Easiest way to upgrade iOS & aTV Flash for ATV2

I have the ATV2 with iOS 4.4.4 and aTV Flash (I am not sure what version, as I do not know where in Menus to look – NitoTV is v0.8.1; so it looks like I jailbreak’d and installed about a year ago).

Is there an easier way to upgrade both iOS and aTV Flash without having to do a RESTORE, Jailbreak and reinstall aTV Flash?  Thanks!

I am afraid not!

Although you can upgrade ATV Flash via the settings under Maintenance this is not possible for an iOS upgrade.  To upgrade iOS you need to redo the jailbreak.  

Before attempting to do so you probably want to use the Backup options under the Maintenance menu to save all your current settings.   Then after doing a new jailbreak and re-installing ATV Flash you can then use the complementary restore option to get back your current settings.

Note:  I believe that there can be issues re-installing ATV Flash (as the installer always tries to install the latest version) if you do not currently have support for ATV Flash active so this is something to check.  I believe others have managed to resolve this by contacting FireCore support.

Thank you for this information.  So the follow up questions are:

  1.  I am at iOS 4.4.4.  What features does the latest iOS give me that I am missing?

  2.  Can I get all of the features of the latest ATVFlash upgrade by remaining at iOS 4.4.4?

Thanks!

I cannot find the Maintenance Menu in ATVFlash to upgrade the ATVFlash software.  Where is this located? (I just updated nitoTV to 0.8.4 and I am still not sure what version of ATVFlash I have; where do I find this again?)

My Menus are:  Movies, TV Shows, nitoTV, Music, XBMC, Internet, Browser, Computers, Media and Settings

check under regular apple settings tab at the very bottom. should say maintenance and there you go

 

Nope, but thanks for trying! 

At the very bottom of the Settings menu is Sleep Now and it is not above it either.

I opened a Support Ticket on this issue and received the following replies:

 

FC: Hi, are you using Overflow by chance? If the Maintenance menu is missing, you may try re-running the aTV Flash (black) installer from a Mac or PC as this should re-add it to the menus.

Me: What is Overflow?

How do I rerun the aTV Flash installer from a Mac?

FC: If you don't know what Overflow is, then you probably don't have it. :)

You can re-run the aTV Flash (black) installer on your Mac by downloading the latest version from your account, opening it, and walking through the steps.

http://support.firecore.com/entries/346673-installing-atv-flash-black

Me: Can you tell me: if I remain at iOS 4.4.4 instead of upgrading (which would require jailbreak again), are there any features of ATV Flash that I am missing? Thank you!

FC: Nothing much - the main difference is just the menu layout. 4.4.4 has the original linear style, while 5.0 and later will have the icon/app style layout.

License just expired, so do i have to pay another $29 to get the ATV flash SW?  I have 2.2.2 ATV flash installed on ATV, but now want to update my ATV to 5.x., which looks like i need the latest SW on my MAC, which i did not download.

Or is it possible to

reinstall ATV 5.x

JB ATV

Install ATV Flash (old version)

Upgrade ATV flash via menu