How-To: play DivX and Xvid on your Apple TV

-from engadget thanks guys for this awesome how to

The two biggest Apple TV limitations are the lack of codec support (like XviD, DivX, etc.) and not even having the ability to do basic surround sound like Dolby Digital 5.1. These issues were resolved almost immediately after the Apple TV was released, although the hacks were somewhat less than practical. Something as simple as getting your Apple TV to, say, sync and recognize your XviD movies as playable was no simple feat. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case, and we want to show you how to get the most out of your Apple TV. Who says you can’t have your cake and eat it, too?

Before we get started we would like to applaud the entire crew from AwkwardTV, if it wasn’t for their great Wiki, we may not have figured all this out.

Warning: you’re about to engage in some serious, potentially warranty-voiding hacking. Just the way you like it, right? Ready to get your hands dirty? We need to download a few files first.

Download – ATVFiles plugin.
Download – Perian, the swiss army knife of QuickTime codecs.
Download – A52Codec, an AC3 codec.
Download – Custom ssh.plist file to start sshd automatically.

Optional
Download – Fugu, a nice OS X GUI to transfer files to the Apple TV.
Download – WinSCP to a nice Windows GUI to transfer files to the Apple TV.
Download – If you don’t have an Intel Mac, you will need this Intel version of sshd.

Materials needed
A Mac of some sort – Sorry, you’ve got to be able to read the Apple TV’s drive to at least get sshd going.
other stuff here.

We are going to do this in two steps. For those who do and do not already have SSH enabled. So if you’ve got SSH running on your Apple TV, skip ahead to the next section.

Enable SSH on the Apple TV (requires a Mac)

Remove the drive the same way we did to expand the drive and plug it into a Mac, then launch Terminal. Our first command is going to copy the Intel version of ssh daemon from our Mac to the ATV drive. If you are on a Intel Mac copy it from your sbin directory to the ATV’s OSBoot/usr/sbin/ directory. If your browser causes the line to wrap be sure to enter it on one line in the Terminal.

sudo cp /usr/sbin/sshd /Volumes/OSBoot/usr/sbin/

You can also copy it from your downloads directory:

cp /Users/Engadget/Downloads/sshd /Volumes/OSBoot/usr/sbin/

Backup the original ssh.plist to our home directory:

cp /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist ~

Now copy the new one from our downloads directory to the Apple TV drive:

cp /Users/Engadget/Downloads/ssh.plist /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/

Before we dismount the drive to reinstall into the Apple TV, let us see if we need to clean up after Spotlight again.
Perform these command and check if the .Spotlight files are on the partitions by typing:

ls -a /Volumes/Media

and

ls -a /Volumes/OSBoot

Now, if you do see those .Spotlight files, use the following command to remove them. But be careful, this is the dreaded rm -rf command, which has the potential to ruin everything.

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/OSBoot/.Spotlight-V100

or

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100

Now dismount the drive and install it in your Apple TV. If you need to give your friend’s Mac back, feel free. From here on out you can fly PC on this op, if you so choose.

Test it by signing in via terminal. (The password is frontrow.)

ssh -1 frontrow@AppleTV.local

That should get you in. So let’s start installing the good stuff, shall we?

Adding additional QuickTime components.

Before we can start copying files we need to ssh into the Apple TV and mark the volume as read / write. A few times we will use sudo (as in sudo make me a sandwich) and a password will be requested; it’s also frontrow. From the terminal, ssh to the Apple TV:

ssh -1 frontrow@AppleTV.local

Now remount root as read / write. (Enter frontrow for the password.)

sudo mount -o remount,rw /dev/disk0s3 /

At this point you can use Fugu (our scp file transfer frontend) if you prefer. Otherwise, use the commandline scp to copy the following files to the Apple TV. But before you can preform this step you need to mount all the DMGs you downloaded and uncompress ATFiles so you can have the necessary files handy.

