HowTo – Install Boxee XBMC on Apple TV

This video and write up will explain how to install Boxee and XBMC on to your Apple TV for Mac/OSX users. We may do a video at some point on how to do this from a Windows or Linux based operating system. But at this time, we are mainly Mac and will show you how to do this.

Hardware used in this HowTo:

Computer and OS: Macbook Pro 17″ running Mac OSX 10.5.6
Apple TV: 40GB with version 2.3
USB Drive: PNY 2GB Attache “High-Speed”

Plug in the USB Drive you will use into a free USB port.

From the atvusb-creator site:

“7) WARNING Be very careful in selecting the correct USB device. Any USB mass storage devices are selectable and once you start the process, the contents are gone!”

If you have several USB storage devices, you will want to launch “disk utility” and right click your USB Drive and select “Information”. In the information window screen, look at the line that says “Disk Identifier”. In my case it’s “disk2″. Make a note of this!

You will need to get the ATVUSB-Creator from Google code’s pages. Do this by going to http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/ and download the current OSX version. (the current version at the time of this writing is: atvusb-creator-1.0.b10)

Now, unzip and launch atvusb-creator. I downloaded the zip file to my desktop, unzipped and ran it from the folder it created.

First things first, once atvusb-creator is launched, be sure the “USB Target device” is set to your USB drive. In my case it’s /dev/disk2. BE SURE THIS HAS THE DISK IDENTIFIER YOU FOUND IN THE PREVIOUS STEP.

Be sure “ATV-Patchstick” is selected under “Choose an Installation”. Be sure that the green checks are selected for what you want to install under “Installation Options”.

Then double check that your USB drive is selected and click the “Create Using” button. At this point it will download and prepare the USB Drive you specified to be the Patchstick you will use to add Boxee/XMBC to your Apple TV.

At this point, remove the created “patchstick” from the computer and take it to your Apple TV.

Shut your Apple TV down. (I just unplug it, it does not seem to do it any harm – I know I know… )

Plug the created patchstick into the back of the Apple TV. Now plug the Apple TV back in.

As the Apple TV boots, you should get a logo with a penguin sitting on top of an Apple TV. THIS IS GOOD!

This means your Apple TV is booting from the patchstick. You will then get a series of scrolling text on the screen for a couple minutes. Once it is completed, you will get some text that says “you may now remove the patchstick and reboot the device” or something similar to this.

Unplug the Apple TV THEN remove the USB stick and plug the Apple TV back in.

Your Apple TV should boot as normal. You will eventually get to the familiar Apple TV menu with an extra item at the top “Boxee/XBMC” select this. Then navigate to update. Update all of the programs. (At the time of this writing, it was XBMC, Boxee, and Launcher)

Once all the programs/downloads are updated, you can launch Boxee from the menu. VOILA! You have Boxee installed!

As stated in the video, the purpose of this HowTo was to get Boxee on your Apple TV. The configuration and use of Boxee is up to you