XBMC on Apple TV 2: The Good and Bad So Far

I decided to kick my Popcorn Hour to the curb for the sake of a fancy gui that might be easier for the family to operate.  With oogling eyes I picked up a new Apple TV and brought it home.  It took me about 4 times before I was able  to Jailbreak it with Green Poison.  I installed the anti Apple Update Nag program first and then tried to install XBMC, which failed twice.  With more internet searching I found out how to go in and install via ssh, which I did with one I covered in fear.  Presto, it worked.  XBMC was on the list of things I could choose from the main menu.  But I couldn't stream or find anything from my network because of  a bug in it causes you to restart first. 

Then I got the black screen.  Arghh!  I have this committed to memory:  login as root, password alpine, killall AppleTV.  And everything goes hunky dory again, remember that kids, you'll need it.  All my dvd backups as MKV or xvid or avi's all played great.  Yes, yes, yes.  But high def, hahaha that's another story.

Oh, you've read about how it will play 1080p content, etc, but that, in my experience, was a little short on substance.  It won't play my hd caps from HD PVR that I did buy at least without reencoding them.  Nightmare, let me tell you.  I finally had to hook up the Popcorn Hour that I luckily hadn't ebayed yet to see if I was going nuts.  I tried streaming from my NAS and two other computers until I reencoded for Apple TV 2 on Handbrake and on the Arcsoft software that comes with the HD PVR.  Now it works, 6 to 13 hours later on my 5 year old computer after reencoding. 

Is it cool, XBMC on the Apple TV 2?  Yes, very.  Is it underpowered?  Yes, very.

My Sometimes Video Snobbery

I still remember when I decided to no longer to use SLP mode to record with on the VCR and only use SP.  I also remember when I picked up my first DVD recorder.  It was not the vaporware model from Philips that I wanted that was supposed to have a digital audio input to recored Dolby Digital with.  So I recorded piles of discs to replace those VCR tapes that I become too "big" to watch.  Now, with HD programming my DVD recorder is looking long in the tooth.  I've begun to be too "big" again to watch those down rezzed recordings.  It has now been sold to be replaced with a Hauppauge HD-PVR, tenatively.  I'm a collector, or packrat depending on your point of view, and I don't want to let those movies go that are currently on my Dish DVR.  But if I record them, even in HD, will they be one day passed over for something better?

3D Again

Went to Best Buy again with the kids and checked out the 3D HDTV's.  Only one of the active shutter glasses for the Samsung was working so we had to take turns.  My initial impressions still hold true; it looks awesome when the depth goes "into" the television, but when the image comes forward into the room it falls apart.  We were watching an IMax film.

We also got to check out a passive glasses LG model, brand new.  The salesman, very helpful, said he thought it was better than he expected and that he liked the glasses if only for the fact they were lighter.  It was showing Monsters vs Aliens, and the disc kept skipping.  I did not notice the resolution being halved as a major flaw from where I stood.  However, I did not think the 3D effect was as good as the active glasses.  Looking foward to checking out a Vizio version of passive glasses 3D in the future to see how it compares.

Movie Palace

When I was a child there was a closed down movie palace downtown.  Every time I rode past it I would tell my parents or grandmother how that if I had the money I would open it back up.  Needless to say, I never got the money and never re-opened it.  Recently, photos of a movie opening at that theater came to light and I thought about how driving past it inspired my love of movies and home theater. 

As every young boy, I wanted a big tv growing up of my own.  I remember buying a stereo model and how disappointed I was later to find out I had a mono vcr and had to replace it as well.  I was the only one of my friends to hook up a stereo receiver and speakers to the "hi-fi" vcr I later bought to get stereo sound from vcr tapes and tv shows.  And I'm sure no one took me seriously when I expounded on the greatness of Dolby Pro Logic surround sound when I scraped up enough money to buy a capable receiver.

Today I enjoy movies on a 92" screen once a week.  My theatrer room is definitely not a movie palace, but high definition video and discrete 5.1 surround sound make a great substitue.  And maybe one day if I ever win the lottery.......

No Blu-ray at K-mart?

Attention K-mart shoppers, there will be no specials on blu-ray movies or players.

That seems to be the message you can draw from K-mart weekly ads the past few weeks.  They have not advertised anything but dvd players.  The Sony PS3 was in one ad, but it was being pushed as a gaming machine only.  They have only been listing dvd movies.  No listings with prices for both dvd and blu-ray. 

The only conclusion I can draw from this is that few of their customers are buying them.  I have not bought any high definition movies from them since I picked up an HD DVD disc (ouch!) a couple years ago.  Prices were too high for me.  Target, Wal-mart, Best Buy, etc, all have blu-ray movies and players in their weekly ads.  I guess if you're looking for a blue laser at the blu light, you better look somewhere else.

Switched to Component

I made the switch on my blu-ray player from hdmi to component video cables.  Not willingly, mind you, not willingly.  However, as soon as I turned it on my Robin Hood blu-ray began playing flawlessly.  No video dropouts, no cranky wife suggesting we watch something else, nothing but a great movie playing. 

I realize I am missing the full HD video I paid for and the HD audio to go along with it, but sometimes it is more important to have something work when you want it to than have nothing at all.  Now, hopefully, Samsung will issue a firmware upgrade that will correct these problems and I'll go back to HD sweetness.  Until then, 1080i will have to suffice.

Getting Tired of Samsung Blu-ray Player



Starting to get tired of my Samsung BDP-1590 Blu-ray player.  It is the same as the 1600 model, as far as I can tell.  After the firmware upgrade in December, it has decided it to have a wonderful hdmi handshake problem.  Sometimes if you wait long enough it will sort it out on its own, other times, well........  Each preview, menu, and movie start requires me to turn off and on my avr to sync it up correctly.  We tried to watch the new Russell Crowe Robin Hood the other night and finally gave up.  Techie folk want to figure out what the problem is, chase it down on internet forums and the like; regular people want it to work out the box and give up on it. 

I've thought about going with component cables for the time being to get away from the problem, but obviously I then lose 1080p and hd audio formats.  Maybe a new player should be in my future instead....