Now, copy the ATVFiles plugin, Perian and AC3 QuickTime components to the Apple TV. (As always, depending on the location of these files your command will differ.)

scp -1 -r /Users/Engadget/Downloads/ATVFiles-0.2.1/ATVFiles.frappliance/ frontrow@AppleTV.local:~
scp -1 -r /Volumes/Perian\ 0.5/Perian.component frontrow@AppleTV.local:~
scp -1 -r /Volumes/A52Codec\ 1.7.2/A52Codec.component frontrow@AppleTV.local:~

If you have the MPEG-2 QuickTime component then you can copy that too, but otherwise it’s probably not worth the $20.

scp -1 -r /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeMPEG2.component/ frontrow@AppleTV.local:~

Now we need to use ssh to move the files to the proper directory so QuickTime can find them.

ssh -1 frontrow@AppleTV.local
sudo mv ATVFiles.frappliance/ /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns
sudo mv Perian.component/ /Library/QuickTime/
sudo mv A52Codec.component/ /Library/QuickTime/
sudo mv QuickTimeMPEG2.component/ /System/Library/QuickTime/

Now we need to restart Finder so it will load the plugin, you could pull the power (easy way) or you could run a couple commands (slightly less easy way). Here those are, if you’re paranoid about unplugging your unit; find the pid to kill:

ps ax | grep Finder

This will return a line with the pid for finder.

Finders Pid
Now kill Finder’s pid. (Ours was 512 when we wrote this.)

kill 512

After Finder restarts we will see a new menu item named Files, which allows us to play movies stored in /Users/frontrow/Movies on the Apple TV. So we’ll copy a movie there, shall we? (Again you can use scp, or Fugu if you prefer.)

scp -1 ~/Movies/Gothika_480p_XviD.avi frontrow@AppleTV.local:~/Movies/

All you have to do is select the clip to play from the files menu.

Voila! Your Apple TV just got a whole helluva lot more useful.

Of course there are many more codecs that work by using the same basic method of installing QuickTime plugins into the ATV’s directory structure. And don’t even get us started on all the other plugins being developed for this bad boy. Hell, you can even mount AFP or NFS shares and stream videos instead of copying them. The possibilities are kind of endless for this little Unix box, but hopefully this guide well get you on your way. Good luck!

Don’t buy an HDTV without reading this first

-from ZDnet

Forking out a few thousand dollars or even just a few hundred is a serious investment and the last thing you want to do is buy an HDTV with lousy color rendition. Navigating the minefield in consumer electronics is a confusing proposition even for the seasoned gadget geeks so I created this survival guide to help you make a wise decision. I’ll explain the various types of HDTVs as well as cabling and testing the color depth of your display.

Projection HDTVs:
These typically use DLP, LCOS, or LCD technology (don’t confuse LCD in this context with an LCD flat panel display because this refers to a small LCD chip being used in a projection HDTV). The advantage of projection technology is that it’s relatively cheap for a very large HDTV. For example, you can get a 72″ projection HDTV that has 1920×1080 resolution from $2500 to $5000 depending on the brand and model.

The disadvantage is that they don’t have as good a viewing angle and they’re not as bright compared to LCD or Plasma. Sometimes the resolution isn’t quite honest because they may advertise “1080p” non-interlaced capability but you’ll be surprised to find that the it will only take an interlaced signal via the HDMI or analog component ports. The other problem is that they’re often over-scanned which means the edges will be chopped off and I found out the hard way that even my Windows Start and Task bar was completely chopped off at the edges. I actually had to use some neat driver tricks in my NVIDIA video card to compensate for the over-scanning by telling the driver where the image was being chopped off. The color depth on projection HDTVs is also lacking compared to the LCD flat panel displays though the higher end projection models don’t trail as badly. Another problem I need to point out is that projection TVs take a lot of power. My own 72″ DLP uses about 250 watts of electricity when I hooked it up to the power meter. The lamps also need to be changed every 4 years or so and they cost about $200.

