Apple TV

[backer]

I would really like to see this run on the Apple TV.

Read somewhere that its possible to install Mac OS X on the Apple TV. Maybe possible to use that and run BOXEE on some kind of autostart.

Keep up the good work.

[vulkan]

thanks. :)

well - i'd also love to see it running on appleTV and there were some discussions about it with users. not sure yet where this is heading but will keep you posted :)

[bjeanes]

any more progress in this area? I have no desire to buy a mac mini for my media center replacement and it's currently a vista media center (yuck!).

I have a big TV and don't want to use boxee on my personal macs. apple tv would once and for solve my problem. XBMC was great on xbox 1, until HD got a bit more mainstream and now it doesn't suffice.

What's the possibility of setting up some sort of tracker for updates or a top-level forum for Boxee on Apple TV (liek there is for mac, linux, and windows)?

[lapistola]

Yes, I am lso interested in this.
the ATV is a perfect platform for boxee! it had HDMI and Component.. I really hope this comes about. I am going to attempt to put OSX on my ATV just so I can try to use boxee on it :)

That is as soon as I get invited to boxee :)

[marcel]

send an email to me at marcel boxee tv and i send you an invite ;)

[rex]

boxee for apple tv would be awesome...

[Gamester17]

FYI; I very much doubt that the CPU in Apple TV is powerfull enough to decode standard 720p H.264 videos, and there is not a snowballs chance in hell that it will ever be able to playback standard 1080p H.264 video. Sure it will be able to upscale all standard-definition videos such at DVD-Video resolutions to 720p and 1080p but it will not be able to playback the majority of native high-definition h264/x264 encoded videos that you download from the internet.

PS! Yes I know that Apple TV default built-in player can playback 720p videos downloaded/streamed from iTunes Store but those videos have been specially encoded at a lower bit-rate to make the Apple TV be able to decode them, plus Apple TV also take advantage of the GPU (graphic processor unit) to off-load part of the decoding process to it, and that is not something that Boxee/XBMC can do yet, ...if Boxee/XBMC could someday in the future also off-load part of the deocding process to the GPU and the FFmpeg decoder that Boxee/XBMC uses could be optimized a bit further then it could probably be made to playback the majority of 720p videos, ...but never 1080p videos. So you would even then have to make do with upscaling native 720p videos to 1080p, ...or buy a new Mac Mini if you want to playback native 1080p videos.

[bizthepirate]

Isn't the MacMini CPU/GPU similar, if not the same as the Apple TV... I'm not sure, but I remember looking up the specs and they seemed the same...... And I agree with not being able to utilitize the GPU as well in Linux, but if the Apple TV can playback 720p videos, at 2500 kbps in the h.264 codec, it's gotta be a bit beastly, doesn't it? :)

[tsella]

the macmini cpu/gpu is very different. the current cpus are core2 duo 1.8 or 2.0ghz, vs the apple tv custom cpu at 1ghz based on the pentium m. the mini has an intel 945 igp, vs the apple tvs nvidia go7300 gpu.

[bizthepirate]

Hmm, the processor seems a bit weak... BUT, the GPU should be fine, shouldn't it?

[Gamester17]

FYI; Davilla, the only developer on Team-XBMC who owns an Apple TV have begun porting XBMC to Apple TV, (he already has XBMC running on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, so I guess it's now AppleTV specific and packaging related issues left), ...I am sure he would not mind having fellow C++ programmers who are also AppleTV owners to brainstorm with, you can probably catch him in the #xbmc channel on freenode (or otherwise feel free to post in the XBMC Community Forum).


Hmm, the processor seems a bit weak... BUT, the GPU should be fine, shouldn't it?Like I already noted in my previous post, the GPU as no real affect on video playback in XBMC/Boxee. XBMC/Boxee is happy as long as the GPU and the device drivers for it support OpenGL 1.3 or above, ...all video decoding is still done on the CPU in XBMC/Boxee today.

PS! Again, in case you did not know, Boxee is based on XBMC media center.

[bizthepirate]

Wait, if XBMC can run fine on the Xbox, how could it not run fine on the Apple TV... I know I keep being a pest about this subject, but if Boxee ran on the Apple TV, that'd be spectacular... Personally, I'd be fine without HD Content, seeing as I have very little, but that's just a perk.... The Xbox only boats a 733 mHz Pentium 3 based Celeron M, which isn't as good as the Apple TV, and a custom (but lower powered) nVidia card.... So, couldn't we in theory still be able to play Standard Def videos (DVD Quality and such) on the Apple TV, without too much video lag, etc?

[martinlk]

Yes, in theory XBMC would do SD content just fine on the Apple TV -- but probably not HD. For many people this is a huge deal breaker.

[Gamester17]

@bizthepirate, I think that you need to read all the posts in this thread again, no one here have said that XBMC/Boxee could not be made to run on the Apple TV.

What we said is that the Apple TV hardware is probably not capable of playing high-definition videos (720p/1080i/1080p resolutions). The Apple TV hardware will have no problems playing standard-definition video files (480i/480p/576i/576p resolutions), nor will it have any problems upscaling standard-definition video to high-definition resolutions.

My 'educated' guess is that XBMC/Boxee on Apple TV will probably only struggle with smooth playback if the native video resolution of a H.264 encoded video file is higher than 940x540, all files at lower resolution than than should play just fine, (FYI; 720p means 1280x720 in resolution).

[Abaris]

wasn't there also an issue with the audio if you run osx on an atv? i would really like to see a box small as the atv running this great piece of art...

[Gamester17]

wasn't there also an issue with the audio if you run osx on an atv? i would really like to see a box small as the atv running this great piece of art...In theory, after some code modifications both XBMC and Boxee should be able to run nativly under Apple TV, ...so should be no need to install full Mac OS X on the ATV.

[MILE]

Is there any kind of status on how far the port to the Apple TV is by now...?! I suppose that it would have to be installed like all the other ATV plugins, such as Sapphire, NitoTV etc., right...?!

It sure would be awesome to see Boxee on the Apple TV, because that's where most of my TV and movie pleasure comes from...! ;)

And I'm sure that the awkwardTV geniuses could help with some assistance and testing...!? As well as the community in the forums there, who would certainly love to see Boxee find its way to the Apple TV...

:: M ::

[juamps]

I would be happy to help testing a boxee port for aTV.

[Gamester17]

http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=36902

;)

[jag0]

Just found this thread.

So, as the hardware is now, is it possible/likely that a mac mini (1.8Ghz) would be able to do 10980p content with Boxee?

I have a Macbook pro (2.33Ghz), and I usually play 1080p content on it using VLC. that sometimes stutters. Today however i gave Boxee a run with a 1080 flick and it was flawless. The fan in the machine did turn on instantly once I started Boxee, but I've read that the devs are working on optimizing.