Completely new here to the ATV scene, as I’m not even in possession of one yet, nor have I used one, but I do use a combination of iTunes/Plex on an HTPC. Ultimately, I’d like to get rid of the HTPC and replace it with an ATV. So, I’m not so concerned with music, as the ATV is more than capable, but how are movies that are beyond the normal capabilities of the ATV presented in the UI? Do MKVs appear in the UI right alongside the Apple-recognized MOV formatted videos? Or, do these “special” containers need to be called up using a simple file browser as a sort of plugin? If so, can one associate metadata or database info to the MKVs so that they are nicely presented just as they are in other media center apps such as Plex or XBMC? How is the metadata edited? Are scraper scripts used here as in other media center apps? Thanks for any answers…
You need to jailbreak the Apple TV in order for it to support MKV. Currently only the Apple TV 2 can be jailbroken and it is extremely difficult to find. If you look on the box it will say 1080p if it is Apple TV 3, if it doesn’t it is Apple TV 2. The units themselves look identical.
Right. Thanks for the reply. I probably am not clear enough. I’m aware of the jailbreaking requirement and of the availability of the various devices. I’m just curious how the files, namely the video file containers that Apple doesn’t support natively, are presented in the normal ATV UI. Somewhat of a poor analogy, but if you’re familiar with XBMC, you have various plugins, or mini apps that can be called up for additional functionality. The UI in the plugins can vary dramatically, some for the better, some not. Is it that way with the ATV flash, that alongside the normal Apple UI, you need to call up a “special” Firecore UI in order to browse the contents of files which are beyond the scope itunes? Or, do these specially formatted video files appear right alongside the normally recognized Apple-certified video files in the library’s database on-screen?
For example, you have the normal music and video tabs in the basic ATV UI. In order to see FLAC files or MKV files in the UI, does one first need to back out of the normal music and video menus to a completely separate menu plugin, one that is created by Firecore? Or, do the FLACs and MKVs appear in the normal music and video menus, respectively, right alongside other normally synced iTunes material?
The FireCore Media Player app becomes a new top level menu entry and all the media it handles is accessed via that. At the moment one gets what is essentially a folder/file view of the network shares that have been made visible to Media Player. Mkv files would just appear as an entry in that tree structure.
A library view that gives alternative views of the media is meant to be imminent (hopefully within days/weeks). Until that actually appears we are not sure how it will function. Some of the screen shots FireCore have provided look tantalising.