The bottom line is that you get a lot of size for your money when choosing a projection model, but the quality can’t compete with the quality of LCD flat panels. Note that when I say the quality is lacking, that’s only in comparison to LCD/Plasma flat panels but projection is still vastly superior to older HDTV or TV sets. The main advantage of larger displays isn’t necessarily because it looks bigger, size allows you to place the HDTV further away from the audience which means you can have more people viewing it. If you don’t mind sitting a little closer to a smaller but higher quality LCD flat panel, it will look just as big but it can’t be viewed by as many people and it may not work for larger living rooms even if there aren’t that many viewers.

Plasma HDTVs:
Plasma displays can come in very large sizes equal to projection HDTVs but they cost a lot more money for a given size. They can easily cost two or more times per inch than an equivalent DLP. A current 65″ Plasma HDTV that supports 1080p costs anywhere from $6000 to $10000. The viewing angles, color depth, and brightness on plasma displays are vastly superior to projection displays. You also get true 1920×1080 non-interlaced resolution.

The problem with large plasma is they can cost as much as a cheap automobile and the price is constantly dropping. I wouldn’t be surprised if the price dropped 30% next year while the quality goes up. I know people who forked out $10000 two years ago for a smaller sized 1366×768 resolution plasma and they’re probably kicking themselves now. Unless you just have too much money to burn, I can’t recommend a large plasma display. Another word of caution is that there are some really cheap smaller plasma displays that have 1024×768 resolution that might sound like a good deal but you’re getting something that doesn’t have square pixels. If you try to hook up a computer to it then it will look ugly and distorted making everything look fat. Any model that has a resolution of 1024×768 or less is obsolete and I would stay away from them. [Update – I forgot to mention that plasma displays have burn in problems. I’ve seen first hand how bad the burn in can be within just 2 years when the displays were used in a datacenter for monitoring mostly static images. This isn’t as bad a problem when used for displaying video but it can still be problems when there’s letterboxing on the sides or top/bottom.]

The bottom line is that you can get a large high-quality plasma display but at very high cost. There are cheaper smaller versions but you’re better off getting an LCD flat panel HDTV for about the same money and at better quality.

LCD HDTVs:
LCD HDTVs are typically very high quality and very expensive for a given size but they have recently grown in size and dropped in price. You can easily find 32″ LCD models with 1366×768 in the $500 to $800 range. 42″ Models with 1920×1080 (1080p) resolution can be $1200 to $2000 while 52″ LCD 1080p models go from $2300 to $3500. There are 60 plus inch models that are priced out of this world at even higher prices than plasma displays. Larger models will eventually come down in price but now is not the time for anything over 52″. So for the cost of a 72″ projection HDTV, you can get a 52″ LCD model that has vastly superior image quality with none of the interlacing and over-scan problems.

If you’re willing to place the display closer to you, the smaller LCD will look just as big as the projection model but it will look much better. The quality won’t be as good as a high end 20″ computer LCD but it beats any other HDTV on the market. It’s so good that you can even use it as a computer monitor without eye strain. The only word of caution is that the 1366×768 resolution isn’t universally supported and you need to make sure your video card and drivers can support that resolution or else things will look very ugly because of resolution rescaling artifacts. Personally if I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t have gone for the big cheap projection DLP and gone with the LCD.

ATSC tuners and free HDTV:
All newer HDTVs have built in ATSC tuners which means you can get free high definition content over the air. I’m one of those people that don’t watch that much television and I refuse to pay for cable or satellite. If the HDTV you’re looking at purchasing doesn’t have an ATSC tuner or it doesn’t have HDMI or DVI input ports, then skip it. All you need is an outdoor antenna though indoor models can still allow you to receive most of the digital channels especially if you live in an area close to the broadcast towers. There’s also no such thing as an “HDTV antenna” and any old antenna will work. Reader Zoraster pointed out that HDTV operates in the UHF band which is all the channels above channel 13 whereas VHF is channels 2-13 but there are some instances where HDTV is broadcast over VHF. If you have an old TV antenna on the roof with all the coax cabling in place, it will work fine if it supports UHF. I bought a $40 out door antenna and it brings me about 15 digital channels many of which are high definition. All the major broadcast networks are available over the air in HD and even if you intend to pay for cable or satellite, it’s still a good idea to have the free HD content over the air so that you don’t have to pay for local channels and HD.

