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Once the Apple TV claims it's finished with the installation, you'll have to reboot the device. If the patchstick is successful, you'll see something like this on your screen: Plug the Apple TV back in and allow it to boot. Make sure your Apple TV is off (you'll have to unplug it, since there is no power button), then insert the USB stick into the port on the back of the device. Luckily, it's a relatively straightforward process. Still, success feels pretty good, doesn't it? The next major step is to put the modified version of the OS onto your Apple TV. Installing to your Apple TVĬongratulations! If you're anything like me, you've already wasted an entire day by this point. I actually had to try five separate times before the tool successfully created a bootable USB stick apparently it's possible for some USB drives to simply not work with the tool, and the recommended course of action flip flops between 'just try again' and 'try a different brand of USB stick.' For what it's worth, I never tried another stick mine just failed four times before succeeding.Īfter a successful patch-you'll know because the ATV USB Creator will tell you it worked-you're ready to defile your first-generation Apple TV. I say 'attempt' because, according to my own experience and to numerous accounts online, this may not work the first time. When done, click the 'Create Using ->' button at the bottom of the window, which will then try to put a patched version of the Apple TV OS onto your USB drive. If you want the tool to automatically download the latest Apple TV OS on its own, don't click the 'Choose a DMG' button, but if you have another version of the OS that you've downloaded from somewhere, you can click that button to find the DMG file on your computer.

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Make sure 'ATV-Patchstick' is selected in the top left drop-down, then select 'XBMC/Boxee for Mac' from the bottom drop-down under 'Installation Operations.' If the software can see your USB drive, it will show it in the drop-down along the bottom of the window under 'USB Target Device.' (If it's not seeing the drive, try clicking the refresh button represented by the blue arrows). In order to get the patched version of the OS onto your USB stick, plug the stick into an open USB port and fire up the ATV USB Creator.

#Boxee mediacenter install

The tool (as of publication) can download its own copy of the latest Apple TV operating system, so it's unnecessary to dig up your own copy unless you are specifically aiming to install an older version of the OS. Some instructions floating around the Web claim that you also have to download the latest version of the (old) Apple TV operating system, but if you are using the Mac version of the ATV USB Creator, you don't have to take this extra step. It lets you create a patchstick from your USB drive, which will then let you replace the Apple TV's existing operating system with a modified version. The ATV USB Creator is an open source project that, luckily for original Apple TV owners, remains alive and well.

The latest version of the ATV USB Creator tool.

#Boxee mediacenter Pc

A Mac or PC with an Internet connection.Blank USB stick or drive with at least 512MB of space.Original Apple TV with functional hard drive and WiFi.Preparationsīefore watching all those movies you diligently ripped from your own collection, you have to get your electronic mise en place.

#Boxee mediacenter how to

Here, I offer you a chronicle of my own experiences setting up these both solutions, and show you how to do the same. The two most popular software interfaces are a version of Boxee and a version of XBMC, both designed for the original Apple TV. You can actually watch all manner of other content on an old Apple TV if you're willing to tinker. Though I have long avoided performing jailbreaks on my Apple products, the old Apple TV gave me a chance to find out what else I could watch on this thing besides iTunes content. After upgrading to a second-gen Apple TV last year, I had actually forgotten the old one was in there.

I recently ran into my first-generation Apple TV during a spelunking expedition into the depths of my home office closet. As an Ars reader, you can probably relate.

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The predictable result: a closet, garage, or basement full of aging but not quite obsolete tech. For me, acquiring new gadgets is painfully easy offloading old ones is more difficult.