Pandora on AppleTV via XBMC

Tonight I installed the Pandora plugin for XBMC onto my AppleTV — “install” might be a little misleading. More accurately, I copied a folder into a directory in my already jailbroken AppleTV. If you can handle a few basic command line tasks like file copy or ftp, you should be good to go.

In any case, I can now stream Pandora music from my AppleTV without having to initiate the audio from a desktop computer or my iPhone.

Steps to Reproduce:
1) Download the script.xbmc.pandora from http://www.sharefile.org/showfile-3606/scriptxbmcpandora.zip
2) Unzip the zip file and copy the script.xbmc.pandora folder into your computer
3) FTP or scp the folder to your AppleTV
/private/var/stash/Applications/XBMC.frappliance/XBMCData/XBMCHome/addons/.

scp -r script.xbmc.pandora root@APPLE.TV.IPADDRESS:/private/var/stash/Applications/XBMC.frappliance/XBMCData/XBMCHome/addons/.

References:
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=70471&page=34
http://github.com/PromyLOPh/pianobar

The headline pretty much says it all, but the AppleTV just got a whole lot cooler now that it can playback just about any media format!

Join the discussion

Source

Check out my full review of 6 Months Without DirecTV on lunch.com.

Check out these thoughts on where we’d like to see iPad development go!

http://lunch.com/t/13am

Icon for Remote Buddy

Now that I’ve official suspended my DirecTV account, I’v switched entirely to a diet of EyeTV and Boxee, I’ve found that I have some issues with my remote control usability.  After watching the videos of Remote Buddy on iospirit.com, I decided to give it a spin.  Long story short, I don’t know why I waited.  Remote Buddy essentially solved all my issues and simplified controlling all my applications with one remote.  For my full review, and a lot more detail, check out my review on lunch.com.

EyeTV iPhone App

This is a follow-up to my recent review of the Elgato EyeTV 250 device for the Macintosh.  This review will address the iPhone application specifically.  If you want to know my impressions about the device itself, please check out my review.

As far as features are concerned, the EyeTV iPhone app delivers.  It essentially allows you to stream live or recorded tv shows from your Mac directly to your iPhone (via Wifi AND cellular data streams).
The user interface is very clean and simple to navigate.  The first screen gives you four simple options:

1. Live TV
2. Recordings
3. Schedules
4. Guide

This is one of the best looking and simplest iPhone apps I’ve used so far… if only it worked…

Before I begin to tell you all the things that DIDN’T work for me, I will preface my remarks by saying I am using an iPhone 3g, not the newer 3gs, so it is possible most of these issues are resolved by using the newer hardware.

When used over Wifi, shows and live feeds took VERY long to start — upwards of 30 seconds or more.  Once playback began, stuttering was common and the app would occasionally lock up.  Looking through the Elgato support site, they recommend turning off the Bluetooth feature on the phone to improve performance.  Even though this step is unnecessary when using the Slingbox or NFL Sunday Ticket app (two other apps which provide video streaming), I complied.  My results improved, but only marginally.  Recorded shows that were specifically re-encoded for iPhone definitely worked better than Live TV, but still not to the point where I would consider it ready for regular use.  There is also a setting in the iPhone app for the size of the data stream you want to receive.  Changing these values seemed to actually change what channels or recordings were available for me to watch, but it’s actual function still is a mystery to me.  But moving the slider around did seem to slightly help video playback.

To confuse matters even more, Elgato support recommends buying their other device, the Turbo.264 HD Encoder which they say will automatically adjust the video feed on the fly to match your network settings.  However after spending money on the original EyeTV device, plus the $5 for the iPhone application as well, I’m not ready to drop even more money into this project without knowing exactly what kind of results I should expect.  I would have thought that re-encoding the video for the iPhone would have precluded me from having to add this additional device.

I will continue to tweak the different settings to see if I can get better results, but hopefully a software update will address my current concerns without requiring an additional hardware purchase.  For now, I would recommend a Slingbox device over the EyeTV iPhone software for streaming video.

Elgato EyeTV Software

I picked up the Elgato EyeTV as part of my experiment to see if I could cut out my DirecTV service entirely.  The short answer is… “no”, at least not quite yet.

