Remove Apple Tv Menu Items?

Legacy 1st gen Apple TV
1

Hi,

Is there a way to remove items off of the main menu? The reason I bought the Apple TV and this software is just to watch my divx. nothing else. From the main menu I would love to just have :

Media
Maintenance
Settings

I would like to delete photos, youtube, Internet, Podcasts, Music, TV Shows etc…

Sure it is just a few extra clicks to get to what I want - but I would love to really simplify the menu.

Is this possible? or will it ever be possible to customize the main menu?

2

Thanks for these commands. I just did this and was successful. Used the PUTTY.EXE tool for windows, which works fine.

everything seems to be working

3

The easier way is to remove the installed software.

Right click on the item in the MAINTENANCE menu and you can uninstall the item.

4

Hi,

Is there also a guide how to change the sub Menu names ? , for instance to rename the shared movies tab in the menu of movies, also I would like to Hide the MY MOVIES in the movies top menu 

The only way I am using it, is to only to stream with iTunes over the network, so I don’t need the my movies tab only the shared movies tab.

 

All help much appreciated

Thanks

5

Use the application called OVERFLOW.  It fixes the menu listing issue on APPLETV.  Just making a note here so people do not waste time trying to get this working.

 

6

ok what is i want to restore the menu? actually i removed the “movies” and “Tv showes” by mistake and i wamt to restore them?

any idea?

can i do the reverse of deleting the menu? 

7

i typed the following commands in the SSH (Terminal) while attempting to jailbreak with Pownage tool:

Step 1: Move this entire folder to the desktop.

 

Step 2: Open Terminal app.

 

Step 3: Run the following commands.

 

cp -r ~/Desktop/tethered/AppleTV2,1_4.2_8C150.bundle /Applications/PwnageTool.app/Contents/Resources/FirmwareBundles/

 

cp ~/Desktop/tethered/Info.plist /Applications/PwnageTool.app/Contents/Resources/CustomPackages/CydiaInstallerATV.bundle/Info.plist

 

Step 4: Run PwnageTool on the 4.2 ipsw and saving into the ~/Desktop/tethered folder with the default name PwnageTool gives it.

 

Step 5: Back in the terminal run the following:

 

unzip -j ~/Desktop/tethered/AppleTV2,1_4.2_8C150_Custom_Restore.ipsw Firmware/dfu/iBSS.k66ap.RELEASE.dfu kernelcache.release.k66 -d ~/Desktop/tethered/

 

Step 6: Restore the AppleTV to the ~/Desktop/tethered/AppleTV2,1_4.2_8C150_Custom_Restore.ipsw firmware.

 

Step 7: Unplug and then replug the USB, after the AppleTV has finished started up, plug in the power cable.

 

Step 8: Run the following commands in terminal:

 

cd ~/desktop/tethered

 

./tetheredboot -i iBSS.k66ap.RELEASE.dfu -k kernelcache.release.k66

 

Step 9: MANUALLY put the AppleTV in DFU.

 

 

 

Details: http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/how-to-jailbreak-apple-tv2-on-ios-4-2-with-pwnagetool.xhtml#ixzz1PEXfHLDF

could it be the cause of removing the “movies” and “TV Shows” menu? and how to fix it?

8

That info applies to the new black AppleTV only.

9

Hi,

I accidently removed the info.plist file in /private/var/stash/Applications/AppleTV.app/Appliances/Settings.frappliance. Could someone send me this file so that I haven’t to set up my atv from scratch?

Thanks in advance!

10

Thanks for the heads up - I found the following :

(I wish this could be done when you select the plug-ins to create your ATV flash installer, hint, hint… :wink:

Removing unused buttons from the frontrow menu
If you don’t sync your movies or TV episodes from itunes but only use
ATVFiles for video, you might want to try this:

First, remember to gain sudo rights:
“sudo bash” and then enter you password should do that.

Next, you need write access to the file system:
“mount -uw /” and you are good to go.

cd to the /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/
folder, and you can do the following:

Removing the “Movies” button:
“mv Movies.frappliance/ Movies.frappliance.old”

Removing the “TV Shows” button:
“mv TV.frappliance/ TV.frappliance.old”

Removing the “Podcasts” button:
“mv Podcasts.frappliance/ Podcasts.frappliance.old”

To apply the changes you need to restart finder.

Simple as that. Remember “mount -ur /” to make filesystem read only again.

11

Thanks to all that helped - and the person whose info I got from the awkwardtv forums.

For anyone interested - I was able to get my menu down to just FILES and SETTINGS. those are the only 2 that I want - and now there is no clutter and it only does what it is supposed to which is play divx.

