Comments on: How to add your DVDs to AppleTV

By: Mike Langieri

Mike Langieri — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 14:12:59 +0000

Still haven’t formatted the new drive. I thought there might be better quality with MP4 over TS_Video but maybe not? OK, last night I had a little time so I connected my ATV via ethernet, ran a HDMI cable to my PC’s 22″ HannsG, and plugged in the power. Still don’t understand how to turn the ATV on/off though LOL. Anyway, I got to the menu, selected XMBC and tried to find my current USB drive with ripped movies in TS_Video format. Could not “find” that drive no matter where I connected it (tried on a regular USB port, then even tried connecting it to the USB on the ATV… no dice. I want to make this as simple as possible, but I have to figure out why I can’t see the drive. Maybe that drive was FAT32, and not NTFS? I always thought NTFS wouldn’t work with movies because it couldn’t recognize the finished size of the movies? Have to keep thanking you for your advice and help… hopefully others are reading this and making progress as well!

By: technicalguy

technicalguy — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:51:24 +0000

@Mike: If you’re converting all your movies to M4V then XMBc or Boxee is not required. However if you want any other format then keep XMBC (That’s what I’m using) and point XMBC to your USB drive. With XMBC you can have the best of all worlds.
Regarding HSF – I can’t say for sure if that would work, but why would you want HSF? I would just use NTFS.

By: Mike Langieri

Mike Langieri — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:51:34 +0000

Hmmm… This almost sounds too easy LOL. If I format the new USB drive HFS+Journaled would that be bad or good? So you’r saying by doing this, I wouldn’t have to bother with XMBC or Boxee? My ATV was bought with a clean install of both. If I format the drive and move a few movies (Video_TS files) over from the little USB drive, you’re saying I should be able to follow your steps and select these movies using the iTunes/ATV or do I have to restore the ATV to OEM first?

By: technicalguy

technicalguy — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 13:32:46 +0000

@Mike: I used Handbrake to convert the Video_ts files to MP4, but you can run them right from the Video_ts folder if you want. The remote USB is a Windows format, attached to a central computer and shared out. The Airport is just used for WIFI.

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 02:12:42 +0000

TG… Did you have to convert the movies to a specific format to make them compatible with your setup? Also, just curious about your remote USB drive… did you format it for Mac or PC, and lastly… is it connected to the Airport or just daisy-chained into the USBs?

By: technicalguy

technicalguy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:52:26 +0000

@Mike: On the ATV menu look for an option called “Launcher”, under that should be XBMC. After that, as in most things hacked, there is some technical setup required. Here’s the XBMC manual: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_Online_Manual. The hardest part I had was figuring out and getting XBMC to see a shared drive on my external USB drive attached to a computer in the other room. The format was “xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx@{drive share}. However once connectivity exists the rest is menu point and click. I created folders for genre (action, drama, comedy, etc) and moved movies to each. Now I can browse to the Action folder and scroll down to select the movie of choice. It’s a great system once it’s up and going.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:11:34 +0000

TG… I bought the ATV maybe 6 months ago and the guy who sold it to me did a fresh install of Boxee and XBMC. Is there a newer version of XMBC that I need to “install” and if so, do I have to do any unique purging of old stuff before I install new?

I probably should give this a try, but I don’t even know how to select it LOL. Is there an easy to understand tutorial (For Dummy’s) on first time setting up someplace? If XMBC will put up an on-screen “menu” that lets me pick movies from the USB drive and automatically sort through the Video_TS folder and then play the movie non-stop using the various *.VOB, *.IFO, and *.BUP files in the folder… that would be awesome! Some movie sub-folders have 9-11 of these other folders.

By: technicalguy

technicalguy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:48:49 +0000

@Mike: I can run movies even right from the DVD files. The only format that seems to be a problem for me is wmv. I can run avi, mov, mp4, etc.
Have fun!

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:21:53 +0000

Hey TG, thanks for the advice.

So if I did your suggested install/hack and installed XBMC on my ATV I wouldn’t have to convert these movies? That sounds too good to be true LOL! Running the entire movie without resets… that’s what I want.

I bought my ATV already hacked (I’m a dufus) and I think it has BOXEE on it. I’m going to have to fire it up sooner or later… (probably after Christmas) and see what else is on it.

By: technicalguy

technicalguy — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:53:36 +0000

@Mike: I hacked my ATV to run XBMC (Xbox Media Center) and can now watch movies in just about any format, from just about any location. All you need is a USB drive and then reboot the ATV. Check it out at: http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=XBMC_for_Mac_on_Apple_TV