Boxee on the Apple TV

Boxee, a social media player (sort of like Last.fm but can do a whole lot more), has made its way on to the Apple TV. Naturally I have to investigate. The Apple TV is a great set top box that allows you to watch movies, play music and view photos all from iTunes. You can also rent movies directly from it without syncing your own media. You can jailbreak these nice little media centers to play various other video formats beyond the scope of iTunes/QuickTIme. I am not going to go into heavy detail, but I have hacked our Apple TV to enable playing DiVX and other video formats.

Here’s where Boxee comes in. Boxee is based on XBMC and compiles what you and your friends are watching to a profile. The specifics you can catch on the Boxee site itself. Forgive me if I am skipping over all the details. Since Boxee allows me to stream media from my Mac (or any box that has SMB sharing enabled) can watch any videos without the need to transcode or SSH into my Apple TV (which other various hacks) to get the videos to play. I am going to go over how I got Boxee on my Apple TV and provide some pictures. I am going to warn you though, I am a little rusty at taking pictures in the dark of a projector. So bare with the quality, it’s been awhile.

I follow a simple tutorial courtesy of iClarified, what I am going to give you here is some pictures of the outcome and what I used to carry out this tutorial. I’ll also mention any problems I happen to run into a long the way.

How to install boxee on your Apple TV:

Small note: This process is Mac only. I am running Apple TV firmware versions 2.2 during these setup instructions.

  1. Download the ATVUSB-Creator (http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/)
    • Quick point here, I actually had a problem running the creator on my iMac , this is a known issue and unless you have another Mac lying around the house, this can be a snag in the entire operation. A fix is in the works.

  2. Connect a bootable USB drive
    • I used a Fujitsu 2.5″ 100 GB drive in an external self powered USB enclosure.
  3. Run the ATVUSB-Creator
  4. Eject and unplug the USB drive once the creator is finished.
  5. Plug in the USB drive to your Apple TV
    • If your Apple TV is on, you can just hold down - and Menu until it reboots. Otherwise Plugin/turnon your Apple TV.
  6. Once the bootloader on screen says it is finished, unplug your Apple TV and remove the USB drive.
  7. Pkugin your Apple TV and once the regular menu appears there should be Boxee and XBMC menu options
  8. Go to Boxee, and choose Update so it can download the app, simply follow the instructions on screen.
  9. Once updated, a new menu option will appear called XBMC/Boxee, you can run either app from here.

Some issues to Look Out for

  • When running Boxee, if the remote doesn’t seem to respond when hitting the Play or Menu buttons, you will need to Unpair your remote in the Apple TV Settings->General->Remotes option.

Some Pictures

I do have invites to give away. So if you are interested leave a comment and fill out your email address (only I can see it in the backend) and I’ll get one shot off.

This entry was written by Skunkie and posted on October 10, 2008 at 7:29 pm and filed under Journal. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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30 Comments

  1. Robert

    Ive been reading everything I can about Boxee (including your posts.) Thanks info and experiences.
    Had been using a PS3 to do much the same thing until the Blueray drive went pop (common problem) so getting DiVX and Boxee on the AppleTV which replaced it would be welcome. If you DO have a spare invitation it would be welcome here.
    Thanks info

    Rgds

    Robert

    Posted October 11, 2008 at 6:43 am | Permalink
  2. Dave

    Thanks for the guide. This looks quite cool, does it seem fairly responsive?

    I’d been interested in an invite.

    Cheers,
    Dave

    Posted October 11, 2008 at 3:54 pm | Permalink
  3. Skunkie

    Robert, I need a real email to send you an invite. Unless I am to replace “nospam” with “robert” in the email you did happen to use.

    Dave, the interface is about as responsive as the normal Apple TV interface. Loading a video when streaming takes a few seconds for it to buffer, a little longer than say the Apple TV’s normal interface would start it up. I’ve been pretty happy with Boxee so far (keep in mind this is my second real day of testing it on the Apple TV). Oh, and invite sent. :)

    Posted October 11, 2008 at 4:13 pm | Permalink
  4. Pete

    Hey, I’d love an invite. Thanks!!

    Posted October 20, 2008 at 7:32 pm | Permalink
  5. Rey

    I am dying to try this, I’m sitting here staring at the Boxee login screen on my apple tv with no way to try this, if you can spare an invite it would be greatly appreciated
    Thanks

    Posted October 20, 2008 at 9:22 pm | Permalink
  6. Alex Voigt

    I would love an invite!

