What's the point in Apple TV & what's the point in jailbreaking it?

JustAnotherSaver

Someone got us an Apple TV thing. We've had it plugged in before but it's not in any more as we don't really know what the point in it is. I'm sure it's got some sort of use but i don't know what.

I've been on an apple website today for an unrelated thing & i've found you can jailbreak these things - what would you want to do that for? What does that give you? I then found out there's Apple TV 1, 2, 3. I thought Apple TV was just Apple TV.

If we could use it then that'd be good, but right now it's in its box as we just plugged it in & was like, oh, errrr, right.

RobTang

Its a media streamer that allows you stream your iTunes content and other various streaming services (youtube / Netflix etc.) Its also an Airplay receiver so you can stream music from various devices or mirror the screen from an iOS device or Mac. People jailbreak it to install other Apps, mostly likely it will be XBMC which allows more streaming options.

HoofeHearted

This link gives you lots of info, e.g. difference between Gen 1, 2 & 3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_TV

silkyuk9

RobTang wrote: »

Its a media streamer that allows you stream your iTunes content and other various streaming services (youtube / Netflix etc.) Its also an Airplay receiver so you can stream music from various devices or mirror the screen from an iOS device or Mac. People jailbreak it to install other Apps, mostly likely it will be XBMC which allows more streaming options.

Thus allows you to stream new released movies, and Sky Sports etc which is illegal but useful

JustAnotherSaver

Well i was about to post saying it still sounds a bit pointless to me, but that was until...

silkyuk9 wrote: »

Thus allows you to stream new released movies, and Sky Sports etc which is illegal but useful

silkyuk9

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Well i was about to post saying it still sounds a bit pointless to me, but that was until...

Thats why people have them. Jail broken ones can sell for around £180. My family member, who does not live with me bought one a long while ago jail broken, I have no clue what he does with it because its too technical for me.

forgotmyname

Jailbreak and put XBMC on it.

benje302

Depending what ATV you have depends on if you can jailbreak it.

ATV1 and 2 can be broken as long as they are NOT running IOS anything higher than 5.3 as the new fireware has stopped it being done.

Also, if its a version 3 I am afraid that this model is yet to be broken.

Ben

securityguy

benje302 wrote: »

Depending what ATV you have depends on if you can jailbreak it.

ATV1 and 2 can be broken as long as they are NOT running IOS anything higher than 5.3

ATV1 doesn't run iOS, it runs a modified version of OSX 10.4. A gen1 AppleTV is a cut-down Intel Mac Mini, not a boxed iPad as the ATV2 and later are.

PEllix

Jailbraking and installing XBMC isn't just about streaming illegal content, you can use it to set up UPnP to access your digital content on a home server or NAS. Or you could install the XBMC app for BBC iPlayer (ITV player etc.) and be able to watch catch up content through your TV. However, it would be fair to say that choosing to do so is quite technical.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

You can find which generation ATV you have here.

As mentioned above, ATV3's haven't been jailbroken yet.