Yesterday I finally succeeded in running Ubuntu 9 on my AppleTV. I used the tools and guides from the atv-bootloader project to solve this problem. I now have a shiny Linux media centre computer using the HDMI output, it looks nice.
I certainly had a few problems along the way and the system is far from pristine. I can play HD hockey games (720p @ 60fps) but the playback gets a bit choppy when the camera moves around a lot. I can’t transfer files over the network, well I can but it is disgustingly slow (ever tried copying a 1.6GB file at 2KB a second?).
I’ll keep tinkering with it, I want to run XBMC pointed at network volume to stream content but without the network transfer speeds that will never work. I’m also a bit bummed that the HD didn’t go as well as I hoped but the insides of an AppleTV aren’t that powerful. In the future I’d like to build a true media centre PC to capture and play HD content.
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