I have two Apple TV2 units. I downloaded this within hours of its appearance. It installed flawlessly, the first time, on both Apple TVs. (Previously, older editions would install on one but never the other.) I used the USB cable that came with my Harmony 650 remote, FWIW.
XBMC, at least as of May 25, 2012, would install via apt-get from the repositories, but did not display in the interface. A bit of googling turned up a patched deb package that could be installed with dpkg -i, so now I have xbmc.
I haven't had this version going long enough to detect stability problems, but previously, this would cause ATV2 to freeze up about once per week, requiring a reboot. It got to be a significant annoyance.
It helps to be able to use the command-line to ssh into the box directly, install wget, and download things like xbmc add-ons directly to the box.
Overall, considering what this is, and what you pay for it (it is free), it is a remarkable achievement. If you don't sort of enjoy software tinkering, however, this probably isn't going to impress you much. The modifications you can install are still quite limited. (I tried installing a VNC server. Although it works, it is so impossibly unresponsive, even with only 256 colors, that I decided to remove it. That's too bad, because I would really like a way to control my ATV2 from my laptop (one of mine is for music, and runs screen less).)
I've been using this both on my Mac mini and my ATV2 (unfortunately you need to jailbreak your ATV2), primarily so I can stream Amazon prime videos. For this the ATV2 version is almost flawless, and the mac mini version is quite reasonable (it sometimes crashes). There is a plugin available on the internet that allows you to launch XMBC from within Front Row.app, so you can have the best of both worlds for a mac hooked up to your TV.
Apple limits you to playing their iTunes store movies through their own software, as far as I am aware.
Absolutely outstanding. I am listening to it right now. This software is at least as good as some of the commercial options that charge hundreds of dollars (or more). I've followed this since its inception, and the developer is extremely engaged and helpful, and his focus has been on getting the best possible sound quality, rather than feature bloat. This is a simple, sleek, light-weight player that does several things that iTunes is unable to do:
1. Automatic sampling frequency switching. If you have music sampled at a frequency other than 44.1 kHz, and you want bit-perfect playback, in iTunes you need to quit the program, open Audio MIDI Setup, reset the sampling frequency manually, and then re-open iTunes. Unless you are willing to put up with that ritual, the alternative is iTunes re-samples your music. Audirvana does everything right, and on the fly.
2. Memory playback. Tracks are (optionally) loaded into memory prior to playback, to give the best possible sound quality. There are also options for "hog mode" and "integer playback" to further improve things.
3. Ability to create playlists on the fly. You can use this in conjunction with iTunes. Just drag and drop tracks into Audirvana's playlist window, and you can create playlists on the fly (which you can optionally save).
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Seas0nPass
Wgscott reviewed on 26 May 2012
XBMC, at least as of May 25, 2012, would install via apt-get from the repositories, but did not display in the interface. A bit of googling turned up a patched deb package that could be installed with dpkg -i, so now I have xbmc.
I haven't had this version going long enough to detect stability problems, but previously, this would cause ATV2 to freeze up about once per week, requiring a reboot. It got to be a significant annoyance.
It helps to be able to use the command-line to ssh into the box directly, install wget, and download things like xbmc add-ons directly to the box.
Overall, considering what this is, and what you pay for it (it is free), it is a remarkable achievement. If you don't sort of enjoy software tinkering, however, this probably isn't going to impress you much. The modifications you can install are still quite limited. (I tried installing a VNC server. Although it works, it is so impossibly unresponsive, even with only 256 colors, that I decided to remove it. That's too bad, because I would really like a way to control my ATV2 from my laptop (one of mine is for music, and runs screen less).)
+2
XBMC
Wgscott reviewed on 11 Feb 2012
Apple limits you to playing their iTunes store movies through their own software, as far as I am aware.
+2
Audirvana Plus
Wgscott reviewed on 01 Jul 2011
1. Automatic sampling frequency switching. If you have music sampled at a frequency other than 44.1 kHz, and you want bit-perfect playback, in iTunes you need to quit the program, open Audio MIDI Setup, reset the sampling frequency manually, and then re-open iTunes. Unless you are willing to put up with that ritual, the alternative is iTunes re-samples your music. Audirvana does everything right, and on the fly.
2. Memory playback. Tracks are (optionally) loaded into memory prior to playback, to give the best possible sound quality. There are also options for "hog mode" and "integer playback" to further improve things.
3. Ability to create playlists on the fly. You can use this in conjunction with iTunes. Just drag and drop tracks into Audirvana's playlist window, and you can create playlists on the fly (which you can optionally save).