video displays black even though video output remains active.

3. Audio does not play.

4. Download of any content (rented or purchased) from the iTunes Store continues uninterrupted.

5. Apple TV continues to appear in the iTunes device list, allowing you to view synced content.

6. Network connections remain active and Apple TV continues to appear in the iTunes device list, allowing you to sync content.

7. The fan continues to operate.

8. If the Apple TV is in standby mode during a sync operation, content continues to write to the hard drive.

The More You Know: Control Volume Of Music With Apple Remote

Eddie V. — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 01:05:42 +0000

Did you know that starting with Apple TV software 2.3, the latest Apple TV update, the + and – buttons on the Apple remote can control the volume when playing music. To enable this capability, choose Settings > Audio & Video > Control Music Volume. This feature is ONLY for music. You must use your TV or audio receiver remote to control the volume for video. Don’t forget that you can also use a third-party remote with the Apple TV.

The More You Know: Available iTunes Content By Country

Eddie V. — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:07:15 +0000

With Germany being added to the list of countries which can now buy or rent movies from the iTunes Store, I thought it might be important to review what iTunes content is available for what countries.

If you click on the thumbnail below you will see a break down of available content by country. This table is directly from Apple’s support page. Remember, high-definition content is not available in all regions. If an item is available in high-definition, you’ll see an HD logo.

The More You Know: Officially, What does the USB port do on the Apple TV?

Eddie V. — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:22:31 +0000

As an original 40gb Apple TV model owner, I often think of how awesome it would be if I was able to plug in an external USB hard drive to that USB port on the back of the Apple TV, especially with HD movie purchases now available. So if it’s not possible to plug in an external USB hard drive or any other USB device, why did Apple even put it there?

Officially, the USB port on the back of the Apple TV is only used for service and diagnostics. A USB keyboard, mouse, hard drive, or any other device will not be recognized by Apple TV.

Unofficially there are hacks to enable the USB port for external storage, but how about Apple making it easy and just enabling the USB port for things other then service and diagnostics in their next update.

New ATVJ Section: The More You Know

Eddie V. — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 14:57:17 +0000

We post tips and how to’s about the Apple TV from time to time on the site, but over time they get buried, so we’ve decided to create a new section just for these tips called The More You Know. On this page you’ll find links to help you out with anything from installing Boxee on your Apple TV to setting up your own home media server. If there are any other Apple TV features you would like to see us cover please feel free to let us know. Enjoy.

The More You Know:Using Airtunes With Apple TV

Eddie V. — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:07:06 +0000

First off, for those of you who don’t know what Airtunes is, Airtunes allows you to wirelessly listen to your iTunes music library through your home stereo or powered speakers. Usually this is accomplished with an Apple AirPort Express base station. But did you know you can use your Apple TV in the exact same way. You can stream music from your Apple TV as a source or you can stream music from iTunes to your Apple TV and use it as a wireless speaker.

Using Apple TV as an AirTunes source

To keep from interrupting playback, at the Now Playing screen, you can press and hold the Play/Pause button on the remote and choose Speakers from the menu that appears. Or if you haven’t started playback, you can follow these steps:

1. Choose Settings > AirTunes.
2. Apple TV will automatically detect and list your remote speakers available on your local network.
3. You can choose whether or not to allow your AirTunes remote speakers to control your Apple TV by toggling On/Off the “Control from Speakers” option.
4. Select the speakers you would like to use.
Note: AirTunes can only be used to stream music.

Using Apple TV as an AirTunes speaker

1. On Apple TV, choose Settings > AirTunes and set “AirTunes Speaker” to On.
2. On the computer, open iTunes preferences (Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences. Windows: Choose File > Preferences)
3. Click Devices and make sure to select the box next to “Look for remote speakers connected with AirTunes.”
Additionally, you can choose to disable the iTunes volume control for the remote speakers, as well as the ability to control iTunes from your remote speakers.
4. Click OK.
5. Choose Apple TV from the bottom right in iTunes .

