[Lenny The Dub]

OK, I have looked and I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. I just got a new ATV2 and immediately put XBMC on it. The jailbreak and install were seamlessly easy, thanks again to all the devs.

I have xbmc installed on my PowerMac PPC G5 running 10.4 so I could get used to how to set things up. I don't like asking too many questions, I prefer to try and teach myself so I can better understand things. I researched and made a theme for my iphone4 before I asked 1 question on MMI.

Anyway, I can't figure out for the life of me how to get xbmc to see my mac so I can watch my movies on the big screen. I've just been using MTR 2.6.6 and doing full extractions of my old dvds. My computer is quite slow, so waiting until I get a new one to really go to town ripping all my media.

Like I said, I have only 10.4. Is this the issue? Is the ATV2 too new to see it? I know my iphone4 is, so that was my first thought, but a quick google didn't answer that. If it is, can xbmc still see my mac?

I watch a youtube tutorial on how to set it up, but I can't seem to find any SMB settings on my mac, so I can't play around with those to try and make it work.

I own several hundred dvds of movies and at least 150 of tv shows, so when I do get around to ripping them all, I'm going to need some serious storage. Should I be getting a NAS enclosure now and maybe that will work with ATV2?

My full rips play great in xbmc on the mac and I like having the menus and extras, but should I be using handbrake and just making mkv versions of everything instead?

I know I asked more questions than the title, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[seand]

The ATV2 does not publish itself as a host to AFP, the default Mac file sharing protocal, so you can't just use "go to computers" on your Mac to find it.

For things you want to actually install on the ATV2, like plug-ins to XBMC use SFTP witha program like cyberduck to load it onto the ATV2. To make movies available to the ATV2 you want to turn on SMB sharing (the Windows file sharing protocal) on your Mac and have the ATV2 access the files from your Mac. Or eventually set up a NAS or server of some sort as the central repository of your video library. In other words XBMC is the SMB client and its accessing movies over the network from somewhere else. There other protocals but SMB is the basic one to start with.

SMB is not the default set-up on a Mac so you have to dig around in the file sharing preferences to activate it. Where it is varies on the version of MacOS but its a second box to check not just the main enable file sharing one.

EDIT: on 10.4 SMB is the "Windows sharing" check box in the file sharing settings in system preferences.

[seand]

For a poor man's NAS I use the Tomato USB firmware on my router with a USB port on it. Not a full on NAS but fast enough to host movies from and its always on. It can also run Transmission on the router by itself, no computer, in a headless install.

[Lenny The Dub]

Ok, you guys are awesome. Just tried the "windows sharing" and it works a treat.

Now all I have to do is look for a new router with a usb port on it, or preferably a proper NAS enclosure. The hard drive is only 80gb on my mac, so I now need to figure out how to make the ATV2 see my usb drive on my mac, but I'm confident I can get it figured out. Maybe create a shortcut to the file on the usb drive?

I'm off to try and get it figured.

Thanks again guys.