M4v support and Hulu from home screen

Legacy 2nd gen Apple TV
1

Hi fireCore

I primarily use Netflix and iTunes for watching Movies and TV shows and all my local files are saved in the Apple friendly .m4v-format with rich meta data including hi-res cover art, so right now everything is working good and looking amazing.

The only reasons I’m considering jailbreaking my ATV3 (as soon as this is possible) are: to access my files directly from my airport extreme (to avoid having my mac mini running with iTunes open) using your awesome looking movie poster view, and to be able to watch Hulu. Therefore I’m concerned with the following:

  1. Is the MediaPlayer using the native player for playing .m4v? (I want to make sure my files looks equally good and plays smooth)

  2. Can the MediaPlayer read and use the metadata (including cover art) I already included in the files themselves?

  3. Can I acces Hulu directly from the Home screen or will I have to select XMBC and click through the menues everytime I want to Watch Hulu?

  4. Does the Apple TV stream directly from Hulu or do I need a computer to be turned on and running something?

  5. Can I rearrange all icons on the home screen?

2

Yes, .m4v files play just fine.

Yes, embedded cover art and metadata will be used first. Any missing information will be filled in automatically.

Unfortunately XBMC plugins can only be used when running XBMC.

This may be done through XBMC, though we don’t have any details on how it works.

A number of menus can be hidden through the Apple TV’s parental controls, but rearranging them is currently not supported.

3

Thanks for the quick reply :slight_smile:

I was hoping that the icons could be rearranged. By comparing different photo’s on your website it looks like at least the Media Player can be located different places?:

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:191:]]

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:192:]]

 

 

 

 

 

4

Yes, Media Player will always use the ‘best’ available spot.

For example, in the US the top row will be full with 5 items, so in this case the Media item will appear down below.

Outside the US there will often only be 4 top row items, in this case Media will appear in the top row.

Additionally, if you are in the US and disabled one of the top row items via Parental Controls, Media would move up automatically since there is a free spot available.

Hope this helps.

5

OK :slight_smile: Then consider this a feature request for an option to rearrange icons. Everyone likes to be able to have a tailormade home screen. It would be nice to add new features without needing more clicks to get to my most used apps - Netflix for example. Ideally I would have Netflix in the best spot followed by Movies, Media Player and XMBC.

But thank you very much again for your quick reply. That is great customer service. I’m convinced that aTV flash is worth the money and I’m just waiting for a way to jailbreak my ATV3…