Will 1st Gen ATV be good enough?

I've been using an ATV2 for a few months and it seems I have finally got it working just right and remaining stable.

So I was thinking of getting one for the other room...just as stocks of ATV2 run dry and prices go through the roof!

Used 1st gen jailbroken ATVs are more sensibly priced. So, my question is, would a 1st gen ATV allow me to do everything that the ATV2 does? I have read the FAQ about installing different operating systems and installing chips but I really don't want to do that. What I have in mind is a bog standard ATV1 with the latest version of XBMC.

Does anyone have experiences of both that they could share?

A bit more about it here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=129167 from what ive read it is recommended to install the Broadcom HD card.

Thanks. That doesn't sound very promising! I really don't want to go opening the box up and installing operating systems.

There are lots of good tutorials. Wiki: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=App...Crystal_HD installation tutorial: http://rufn.it/aTV/

For 480p video and performance skins, you'll be fine. Anything more, and you'll want to add a card for best performance. What did you do for ATV2 stability? I shelved mine because XBMC crashed all over the place. Wasn't even practical to watch stuff.

1st generation ATV with Broadcom HD card can do 1080p. Without the HD card you are stuck to SD. Some 720p will play OK, most won't.

(2012-04-23 14:25)Krieg Wrote:  1st generation ATV with Broadcom HD card can do 1080p. Without the HD card you are stuck to SD. Some 720p will play OK, most won't.

Interestingly I just got a response from someone selling an ATV1 who says that it will support 720p because it has version 3.0.2 software. Is he right?

(2012-04-22 19:39)kadeschs Wrote:  For 480p video and performance skins, you'll be fine. Anything more, and you'll want to add a card for best performance. What did you do for ATV2 stability? I shelved mine because XBMC crashed all over the place. Wasn't even practical to watch stuff.

Interesting that you had so many crashes. Aside from an issue with one of the Addon updates around Eden beta 2 release I've had no issues with stability. I use my ATV2 daily and without XBMC it would be a paper weight to me.

(2012-04-23 15:18)WisdomWolf Wrote:  

(2012-04-22 19:39)kadeschs Wrote:  For 480p video and performance skins, you'll be fine. Anything more, and you'll want to add a card for best performance. What did you do for ATV2 stability? I shelved mine because XBMC crashed all over the place. Wasn't even practical to watch stuff.

Interesting that you had so many crashes. Aside from an issue with one of the Addon updates around Eden beta 2 release I've had no issues with stability. I use my ATV2 daily and without XBMC it would be a paper weight to me.

Me too, ATV2 pretty solid for me. I use daily as well.

(2012-04-22 19:39)kadeschs Wrote:  For 480p video and performance skins, you'll be fine. Anything more, and you'll want to add a card for best performance. What did you do for ATV2 stability? I shelved mine because XBMC crashed all over the place. Wasn't even practical to watch stuff.

I have had problems with my ATV2. I cannot connect it to my receiver via HDMI as it crashes as soon as I switch my receiver on. So I have to connect via HDMI to the TV and optical to the receiver.

Other than that, for the first few weeks, it was quite stable. Then it started slowing down and eventually I was getting "timed out" errors. I switched from SMB to AFP and it has been stable since then, but the whole thing is slower than it was originally by quite some margin.

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One thing I've noted is the power comsumption of the ATV1. 48w compared to 6w for the ATV2.

If I'm doing my sums correctly it'll cost me about £60 a year to run the ATV1 but only about £7.60 to run the ATV2 ! Even with the inflated premiums being charged for the ATV2 it pays for itself very quickly.