If anyone needs help - and you can’t figure it out from this thread then let me know and i will make an even more detailed set of instructions than what is listed here.

12

Sure. I will type up some step by step instructions for what I did. Soon as I have them typed out I will post it here…

13

HOW TO REMOVE MENU ITEMS FROM THE ATV MENU

At the time of these instructions I am using :

Apple TV OS 2.1
ATVFLASH 3.22
iMAC with Leopard 10.5.4
Terminal software (built into OSX)

I do not know what software to use if you are on a Windows pc.

  1. First thing to do is to get the IP Address of your Apple TV. This can be done by going to Settings/Network on your apple tv and make note of your ip address.

  2. Now. On your mac, open Terminal (applications, Utilities folder)

You must now log into the Apple TV with SSH.

Anytime i type “quotes” it means to type what is IN the quotes - do not type the “quotes” themselves.

  1. Once you are in Terminal type “ssh -1 frontrow@atvipaddress” <— atvipaddress from step #1

  2. Enter your password as “frontrow”

  3. Gain sudo rights by typing “sudo bash” and enter the password “frontrow”

  4. Create write access to the system files by typing “mount -uw /”

  5. Get to the menu items folder by typing “cd /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/”

  6. Have a look at all the items you may rename by typing “ls”

You may remove as many or as few as you want.

The list of items to remove will include :

Music
Podcasts
Movies
YT <— Youtube
nitoTV
Photos
ATVFiles
Sapphire
Scripts
Settings
TV

  1. To remove an items :

To remove Photos : “mv Photos.frappliance/ Photos.frappliance.old”
To remove Movies : “mv Movies.frappliance/ Movies.frappliance.old”
To remove Podcasts : “mv Podcasts.frappliance/ Podcasts.frappliance.old”
To remove Music : “mv Music.frappliance/ Music.frappliance.old”
To remove YouTube : “mv YT.frappliance/ YT.frappliance.old”
To remove nitoTV (dvd playback) : “mv nitoTV.frappliance/ nitoTV.frappliance.old”
To remove Files : “mv ATVFiles.frappliance/ ATVFiles.frappliance.old”
To remove Media : “mv Sapphire.frappliance/ Sapphire.frappliance.old”
To remove Maintenance : “mv Scripts.frappliance/ Scripts.frappliance.old”
To remove TV : “mv TV.frappliance/ TV.frappliance.old”
To remove Settings : “mv Settings.frappliance/ Settings.frappliance.old”

  1. Once you are finished type “ls” to make sure your changes look ok in the file listing.

  2. Disable writing of system files “mount -ur /”

  3. Reboot the Apple TV

Upon reboot you will see that the renamed items have been removed fromthe menu.

**PLEASE REMEMBER - Hiding some of the menu items may remove some of the ATVFlash bundle usefulness.

For example if you remove NITOTV (DVD) - then you will also lose the ability to install customs software packages etc. Of course you can always re-enable menu items by following the instructions again and removing the .old from the file name.

**BE CAREFUL!!! - I accidentally renamed Movies to Movies.old and then MUsic to Movies.old also - and it causes nothing but headaches… Double check all commands before you press Enter.

14

I don’t necessarily want to remove the menu items, but I would like to re-order them and place sum of them in subfolders. Is this possible?

15

Sorry I have no idea… It’s a good idea - but from what I have learned about the menu structure it is not possible unless some significant coding changes are made to the Apple TV OS…

16

i tried to login and all i get is this in the terminal. any ideas?

17

You need to remove the stored key on your computer

Open Terminal and enter:

rm .ssh/known_hosts
18

tried and still couldnt get it to work. any chance you could help me out more? like tell me exactly what i need to do? all terminal commands and what not?

19

Hi,

Is there also a guide how to change the order of the menu items? I looked around in the AkwardTV Wiki, but couldn’t find anything.

All help much appreciated!!!

20

Hello,

the easiest way is to modify the info.plist from the plugins:

look there —> /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns here you can find all Plugins.

e.g. Plugin XBMC —> /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/XBMCLauncher.frappliance/Contents
then open info.plist and change this item, , after change save the info.plist

original:
FRAppliancePreferedOrderValue
0.0

after change:
FRAppliancePreferedOrderValue
11 <-----this is the new position on apple TV Menu

next e.g Plugin sapphire ----> /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns/Sapphire.frappliance/Contents
then open info.plist and change this item, after change save the info.plist

original:
FRAppliancePreferedOrderValue
0.0

after change:
FRAppliancePreferedOrderValue
9 <-----this is the new position on apple TV Menu

and this can you do for all your Menu items :slight_smile: then a reboot and you see your items new sorted.

Hope that helps

Cheers guibaa