XBMC on Apple TV quality
#1
I wanted to get an Apple TV and put XBMC on it. I have enough information on how to do that I believe after reading the forums. My question is does XBMC work better on the Apple TV than XBox-1? I ask because it is easier and cheaper to procure an XBox than an Apple TV. If Apple TV does not perform substantially better, then I will simply do another Xbox.

Thanks in advance.
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#2
FWIW I recently "upgraded" from an xbox to an ATV setup to run xbmc and I like it a lot better. The ATV is much quieter (no fan noise) and can be enhanced with a broadcom card.
You can pick up an ATV on ebay for around $100 which isn't too much more than you would pay for an xbox.
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#3
not to mention that the ATV will do Hi-Def which the xbox will not. and also xbox development has stopped.
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#4
I just picked up 2 Apple TV's off Amazon (used) one for $50 , the other for $55 / + $6.99 shipping per unit. There are others available at $65 last time I looked (+$6.99 shipping), much better prices / shipping costs then what is available on eBay. The 160GB Version seem to be in the $100-$120 area if you want some extra space.
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#5
And may I play the flipside?

If you have (or can get for peanuts) a chipped XBox1, XBMC is incredible on it. Yeah, the fan's a bit noisy but you can quieten that down. You can also mod them so that they switch on with the remote control (you can already switch them off remotely, and youcan't do either with the ATV). They have a DVD drive if your mates come round with a pile of DVDs and beer for an evening, so no faffing with ripping your movies.

They don't do HD video, and struggle on H.264 (but then the ATV doesn't do HD either). The ATV can, however, be modified with the aforementioned CrystalHD card to give HD video (up to 1080p if the encoding isn't too steep). If you don't want/need HD, it's a toss-up between the two.

(For the record, I still have my old XBox wired up to my TV. It *does* output HD, but it can't handle decoding HD movies. I have mine set to upscale to 720p because it looks nicer on my screen. YMMV, as always.)

Edit; One last thing. The quality you get depends on the signals you're using. My XBox is wired to a DTS decoder via an optical cable, and to my plasma screen by VGA. Quality is pretty good on S-Video, excellent on Component / VGA / RGB, and piss-poor on Composite. But that's the same deal as any device.
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#6
Just to add my 2c

All early Apple TVs are 160GB - even if they say they are 40GB. Apple used the same hardware for both and simply partitioned the internal drive to restrict it to 40GB - a later software update inadvertently upgraded the 40GB to 160GB for free Smile

So if you see a 40GB version advertised it will have a 160GB HD
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#7
steveclv Wrote:Just to add my 2c

All early Apple TVs are 160GB - even if they say they are 40GB. Apple used the same hardware for both and simply partitioned the internal drive to restrict it to 40GB - a later software update inadvertently upgraded the 40GB to 160GB for free Smile

So if you see a 40GB version advertised it will have a 160GB HD

Umm... no. If this ever happened, it would have been a manufacturing mistake. Mine most definitely came with a 40gig drive.
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#8
hmm, that's weird

I have seen 3 of these now including mine that were all 40GB that magically became 160GB when the second version of the Apple OS was released.

My Serial is YM84740GYR4 - how does that compare to yours?

Steve
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#9
dan1son Wrote:Umm... no. If this ever happened, it would have been a manufacturing mistake. Mine most definitely came with a 40gig drive.
Agreed - my old (dead) ATV definitely only had a 40GB drive in it, now doing service in another system.
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#10
steveclv Wrote:hmm, that's weird

I have seen 3 of these now including mine that were all 40GB that magically became 160GB when the second version of the Apple OS was released.

My Serial is YM84740GYR4 - how does that compare to yours?

Steve

Well I bought mine after 2.x was out and they were shipping a 40gig and 160gig version. I don't have it in front of me to look at the serial number.
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#11
dan1son Wrote:Well I bought mine after 2.x was out and they were shipping a 40gig and 160gig version. I don't have it in front of me to look at the serial number.

I purchased mine just before 2.x came out and they were selling 40 and 160 but with me being a tight wad I only bought the cheapest version.

Maybe they had a shortage of 40gb drives - I know that they were hard to find that small for PCs as everyone had moved on to 160 and 250 so as you say, maybe just a manufacturing glitch. Would be interesting to compare serials fro others.
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#12
steveclv Wrote:Just to add my 2c

All early Apple TVs are 160GB - even if they say they are 40GB. Apple used the same hardware for both and simply partitioned the internal drive to restrict it to 40GB - a later software update inadvertently upgraded the 40GB to 160GB for free Smile

So if you see a 40GB version advertised it will have a 160GB HD

Ahh, no. I have one of the early one (1.0 recovery OS) and the internal disk is defiantly a 40GB.
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#13
I second davilla, my hd is most definitively 40GB.
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#14
I bought a 40gig 2.x ATV and I know it was 40 because I replaced it with a 320gig drive and had to deal with transferring things from a smaller to a larger drive ( and dealing with the expanding the partition business).

philip
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#15
What are the serial numbers of the 40's - wonder if they match mine or not?
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