AppleTV - worth it? Getting one jailbroken?

Now that i have finally gotten the living room sorted & bought a TV, we're just waiting on the sofa & job done.

Time to consider this AppleTV thing which i know absolutely zero about really.

I believe if you jailbreak it (don't know how easy that is) you're supposed to get some decent content?

I had a look at jailbroken ones on eBay. £200+ so no thanks.

We currently have SkyTV. Is it like an alternative to Sky / Freeview or is it seen as an addition?

Are they worth it, what can it give me (both unjailbroken & jailbroken)?

Short answer: No.

Apple TV (ATV) is a media streaming box. When the 1st generation ATV launched 9(!) years ago it was pretty revolutionary. Up to that point the industry had been pushing the Windows-based Home Media PC as a solution. The problems with that were cost, size, noise, heat and a lack of much in the way of content to stream. Suddenly Apple made a relatively small box with an internal hard drive that did a lot of what a Home Media PC did but without all the Windows hassle and at a fraction of the price. What's more, they made a library of stuff accessible via the iTunes store. Okay, a lot of the content was US-centric, but at least Apple had thought about content as much as hardware.

ATV2 launched in 2010. Much slicker and smaller but now minus the hard drive. These are what you might often see jail broken on Ebay. Apple's philosophy has always been to have a closed system where they control the hardware and what software and streaming services can be run. Jail breaking an ATV2 took that control away from Apple so that 3rd party applications could be run on the ATV2 box. One of the most significant applications was X-Box Media Centre (XMBC for short). As the name suggest, this started out as a 3rd party application to run on X-box consoles but has since developed in to much more than that. XBMC is now renamed as Kodi and it is a software front-end that provides the means to watch and listen to streamed content from the web and from one's own storage either on a local hard drive or a network storage device (NAS or networked PC).

When ATV3 launched in 2012 they closed the jail break vulnerability on products going forward. Since then (AFAIK) ATV 3 & 4 boxes can't be jail broken. However, that's no longer an issue because of what has happened in the rest of the market.

Between 2010 and 2012 we started to see competitor products becoming available. Western Digital TV (WDTV) and Roku were two of the most well known. These could access streaming services outside of Apple's eco-system. We also started to see the first Android TV boxes. These were based on the same operating system as Android smart-phones and, crucially, had the ability to run 3rd party apps as a standard feature.... Hello Kodi! The latest Android boxes are available fully loaded with Kodi and other streaming access apps with prices starting around £25.

Android isn't the only game in town though. Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV (a box), Amazon Fire TV stick (a HDMI dongle), Now TV, Raspberry Pi, smart TVs and Blu-ray players and home cinema systems, Freeview Play recorders..... the list goes on and on and all these can access various online streaming services and catch-up TV.

A jail broken ATV2 used to be the daddy of media players because it was small, relatively cheap and it worked well; but that was 8~9 years ago. Today it looks antiquated (no 1080p, no 3D support, no HD audio), expensive, and if you want any official Apple firmware updates then you have to reset the box i.e. remove the jail break and then re-apply it after which is a P.I.T.A. If I wanted access to Apple's services then I'd buy a later ATV3 (new/used) for around £40-£60 and then tip £30~£70 in to one of the other devices listed above. I realise that for some people the idea of having two boxes fries their brain; "Why can't I do it all with one box?" to which the answer is that Apple is a closed system. If you want their latest services then you need their later hardware devices, but if you want everything else as well then they can't help you. It has to be a second box for Kodi and all the other streaming services available.

Regarding Sky and Freeview...
Sky and Freeview are for the most part what we call linear TV. That is to say it follows a schedule so you either watch live or record a programme for consumption at a more convenient time. Both platforms now support some limited catch-up services. As long as you have the appropriate version of a Sky HD box and an internet connection you can download some programmes via their catch up service. It's a similar story if you have a Freeview Play PVR. Both platforms do limit your choices to what's in their core schedule though. For example you couldn't stream a dodgy version of the latest cinema release (not that you'd want to do that of course for legal reasons ) or say play a movie that you have stored on your home's own media storage system. Sky sees Netflix and Amazon Prime Video as competitor services. Both offer a library of films and TV box sets for streaming rental. Sky offers something similar from its own libraries via Catch Up TV and Sky Box Sets and Sky Cinema and Sky Store.

Before spending any money on hardware I think you might want to start from a point of view of "What do I want to watch?". You may find that your needs are already catered for via Sky, or that all you need is something simple such as a Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV Stick.

Thanks very much for your detailed response.

I was put on to that by some people at work. I had been told that you could watch new movies on it via the jailbreak. By new i mean fairly recent. That is basically what i would've been buying it for. Can they be accessed via one of the other options you listed?

buy a synology, install download station add the plugins from synoboost and download anything you want.

despite media hype and myth. downloading copyrighted material isn't a criminal offence. it's distributing that is the issue

Mr. Clueless said:

Thanks very much for your detailed response.

