# AppleTv Boxee



## Bogi094 (Sep 6, 2008)

Well i have been deciding to get a apple tv or a mac mini, and would choose the apple tv if there was some way to get an IP mask- like Hotspot shield software.

The apple tv would save me a lot of money...

I would like to do this so that I can watch ABC, Hulu, and others directly from it.

Does anyone here have an appletv with boxee? if so how are you guys watching the US only programs?

Thanks!


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## RISCHead (Jul 20, 2004)

Can't you just hack your Apple TV to open up OS X and therefore do everything on it that you could with any other Mac running OS X, including running boxee? or am I missing something?


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## mrhud (Oct 30, 2007)

Bogi094 said:


> Well i have been deciding to get a apple tv or a mac mini, and would choose the apple tv if there was some way to get an IP mask- like Hotspot shield software.
> 
> The apple tv would save me a lot of money...
> 
> ...


Take a look here. I haven't tried it yet, but may look into it.

Hotspot Shield on ATV - Page 4 - boxee :: forum


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## Bogi094 (Sep 6, 2008)

mrhud said:


> Take a look here. I haven't tried it yet, but may look into it.
> 
> Hotspot Shield on ATV - Page 4 - boxee :: forum


Thanks! I dont have an appletv- yet. And if this works thanks for saving me $400. If you do try it out any time soon please just give me a PM saying if it worked or not and some step by step instructions. Does this seem hard to do? and do you have to have some kind of hacked/modded ATV?

Thanks again!


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## Bogi094 (Sep 6, 2008)

RISCHead said:


> Can't you just hack your Apple TV to open up OS X and therefore do everything on it that you could with any other Mac running OS X, including running boxee? or am I missing something?


I dont believe that an ATV can run OSX, or can it? if it could that would be a mac super mini.


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## MunnyGuy (Jan 22, 2009)

I just stream stuff I download from my iMac to my xBox 360 using connect 360. I am not really familiar with Apple TV... but is it not essentially a slinbox/media server?


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## a7mc (Dec 30, 2002)

mrhud said:


> Take a look here. I haven't tried it yet, but may look into it.
> 
> Hotspot Shield on ATV - Page 4 - boxee :: forum


For what it's worth, Hotspot shield kinda sucks. It works by proxying all your data, so it sits in between you and the internet. Problem is, their servers are slow. So watching Hulu for example is a very frustrating experience... it pauses the video to rebuffer every 1-2 minutes or so. I haven't found a workable solution yet. But Boxee does offer WB and other networks that are viewable.

A7


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## crawford (Oct 8, 2005)

RISCHead said:


> Can't you just hack your Apple TV to open up OS X and therefore do everything on it that you could with any other Mac running OS X, including running boxee? or am I missing something?


Yes he can hack the AppleTV to install Boxee. But it's not as simple as doing "everything on it that you can do with any other Mac running OS X". 



> I dont believe that an ATV can run OSX, or can it?


It *is* running OS X. Just a somewhat stripped down version of it. 

And to answer your question, I haven't figured out a way to watch Hulu on my AppleTV. But I do use it for plenty of other things (including Boxee), that I feel that I have gotten my money's worth from it so far. But know that Boxee has a ways to go in its development. It's very much a work in progress and some patience is required if that's the primary way that you want to use the device.


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## harpoon (Sep 7, 2006)

Does boxee run Perian to play all the codecs, and does boxee let you use an external USB drive like ATV Flash does?


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## genexxa (Jun 10, 2006)

Bogi094 said:


> I dont believe that an ATV can run OSX, or can it? if it could that would be a mac super mini.


Take a look at this

YouTube - Full Mac OSX on AppleTV


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## matriculated (Jan 2, 2008)

harpoon said:


> Does boxee run Perian to play all the codecs, and does boxee let you use an external USB drive like ATV Flash does?


Boxee is based on XMBC which itself is based around Mplayer. Judging from what I can play on my original Xbox with XBMC installed it can play almost anything (MKV, RM, Divx/Xvid, WMV, etc) without Perian.


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## Bogi094 (Sep 6, 2008)

Is appletv powerful enough to run OSX? or is it completely buggy and slow?


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## crawford (Oct 8, 2005)

It's a simplified and slightly stripped down version of OS X.
It's a little slow and not really buggy at all.


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## Maverick (Sep 18, 2007)

I'm running Plex (Plex Media Center for OS X) on a Mac Mini. It lacks the network video goodness of Boxee at the moment, but I'm sure that will come shortly (they are both based on XBMC). Plex does offer some pretty great Mac integration out of the "box". Setting it up initially is a little frustrating (the UI sucks for setup but is a dream once its running). It talks to my iPhoto library on my remote Mac over the network and streams my iTunes library over the network. I also have it set-up to launch a MythTV frontend to access my TV recordings from my MythTV backend (linux). All-in-all, I'd say its definitely worth checking out.

I've run Boxee a few times, and turn on Hotspot Shield to access Hulu and other US networks. I don't really find it worthwhile, personally, as most of the content just plain sucks or is really really old, and they inject un-skippable ads that I've long since moved beyond finding acceptable. Hotspot Shield really sucks too cause it kinda takes over your computer and feels a little more "virus-ey" than I'm familiar with on the Mac. I'd probably be more interested if I could get into iPlayer (BBC), but that would require a different proxy in the UK (HS doesn't offer this).

Just passing along some of my experiences, hope it helps. I don't really have any practical experience with the ATV, but I'm very happy with the Mac Mini + Plex + MythTV combo at the moment.


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