# AppleTV jailbreak- negatives?



## ExRobotGuy (Apr 20, 2010)

I know the positives of jailbreaking Apple TV, what are the negatives?

I've been told that it is all software-based, no opening of machine etc.

What warranties would be in peril? Is it reversible?

I will, most likely be buying the latest version [3]. I know it has to be krack'd and no-one can be sure if it can be. I live in hope!

Please feel free to offer suggestions on the above.

Questions to ask my 'jailbreaker'. [He charges $30].


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

None!


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## barthrh (May 11, 2005)

ExRobotGuy said:


> I know the positives of jailbreaking Apple TV, what are the negatives?
> 
> I've been told that it is all software-based, no opening of machine etc.
> 
> ...


1. It is reversible.
2. It allows you to watch formats that you otherwise could not. You can add on other features as well. Most people will put on XBMC or Plex.
3. Ask him why he charges $30 for something anyone can do with a micro-usb cable and 5 min to watch the step-by-step videos.

Honestly, if you can't do the jailbreak yourself, don't bother. You may need to wipe / redo it at some point. You want to learn how to follow the basic instructions to install new stuff. You need to be self-sufficient. If you can't be a hobbyist about it, then just buy a unit that does the things you're hoping to gain from the JB (e.g. a WBTV live if you want to stream other formats).

There is no JB yet for the ATV 3 (because no one has one). The jailbreaks generally start tethered (you need to connect it to a computer to boot it) and then evolve into untethered (it just boots on its own).


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## chrisburke (May 11, 2010)

It's so easy to jailbreak.. Don't pay someone $30 for it.. Do it yourself... My dad can do it, and he knows NOTHING about computers... As has been said, learn to do it, because here may come a time tat you need a restore, and you don't want to pay $30 every time.

And there are no negatives.. Xbmc is amazing... I use it on my iPad right now, but am going o buy an apple tv as soon as my tax return arrives


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## csonni (Feb 8, 2001)

Is Seas0npass and Greenp0ison the only jailbreak software or is there others. If so, what one is most highly recommended?
Do all or most of the added benefits of JB apply to Canadian residents as well or are we limited compared to US residents?
Some say it affects the performance with streaming video through iTunes.


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## chrisburke (May 11, 2010)

They apply to Canada too


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## okcomputer (Jul 18, 2005)

One possible downside is not being able to update to the newest version of the OS that Apple releases. You'll lose your jailbreak, so you have to wait until the jailbreak folks crack the new OS each time. But it's usually quite quick.

Secondly, I jailbroke my ATV2, and it seems to be having reliability issues. It reboots itself every once in a while, especially if I'm watching video through the ATV Black media player. But I don't know if that's ATV Black or the jailbreak itself or a combo...


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

I use Seasonpass as it "just works" so I haven't had to look for an alternative.


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

I have been unable to get my ATV2 to jailbreak as have many others!


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## BillyPrefect (Jun 5, 2011)

If you've upgraded your iOS you'll have to wait for the latest/greatest hack to be able to jailbreak. As for Hulu, us in Canada are not easily able to view due to the IP address, nothing to do with the device at all. The benefits are still great if for nothing than running XBMC. I love it on my iPad2, the ability to view any movie on my home server on my iPad regardless of the format, is fantastic.


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

Negatives? I looked at a jailbreak for one of my 1G ATV's a while back and what I saw was replacing a simple easy-to-use interface with a much more complicated one that was not guaranteed to work and wouldn't be easily updatable either. ATV does what it needs to do for me right out of the box.


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

Spoken like a true fan!!
Pass the koolaid!
lol


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

johnnydee said:


> Spoken like a true fan!!
> Pass the koolaid!
> lol


It was Flavor Aid for the umpteenth time. You could look it up. And what's your problem if I like the thing right out of the box? Haters gonna hate.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

If you have a lot of non-iTunes media content, or want to play with streaming stuff from other sources, there sure, there are some advantages to jailbreaking. 

Personally, however, even going back to the first generation model, I bought the tv specifically for playing my content from iTunes, since that's where everything _is_ anyway. I've never been able to be bothered downloading video content from "other" more questionable sources so everything in my collection is either encoded from my own DVDs or purchased from iTunes. When ripping DVDs you have to convert them to _something_, so it's about as easy to put them into an H.264 format that the tv and my iOS devices will like as anything else.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Does anyone know if you have a ATV2 and an ATV3 side by side will the remote for the ATV2 control the ATV3?

