I am completely stymied trying to jailbreak my Apple TV.

[Patranus]

Use Ember Media Manager (Revisited). It's the best thing since sliced bread for Movies and TV shows. I have mostly TV shows, so it downloads TV show art, season posters, episodes art, Episode synopses. It's pretty intuitive and it makes managing media art easy compared to doing it manual.

Thanks for the link.
Ill have to check it out.

I have stubbornly using MetaBrower (old free beta) for too long.

 

[Lotheron]

Thanks for the link.
Ill have to check it out.

I have stubbornly using MetaBrower (old free beta) for too long.

Actually I just posted a review/how to on EMM:

http://www.lotheron.com/2011/05/26/use-ember-media-manager-to-organize-your-media-art-like-a-pro/

 

[Fausto]

Starting to get my library sorted. I'm not sure what's different betweent the version I have on my ATV and the version I have on my OG xbox, but damn the scraper data is spot-on for the most part.

 

[Aikouka]

Why is it that EMM refuses to automatically scrape my TV shows? It will automatically parse the movies .

 

[Lotheron]

Why is it that EMM refuses to automatically scrape my TV shows? It will automatically parse the movies .

It might be the naming structure of your TV shows. Make sur ethe file name is something that can be easily scanned to compare to the database and a season #/episode # is also in the file name. EMM works with great with either <season#>x<episode#> or S00E00 where S = Season number and E = Episode number. I use the latter. So the 5th episode in the third season would be S03E05.

 

[Aikouka]

It finds the episodes properly, but it won't scrape them automatically. So I have to sit through and scrape each show manually .

All of my episodes should be using standard scene naming schemes, which is what I assume those match. As an example:

Top.Gear.S16E02.720p.HDTV.x264-FoV.mkv

 

[Lotheron]

It finds the episodes properly, but it won't scrape them automatically. So I have to sit through and scrape each show manually .

All of my episodes should be using standard scene naming schemes, which is what I assume those match. As an example:

Top.Gear.S16E02.720p.HDTV.x264-FoV.mkv

That should be good enough. I would suggest scraping manually anyhow so that you can pick the art you want. There are multiple choices for some shows, especially popular, long running shows like Top Gear.

Once you get the first run through of manually scraping, anything that's added after the fact the new episodes should scrap automatically with screen caps and show info.

 

[vi edit]

I followed Lotheron's writeup and I'm stuck at the 3194 error. I did the iREB hack. I added the gs.apple.com to my hosts file. Still no luck.

ATV2 is at 4.2.2 (updated last night)
Downloaded iTunes last night.
Grabbed a fresh ROM from Seasonpass.

Nothing I do seems to get past that error.

 

[Lotheron]

I followed Lotheron's writeup and I'm stuck at the 3194 error. I did the iREB hack. I added the gs.apple.com to my hosts file. Still no luck.

ATV2 is at 4.2.2 (updated last night)
Downloaded iTunes last night.
Grabbed a fresh ROM from Seasonpass.

Nothing I do seems to get past that error.

Either iREB or the Host file change (or the combination of the two) should fix the 3194 error.

Try this:

1. Restore a factory firmware to AppleTV. If you get a 3194 error here, there might be another issue. The update process does call home and if it gets a response that it doesn't like, it starts throwing errors like 16XX and 3194.
2. Delete Seas0nPass downloads from Documents\Seas0nPass
3. Redownload IPSW using Seas0nPass. This will take a few minutes depending on your download speed
4. Put the device in DFU mode (hold play/pause and menu for 7 seconds)
5. Download the latest version of iREB and let it do its thing
6. Restore the IPSW using iTunes

I prefer Seas0npass because it's made with the ATV2 in mind, but it's definitely not the only game in town. sn0wbreeze is available on the same site iREB is and it pretty much does the same thing that Seas0nPass does which jailbreaks a firmware file that you restore rather than jailbreaking a live install of the firmware on a device. You might want to give that a try as I know some people have luck with these.

