Shoesy Wrote:Two weeks ago we didn't even have xbmc for atv2. To label it 'unstable' at this early stage is frankly ridiculous. Who knows how far it can be pushed over the coming months and years.
ATV1 with CrystalHD is great but essentially a hack to make the older hardware usable. Reinstalling the OS with a linux based system to make the interface smooth is a step too far for the majority of users. Jailbreaking on the other hand is (fairly) simple and well within the reach of most people. I'm pretty certain that development for atv2 will continue for a long time and take xbmc in an exciting new direction.
Unless you need the storage space or 1080 right now I cannot in any way recommend an original atv over atv2.
I must agree that labeling ATV2 as unstable, sluggish, and crashing is a bit premature considering the timeline. However the question of the thread resides in the present not the future. If someone wants to go buy something today, and have it fully working tomorrow the unstable portion of XBMC, the currently disabled features, plugins, etc on ATV1 vs ATV2 should be admitted as a talking point. In general what you are saying is correct, I expect an excellent XBMC build in the coming year, and Apple TV2's flying off shelves for the sole purpose of XBMC, but to label the feedback of stability, and features to someone purchasing today as "ridiculous" seems to be a little much.
It's kind of weird because I'm in agreement with your general premise but not so much the argument as laid out. It's not that one hardware is older then the other, it's that it's different. In fact I could probably make an argument that the ATV1 CPU and GPU in the raw are more powerful then the ATV2.
The ATV2 PowerVR GPU happens to be tuned for offloading all 264,VC1,MPG2 content, where the GeForce 7 in ATV1 was only partial 264,MPG2(and hence the CrystalHD to even it out). This is obviously in the wheel house for what we want in our XBMC. Still XBMC UI needs render and the GeForce 7 has more power for that. topfs2 says as much here.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...ish&page=2
The CPU of ATV1, a Pentium M Dothan at 1Ghz out performs the Cortex A8(Apple A4) here. Even with Apple being all secretive you could speculate the CPU is the ATV2 is no more then a 1Ghz clocked CPU from the iphone 3GS(600Mhz) with some extra L2 cache, the technology is almost 2 years old.
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/269530
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/276786
Take the benchmarks for what you will, I'm a bit skeptical of the exact accuracy, but it's a set of data none the less. The ATV2 is a way for Apple to take the same hardware and make a smart phone, tablet, and settop box, while using less engineers, less research and development and thus a better profit margin for the share holders. Personally I feel it's almost like the ATV2 was an after thought to the development. A "Hey the guts of this smart phone will fit in this little black box", and now we have a moderately powered little black box to all play with, but the guts are just the guts of a smart phone, not the development tree of making full feature media center.
I guess all I'm saying is that, I'm not sure I expect the ATV2 can achieve all that much more the XBMC experience then the ATV1(linux). What's exciting is that I think we will be using this type of architecture(ATV2) going forward and all the XBMC development in this area will lead me to the ideal playback solution by next hardware revisions.
The main reason I'd advocate buying an ATV2 this very second, is that it's possible Apple could change the bootrom like they did on 3GS iphone, thus breaking Limera1n exploit. Maybe the SHAtter would work, maybe it wouldn't. Either way you'd still be able to pick one up used. Other then that pick your pony, I don't think either has the clear as a bell advantage on the other. As far as the ATV1 on linux like you said, it is a bit of work, you are so correct and not for the average user. Sam was working on a one click solution there to add the install to the hard drive, that would even things even a bit more. Tough call. I do agree with the poster who said ATV2 beginning of an new era.
EDIT: Actually I say ATV2 is the easy choice for those wanting Netflix support, forgot that.