Apple has only one hobby that we know about and they call it the Apple TV ($229). What about you? Do you have any hobbies? Do you collect obscure stamps, rare coins, or funny pictures of your wiener dog?
Why not make Apple’s hobby your own. With a little bit of patience, and a lot of can-do attitude, you can take the Apple TV to the next level with a little help from some hackers.
If you are interested in hacking your Apple TV, then try one of the following options: avtusb-creator (free) or ATV Flash ($49.95). Both methods are great and as you check our list of reasons to hack the Apple TV, you can decide which one is right for you.
Note: After installing any third-party apps or hacks to your hacked Apple TV you should restart the Finder. To do this navigate to Software Menu>Restart Finder. This will save you a ton of frustration.
Lawyer-type note: While we’ve hacked our Apple TV on numerous occasions and have had no problems restoring it to factory freshness, there is always the risk of bricking your machine when you fiddle around with it. Especially if you decide to open it up and replace the hard drive.
“Why would I want to do this?” you say. We’ll give you the reasons in this list we’ve created:
20 Reasons Cool Reasons to Hack Your Apple TV
1. SSH (aTV Flash & atvusb-creator)
Hacking your Apple TV will allow you to enable SSH and once that is done, the things you can do to your Apple TV are practically endless. You can add and remove software, access the file system, etc.
First you need your Apple TV’s IP address. Navigate to on your Apple TV to Settings>General>Network there you’ll find your IP address. Make note of it.
Fire up the Terminal app located in the Utilities Folder. In the command prompt type in,
ssh frontrow@(IP Address)
When prompted for the password type: frontrow
There ya go, now your ready for SSH goodness with your Apple TV.
2. BOXEE (aTV Flash & atvusb-creator)
Enable Boxee and enjoy it’s 10-foot user interface and social networking features designed for the TV in your family room. Considered to be a Social Media Center, Boxee, will let you view, rate, and recommend content to your friends through social networks. Hack your Apple TV and get your own “Boxee Box” today!
3. XBMC (aTV Flash & atvusb-creator)
If you don’t like Boxee then consider enabling XBMC Media Center with its own 10-foot user interface designed for the TV in your family room. It allows you to easily maintain your collection of videos, photos, podcasts, and music from any computer, CD/DVD, local area network, and the Internet. Originally designed for the XBox this app now runs on your Apple TV.
4. Rearrange the Menu with Frap (atvusb-creator)
Tired of the way Apple arranged the Apple TV menu? You can change it. Plus, if you add more apps to the Apple TV, you’ll want to make sure your new apps show up in the menu. Anything with a -X will be off screen and unusable.
Navigate to the Software Menu>Frap Mover. From there you can move Frappliances (the name for apps) around with a weighting system. The higher the number the further right on the screen the Frap will be.
5. IMDB with Sapphire (aTV Flash & atvusb-creator)
Play and organize your own media using the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) using Sapphire. To install Sapphire, navigate to the Software Menu>Third Party. Scroll down to Trusted and you’ll see Sapphire. Click on Sapphire to install.
Once installed, locate Sapphire>Settings. If Sapphire is not showing up on your main screen, check your Frap order settings. Once you click Settings, click Populate File Data this will add information to all of your files video files on your Apple TV. Be patient, this could take a while.
6. nitoTV (aTV Flash & atvusb-creator)
It’s a media player, it lets you install an emulator, it lets you streams content. nitoTV allows you to install all that and more. You can even use it to install a plugin so that you can use a Composite cable with your Apple TV. nitoTV is similar to the Launcher app that comes preinstalled with the atvusb-creator. You can install the same way you install Sapphire. With atvusb-creator you may have to go into the Frap Mover to arrange it to appear on your main menu.
7. Turn on FTP Access (aTV Flash = easy & atvusb-creator = medium)
SSH is fine, but dragging and dropping files with the Finder is easier. To turn on FTP access you’re going to have to fire up the Terminal. For atvusb-creator, awkwardTV has all the code you’re going to need to enable FTP access. Once you’ve done that, you can sign in to your Apple TV with:
FTP: apple.tv.(ip address)
User: frontrow
PW: frontrow
8. Game Emulators (atvusb-creator)
Before you start scouring the Internet for ROMs, you need to remember that you should only use ROMs for games you already own. Don’t be a thief.
Okay, we got that out of the way. After installing nitoTV you can install emulators for NES, SNES, Genesis, Sega Master System, and GameBoy Advanced by navigating to nitoTV>Settings>Install Software>Install Emulators. When you do that it will install all of the emulators mentioned. It’s an all or nothing deal.