    Posted October 21, 2008 at 9:13 am | Permalink
  7. Skunkie

    Pete, Rey, Alex, you all got invites. Check your email! :)

    Posted October 21, 2008 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
  8. Scott B

    I would love an invite as well.

    Posted October 25, 2008 at 12:39 pm | Permalink
  9. Corey

    Invite please???

    Posted November 2, 2008 at 1:31 pm | Permalink
  10. Paul N

    I would love an invite if you have any left.
    Thanks

    Posted November 4, 2008 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
  11. Christopher Plamback

    I would really love an inite if you would have any left.

    I have three apple TV’s with Boxee on all waiting for a try.

    I have 2000 songs, about 100 movies and all 4 seasons of The Wild Wild West I would love to try out with Boxee.

    Thanks,
    Chris

    Posted November 6, 2008 at 4:28 pm | Permalink
  12. Skunkie

    Christopher, your invite has been sent. I absolutely love Boxee on my Apple TV. I wish Apple would do something similar, but for now I am very content.

    Enjoy Boxee!

    Posted November 6, 2008 at 5:07 pm | Permalink
  13. EB Nelson

    sweet walkthrough! I’d like to try it out if you’ve got an invite to spare.

    Thanks!

    Posted November 7, 2008 at 7:34 pm | Permalink
  14. Skunkie

    EB, glad you liked it. Invite has been sent. :)

    Posted November 7, 2008 at 7:40 pm | Permalink
  15. Dan Doyle

    Great article! Do you have any remaining invites? I am eager to give this a try.

    Thanks!

    Posted November 8, 2008 at 6:43 pm | Permalink
  16. Skunkie

    Dan, it has been done. Enjoy!

    Posted November 8, 2008 at 7:31 pm | Permalink
  17. Colleen

    Excited to try Boxee on my Apple TV. Could you send me an invite? Thanks!

    Posted November 8, 2008 at 10:23 pm | Permalink
  18. Skunkie

    Boxee on the Apple TV is where it is at. Enjoy, Colleen!

    Posted November 8, 2008 at 10:59 pm | Permalink
  19. Coreyod@me.com

    Dying to try this, but can’t seem to get an invite. Can anyone share one? Thanks!

    Posted November 9, 2008 at 7:41 am | Permalink
  20. jeanpeter

    i’m trying to get an invite

    bv Thanks

    jeanpeter

    Posted November 10, 2008 at 11:34 am | Permalink
  21. Rob

    If you have any invites left, I would love to try it out.

    Thanks,
    Rob

    Posted November 10, 2008 at 5:56 pm | Permalink
  22. Prashanth

    Nice article. I just bought apple TV and I can’t seem to find any invites any where about Boxee. If you have one, can u please share?

    Posted November 10, 2008 at 7:23 pm | Permalink
  23. Nick

    Hi guys, I have apple TV here in the UK . I would love to try it out. Would you have anymore invites ?

    :) Nick

    Posted November 14, 2008 at 6:50 am | Permalink
  24. Philip

    Hey Guys, does anyone have a spare invite? philip at nakko dot com I’m sitting here staring at a login screen and want to watch finally watch all my series sooooo baaaad. PLEASE?!?!?!

    Posted November 15, 2008 at 4:34 am | Permalink
  25. billy

    Please send me an invite!!!!

    billypaulson@mac.com

    thanks!!!!!!

    Posted November 18, 2008 at 5:50 pm | Permalink
  26. jason

    Hello thanks for your helpful information can you invite me to boxee thanks alot :)

    Posted November 19, 2008 at 7:42 am | Permalink
  27. Jonathan Shroyer

    I am really looking forward to trying Boxee. I have been waiting for someone to create a media center software like this for a long time. I have XBMC for Xbox, but this is SOOOOO far beyond it. Unfortunately, I’m just staring at a login box. Any chance of getting an invite? I signed up on the site, but no luck yet.

    Thanks!

    Posted November 19, 2008 at 7:54 pm | Permalink
  28. Skunkie

    Jason and Jonathan, check your inboxes, invites have been sent. :)

    Posted November 19, 2008 at 9:08 pm | Permalink
  29. iliaz

    Please, send me an invite :) Thanks!

    Posted November 20, 2008 at 12:37 am | Permalink
  30. Lukas

    Wow.. I’ve just had to re-hack my AppleTV after updating itself to 2.2, so only now I see what leaps have been made in the apps sector..
    Would love an invite ;)

    Posted November 20, 2008 at 1:01 pm | Permalink

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