Is it worth me getting 2x ATV2 to run XBMC? - your opinions as existing users..
#31
I think you can say it is situation specific, it is nigh on perfect for me.

As an Apple device, it works well with all the other Apple machines knocking around the house, Airplay is fantastic etc...

Of course it really comes into it's own when XBMC is thrown into the mix, it plays back 720p scene releases (perfect as I only have a 720p plasma) without any complaints (including DTS, subtitles etc... all the little things which can fail on other hardware). It has the excellent, and highly configurable, XBMC interface, as well as sublime plugins like Icefilms, iPlayer, and TVcatchup which all run smoothly.

It is a great piece of kit (well designed, low power), which cost £80, and a couple of hours to crack, seems pretty unbeatable.
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#32
Just wanted to let you all know that I took the plunge and got 2 ATV2s and now have them running XBMC

Thank you to those who responded to my original question.

I have a few little niggles - most of which I think I can sort out from answers i have found on the forums and a couple are more XBMC functionality issues rather than ATV2 - anyway I will probably post a separate thread if I can't figure them out by the end of the week.


For any one interested here is what I have done and my experience so far (since the weekend):

Luckily for me both ATV2 came with IOS 4.2.1 (atv 4.1.1.) installed - as it looks like as of Saturday 16th apple were not signing this firmware anymore - could not get tiny umbrella to save the SHSH Blobs so if anything goes wrong I am a little stuffed but never mind!


Used GreenPoison to JB the devices - took a few attempts on each one to get DFU mode but apart from that all very easy


Installed Nito Tv and then used Nito to install XBMC on each one - no problems

Also used Updatebegone from nito tv menu to fix the known IOS update problem - that seems to have worked


Now in prep for this work I had been setting up my database on my windows 7 machine - downloaded plugins and created a few smart playlists - once I had it all working how I wanted on there I exported the DB and then began setting up the MYSQL version

I ran into a few issues setting up mysql - not atv2 related - (half not knowing what I was doing and half my QNAP nas requiring special permissions to access from another machine)

Once I had my windows machine connected to the mysql database - I re-imported the DB to make sure everything worked - the first thing I would say is that my windows machine now feels a bit laggier /slower than before - its running over homeplug 200 so that could be the cause and also my qnap is a bit old and probably a bit under powered for the job - so my expectation of this working on ATV was a little lower than before


So to setup the ATVs what I did was copy the contents of my PC's XBMC preferences folder over to each ATV using file zilla - i wasn't sure if this was going to be ok but it seemed to work ok so far - the only problem I have was that the addons that I had installed showed in the menu but didn't load when you click on them (resolved by removing and then installing directly on each device)


I never let ATV version of XBMC scrap its own database or anything - from first load they had the MYSQL settings added via advancedsettings.xml - the whole data base showed up ok but couldn't play any files - said the source no longer existed - to fix this issue I navigated to the source using file mode and it prompted for UN/PW - entered that and all now ok in library mode


The whole XBMC experience on ATV is obviously not as snappy as on my quad core PC - the menus are a bit laggy as is navigating the library - but it's definitely workable

I haven't yet gone down the route of symlinking all the thumbnails to a central server as I think that will just add another bit of lag to the process - for the time being I am just using my windows 7 machine to do updates and will copy over the updated thumbs to each ATV after it has finished downloading them (I dont add new content more than once a week anyway).


Things on the to do list for the evenings/weekend are:
  • Setup custom remote codes - not sure the ones mapped by default are most useful for me personally
  • investigate a few glitches with some files - 720p 4gb file is ok (because is H.264) but a really old series I have that are low file size avi's have buffering issues after 15secs - probably just recode these to H.264
  • Fix problem with recently (movies/Tv shows) added not showing up on home screen (found fix on forums)
  • Fix time on each unit (found fix on forums)
  • Add indexing to the MYSQL database as recommended on forums to see if it speeds things up a bit
  • Play around with different skins to try and make it a little more responsive - although I am quite happy with the standard one - any recommendations from fellow ATV2 users?
  • Try and figure the best/easiest way of playing back a TV series from say S02E3 and get it to roll onto the next Episode on its own - My wife is not too keen on having to Q the files then go into another screen to get them to start playing
  • Decide on which files are safe to keep the same throughout all 3 devices – i.e. preferences etc… I would like to keep them all in sync as much as possible but don’t want to accidentally overwrite something on ATV from the windows file that is going to break anything
  • set up optical out in lounge to amp and get that working - currently only pushing sound via HDMI to TV

All things considered at the moment I would say it feels like a little tiny step back from what I had setup on my WDTVLIVE - purely from the fact with the WD I had the confidence it would play every file I have in any format with out problem. I had also already put some work to making it look nicer than the stock UI so whilst XBMC library mode is clearly superior - my WD did already "look pretty"

However going forward - the features of XBMC and the much nicer interface and customisation will definitely make this switch worth it in the long run! Not to mention you get the added benifit of some of the nice apple features - like airplay as well!
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Is it worth me getting 2x ATV2 to run XBMC? - your opinions as existing users..0