The More You Know: Streaming Content From Multiple Sources To Your Apple TV

Eddie V. — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:37:01 +0000

Did you know that you can view content on your Apple TV from multiple computer sources. There are two ways to get iTunes content from your computer to Apple TV – Paring/Syncing and Sharing/Streaming. Knowing the difference between the two can be difficult to understand at times. Syncing copies content from your iTunes library and stores it on Apple TV. Apple TV can sync with only one iTunes library at a time.

Sharing/Streaming on the other hand sends content from your iTunes library to Apple TV to enjoy during the streaming process. Content is not stored on Apple TV. Apple TV can stream up to five iTunes libraries via streaming in addition to the one it syncs with. So if your looking to get content from multiple computers on to your Apple TV, streaming is the way to go. It is important to note that your computer must remain on and awake during the entire streaming process and iTunes must be running.

How to Set Up Streaming:

1. Open the Settings > Computers.

2. Highlight the Add Shared iTunes Library menu item and click Play to continue.

3. Apple TV generates a unique passcode. Make a note of the passcode.

4. Open iTunes on the shared computer.

5. Select Apple TV in the Devices list and enter the passcode.

Logging into your Apple TV (using SSH)

Bill G. — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:25:17 +0000

Many of us have installed Boxee on our Apple TVs and in the process we’ve installed other utilities such as Secure SHell (SSH). Why care? Well it opens up a lot of possibilities for you to access your Apple TV. If you are comfortable with the Terminal on Mac OS X (or command line in Linux) then you likely know about SSH and have already logged into your Apple TV, if not, this might seem like UNIX gobbledygook. Not to worry, there things you can do with SSH that don’t require terminal commands at all.

The Apple TV runs Mac OS X 10.4.8 (not sure about .8 or .7, Darwin version is 8.8.2) which means when you log in you have most of the same terminal capabilities you have on a Mac. If logging in from a Mac your Apple TV will likely have a Bonjour address already – AppleTV.local (possibly AppleTV-2.local). If using Windows or Linux you will need to figure the IP address of your AppleTV. This can be done through a network address scanner or directly from your router.

Apple TV’s default username and password are frontrow and frontrow. You may wish to change this since SSH is now enabled on your Apple TV to make it more secure. To login to your Apple TV use the following commands from the Terminal:

Mac:
ssh frontrow@AppleTV.local Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator) frontrow@appletv.local's password: frontrow

Linux:
ssh frontrow@IP address of Apple TV Welcome to the AppleTV (via atv-usbcreator) frontrow@appletv.local's password: frontrow

Once you are logged in you should see:
-bash-2.05b$

Try a simple command to list the files:
ls

You should see:
Documents Downloads Library Movies Music -bash-2.05b$

For those Windows users out there I recommend Putty which has a visual interface for logging into remote hosts. Select the SSH protocol, port 22, user “frontrow” and password “frontrow”. That should log you in – be sure to save this profile for next time.

That’s a start. I’ll follow up with using SSH to transfers files and to perform some tweaking to enable external USB drives and Apple Filing Protocol (AFP).

The More You Know: Using Third-party Remote Controls With Apple TV

Eddie V. — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:50:55 +0000

Are you tired of losing that little white Apple remote that came with your Apple TV? Sick of switching back and fourth from one remote to another? Did you know that Apple TV can learn other remote controls and use them in addition to the Apple Remote. Here’s How:

1. Choose Settings > General > Remotes.

2. Choose Learn Remote.

3. Set your remote to a device setting that doesn’t control any other devices in the area or identify other buttons that do not already control a function on your TV or other device. Many third-party remotes have an option to control different devices such as a VCR or DVD player or have an auxiliary option for an unspecified device.

4. Select Start (using the Apple Remote included with Apple TV).

5. Apple TV will display icons that represent the six buttons on the Apple Remote with the “Up” or “+” button highlighted first.

6. Using your third-party remote, press and hold the button you would like to use to control the “up” function until the blue progress bar is full as shown below.