It should not matter, but for some reason I have better luck if I start with a completely updated and non-jailbroken unit before starting the above process. It might be a placebo effect, but I've run into errors doing it differently.

 

[vi edit]

This thing is just frustrating me. :/

I tried about everything I could throw at it. Found another utility called "tinyumbrella" that I ran that got me past the 3194 error. It went through the whole restore process and did the final validation only to end up with a 1600 error.

And even worse I thought I bricked the poor thing. After the 1600 error I took it back and hooked it up to the TV and it just blinked really fast. Poop.

Took it back to iTunes and tried to restore from Apple. Got a 3194 error. Remembered that I still had that entry in my hosts file. Removed that. Tried again. Finally got a clean recovery back to 4.2.2 from Apple. And re-entered all of my other settings.

Maybe I'll try it all over again.

It's just so damn time consuming.

Another thing I can try is using Tinyumbrella to recover to the older 4.2.1 version and then use Greenpoison RC6.1

 

[ponyo]

Im still on older 4.2.1 (4.1.1 on ATV2). That's still the only version with official XBMC release. I wont update til there's feature Im missing I need. I guess newer firmwares are harder to jailbreak. I jailbroke 6 different ATV2 for family and friends on 4.2.1 using Greenpoison. I didn't run into a single issue.

I hope you get it figured out because JB ATV2 with XBMC and addon plugins are beyond awesome. Try 4.2.1 firmware with Greenpoison or Snowbreeze on newer firmware.

 

[Lotheron]

Im still on older 4.2.1 (4.1.1 on ATV2). That's still the only version with official XBMC release. I wont update til there's feature Im missing I need. I guess newer firmwares are harder to jailbreak. I jailbroke 6 different ATV2 for family and friends on 4.2.1 using Greenpoison. I didn't run into a single issue.

I hope you get it figured out because JB ATV2 with XBMC and addon plugins are beyond awesome. Try 4.2.1 firmware with Greenpoison or Snowbreeze on newer firmware.

I'm with you here. The only reason I upgraded one of the ATV2s is because my dad actually used MLB.TV.

The other reason is supposedly they updated the x264 decoder in 4.2.2 and it's supposed to be more compatible. I did see an improvement in a few files so it was worth it for me.

We'll have to do all of this again for iOS5 now

 

[blackdogdeek]

This thing is just frustrating me. :/

I tried about everything I could throw at it. Found another utility called "tinyumbrella" that I ran that got me past the 3194 error. It went through the whole restore process and did the final validation only to end up with a 1600 error.

And even worse I thought I bricked the poor thing. After the 1600 error I took it back and hooked it up to the TV and it just blinked really fast. Poop.

Took it back to iTunes and tried to restore from Apple. Got a 3194 error. Remembered that I still had that entry in my hosts file. Removed that. Tried again. Finally got a clean recovery back to 4.2.2 from Apple. And re-entered all of my other settings.

Maybe I'll try it all over again.

It's just so damn time consuming.

Another thing I can try is using Tinyumbrella to recover to the older 4.2.1 version and then use Greenpoison RC6.1

were you successful? i just got my atv2 delivered yesterday but haven't gotten around to jailbreaking it yet.

 

[vi edit]

were you successful? i just got my atv2 delivered yesterday but haven't gotten around to jailbreaking it yet.

I'll try the season pass method again tonight. I need to read a little more about tiny umbrella before trying to downgrade to an older iOS.

 

[blackdogdeek]

I'll try the season pass method again tonight. I need to read a little more about tiny umbrella before trying to downgrade to an older iOS.

if you don't mind my asking, can you tell me what OS you're running on your desktop and what version of iOS you currently have on your atv2? thanks!

 

[vi edit]

I'm running windows7 (not sure if there's a service pack on there or not) for my desktop OS and the Apple TV is at 4.2.2

Out of the box (from Best Buy) it was at 4.2 and the update function in the device took it to 4.2.2
All jailbreak info I read was for 4.2.1 and 4.2.2

The other part that is difficult is keeping the versions straight. What Apple TV calls a version is different than the iPhone iOS versions.

