Hacker News Reader

Comment by oomkiller | Hacker News Reader

I picked up an Apple TV for Airplay use with my iPad, but was disappointed that I couldn't play my movies on my media server. Luckily I found out XBMC runs on it, and it works quite well. I've been using the Eden beta on my ATV for a month or two now, good to see it's been released.

$100 Apple TV + Jailbreak + XMBC == Awesome.

View on HN

The $100 AppleTV + XBMC really is one of the best HTPCs you can have. For playing digital media it's not only one of the best options but one of the cheapest. Can't wait for AppleTV3 to get a jailbreak.

But it won't play 1080p, correct?

2nd generation AppleTV will play 1080p content, but only output 720. The new AppleTV will output full HD.

I didn't even notice there's a new AppleTV. Superb news!

I can also recommend Zotac's HTPCs for XBMC. While more expensive than the Apple TV ($250~), you get a great little linux-friendly box that does full HD without any issues. If you don't feel like messing with it, you can just drop Openelec on it and you're pretty much done.

They also come with SD card slots so you can buy them without a hard drive and boot from a class 10 SD card as a poor man's SSD (provided you have a NAS). Alternately, it makes a great NAS ;)

This is great news. I've been running a Win 7 XBMC for a while now and have been holding off on the Apple TV precisely because I couldn't play my own movies. I didn't know you could JB and install XBMC. Thanks for the info!!

If you jailbreak an apple TV can you still use netflix?

Yeah, it works fine. Jailbreaking doesn't really change the interface at all, when you install XBMC it just adds another menu item.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com