[noreason4nothin]

Hi there,

i am sorry but after reading many threads on this board i am still unsteady wether i should buy an apple tv or not.

It would be a "tuned" version with an 320GB Harddrive and the Crystal HD Broadcom 700012 Chip already installed.

Please don't hate me for those few questions:

1. Is there any way to get 1080p Videos running without any issues using the original Apple TV OS?

2. Same as above but with XMBC?

3. I read about Linux. Did i get that right: Install Linux on ATV and then install xmbc for linux on atv because it performs way better than xbmc on atv os?

4. Is this setup really worth 275 eur or would you rather spend it for a simple 1080p multimedia player like the wd live?

I never used linux and wont have that much time to read into every single detail. I mostly want a nice looking device with a neat interface playing all material i want. Is ATV right for me or is there too much to tinker around?

I also would appreciate to switch easily between the original ATV OS and the OS i have to use to get perfect 1080p playback.

Thank you in advance!

[pmcd]

As much as I like the Apple TV, I'd have to caution you against buying it. There are alternatives. They might not be as nice, have horrible gui's, etc...but they will give you 1080p with no worries. They fall under the media player category. You can also put xbmc on a computer. I have a new Mac Mini and XBMC on it is great. Still, media players are neat. The Apple TV is an example of a media player but it really isn't meant for 1080p. The Cystal HD card has of course changed that but then you are in beta land...

philip

[Philmatic]

Just get the WD Live... you lose the interface and the library aspect but you get perfect playback for pretty much everything you can throw at it, it's cheaper out of the box and it's easy to use.

Just trust me (and us).

[prae5]

Hi there,

i am sorry but after reading many threads on this board i am still unsteady wether i should buy an apple tv or not.

It would be a "tuned" version with an 320GB Harddrive and the Crystal HD Broadcom 700012 Chip already installed.

It would depend on the price, personally if someone is buying new hardware then I would recommend an ion based netop. You can pick up a single core acer revo or similar for less than $200/£150 and install xbmc live on it and it will happily play back 1080p content without any problem and is more cost effective.

Please don't hate me for those few questions:

1. Is there any way to get 1080p Videos running without any issues using the original Apple TV OS?

If by Apple TV OS you mean its native player then no. It will not playback the majority of the content you download.

2. Same as above but with XBMC?

Yes xbmc and a broadcom decoder card will do 1080p playback, however some people do have issues with it.

3. I read about Linux. Did i get that right: Install Linux on ATV and then install XBMC for linux on atv because it performs way better than xbmc on atv os?

Linux is not required, however some people get better performance with 1080p content using it. Its not difficult to do and can be installed to a usb stick if required.

4. Is this setup really worth 275 eur or would you rather spend it for a simple 1080p multimedia player like the wd live?

For 275 eur, then no its not what i would spend my money on. Thats about £235 i think and for that you could easily by a new dual core ion based netop. New technology, less power usage and supports 1080p out of the box. Have a search for Acer Revo netops. For that money you should be able to get the dual core version (3610), 2gb ram and a decent size hd. Min specs needed for 1080p playback using xbmc under linux are single core atom and 1gb ram. If you want to use windows 7 then i would suggest the dual core version and atleast 2gb ram.

I never used linux and wont have that much time to read into every single detail. I mostly want a nice looking device with a neat interface playing all material i want. Is ATV right for me or is there too much to tinker around?

Only you can decide that. However given 1080p is important to you, you may be better looking at ion based nettops.

I also would appreciate to switch easily between the original ATV OS and the OS i have to use to get perfect 1080p playback.
Thank you in advance!

xbmc is just an app that runs on the atv os. All you need do is exit out of xbmc and it will return you to the native os.

[noreason4nothin]

Thank you all! I guess i will save my money to buy one of those new mac minis or just a wdc live

[janaarnoutfaber]

I do not agree; yes for that money you can buy an out of the box solution. Or some cheap netbook. But the apple tv looks nice... it's a real media player, ment for playing video on your tv. I installed linux with xbmc, connected my bluetooth dongle for keyboard and mouse and I'm in heaven. XBMC is so coool, it automatically gets al info of all the movies available and using the bmc700015 in combination with the drivers of davilla it runs like a charm. processor at around 40% . 40% of memory available and in fact a very small fully functioning ubuntu machine. On the other partition, my mac os (tiger) is still running, enabling me to use the apple tv as a real apple device. ITunes, syncing everything with my other apple devices.For example using my iphone as a remote. When I started airfoil to listen to itunes on all my devices simultaniously, the apple tv was recognized and everything worked great. Iphoto works great. So I made the desision for the Apple tv and each day I get happier with te possibilities and still it remains a small cool looking and easy to use device and not some computer next to your tv, making a lot of noice and being ugly