The reason I ask is because I have thousands of movies and tv shows that I created digital copies of for use with my HTPC. Now I am thinking of JB my ATV2 and connecting it to my media server and have the ATV3 just for Apple and iTunes stuff. But now that I think of it the ATV2 is only 720p. Hmmm... I just don't want to spend the time to re-encode all my files to an iTunes format. I just find it a pain to turn on my HTPC and the Apple TV is so easy to use.

Where is the site for XBMC? I looked for it and could only find stuff for ATV1.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

The same remote will control _all_ of your Apple TVs in the same room, and for that matter even other Apple remote-enabled devices such as an iMac, MacBook or Apple Universal Dock.

You _can_ however, pair each Apple TV with an individual remote by going into the _Settings, General, Remotes_ menu. This will work with universal remotes as well. If you do this on both of your Apple TVs, then you can basically have separate physical remotes, or separate universal remote "devices" for each Apple TV.

You can also program the Apple TV to respond to commands from a third-party remote, so if you have an old VCR remote lying around, you can use that for an Apple TV instead. This also has the advantage of providing more controls than the included Apple Remote -- you can program features such as skip-forward and skip-back to be assigned to their own buttons rather than having to use tap-and-hold to access these. This option can alos be found under _Settings, General, Remotes_.


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## chrisburke (May 11, 2010)

Joker Eh said:


> Does anyone know if you have a ATV2 and an ATV3 side by side will the remote for the ATV2 control the ATV3?
> 
> The reason I ask is because I have thousands of movies and tv shows that I created digital copies of for use with my HTPC. Now I am thinking of JB my ATV2 and connecting it to my media server and have the ATV3 just for Apple and iTunes stuff. But now that I think of it the ATV2 is only 720p. Hmmm... I just don't want to spend the time to re-encode all my files to an iTunes format. I just find it a pain to turn on my HTPC and the Apple TV is so easy to use.
> 
> Where is the site for XBMC? I looked for it and could only find stuff for ATV1.


The remote should be paired to the device... As for xbmc.. After googling "xbmc apple tv" it's the very first result... http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW-TO:Install_XBMC_on_Apple_TV_2


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## chrisburke (May 11, 2010)

jhollington said:


> If you have a lot of non-iTunes media content, or want to play with streaming stuff from other sources, there sure, there are some advantages to jailbreaking.
> 
> Personally, however, even going back to the first generation model, I bought the tv specifically for playing my content from iTunes, since that's where everything _is_ anyway. I've never been able to be bothered downloading video content from "other" more questionable sources so everything in my collection is either encoded from my own DVDs or purchased from iTunes. When ripping DVDs you have to convert them to _something_, so it's about as easy to put them into an H.264 format that the tv and my iOS devices will like as anything else.


I understand what you're saying.. But to each his own.. Personally I'm buying an apple tv FOR xbmc.. I think I have maybe 3 movies in my iTunes library.. But I don't have cable or satellite, so I use xbmc for all my tv (it's on my iPad right now)..but as soon as someone puts their atv2 on kijiji I'll be grabbing it and jailbreaking it right away


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## fjnmusic (Oct 29, 2006)

jhollington said:


> The same remote will control _all_ of your Apple TVs in the same room, and for that matter even other Apple remote-enabled devices such as an iMac, MacBook or Apple Universal Dock.
> 
> You _can_ however, pair each Apple TV with an individual remote by going into the _Settings, General, Remotes_ menu. This will work with universal remotes as well. If you do this on both of your Apple TVs, then you can basically have separate physical remotes, or separate universal remote "devices" for each Apple TV.
> 
> You can also program the Apple TV to respond to commands from a third-party remote, so if you have an old VCR remote lying around, you can use that for an Apple TV instead. This also has the advantage of providing more controls than the included Apple Remote -- you can program features such as skip-forward and skip-back to be assigned to their own buttons rather than having to use tap-and-hold to access these. This option can alos be found under _Settings, General, Remotes_.