Monster cable rip off:
Consumers need to get the concept of “monster cables” out of their minds since they DO NOT apply to the digital world. There is zero difference in quality between the cheapest $12 HDMI to DVI cable versus the $100 gold plated “monster cable”. Monster cables are a hold over from the analog era where signal leakage results in a degraded image or sound. In the digital world, a data cable either works 100% or it doesn’t work at all and there is no degraded middle ground. Since nearly all digital cables work (return the rare ones that don’t), there isn’t a shred of difference between the cheap cable or the expensive monster cable. If you can’t find an HDMI to DVI cable for less than $30 in a retail store, you can google “HDMI to DVI cable” and there will be plenty online vendors selling them for $12-$16 plus shipping. Don’t be shocked to find HDMI cables that cost $60 to $150 in a typical retail outlet; just don’t fall for it. The only place monster cables have any use is for the transmission of analog signals such as the connection between your amplifier and your speakers.

How to test the color quality of an HDTV:
Once you decide what kind of HDTV you want to buy (read below to ), you’ll want to test the HDTV before you buy it. I was discussing the issue of HDTV quality with colleague Justin James who was in the process of buying a new LCD HDTV and we discussed how daunting it was to figure out the differences between an expensive and inexpensive model. Making matters worse, the stores usually don’t show you an optimal image with the proper digital HDMI high-resolution video source. Even when a clean digital signal is used, it still isn’t easy to judge the quality of an HDTV. HDTVs are often placed in worse glare conditions than others and the ones that the store wants to sell most are often conveniently placed in to more favorable lighting conditions. Another trick is that some HDTVs are set to a very high contrast mode so that the images look vivid and bright but the reality is that the shadow detail and/or highlight detail is sorely lacking. Even to the trained eye, judging the color depth on a monitor without a color gradient chart is difficult so I’ve gone ahead and created some red, green, blue, and grey scale charts optimized for different resolutions for you to download.

Armed with the color gradient chart and a laptop with high resolution output, Justin James planned to go to the store to check the quality of the HDTVs before he commits his hard earned dollars. The down side to that option is that you won’t be able to test the digital HDMI or DVI port and many people may not have a laptop with a good enough graphics card that supports 1366×768 or 1920×1080. Another option is that you can buy the HDTV from a retailer that lets you take it back with no penalty though this becomes difficult if the HDTV is extremely large. You can try to get the sales person to show you as much as possible so that you can make a fairly good decision but warn them that you will inspect the product at home and return it if it doesn’t live up to expectations.

To test your HDTV, download the following image files and display them at full screen. Find the resolution appropriate for the model you’re considering.

* For 1080p (1920×1080) resolution models
* For 768p (1366×768) resolution models
* For 720p (1280×720) resolution models
* For computer monitors that are 1680 pixels wide

The idea is that you should ideally be able to see distinct square color blocks from left to right and top to bottom. Realistically you won’t even see all of them even on a good computer LCD much less an HDTV. The only thing that will display all of them is a bulky CRT monitor. Computer LCDs can’t normally match the color depth of CRTs unless you pay three to four times the cost of a normal LCD display for a very high-end LCD. With most LCDs you can tilt them forward and back to see more shades of color at either end of the spectrum but not without losing color depth at the other end of the spectrum. The real question is how many color tiles can you see when you’re at the optimum viewing angle without any adjustment and how many colors and shades can be displayed at once at a given viewing angle. Using these test patterns side by side is the only way most people can tell which display is the better one. Fortunately with LCDs or Plasma displays you don’t really need to worry about screen geometry distortion so there’s no need to do the grid line test.

