Is AppleTV/Boxee for me?

[wcmessenger]

Hi all,

Considering the purchase of an AppleTV to run Boxee on, but have a quick question that possibly someone here can answer: After applying the patch to the AppleTV to allow it to read an external USB hard drive, is it possible to actually attach a USB hub to that port to allow for multiple USB hard drives?

Many thanks in advance!

[iBog]

Which USB patch do you want to apply to support external HDDs?

[wcmessenger]

Actually wasn't aware there was more than one. Is there a specific one I should use to enable multiple HDDs and a USB hub?

Many thanks!

[iBog]

I know of the following:

http://www.appletvhacks.net/2007/07/28/usb-patch-released-hallelujah/
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Enable_USB_Storage_on_1.x

I haven't used them so I can't comment on how well it works on the latest Apple TV firmware with Boxee (though I'd follow the awkwardtv wiki).

I've never even connected hard drives via a USB hub. If it works with a hub in Mac OS X, I tihnk it may work on the Apple TV.

You may want to check out the support forums for those patches to see how they work.

[wcmessenger]

Actually, installed Boxee and XBMC on a MacBookPro and it found my attached Firewire drives (daisy chained), but am still curious about the multiple HDDs on an AppleTV. Right now I'm using an old, pre-Intel mini, but the lack of a suitable remote situation is what hurts that setup (plus no Boxee or XBMC).

Thanks for the response. Still curious if anyone else has a def. answer.

Thanks again!

[kylemurphey]

the aTV works pretty well, with a few exceptions. The aTV does not like to play back 720p stuff, and some of the online streaming videos don't play well either. I also can't get my atv to mount afp share points, only smb. I think i read somewhere that I need to patch or downgrade it to enable afp, i just haven't looked too had into that. I think if i were to do it again, I would use a mac mini instead, so I can have a dvd player, and better 720p playback.

[docbrown]

wcmessenger you can connect usb hubs and use several usb drives. they must be formatted HFS+ to mount. Take a look at this thread to enable usb.

http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=814

[AaronX]

the aTV works pretty well, with a few exceptions. The aTV does not like to play back 720p stuff

It works on a 720p mp4 I threw at it just fine. Not H.264 encoded since H.264 takes a lot more cpu to decode the mpeg4.

[wcmessenger]

Many thanks, all, that's the info I needed!