Also, you can use the Remote app for iOS if you have an iPhone, iPad or such lying around and control many devices with one remote and without cross-talk. Plus it's much easier to search for things with the iOS keyboard or even (gasp) voice dictation than the one-letter-at-a-time method that comes with the basic Apple remote.


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## Gordon Eastman (Mar 28, 2003)

I have used a "jail broken" Apple TV 1 for years. The sole use was to play non-mp4 content from a network drive. When I tried the same with a jailbroken Apple TV 2, I had nothing but grief. Could not get Plex or XBMC to reliably perform this simple task. Went back to mp4 conversion and play-from-iTiunes


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## Oakbridge (Mar 8, 2005)

My gut feel is that more than 50% of people who use jailbroken iOS or ATV devices have no clue what the device has been jailbroken for and would probably be fine with the device out of the box.

They have listened to a 'friend' who has said something like "oh you've got to jail brake it so you can do all this cool stuff". 

Listening to 'friends' is one of the reasons how the windows world got as screwed up as it is. The majority of new Apple customers leave the windows world because they see that Apple products work much more reliably. Then they go and jail break the device and complain that Apple devices are crap. (Then they move on to Android devices - grin).

When a customer of mine comes to me and says that he needs 'x', I'll ask them what for and then we'll sit down and weigh the pros and cons. It's to help them make a decision that is right for them, not right because ten of their buddies said they should do it. 

I think the same thing should be done before anyone jailbreaks a device. Think about exactly what you want out of it. There is a reason why Apple devices are as reliable as they are. Part of it is because Apple tries to make sure that app 'x' is not going to screw up app 'y'. Or worse that app 'x' isn't going to screw up the device completely. Apple has teams of people testing the devices and the apps together. The software to jail break your device, or any software that runs outside of the Apple ecosystem is probably tested by the developer, and that's about it. I feel much more secure knowing that Apple has done their job testing as much as it can and will stick by me if there is a problem.

Jailbreaking a device removes this level of security and that is what I think is the biggest negative of all.


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## ExRobotGuy (Apr 20, 2010)

Gordon Eastman said:


> Could not get Plex or XBMC to reliably perform this simple task. Went back to mp4 conversion and play-from-iTiunes


Pardon my ignorance, but why mp4 not mp3. All my 'tunes are the latter. Is this a personal choice re: quality or what? None of my songs have been 'iTunes' purchases.


Thanks.


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## ExRobotGuy (Apr 20, 2010)

*Where's the magic sauce?*

Thanks, Steve, for that whiff of fresh air!

I started out just wanting to get my iTunes on my receiver via ethernet. The other stuff was my greed! Free NetFlix etc., but discovering that one would have to 're-jailbreak' the device after a firmware up-date and other such things has cooled my ardour, somewhat.

I haven't been able to find out why, if my receiver [ONKYO 808] can 'see' my iMac via two software 'server' software programs EyeConnect & Vuse], I still cannot play my mp3 files.

What changed 'protocol' [if that's what it is] does the server software 'create' for the files themselves to make files available? Is it a Windows/Mac difference or what???

Gordon Eastman uses mp4 conversion. Is this a necessity?

Thanks


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## Gordon Eastman (Mar 28, 2003)

ExRobotGuy said:


> Pardon my ignorance, but why mp4 not mp3. All my 'tunes are the latter. Is this a personal choice re: quality or what? None of my songs have been 'iTunes' purchases.
> 
> 
> Thanks.


This is for video, not audio


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## tdu (Sep 15, 2008)

Oakbridge said:


> My gut feel is that more than 50% of people who use jailbroken iOS or ATV devices have no clue what the device has been jailbroken for and would probably be fine with the device out of the box.
> 
> They have listened to a 'friend' who has said something like "oh you've got to jail brake it so you can do all this cool stuff".
> 
> ...


I jailbroke for the most basic function... to be able to play more video codecs. I don't believe security has anything to do with why it won't run various codecs. They want you only playing Apple content on it. It plays other content completely fine once jailbroken though.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Oakbridge said:


> I think the same thing should be done before anyone jailbreaks a device. Think about exactly what you want out of it. There is a reason why Apple devices are as reliable as they are. Part of it is because Apple tries to make sure that app 'x' is not going to screw up app 'y'. Or worse that app 'x' isn't going to screw up the device completely. Apple has teams of people testing the devices and the apps together.