While there may be some quality difference between more expensive and cheaper LCD models, just keep in mind that the cheapest LCD has higher quality than the best projection model. Assuming it passes the quality test, I personally tend to favor the cheaper LCD models than the more expensive LCD models because I can’t see the more expensive models being worth nearly double the price if the cheaper model has the specifications and features I want.

Apples and Oranges Hands-On: Apple TV vs. TiVo Series3 HD

-From Gizmodo
there are a lot of pictures at the end but I’ll put the link for the slide show HERE

Maybe you’ve had a snootful of Apple TV, but here’s a comparison with a twist: We’re going to compare Apples and oranges, pitting Apple TV against the TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder. From the outset, realize that the Apple TV is not a personal video recorder, and can hardly compete against the mighty TiVo Series3 HD on that playing field. For instance, you’re going to have an awfully difficult time watching something like the Super Bowl in HD on the Apple TV.

But there are some things both systems can do, and that’s where we’ll compare Apple TV versus TiVo. For example, how well does the TiVo Series3 display photos compared to the Apple TV? How about playing music, or displaying downloaded content from iTunes compared to TiVo’s downloaded content from its latest partnership with Amazon and its Unbox service?

Downloaded Content
It’s now possible to download TV shows and movies with TiVo, using Amazon’s Unbox service. Both Unbox and the iTunes Store don’t have enough movie and TV show content for our taste, and both can’t deliver HDTV movies or TV shows. So in our mind, for now, they both suck. In fact, the content from both is hardly even DVD quality. We downloaded this season’s first episode of 24 from both Amazon Unbox on the TiVo (pictured above, at left) and the iTunes Store (both were $1.99). Take a look at one versus the other, and you might agree that both are just fugly. TiVo has a slight quality edge, where its widescreen picture isn’t scaled all the way out to the edges of the screen, but had decidedly better color saturation. The Apple iTunes TV show we downloaded looked washed out by comparison. Advantage: TiVo

User Interface
But when I looked at their attendant software and user interface, Apple sucks less. It has better-looking graphics and a pleasing subtlety that’s missing on the TiVo user interface. For instance, when you push the Play button, Apple TV dissolves to the program, and then dissolves out the position indicator bar after a few seconds. Not so with the TiVo, which merely takes the shot from one source to the other, and pops out the superimposed titles. Advantage: Apple TV

Remote Control
What about the remote? Apple has made a valiant effort with its tiny pack-of-gum-sized remote, but it doesn’t come close to that of the TiVo, with its famed ergonomics and lightning-quick response. Apple TV’s remote responds quickly, but it’s about a half-second behind TiVo’s remote. However, both remotes are exceedingly powerful, not requiring you to point them directly at the box in order to control it. Still, TiVo wins in the battle for the remote. Advantage: TiVo

Photo Display
Displaying photos is a clear win for Apple TV. Where TiVo lets you team up with its TiVo desktop software and import pictures (and a beta version will soon let you import HDTV-rez pictures), Apple has this photo display thing down pat. TiVo’s interface just feels downright clunky next to Apple’s smooth and artful photo display routine. You can pick a music playlist as accompaniment, and then Apple TV will show you a beautiful Ken Burns effect with each of your photos in a slide show that’s extensively configurable. Plus, your photos show up in a beautiful montage screensaver effect throughout the Apple TV interface. It’s gorgeous, and slam-dunks TiVo. Advantage: Apple TV

Playing Music
Here’s another win for Apple TV, where music is easier to get to with Apple’s ergonomic sliding-style interface, with better graphics and easier classifications. Even when you don’t have any album art, the Apple TV looks better than the bare-bones TiVo music interface, if you could even call it that. However, it’s clumsy to get to large music libraries on either the TiVo or Apple TV, and add to that TiVo’s disadvantage of not being able to play back any songs you bought on the iTunes music store. Advantage: Apple TV

