(2012-04-17, 17:24)pseudoheld Wrote: don't worry i'm already brushing up on my linux knowledge. right now im going another route where im trying to install openelec which comes with a tvheadend addon
will see how that goes!
I've built an OpenElec box out of my ATV. The AppleTV's CPU (which is underclocked down to around 800Mhz) isn't powerful enough to handle HD Mpeg2 streams. The one thing that could rescue the AppleTV is the Broadcom CrystalHD mini PCI-E card. It does NOT currently understand Mpeg2 TS so the processor will be doing all the work.
I've also built a nice little transmission torrent machine with it. It would pull my RSS feeds and grab all the shows and have them ready for me a little while later.
Since the AppleTV doesn't run Linux, let alone a Debian based Linux, Apt is not a possibility. You'll need to either run a live distro off of a thumb drive, or install it on the internal drive. Once you wipe out the internal drive, there is no going back. If you do attempt to plug a keyboard and/or mouse into the ATV's single USB port, do NOT use a powered hub. You'll fry the port.
I'd go the route of just using the installed OSX Tiger that's running by default. It's Unix (not 100% certified Unix but close enough), so it's very Linux like. You'll need to download a version of transmission compiled for the architecture.
Probably a billion more things I can say, but I'll let you play for a bit.