While i agree completely with your general point that jailbreaking introduced problems an decreases reliability and stability -- especially on iOS devices, this one particular statement is not _entirely_ accurate.

Apple doesn't actually "test" third-party apps at all. Obviously, it tests its own apps -- both those built in to iOS and those that Apple publishes itself on the App Store. Third-party app review, however, is basically limited to running the app through specific code checks (e.g. making sure only approved APIs are being used) and looking at things like price, description, screenshots, etc. I'm not sure if Apple checks to make sure the app even _runs_ before approving it -- they certainly don't put it through any kind of tests beyond that however.

That said, the point is that Apple doesn't _need_ to test every app in the App Store. What Apple has done instead is created a very restricted sandbox environment with a very limited set of APIs that developers are allowed to use. Apps can't run in the background except to do very specific things that are still tightly controlled by Apple (e.g. background audio, task completion for up to 10 minutes after the app closes, etc). Apps can also only access things that Apple has allows through APIs -- music library, contacts and calendar are okay, SMS and e-mail are not, for instance as there are simply no APIs for the latter.

So by ensuring that apps are running within a controlled environment, the apps themselves don't need to be looked at in any kind of detail. 

Jailbreaking defeats this controlled environment, allowing developers to write apps that do as they please.... Replace key operating system components, run in the background all the time and try to intercept and "hack" built-in apps to perform tasks that they were never designed for in the first place. This is also why the very worst apps you will find on the Cydia wtore in terms of stability and reliability are the "system extension" and "hack" type apps, as opposed to standalone apps like games that are basically still self-contained anyway.

Most of this also only really applies to iOS devices. You're completely right that people jailbreak their iOS devices because some buddy told them to do so and they don't really know what they're getting into. For example, a friend of mine had her iPhone jailbroken and didn't even know it -- a friend had jailbroken it when setting it up for her because it was his opinion that ALL iPhones should be jailbroken. She was having all manner of crazy problems that were basically solved as soon as she restored it back to a "clean" configuration and reloaded her apps properly. 

In contrast, I think on the tv side, people are generally a lot less likely to jailbreak "just because" and therefore have at least some idea of what they're getting themselves into.


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## Oakbridge (Mar 8, 2005)

jhollington said:


> While i agree completely with your general point that jailbreaking introduced problems an decreases reliability and stability -- especially on iOS devices, this one particular statement is not _entirely_ accurate.
> 
> Apple doesn't actually "test" third-party apps at all. Obviously, it tests its own apps -- both those built in to iOS and those that Apple publishes itself on the App Store. Third-party app review, however, is basically limited to running the app through specific code checks (e.g. making sure only approved APIs are being used) and looking at things like price, description, screenshots, etc. I'm not sure if Apple checks to make sure the app even _runs_ before approving it -- they certainly don't put it through any kind of tests beyond that however.
> 
> ...


Thanks for providing the detailed response, and for correcting me. I knew that there was something that Apple did that was to help achieve the best possible experience on the platform. 

At times, the extent of their measures frustrates me. For example we have a wonderful plugin for Mail on the Mac platform for Daylite. Allows a variety of interchange between the two applications. However we don't have that on the iOS platform. It would allow many Daylite users to ditch their computers and run with their iPads full time.

Also I'd love to be able to have the phone app on my iPhone use my Daylite Touch data for call display information, but that's not available. I don't think it would get into the privacy issues, because the app would just be sending down a string of characters that would be the number of an incoming phone call, however if you open it up for one developer (i.e. Marketcircle), you need to open it up for all developers.

I can see Apple's side of things, but it would be nice if they could loosen the reigns just a little bit when it makes sense to do it.


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## Oakbridge (Mar 8, 2005)

tdu said:


> I jailbroke for the most basic function... to be able to play more video codecs. I don't believe security has anything to do with why it won't run various codecs. They want you only playing Apple content on it. It plays other content completely fine once jailbroken though.


I'm curious. 

What codecs can you not play on your iPad straight out of the box? I'm not someone who spends a lot of time worrying about watching video on my iPad (I've got an HDTV and a home theatre system to watch things on) so I admit that I may be missing something.

But I thought that even using tools like Handbreak, you can rip DVD's, etc. into a format that either is iPad compatible directly, or can go through QuickTime.