HD, DivX and XviD Files
We’re not crazy about the fact that neither can handle XviD or DivX files right out of the box (yeah, you can hack them, but that’s not easy to do), and both are locked up tighter than a drum with DRM. Apple TV files download faster from iTunes than the Amazon Unbox ones do (notice the “Can’t Play Now” label on the TiVo screen above). That said, both seem to be taking baby steps toward bringing online content to the living room, and both are shying away from HDTV downloaded content now, which is almost a deal breaker in our book. Both are full of potential, but are relatively lame so far, compared with what they someday will be able to do. Advantage: Neither (Xbox 360)

Verdict: Which is Better?
Playing music, displaying photos, and playing video files via a network seems to be an afterthought for the TiVo, and Apple TV bested it in each of these categories. However, TiVo completely outclasses Apple TV when it comes to having two CableCards on board, being able to record HDTV and play it back perfectly. TiVo Series3 is a PVR, and is a far more versatile machine, as its $800 price tag reflects, versus the $300 price tag of Apple TV. Advantage: Not Comparable

Which to Buy?
Apple TV and TiVo can coexist in a home theater system, and it’s not a zero-sum game. If you’re interested in watching downloaded video from iTunes, seeing photos and music in your home theater, and don’t care about HDTV, Apple TV would be a great addition to your playback arsenal.

But if you care about HDTV, TiVo Series3 would be your best choice now, and maybe its comparatively plain user interface will serve your needs as far as Internet television, photos, and music are concerned. Apple TV just feels like an unfinished box that’s full of potential, and as soon as it’s able to download and play back HDTV, all it’ll need is a couple of CableCards inside to seriously challenge TiVo’s Series3.

Until then, we’re thinking the ultimate solution is to have both these set-top boxes sitting side by side in your home theater. Advantage: You Need Both. – Charlie White

Check out this gallery with enlarged views of the user interfaces and more comments and captions:

Apple TV vs. Xbox 360: Media Center Showdown

-from Gizmodo
Apple TV vs. Xbox 360: Media Center Showdown

Walt Mossburg said in his review that “Apple TV’s most formidable competitor is the Xbox 360 game console from Microsoft, which, in addition to playing games, can also play back content from Windows computers on a TV.” The Times’ techmeister David Pogue also calls up the 360 Media Extender in his review, as well some other gadgets.

In our head-to-head, we took Vista Ultimate and used a 360 as a Windows Media Extender. With this setup, we came to the conclusion that the hulking white box ekes out the slimmer, shorter Apple TV—unless you have a standard XP computer with Media Center, or copious amounts of Apple iTunes DRM’d content. Why?

Setup
Both are easy as pie, quite frankly. Turned on the 360, my Vista Media Center found it instantly. Same for iTunes/Apple TV. One catch here, however, is that if you want to wirelessly stream to your 360, you’re going to need a dongle than runs $100 for the official one, which is quite frankly, obscene. Apple TV’s lack of cables isn’t much better. Both the 360 and Apple TV provide a code for you to punch into your Media Center and iTunes to authenticate, not long after which you can start moving content. Woohoo. The 360 warns you if you’re moving content wirelessly on both ends, however, recommending that at least your computer be hardwired to the network.

Interface
Both have attractive interfaces, obviously. Apple TV looks simply fabulous in HD, with crystal clear text and vivid icons. Granted, this is a downside if your album art sucks, as mentioned before. Media Center’s no slouch either, with a heavy emphasis on live previews. Text-wise, I prefer Apple TV, simply because I find white text on a black background easier to read than light blue and white on dark blue, which dominates the interface.