After the install navigate to nitoTV>Application and there you’ll see all the emulation apps.
9. Browse the Internet – CouchSurfer Lite (atvusb-creator) =medium / CouchSurfer Pro (aTV Flash) = included
You might as well start browsing the web while you’re sitting on the couch. Instead of having everyone crowd around your MacBook, iPad, iPhone to read the latest article on MacLife.com, you can just load the site up on your gigantic HD TV and enjoy your personal space again. Also it’s harder to spilled your drink on your device when it’s 10-feet away. It’s not impossible, just difficult.
If you hacked your Apple TV with atvusb-creator you’ll need to install CouchSurfer Lite via SSH and FTP. Instructions on downloading and installing Couch Surfer are on awkwardTV. If you used aTV Flash, CouchSurfer Pro is already ready to go.
10. Bit Torrent with Transmission (atvusb-creator)
We know, we know, bit torrent is used primarily to download copyrighted material. But, you can find media on there that is actually supposed to be distributed via bit torrent. The bottom line, don’t steal. Now that we have that out of the way, you can install and run the Transmission bit torrent client on your Apple TV. Like CouchSurfer Lite, Transmission installation requires a bit more than a few steps. Once again, awkwardTV to the rescue.
Next: Replacing the Apple TV HD and expanding media type support>>
David Alexander…
January 30, 2015 at 6:41pm
Dude, this article is from 2010 & is referring to the original Apple TV (which was basically a cut-down Mac Mini); not the current model, which is an iOS-based device.
Deepwinter
September 03, 2010 at 2:02pm
Interesting article cheers,
I have to laugh at the grammar nazi’s who seem to get so worked up about minor grammatical mistakes that its all they can see,
Well i hope J school teaches you a little more then the art of being egregiously pedantic.
Lighten up
bradjdesign
August 19, 2010 at 10:59am
Does anyone know what and where to find the ‘Volume Control setting for your children’s iPod’s??
It used to be under ‘Parental Controls, but no-longer?? What happened??
tayroc122
August 15, 2010 at 9:55am
Typo/Grammatical error in this article: “Why not make Apple’s hobby your own”. Should have read: “Why not make Apple’s hobby your own”? Honestly, I’m in writing school right now and my professors would tear me apart for such an error in simple elementary level punctuation! Does Mac|Life have no editors? They would’ve caught such a simple mistake!
tayroc122
August 18, 2010 at 8:33am
Well as a journalism student, I care, I’ll fact check with my professors, but I’m pretty sure they’ll tell me they care, and then they’ll tell me the professional editors care and that any submission to most news sources that have rampant grammatical errors or amateur moves like photographs of television screens in them will be rejected without further review. And as a paying subscriber to Mac|Life the printed magazine, I would like to get my money’s worth from them and have it be up to professional standard since I pay for it, and I would hope all the other subscribers feel that way too, unless we’ve all just gotten completely irresponsible with our money.
tide8888
December 28, 2010 at 6:22am
Actually, a question mark is not used when one is making a request, or when they expect no answer. It seems to me that the non use of a question mark in this case is perfectly acceptable.
Snaz
December 26, 2010 at 2:18pm
I wonder if your professor would care about your run on sentence reply to Adoxtater?
Scion of Tytehran
August 19, 2010 at 7:44am
I’ve made similar comments in the past and the answer I seem to get is that such forums as these pages constitute “an informal environment” thus making poor grammar and spelling acceptable. Personally I find this to be an egregious excuse for simple laziness. I can’t understand how any professional journalist would allow such errors to go out. I’m looking at a book right now entitled, “I Judge You When You Use Poor Grammar” and can’t help but think how such things shades my opinions of internet journalists.
One last thing, a personal nitpick of mine that has become entirely too ubiquitous is the beginning of a sentence with a conjunction! Do not begin a sentence with and or but because those parts of speech are meant to combine sentences and it irritates me to see it so often. There, I’ve said it and I will now attempt to gracefully concede the soapbox.
tayroc122
August 15, 2010 at 9:51am
you’re a “professional” computer journalist/reviewer and the best way you can manage to take screen shots is to take a picture of the television with a camera? You’re a pathetic joke! Between the typos/grammatical errors and stunts like this I’m seeing increasingly, I’m starting to doubt the professionalism of Mac|Life. Is it worth paying a subscription to you lot if you can’t even do your jobs? Are you any better than the rumour mills?
agabriel
August 14, 2010 at 5:26am
Have you tried any of the hacks presented? If so could you speak to stability? I’ve been thinking about getting an apple tv and putting boxee on it for Netflix support but everything I’ve read online says its not reliable.