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

Steve some people don't want to have to rip movies into iTunes and would just rather play them back as avi's etc. That's where jailbreaking comes in as it lets you run 3rd party solutions to play these files directly from a folder on their computers not though iTunes.


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## tdu (Sep 15, 2008)

Oakbridge said:


> I'm curious.
> 
> What codecs can you not play on your iPad straight out of the box? I'm not someone who spends a lot of time worrying about watching video on my iPad (I've got an HDTV and a home theatre system to watch things on) so I admit that I may be missing something.
> 
> But I thought that even using tools like Handbreak, you can rip DVD's, etc. into a format that either is iPad compatible directly, or can go through QuickTime.


Seems to be a lot of back and forth about different devices in this thread lol, I am strictly referring to the ATV's. It will only play content that works in iTunes out of the box.

Yes, there are tools to rip whatever format you want. But... what if I don't want to use iTunes friendly codecs (eg. I really like MKV)? What if I want to use straight uncompressed DVD copies for my library? A jailbroken ATV2 will play whatever I want. And just as important, from where ever I want (not tied to iTunes).

The other thing that is tough to explain to people who haven't used XBMC on a jailbroken ATV is why it's so great. There is a ton of stuff it can do, but on a basic level there are plug-ins for it that will play content from all the networks TV web sites right through the ATV. It allows a tiny little ATV to provide all kinds of content.

If we are strictly talking 'out of the box' I personally feel the WD Live Plus is actually a better unit. The interface is definitely not as nice, but it will play everything you throw at it and it has more plug-ins. I bought one on sale awhile back and have both it and the ATV2 running right now to test them.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Oakbridge said:


> At times, the extent of their measures frustrates me. For example we have a wonderful plugin for Mail on the Mac platform for Daylite. Allows a variety of interchange between the two applications. However we don't have that on the iOS platform. It would allow many Daylite users to ditch their computers and run with their iPads full time.


You and I both. I've looked at Daylite in the past, and actually had a business associate who used it a fair bit a few years back. I can definitely see the utility of having better integration with iOS.



> I can see Apple's side of things, but it would be nice if they could loosen the reigns just a little bit when it makes sense to do it.


In all fairness to Apple, the real problem here is that it's not just a matter of loosening things up. Due to the way iOS is designed, it's not simply a matter of permitting apps to do more; Apple would actually have to provide the very specific APIs and hooks for third-party apps to tie into. It's not insurmountable, but it does require deliberate effort and planning.

If you look at the history of iOS, some of that progress _has_ been there, and hopefully Apple will continue to developer new APIs for developers to take advantage of. For example, it wasn't until iOS 4 that apps could even access the _calendar_ at all, but clearly Apple saw the need to open this up and added an API to do so. Now, things like Reminders and Siri are the new iOS 5 features that are in a similarly inaccessible category, but here's hoping that iOS 6 will start to provide the necessary hooks into those components.


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## kalch (Mar 22, 2012)

a disadvantage, for example, is that I am now stuck on 4.4.3 and can't do the mirroring thing from airparrot or from my ipad/iphone. Apple isn't signing 4.4.4 anymore, so i have to wait until a new jailbreak is out (soon hopefully), so I can take advantage of more features of the ATV2. This is one disadvantage, for sure, but it is out weighed xbmc, plex, couch surfer, etc.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

No one has said what issues if any they have has with the jail breaking process itself. What functions and features on the Apple TV 3 cannot be used after doing so.


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## tdu (Sep 15, 2008)

Joker Eh said:


> No one has said what issues if any they have has with the jail breaking process itself. What functions and features on the Apple TV 3 cannot be used after doing so.


iTunes rentals, Netflix, Radio, Youtube etc. all function normally after a Jailbreak. You just get extra menus added depending on what you install after the jailbreak.

The only catch is that if you are using a VPN, you can run into some iTunes issues based on what country you are in. EG I use a VPN to use US Netflix. If it's running, I can't access the Canadian iTunes store. I need a US iTunes account. That is not really a jailbreak specific issue though because there are ways to run a VPN without jailbreaking.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

tdu said:


> The only catch is that if you are using a VPN, you can run into some iTunes issues based on what country you are in. EG I use a VPN to use US Netflix. If it's running, I can't access the Canadian iTunes store. I need a US iTunes account. That is not really a jailbreak specific issue though because there are ways to run a VPN without jailbreaking.


