[BajaBoggs]

I'm making a christmas present for my son and could use some help. i am really a noobie at all this. i have two original ATVs, with the latest software and the latest Dharma of XBMC on it. At home I have a NAS that the ATVs access with all our movies. I bought an ATV with 160GB hard drive (used) on ebay as a gift for my college bound son. my goal is to move our movie library to the additional ATV so he can take it to college. I installed ATVflash and XBMC on the new ATV. I transferred my movies to a hard drive that has a USB connection, with the thought that I would transfer the movies via the USB port. I don't know how to do this though? I really need specific instructions on how to add movies to the hard drive of an ATV so that they show up when you start XBMC?

[Ned Scott]

Apple TV 1 (silver) = Mac OS X
Apple TV 2 (black) = iOS

Thread moved

[Ned Scott]

Well, a few things. One, did you do the Broadcom Crystal HD upgrade? BCHDs are as cheap as $20 on eBay (though the $40 one from logic supply is better/more responsive and worth the extra money) and really super charges the ATV1 giving it full HD playback abilities. Only drawback is you lose the internal wifi card (BCHD uses this internal slot).
http://www.logicsupply.com/products/bcm970015
http://rufn.it/aTV/ (it's as easy as installing RAM)
I can't stress enough how much this little card gives to the ATV1. It basically gives it a whole new life and makes it on par with mediaboxes of today.


With or without BCHD: in the NitoTV install options there should be something like "smart installer" or "combo installer". I think you need that to activate the USB port for HDDs (it's been a while since I've done this).

You might also want to try Crystalbuntu: http://www.stmlabs.com/projects/crystalhd-for-appletv/

It's an alternative OS that runs specifically on the ATV1 with XBMC. The best part is you can make a USB drive, boot from that, and test it out without having to install it. It's just as easy to use, has a few more features than the normal atv1 OS (a lite version of Mac OS), and runs a lot faster. Even does a full 1080 video output. It's what I use on my ATV1, and I love it. I can also tell you that it works perfectly with USB HDDs, and they show up automatically in XBMC when plugged in.

[TechLife]

I couldn't agree more.

Not to sound like a complete fanboy, but...
ATV1+BCHD+Crystalbuntu FTW!!!

[Thomss]

I have the above combo too and it works REALLY well, I also have a Windows 7 Acer Revo 3610 and a 2010 Mac Mini and almost prefer the ATV1 solution.

[BajaBoggs]

OK Ned,

Remember the key word "noobie" I'll do some investigation as to the terms you are using, and it sounds like there might be some good information for my own home movie "network" in there. From what it sounds like, I can replace the entire OS that my ATV's run on? Basically, it sounds like when my ATV's start up, they no longer appear to have the Apple OS?

Regardless, this wasn't really my question.

I just want to TRANSFER a bunch of movies ONTO the 160GB hard drive on the ATV, and have them appear in the directory when my son launches XBMC. The movies I want to TRANSFER onto the ATV are currently on a USB drive.

Am I explaining correctly? I'm not very technically minded

[davilla]

make a directory somewhere on atv1 that xbmc can access.

scp -r <your videos> root@<ip of aptv1>:/<full path to the direct you made>

[BajaBoggs]

Ok, make a directory. Not to sound stupid, but how do I do that? Remember, Noobie, barely computer literate! Oh ya, and then moving the movies from USB drive to that directory?

[TechLife]

From what it sounds like, I can replace the entire OS that my ATV's run on? Basically, it sounds like when my ATV's start up, they no longer appear to have the Apple OS?

Yes. The drive is wiped clean of all that is Apple. Then a version of linux is installed on the drive along with XBMC. The AppleTV then boots directly into XBMC when it starts up.

[BajaBoggs]

Is wiping it clean necessary for XBMC to access the internal hard drive and create a directory as that was the last suggestion given?

[TechLife]

Is wiping it clean necessary for XBMC to access the internal hard drive and create a directory as that was the last suggestion given?

No. I was explaining what happens during the Crystalbuntu install.
--
The easiest way in my opinion to transfer files to the ATV is to use FileZilla Client. (Yes, there are other options. Personally I use SSH Secure Shell.)

Assuming you have enabled SSH on the Apple TV then you can connect to it using FileZilla and you can create directories, transfer files, etc. directly from your PC as easily as doing it in windows. I posted a screenshot here. Just replace the 10.0.1.40 with the IP address of your Apple TV. The password should be the same as the user name: frontrow

This will probably be much easier for you if you aren't comfortable in bash.

[TechLife]

oops. double post.

[BajaBoggs]

I still haven't been given a set of step by step instructions, where can I find those? i just want to add movies to the ATV hard drive so that xbmc can find them? oh and by the way, I'm on a mac.