
The Apple TV might be easy to use and affordable but it doesn’t do much if you want to run third-party services until now. Systems like Plex have required an older jailbroken box if you want to run them in the past but this is all about to change with PlexConnect, a new homegrown hack by the company which puts Plex in Full HD on 2nd- and 3rd-generation Apple TV boxes, with only a single modification on the Apple box itself.
Although there’s been a Plex client for the Apple TV for some time, it hasn’t been the most streamlined of systems. The biggest issue for mass market acceptance in the past was that it required the Apple TV to have gone through the jailbreak process, which can be tricky for beginners and since there’s currently no jailbreak for the third-gen Apple TV, it means hunting down on one of the increasingly exclusive second-gen versions. Listings of new second-gen models on Amazon are hovering around roughly $400 as opposed to $96 for the current model.
PlexConnect works differently though. Instead of requiring installation on the Apple TV itself, it runs on the media server computer of your Plex system. JavaScript and XML is then used to deliver content to the Apple TV, which sees PlexConnect as the official Trailer app.
Since it’s an official release from the Plex team, users already get the company’s latest transcoder, subtitle support, and at least AC3 5.1 audio. As of right now, the software is in its earliest stages and still demands a little familiarity with Terminal in order to get it up and running, though it’s likely an update will make it more user friendly in the near future. Despite all this, one Plex team member reported having everything all up and working in under two minutes.
Apple could easily turn around and block the loophole that the Plex team seems to have taken advantage of with the particular hack as the Cupertino California company has in the past. There have been plenty of rumors that Apple is planning its own entertainment system, one that is more robust with the likes of Siri and a high-definition television set but no news has been released as of yet. So far, the Apple TV has been treated as more of a hobby but with the release of PlexConnect, more users may want to consider picking it up.
Source: Plexapp (Thanks to MMi user Rick Fayad for sending this in)
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