ATV Flash 2.2 now available for Apple TV 5.2 (iOS 6.1)

[Eug]

http://blog.firecore.com/post/43012930684/atv-flash-black-2-2

NEW! Added support for Apple TV 5.2 and Bluetooth keyboards
Minor improvements to backups
Minor improvements to DVD playback
A handful of other bug fixes and improvements

This is why you want Apple TV 5.2 (which is based on iOS 6.1):

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4448

Apple TV Software Update 5.2

iTunes in the Cloud - Browse and play your purchased iTunes music directly from iCloud. This feature may not be available in all countries.
Bluetooth keyboard - Use your Apple Wireless Keyboard to control your Apple TV. See this article for more information.
AirPlay audio for videos - Send stereo audio from movies, TV shows, and other videos on Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs).
Stability and performance - Includes general performance and stability improvements.

Apple TV Software Update 5.1.1

iTunes Up Next - Adds support for Up Next with iTunes 11 or iTunes Match. See upcoming songs when playing music on your Apple TV. Add new songs and edit what's queued with your Remote or with the Remote app.
Stability and performance - Includes performance and stability improvements with the iTunes Store, AirPlay, Netflix, iTunes Match, and wired Ethernet connections.

Apple TV Software Update 5.1

Shared Photo Streams - Accept invitations for Shared Photo Streams, browse photos and comments, and receive notifications of new content.
AirPlay - Send audio content from Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs). Also includes the ability to require an onscreen code to use AirPlay with your Apple TV.
iTunes account switching - Save multiple iTunes accounts and switch quickly between them.
Trailers - Search movie trailers. In the United States, see show times for local theaters.
Screen savers - New Cascade, Shrinking Tiles, and Sliding Panels screen savers.
Main menu - Reorder icons on the second page by holding down the select button on the remote.
Subtitles - SDH support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as improvements to viewing and selecting subtitles.
Network configuration - Support for setting up advanced network options using configuration profiles. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5437 for more information.
Stability and performance - Includes general performance and stability improvements.

This is how you add a Bluetooth keyboard:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5633

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This is for Apple TV 2. Sorry, Apple TV 3 not supported.

Might be a good time to back up those SHSH blobs too.

 

[TheStu]

What makes aTV Flash worth $30?

 

[Tyranicus]

What makes aTV Flash worth $30?

In my opinion, nothing. When I had an Apple TV, I jailbroke it for XBMC and XBMC only.

 

[ponyo]

In my opinion, nothing. When I had an Apple TV, I jailbroke it for XBMC and XBMC only.

Yeah, I looked at ATV Flash features and found nothing that can't be done on XBMC. Certainly not worth paying for. All you need is XBMC and that's free. I'm not updating my ATV2 firmware to 5.2 til XBMC works with it.

 

[Eug]

I paid for ATV Flash. It integrates directly into the Apple TV interface so it feels native. Very slickly implemented. Plus they spent a lot of time simplifying the install process.

XBMC is a completely different interface, and not what one would expect for an Apple product. Also, while I can't vouch for this, but I've been told that XBMC is somewhat more flaky on Apple TV. I wouldn't be surprised since Apple TV 2 only has 256 MB RAM.

However, if XBMC is working for you and you like it, there isn't a good incentive to get ATV Flash. ATV Flash won't give you any more media type support.

ATV Flash just makes things easier to install and Apple-fies the UI feel, since it's integrated in the Apple TV menu system. Plus ATV Flash is running on iOS 6.1 (Apple TV 5.2). XBMC isn't. I'm looking forward to using Airplay for audio from videos. I dunno if this works with ATV Flash's Media Player but I hope so because I have a whole home audio system based off Airport Express. Bluetooth keyboard support is also nice but to be honest I probably won't use it. I've recently added my Apple Wireless Keyboard to my iMac G4 setup instead.

 

[Eug]

Hmm... I've been reading through their forums, and I get the impression their latest jailbreaking app update is pretty buggy. It works, but inconsistently, and some people have had to apply a patch manually themselves to get it to work. Not exactly a user-friendly jailbreaking process.

Plus, it turns out AirPlay audio from video within Media Player is not supported either. Too bad.

I think I'm going to hold off a bit before trying the 5.0.2 --> 5.2 update.

 

[Eug]

Well, I did the 5.2 update anyway, despite the bugs. It was pretty annoying as I actually had to patch Firecore's jailbreaking app myself, with a file that was from the original jailbreaking team. For some reason Firecore hasn't done the patch themselves yet.

Plus, it claimed the firmware update was not successful, but luckily it did in fact work fine.

This experience definitely wasn't what I was expecting for a $30 paid application. It was better the first time around to 5.0.2, but note that I didn't do that until several months after the 5.0.2 jailbreak was out. Perhaps they had fixed any bugs with their 5.0.2 jailbreaking application during that time so by the time I did it was much less painful.

BTW, don't expect XBMC to be on Apple TV 2's 5.2 firmware (which is based off iOS 6) any time soon:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=155388

XBMC won't run on iOS6.x for now. We are trying our best to change this fact but unfortunatly Apple did the same and changed alot for the current ATV2 Software 5.2 (iOS 6.1) which now makes our live hard when it comes to XBMC.

If you want to use XBMC on your ATV2 you need to stay on iOS Version 5.x or below!

That means you have to stick with ATV2 5.0.2, which is based on iOS 5, to use XBMC. Fortunately for me, Firecore's Media Player works fine on iOS 6. I'll have to test the AirPlay functionality but I hear reports that's the one thing Media Player doesn't support.

 

[Emulex]

I just stick to the o.g 4.4 or 4.3 - i still have xbmc 12 and over FTP it streams 720 pretty good as long as AC3 is not used (i don't have ac3 tv).

If you have to downmix audio, that's when the ATV runs out of cpu mojo

 

[Eug]

What is o.g 4.4?

With Media Player and OS 5.0.2 and 5.2, playback of 1080p H.264 (even a fairly high bitrates) with AC3 audio out works fine. I'm not downmixing TrueHD though, just AC3 pass-thru.

I know ATV2 only outputs 720p, but as long as it can decode 1080p smoothly I'm happy with that.