Apple TV is also much snappier—Media Center felt sluggish both on my laptop and on the TV itself. When that sluggishness is paired with scrolling in four directions, I found it to be a bit awkward to get where I want to go. That said, both use a modified “folder metaphor” as its major schematic, and I’m not overly fond of it. It takes too long to access content. God forbid you ever have to the onscreen keyboard to get anywhere with either of them. (You don’t really, as of yet.) I don’t know what the solution is, but surely there’s a better way to make content and options more quickly and easily accessible. Live previews are excellent, I do know that.

Moving Content
Media Center lets you customize which folders you want it to “watch” to import into your library. That content you can then stream to your “Media Extender,” the 360. If for some reason the 360 won’t play a video in your library, it won’t give you a thumbnail preview, which is a nice way to let you know. Apple TV, because it syncs (ports content to its hard drive) from your main computer rather than simply streams, thankfully it has a fairly customizable set of syncing options. It still annoys me that you can’t manually delete or add content, though. Be warned, just because iTunes will play a video doesn’t mean that Apple TV will, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Apple TV plays H.264 and protected H.264, iTunes Store purchased video and MPEG-4, whereas Media Center handles MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and all WMV. Not being able to grab content straight from the iTunes store is a bummer, especially since it pulls trailers from the intertubes directly, so the 360 one-ups it here with its built-in direct access store. So both use proprietary formats in some manner. Bleh. But Media Center gives you more options than Apple TV does, so a check for the 360 setup.

Apple TV also does not stream photos—meaning you can only store them on the drive, you can only pull pictures from your main computer. Media Center, since it only streams, obviously streams photos, but I prefer the way it presents them, actually. No problems loading up my music library, which is comprised entirely of MP3s, and the corresponding album art, on either system.

Playing Content
I find the Apple TV remote to be a little crummy. Sometimes fast-forwarding and rewinding was a little wonky, getting ahead of itself. Using the Xbox 360 controller (not remote) wasn’t better, largely because there’s no dedicated pause button, though I appreciated using the triggers as FF and RW. Weirdly, when you go back to the menu in Media Center, a live thumbnail preview keeps playing, and there’s no easy way to shut it off, which was kind of frustrating when I wanted a video to stop playing.

Otherwise, both played beautifully (if they were able to play the content), with no hiccups when streaming with either, despite using wireless G networks in both tests. (If you’d like to donate to the Giz wireless N fund, let us know.)

Conclusion
If you use iTunes as your primary media software and want to get your content on your widescreen TV, it’s not a bad way to do it, but that’s all it does (for now). If you already have a 360 and don’t mind Media Center, I see little point in blowing $300 on Apple TV if all that concerns you is bringing content stuck on your PC to your TV. You already have a $400 machine that does more than port media, it plays games. Great ones. And soon it’ll be an IPTV box to boot.

Apple TV is a bit more elegant in its presentation, I think, and it’s slightly easier to get to content with it, but it could do better. More importantly, it doesn’t do what it does so much better than the 360/Media Center setup that it warrants a separate purchase if you already have a 360, or even plan on getting one. Value-wise, the 360 is the winner here, at least for now.

But there are better convergence solutions on the horizon, so if you don’t need one of these now sit tight, because things are only going to get better. – Matt Buchanan

Apple TV [Gizmodo]

Apple TV reportedly hacked for XviD support

-from Engadget
Hacks don’t come much quicker than this. Just days after they started rolling out, one early recipient of an Apple TV has already cracked his open and claims to have gotten it to play nice with XviD files, although not without some wrangling. The first step — and the one sure to stop the more warranty-aware folks among us in their tracks — involves removing the Apple TV’s hard drive, popping it into a USB enclosure, and mounting it on your computer. From there, you simply install the Perian video tool and the Dropbear SSH server in the appropriate locations, along with a script that disables the Apple TV’s firewall and opens up the necessary ports — then put it all back together. It’s apparently not quite an ideal solution, however, also requiring the creation of reference QuickTime files for each XviD movie — although, not surprisingly, they’re already working on a tool to automate that process.

That was pretty fast, the Apple TV thing came out this week didn’t it? Also I just read this this might be a fake, going to double check it.