7. Apple TV will then select the next button function. Repeat step 6 using a different button

8. After you have programmed all six button functions, you can now use your third-party remote to control Apple TV. You can optionally setup specific playback buttons for Fast-forward, Rewind, Next chapter, and more.

You can always program additional remotes to control Apple TV by repeating steps 1-8. At anytime you can rename, delete or revise your button choices for a selected third-party remote by choosing Settings > General > Remotes and selecting a third-party remote that Apple TV has already learned.

Hacking the AppleTV: Get Your Boxee On

Bill G. — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 03:31:25 +0000

Update – With the latest Apple TV update breaking Boxee users install of the media center software, I thought it would be a good time to re-run our popular post on installing Boxee on your Apple TV, enjoy.

“Hacking” the Apple TV probably can’t get any easier that it is right now. I put quotes around the word hacking because you are really adding software to the Apple TV and all it’s current functions remain intact and untouched. Also, a factory restore will put your precious Apple TV back to as good as new. I prefer the term “patching”.

In the past the choice has been to go to the various sites such as AwkwardTV or Apple TV Hacks and do it yourself or buy the install image and “how to” from a commercial site. I’ve tried the commercial offering and I prefer not to mention names but I’ll just say it’s not good value for money, more so now. Thanks to the folks at the atvusb-creator project on Google code, creating a patchstick is really easy. A patchstick is really a USB thumb drive or “key” that contains a boot image for the AppleTV that installs applications on its hard drive. The AppleTV is designed to boot from it’s USB port when powering up and if a suitable image is found it boots the USB image instead of the hard drive. The image created on the patchstick is written there by the atvusb-creator application – it’s really as simple as plugging in the USB key and running the program.

Once you have the Apple TV patched you can install Boxee and XMBC from the included installers on the patchstick. I won’t go into Boxee and XMBC in this post, I’m still trying each of them out. I’ll report on what I found out in a future post.

Here’s my step-by-step guide for patching your Apple from a Mac:

Get a suitable USB key or thumb drive. Unfortunately not all are guaranteed to work and get one that is less that 1GB in size (although people have had success with larger sizes – the minimum size is 512 MB). In my case I used a 1 GB SD card plugged into a USB card reader! It was the only thing I had around and I was shocked it worked. I suggest if at first you don’t succeed try a different USB key. NOTE: any data on the USB key will be lost during this process. If you have anything useful on it now, back it up.
Download the atvusb-creator application. This downloads as a tar file which you can expand in your download folder or move it somewhere else. Since it’s likely you will run this once or twice you may not need to move this to the Applications folder.
Unplug or eject any other USB drives at this time. You will be asked to choose a drive to format and you want to make sure you pick the right one!
Insert the USB key/drive and start the atvusb-creator application.
Change the Installation type to ATV-Patchstick and select the Boxee for Mac option (from the drop down that has a green check mark and “ssh tools” selected by default).
Select the USB target device – if your thumb drive is the only USB drive mounted, it should be the only one present. You really want to be sure your selecting the right drive because you will be formatting the USB drive.
You can select the Choose a DMG button if you have downloaded the Apple TV update image already. Otherwise the application will download it for you. You will likely know if you have done this before – the file is 2Z694-5428-3.dmg.
Click on the “Create Using ->” button to begin the process. If you need to download the update image it will take a while to complete. Also, writing the image to the USB will take some time. You should end up with the following when done (note in my case I have already downloaded the update image so you don’t see this in my screen shot).
Now that your patchstick is hot of the presses you need to install it on your Apple TV. Simply insert the USB key into the USB slot on the back of the Apple TV. The slot is vertical so you may need some maneuvering to insert it.
Remove the power cord from the back of the Apple TV and insert it again – this will perform a complete cold boot. You should see a bunch of text scroll past on your TV as it boots up – and a final success message at the bottom (sorry I didn’t record exact text but something to the effect that patch was successful).
Remove the USB key from the back of the Apple TV. Remove and insert the power cord to do another cold boot.
Your Apple TV should boot up as normal and when all the intro stuff is over you should see two new options at the top of your main menu: “Boxee” and “XMBC”. The patchstick image does not contain these applications only installers. You need to install Boxee and/or XMBC if you plan to use them.
To install Boxee, select Boxee from the main menu and select Install. The installer will download the latest version and install it on your Apple TV. Repeat for XMBC.
Once installed, you can run Boxee. You will need an account so apply for one here. Note that SSH is now enabled on your Apple TV so you can login and start to do all sorts of cool things. Just remember that you must specify “-1″ in the ssh command line and the address is typically AppleTV.local although in my case it is AppleTV-2.local (where is the other AppleTV??). You can always use IP addresses if you know them.