I found this helpful in keeping things straight:
http://www.funkyspacemonkey.com/downloads

 

[vi edit]

Victory is mine!
Followed Lotheron's steps exactly and it worked this time. Now to figure out htf to use XBMC and add my shares.



Thanks Lotheron!

 

[Lotheron]

Victory is mine!
Followed Lotheron's steps exactly and it worked this time. Now to figure out htf to use XBMC and add my shares.



Thanks Lotheron!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTT!!! You are VERY welcome!

Welcome to the dark side

 

[silverpig]

Wow, after messing around with my new apple tv I finally got the jailbreak to work. I installed the Plex plugin and am streaming stuff from my hackintosh. I kind of prefer the standard plex layout, but hey, this works

 

[vi edit]

So I must be doing something wrong....can you exit out of XBMC without shutting down the whole thing and restarting?

 

[Lotheron]

So I must be doing something wrong....can you exit out of XBMC without shutting down the whole thing and restarting?

Yes. It depends on the skin though. For the default skin, there is a little power button that you click. It's sometimes tricky to get to bit it's there. If you have a different skin, it might be somewhere else.

 

[BD2003]

A bit of an aside, but I've always been thinking of purchasing one of these, but was waiting for it to mature.

I tried xmbc on an iPad 1 when it first came out, assuming performance will be generally the same as atv2, and it was absolutely dreadful. So a few Qs:

Has performance significantly increased since debut?

Is 1080p video supported 100%? What about 24p? Can it automatically switch in and out of 24hz refresh when a 24p video is played?

How easy/quick is it to switch in and out of xbmc to access the standard ATV2 UI?

How well does it work with the atv2 remote? And is that remote IR or RF?

 

[vi edit]

One thing very cool about the XBMC is that I have bunch of kids movies ripped to my PC via DVD shrink. I think I had My Movies in there as a media manager at one time and it included cover art. I've got the full audio_ts and video_ts folders in there. If you browse to the movie folder and hit "play" on the remote it just starts playing the movie. Very cool.

I'm streaming over the wifi connection and that's a definite shortcoming. It just chokes on buffering and HDTV content recorded with my Media Center PC is useless.

I'll try running a hardwired connection and see if that helps. Remote control is okay. It's IR. The cool thing about the Apple TV is that it lets you program other remotes to work with it right from the system. One of the most innovative "learning" methods I've ever seen. So if you have direction buttons on a DVD remote or your TV you can use those instead of the ATV remote. And I guess you can hack the remote control buttons with a remote control file burried in the xbmc install directory on the device that improves the remote functions of the device.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm streaming over the wifi connection and that's a definite shortcoming. It just chokes on buffering and HDTV content recorded with my Media Center PC is useless.

I haven't tried it over WiFi since I have an Ethernet connection right there, but I couldn't imagine that most content would cause a problem unless your signal is really bad.

I'll try running a hardwired connection and see if that helps. Remote control is okay. It's IR. The cool thing about the Apple TV is that it lets you program other remotes to work with it right from the system. One of the most innovative "learning" methods I've ever seen. So if you have direction buttons on a DVD remote or your TV you can use those instead of the ATV remote. And I guess you can hack the remote control buttons with a remote control file burried in the xbmc install directory on the device that improves the remote functions of the device.

I use HippoRemote on my iPhone with my ATV2 + XBMC. It will only work with a hacked one running VNC (I believe it comes by default).

 

[ponyo]

Everything over WiFi for me using SMB share. I have zero problem with mine since all my content are either 720p mkv or SD 480p avi. Zero buffering, stutter or lag playing back anything. I have about 300 movies and videos currently.

I do get buffering if I try to stream 720p movies from Icefilms but I think those movies are AVI encoded and internet streaming is really dependent on the server and how many people are on it. But 480p movies from Icefilms stream perfectly. I don't have any problem streaming movies and shows from Navi-X but I think everything on there is SD Divx encoded so it's not taxing at all even on slow internet connection.