That's actually somewhat odd and may indicate a problem with whatever specific VPN solution you're using. The iTunes Store doesn't care or check which country you're in based on anything other than credit card billing address -- I'm fully able to use the U.S. iTunes Store on my non-jailbroken Apple TV (and other devices) from Canada, and vice-versa for my Canadian iTunes Store account when I'm in the U.S.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

I have been wrestling with myself over this jailbreaking of my Apple TV 3. I don't like jail breaking my devices as I like to keep them as they are intended to be used (Just mho no need to get into rights or wrong here) but...

My setup.
I have a Windows Home Server which contains about 12TB of my movies, TV shows, and pictures. All categorized and setup to use with a HTPC I have under my TV. Now this was all setup before the Apple TV2 came out and before I was into Apple like I am now. The Blu-ray movies are all MKV files with HD Sound 50GB files, the DVD are mostly copies of the DVD itself with those VIDEO_TS folders.

More and more I am getting annoyed having to startup my HTPC pull out the wireless keyboard and all that goes with it. I like the simple approach to the Apple TV. I am just worried about jail breaking and dealing with any possible hassles. The older I get the less hassles I want to deal with. But if it’s simple and hassle free and would create less clutter under my TV, I think about it.

Now I have thought about leaving my Apple TV alone and buying the Boxee or WD TV Live media players. WD TV Live is cheap at $100 but the menu system looks like crap and it is another component I have to add. The Boxee is $200 but made by DLINK and not a fan of them. Then I thought OK if I am going to spend $100 why wouldn’t I buy another Apple TV 3 and jail break it, hmm I thought. Then the smarter person in me said “What 2 Apple TV’s (3rd gen) side by side, for what purpose?”, so that doesn’t make sense except it only made sense to me because of not wanting to jail break my only Apple TV so get another one and jailbreak it.

I hate being in this conundrum.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Well, another viable option would be to simply use Handbrake and convert everything into an H.264 compliant format. This would likely also have the advantage of saving space -- H.264 is a more efficient codec and you'll probably find that you can get comparable quality to your direct DVD rips at a fraction of the storage space, even at very high H.264 bit-rates.

Handbrake will handle conversion of AC3 pass-through sound as well, so you'll at least get Dolby Digital 5.1 without any difficulties, and you can encode a second standard AAC sound track for using your videos on iOS devices (which don't support AC3).

In my case, I basically began with H.264 as my preferred format from the beginning, although I have re-encoded some DVDs over the years to improve quality (early fifth-generation iPod videos didn't support anamorphic encoding, so widescreen movies and TV shows ended up at less-than-optimal resolutions). Regardless, I've been very happy with the format as well as the ability to organize everything in iTunes as it not only maintains easy compatibility with the Apple TV and iOS devices, but I find it to be generally easier to work from iTunes-based metadata than messing with files and folders (basically in much the same way as it is with music).


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

If you want to keep things native then look into Plex. Jailbreaking isn't hard and won't harm your appleTV by itself...it does give you the power to mess things up if you really want to but even then you can almost always just restore it back to default in itunes. 

I do agree with Jesse though that converting your existing material to 264 would save you a ton of space...though it will take a fair amount of time and processing power to do it if you have a sizable collection. The obvious advantage to that though is that you wouldn't have to jailbreak anything and secondly you could then share that content with your iOS devices.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

the struggle.

Maybe I will try with a few blu-ray files I have and use handbrake on them to see how I like it.

Now the question is I only have a MBP so how is iTunes on there going to see the files on another machine which is a Windows Home Server? Is this possible?


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

You can either simply point iTunes to a share on the Windows Home Server, or better yet simply run iTunes directly _on_ the WIndows Home Server. iTunes for Windows is basically identical in capabilities to the Mac version, and an Apple TV can access more than one library (so you could have your videos in your Windows iTunes library while still accessing other content from your MBP).


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

jhollington said:


> You can either simply point iTunes to a share on the Windows Home Server, or better yet simply run iTunes directly _on_ the WIndows Home Server. iTunes for Windows is basically identical in capabilities to the Mac version, and an Apple TV can access more than one library (so you could have your videos in your Windows iTunes library while still accessing other content from your MBP).


huh, hmmm, food for thought.