That’s it. Pretty straightforward. It’s possible it won’t work as smoothly for you as it did for me. A few troubleshooting tips:

Failures to boot seem to be related to the USB key. If you can, try another. Many new large USB keys apparently do not work.
You should see an obvious “patch succesful” message when the Apple TV is patched from the USB key. Any other message or incomplete output likely means failure. Again, it might be the USB key.
If all else fails you can do a factory restore and get everything back to normal.

ATVJ Wants To Know:What Software Do You Use To Encode Media For The Apple TV?

Eddie V. — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:44:11 +0000

We’ve posted about this before, asking in general, what software you use to backup your DVD’s on to your Apple TV. It was more for spreading general useful information, but as blogs go, these things tend to get pushed to the back and lost.

We’ve decided to start a resource here at Apple TV Junkie, a page dedicated to Apple TV users looking to get alternative media on to their Apple TV and how to do that. And we don’t mean Boxee. All though we believe Boxee will be an important alternative for Apple TV users in the future, we believe it’s not quite ready for prime time and the average Apple TV Joe.

So the question would be to all you, what software do you use to encode media in the proper Apple TV format? This should be both Windows or Mac. All your submission will be important in helping us build our new resource page.

Thanks to ATVJ supporter John D. for the seed to this idea.

Its been too long. So how about a Tip, for us PC guys.

Keith Foster — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:43:05 +0000

After a bit of an absence, I’m back. The last month has been busy for me, but that’s the past time to move forward and share some Apple TV love.

A quick tip today for all of us evil PC users. As we all know one of the best parts of Apple TV is we can stream content to it. I have a 500gb external drive hooked to my PC, unhacked Apple TV, and a Apple airport extreme base station for wireless goodness. Like most of us I use Handbrake to convert my videos to the proper format, but unlike on the Mac side I can’t just pop in my DVD and let it run. Unfortunately some mojo must be done first to overcome the encryption, and while there are programs that can do it for me most take some time to give me a “clean” file. That was the case before I found DVD43, this little plug-in un-encrypts in real time. A smiley face in the system tray is yellow when not being used, pop in a DVD after about 30sec it turns green and you’re ready to go. Go into Handbrake, select the Video_TS folder, and convert away. This is extra handy when converting a TV show, because I can then select each episode individually, que them, and convert a whole disc at one time. DVD43 has cut my conversion time down by about 25%, and has resulted in less stack dump errors.

As a side note, after the last update I can’t seem to get my Apple TV to go into sleep mode. Anyone else having this issue?

Twitter

Hint: Removing Menu Items from the Apple TV

Bill G. — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:03:40 +0000

As you likely know by now, I have a multiply hacked Apple TV. I now have more main menu items on my Apple TV than I want or need. It took some digging to get to the bottom of this so I thought I would post the solution here (thanks to this post here) :

You do need a hacked Apple TV with ssh access. Login: ssh -1 frontrow@Apple-TV.local
Find the Finder app plugins: cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns
Don’t delete the plugins merely rename them. For example I didn’t want the Jaman and Saphire plug in so: sudo mv Jaman.frappliance Jaman.frappliance.old (sudo password is, by default, “frontrow”)
Relaunch Finder: killall Finder && open /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app

There! Cleaned up menu items. They can easily be restored by following the same procedure and renaming the “.old” files back to their original names.