[mythtv-users] FE/BE on AppleTV

[Raymond Wagner]

  On 10/3/2010 11:23, david.w.smiley at gmail.com wrote:
>> From: Raymond Wagner<raymond at wagnerrp.com>
>>
>>   On 10/2/2010 22:21, david.w.smiley at gmail.com wrote:
>>> I bought an AppleTV with the intention of using it for MythTV (and
>>> Boxee), though I've been charmed by the native capabilities of the
>>> devise, so I'm not loving the idea of replacing it with a linux
>>> distro.
>> The original AppleTV was a 1GHz Pentium M, with XvMC capable nVidia
>> graphics, and 256MB of memory.  It really didn't have enough memory to
>> run a high resolution frontend, so the UI was slow.  Even with XvMC, it
>> was only capable of moderate bitrate MPEG2, so it failed on most HD ATSC
>> content.  It made a pretty mediocre frontend.
> Nevertheless, I know in my web searchers I've seen people successfully
> doing 720p with a linux based AppleTV, MythTV frontend.
> http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader/wiki/mythtv   (and there are
> other references I've found)

The ATV bootloader is designed for the original AppleTV.  You could 
decode and play 720p video, but resolution is not the issue, bitrate 
is.  XvMC works with MPEG2, so it will help some.  You can manage up to 
moderate bitrate MPEG2 with it, but you will run out of steam long 
before you hit full ATSC bitrate (19mbps).  XvMC does nothing for MPEG4 
ASP (divx) or AVC (h264), so you're limited to the very meager 
processing capabilities of that 1GHz chip.

The only possibility I cam across last night is that the original 
AppleTV has a mini-PCIe slot for its wireless card.  You could replace 
that chip with a Crystal HD decoder, and use the support for that in 
trunk to make a workable HD frontend.  You will still end up being very 
limited by that 256MB of memory.

>> Your best bet
>> is to use the official software, use it as a UPnP frontend, and have
>> some other backend in a closet.
> You say AppleTV's official software can act as a UPnP frontend?  I see
> no evidence of this out there... instead I see a reference to how to
> add 3rd party software to make it a frontend -- "MediaCloud".

I had merely assumed that the ATV would support the industry standard 
video distribution system, foolish me.