Thanks.


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## tdu (Sep 15, 2008)

Joker, the thing about jailbreaks on ATV's is that they are very easy to undo. If you don't like it, you just restore it back to factory settings. And as you know, it takes minutes to do the initial setup again (entering your passwords etc.).

If you have all those files in uncompressed format, I'd have to agree with the other suggestions in the thread to just convert them. If you were transcoding, it would be another matter and I would likely recommend the jailbreak just so you could play any codec. But you are simply encoding lossless rips to an ATV compatible format.

The only way I wouldn't recommend this method is if you personally see a big quality difference between your rips, and the converted files. Or if you really like to have access to the menus and features on the DVD/Blue Rays. In my case, I don't so I never see a reason in having full DVD/Blue Ray rips.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

It's also worth adding that while you can't get the actual DVD menus and interactive features in the converted files, you can of course encode any extras separately if you really want them in your library. Handbrake can also encode chapter markers, alternate audio tracks and even closed captions and subtitles, which will be accessible from the Apple TV, iTunes and your iOS devices.


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

Thanks. Only the DVD's are in uncompressed format, the Blurays are all mkv files.

Well I went home yesterday and installed handbrake on my windows machine at home and tried it with my Avatar bluray rip which is 36GB and in mkv format. I let it go for an hour and it didn't even get to 1% so I stopped it. Now I don't know if it would have gone faster if I installed handbrake on my late 2010 13" MBP or I let it go longer but does this seem normal?

Now I tried handbrake with a current bluray I have not ripped yet. Games of Thrones. A no go as I found out handbrake will not work with blurays which are copyprotected. You have to use another program to create an mkv and then use handbrake to convert it.

I found this solution https://forum.handbrake.fr/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19939 but like it said it is a total Mac solution and I don't have a bluray drive for my MBP so SOL.

So anyways I went to bed thinking just leave everything the way it is jailbreak, less hassel. But then I thought wouldn't it be nice to be able to take movies and tv shows of mine with me on my iPad on a trip. So I am back to square 1. :-(


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

I rip almost all of my stuff directly from the source DVDs, and haven't yet gotten into converting Blu-ray discs at all. With a decent CPU, Handbrake should be able to encode at least in real-time, if not even slightly better. My 3.06Ghz iMac (early 2009 model) runs around 35fps on the average DVD, which is to stay slightly faster than real-time. A friend's 27" quad-core i7 iMac from last year seems to run at a bit more than double the speed (around 80-90fps). Again, however, this is for standard DVDs, not Blu-ray discs.

If your MBP has more CPU horsepower than your Windows PC, then I would definitely give that a try. The performance between Handbrake on Windows vs Mac should be roughly equivalent, although I haven't used the Windows version in years so I don't know if there may be a difference these days, and of course transcoding formats like MKV may also make a difference versus normal "uncompressed" DVDs.

(As an aside, "uncompressed" is probably not accurate unless you're actually using raw DV from a camcorder. Even standard DVDs use MPEG-2 compression, which is less efficient but is still a compression algorithm).


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## Joker Eh (Jan 22, 2008)

jhollington said:


> I rip almost all of my stuff directly from the source DVDs, and haven't yet gotten into converting Blu-ray discs at all. With a decent CPU, Handbrake should be able to encode at least in real-time, if not even slightly better. My 3.06Ghz iMac (early 2009 model) runs around 35fps on the average DVD, which is to stay slightly faster than real-time. A friend's 27" quad-core i7 iMac from last year seems to run at a bit more than double the speed (around 80-90fps). Again, however, this is for standard DVDs, not Blu-ray discs.
> 
> If your MBP has more CPU horsepower than your Windows PC, then I would definitely give that a try. The performance between Handbrake on Windows vs Mac should be roughly equivalent, although I haven't used the Windows version in years so I don't know if there may be a difference these days, and of course transcoding formats like MKV may also make a difference versus normal "uncompressed" DVDs.
> 
> *(As an aside, "uncompressed" is probably not accurate unless you're actually using raw DV from a camcorder. Even standard DVDs use MPEG-2 compression, which is less efficient but is still a compression algorithm)*.


True.


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