I was put on to that by some people at work. I had been told that you could watch new movies on it via the jailbreak. By new i mean fairly recent. That is basically what i would've been buying it for. Can they be accessed via one of the other options you listed?

Click to expand...

While I can't condone watching illegally shared content, my guess is they've suggested a jail broken ATV2 because they know it will run Kodi. Well there's plenty of platforms that will run Kodi and the add-ons that Kodi supports. Start by looking at Kodi and then choose whichever device it is that best meets your needs.

motorbiking said:

buy a synology, install download station add the plugins from synoboost and download anything you want.

despite media hype and myth. downloading copyrighted material isn't a criminal offence. it's distributing that is the issue

Click to expand...

You're talking semantics here. That argument is essentially the same as saying that it's not illegal to watch a rape in progress. You can try to rationalise it any way you want but the end result is the same; you gained a benefit as a result of someone being f*****d against their will. Sorry, but it really is that simple.

I can think of at least 3 criminal offences you'd be committing in the example you gave. But appreciate it was just an example and everyone has a different view of the moral rights or wrongs of consuming someone's IP without paying.

Hmm forget that then. I didn't think they were on about outright illegal activity. I don't fancy putting myself at risk of getting in any bother for a few movies so i'll knock this one on the head. Thanks.

the comment on criminality was in relationship to watching a rape. given as an example. watching/downloading pirated TV is not a criminal offence. it's a civil matter.

If what you are wanting to achieve is being able to watch legally accessed content streamed to your TV, probably one of the most open ways is the Chromecast. Many apps such as iPlayer, YouTube, Netflix, All4 etc (Not sure about Amazon TV) can be "Cast" (Played) on the Chromecast, controlled by your phone. The phone simply sets up the cast, the Chromecast connects directly to the internet to stream the content.

I did try out a (expensive) jail broken firefox TV and hated it. The quality was rubbish, no where near hd quality. The picture froze, it took ages to find something to watch, couldnt record, no tv guide etc, plus its illegal. So luckily I sent it back and got a refund. I wouldnt recomend replacing your sky with that however the apple tv does have its uses for example, you can link up your itunes acount (if you have a mac computer) to watch your movies and music through your tv also you can sync it up with your iphone or ipad. It also gives you access to netflix, youtube etc if you dont allready have that.

so, for watching live TV Sky is hard to beat. To access digital media services like netflix etc, yeah I would recomend an apple TV especially if you use othe apple products.

Hope that helps (im new here)

Just get a £40 fire stick, load Kodi onto it, load a build onto it (Wookie Lite works well) and away you go. Live sports aren't that good but almost any film more than a month or so old going back to the 1950's and beyond as well as Netflix, Amazon or TV programme can be easily found using the search facility and watched in pretty good quality. Can even load it onto a windows PC as well.

One thing that's difficult to argue against with the Apple ecosystem; they make your life easy. If the rest of your devices are Apple, and you like them then an Apple TV makes sense. It integrates well with the rest of the tech, and if you're happy with the idea of paying a reasonable fee to easily watch the movies you want then an ATV will make it all very plug and play for you. Later you'll have a party and want to amuse guests by playing a video of your child picking his nose and wiping it on his sibling, recorded on your phone but streamed to the TV. You'll probably find another couple of things in the limited set of capabilities it has (most Apple devices don't do anything revolutionary, hey just do well a small subset of things the competition offer, but better thought out and more reliably)

Regards the "getting free movies" angle, just a quick question on that one.. illegal or not, is it fair to enjoy the results of someone else's efforts without giving them what they ask in exchange? You have a job, and hence a sense of what your time working hard is worth, right? Suppose your boss came to you at the end of the month and said "well I was a grand short on the purchase price of this BMW sports bike that I wanted, so I decided not to pay you quite so much this month so I could use that money to buy what I wanted"

Would you feel ripped off, or would it be ok?

Legals aside, if you're demanding to be entertained by someone else's hard work, the very least you could do is pay them what they ask for their services.. Just like you expect you job to do for you.

Doesn't the fact that Mr Clueless was looking for a jailbroken Apple TV suggest he plans to run it with 3rd party software? Wouldn't that then take the product outside of the cozy confines of the Apple ecosystem?

cjard said:

..........Regards the "getting free movies" angle, just a quick question on that one.. illegal or not, is it fair to enjoy the results of someone else's efforts without giving them what they ask in exchange?..........Legals aside, if you're demanding to be entertained by someone else's hard work, the very least you could do is pay them what they ask for their services.......

Click to expand...

Yeah, I suppose you're right. From now on I'll pay to watch Sky TV and Amazon Prime on my Apple iPad whilst sitting on my IKEA chair and drinking a Costa coffee after seeking them out on Google through my Vodafone broadband connection and just trust those H U G E multi-national corporations to pay the correct amount of corporation tax to the UK government instead of filtering it all through offshore companies so that we, the UK taxpayer, get nothing from it.

But wait.....they don't do they? Of course not. Silly me. Ah well, back to my free kodi content with a clear conscience ........