The Elgato EyeTV 250 is a USB device for the Macintosh that allows you to watch and record TV broadcasts from over-the-air (OTA) or clear QAM (unencrypted digital cable) signals.  Setup was pretty standard fare — plug in USB connector and power outlet, install software, connect antenna or cable source.  I tested the device with both cable and antenna and the results were a bit mixed.  The scanning channels process took quite a while for both sources, but the cable source returned better initial results.  When using a smaller “digital OTA antenna” I wasn’t able to get all of my major network channels (CBS, NBC, ABC, etc).  However, after connecting to a larger antenna which is mounted in the attic, I was able to pull in all the major networks.  While this was great for my Mac Mini media center (which doesn’t really move), it did mean that it wouldn’t be easy to take the USB device as a travel companion and grab TV from different locations while on the road.

(Quick side note:  Elgato does sell another device which does NOT require a power adapter and some reports have stated that it is able to pull in OTA signals better.  However, the 250 Plus which I picked up has an analog input which in theory would let me record additional sources to the computer — such as converting old tapes or recording video game gameplay.  Recording video game snippets sounded like a cool option at the time, but if I were to do it again, I’d opt for the EyeTV Hybrid TV Tuner Stick).

The Elgato device comes with their latest version of the EyeTV Software.  This allows you to watch TV, schedule recordings (and “season passes”) and browse the program guide.  The app also allows you to edit your recorded videos in order to trim out unwanted sections (such as cutting out commercials from the recorded shows) and even save the output as a compressed format for portable devices such as the iPod or iPhone..  The software worked quite well on my Mac Mini when used with a keyboard and mouse, but the software suite just isn’t quite ready to be fully controlled by a remote control like I was hoping to do with the dedicated home theater Mac Mini.  The included remote control offers quite a bit of functionality, but I plan to use the Elgato with my Plex software and the Apple Remote and I couldn’t get everything dialed in to a point where I could get by on the remote alone (thankfully, the Snatch app on my iPhone was available in a pinch).

Elgato seems to have some decent developer support and I did come across two helper apps which were huge bonuses.  ETVComskip and PyeTV (both available via Google Code) added tremendous functionality to the EyeTV.  ETVComskip will analyze your recorded shows and automatically strip out the commercials.  While this worked pretty well most of the time, I did have one case where it output ONLY the commercials.  The other app, PyeTV, integrates EyeTV with Front Row to bring you a step closer to remote control unity.  Recorded shows worked fine with PyeTV, but switching to the program guide or live tv always made it difficult to return to the Front Row interface.  Hopefully the folks at Plex will come up with an integrated solution and it seems to be a top feature request.

For the most part, the EyeTV was a success.  The hardware worked great to provide an excellent HD picture and the automated recording,  scheduling, and commercial cutting features were a great bonus.  Unfortunately, the software still feels a little unpolished (a third party developer shouldn’t need to be the one to build in Front Row support).  The ability to customize the commands would be a big step forward, but what really needs to happen is the software needs an interface which can be fully controlled by the Apple Remote (and allow for more 3rd party development).

Once football season is over, I’ll try putting my DirecTV account on hold and see if I can get by solely on freely available content.  In order for that to happen the EyeTV is going to be a big part of my plan.  I just hope future software updates will make the transition even easier.

Plex logo

Sorry for the lame headline, but I’m very excited to pass along the latest announcement from the Plex group that Plex is now Snow Leopard compatible!

Highlights:

• Apple Remote fix
• 5.1 Audio issues  fixed
• Several fixes for crashes

You can read all the details here:

http://elan.plexapp.com/2009/10/26/plex-0-8-3-let-it-snow-leopard/

Hulu Desktop Start Screen

As more and more television networks start making their content available on-line, the need for a traditional cable or satellite service continues to diminish. Yet one of the biggest obstacles isn’t necessarily the quality of the content, but it’s accessibility from the couch. Hulu.com is great when you’re sitting at a computer, but few people are willing to give up their traditional remote control for a keyboard and mouse on the couch.

Click the link for the full review

Snow Leopard Plex compatibility

Ready to upgrade your Mac Mini Home Theater to latest operating system offering from Apple? Might want to hold of 10.6 Snow Leopard upgrade for just a bit. It appears that there is an issue with Plex and the Apple Remote where any button presses while in Plex continue on to the operating systems’ default behavior. What exactly does this mean? Pressing the Menu button will take you out of Plex and launch Apple’s Front Row application. Additionally, the “up/down” buttons will change the system volume. I’ve been able to verify this on my own system, and I would advise holding off on upgrading until this has been fixed.

The Plex developers are aware of this issue and have even started a Snow Leopard forum so you can submit additional issues or monitor the status of the fixes.

http://forums.plexapp.com/index.php?showforum=44