Hacking the Apple TV
Adding new file formats
Part 2 Apple’s Apple TV set-top box supports all the audio and video file formats that iTunes, iPods and iPhones can handle. That’s plenty for many folk, but for those who favour less mainstream formats or widespread ones that Apple’s not keen on — DivX, for one — it severely limits the value of the machine.
Fortunately, once the Apple TV’s sealed system has been opened for access — as we detailed last time — it’s surprisingly easy to increase the number of codecs the machine has access to.

Perian’s Preferences panel in Mac OS X
The bottom line: if Mac OS X can be loaded with new codecs, so can the hacked Apple TV. It is, after all, an Intel-based Mac in its own right, and almost all of the free tools available to Mac users can be installed on the set-top box.
That naturally favours the Mac as the platform on which to work when modifying the Apple TV’s system software. More than anything, that’s because most codecs are supplied by the now-standard Apple .DMG disk image format. These can be opened on Windows and Linux PCs — see ‘Mac DMGs on Windows’ on the next page — and once that’s achieved, grabbing the necessary files is merely a matter of navigating a directory structure.
Undoubtedly, the best source for Mac-compatible video codecs is Perian, which plugs a host of formats into Apple’s QuickTime infrastructure. You can find a full list of supported codecs and media containers that Perian knows how to deal with on its website, but it’ll handle .FLV, .MKV, .AVI, DivX to name but four.

The key files in the Perian .prefPane folder structure
Once you’ve downloaded and mounted the Perian .DMG disk image file, the crucial elements are stored in Perian.prefPane, presented by Mac OS X as system preferences panel, but essentially a folder. Inside it, within the /Contents/Resources/Components folder, you’ll find Perian.zip. Copy this, along with the contents of the two accompanying folders, CoreAudio and QuickTime, to the desktop and unzip the files. You’ll end up with
A52Codec.component AC3MovieImport.component Perian.component
three files that need to be copied to the Apple TV using your SFTP client then moved to the correct locations on the box and assigned the correct file ownerships:
sudo sudo mv AC3MovieImport.component/ /Library/QuickTime/ sudo mv Perian.component/ /Library/QuickTime/ sudo mv A52Codec.component/ /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/
Next page: How to Access ‘Non-standard’ Files
COMMENTS
@a lot easy then that
Right. Then when you try to backup your favorite TV shows onto DVD (or a portable hard drive, or the new blu-ray burner kit), it accuses you of stealing.
I'm planning to change my MCE box to run MythTV.
SAY NO TO DRM!!!
Geexbox
http://www.geexbox,org
Geexbox seems a far better bet to me.
@vincent himpe
Enhanced Definition? Enhanced Definition is just a fancy name for progressive scan like 480p and 576p.
720p is HD by all definitions of the term. It uses practically the same bandwidth as 1080i for a start.
Said it before
so I may as well say it again - the Western Digital HD TV is an ideal player for those wanting format coverage. The only bit they forgot was ethernet but I'm guessing they made it dual USB ported for cost and simplicity.
@ Gordon Moar
Well said that man.
And @ Mectron...
As a long serving Windows fanboi I still fail to see the point or need for Media Centre. It pains me to say it but there it is. Every now and again I do a new install and think 'Hey, what's this? Oh, it's the same POS as last time.'
And a question to all. I've got a mate who insists on using a Mac. It's his birthday in a few days. Would he go weak at the knees for one of those Turbo.264 jobbies? It's all Greek to me.
