Apple TV XBMC Hack Makes $99 STB A 1080p HD Media Center

The media center marvels over at XBMC have managed to get a full install up and running on a jailbroken second-gen Apple TV, turning the $99 set-top box into a full media player capable of Full HD 1080p decoding. No mere thin-client or remote install, this is the full XBMC experience.Video demo after the cut

The magic comes from XBMC's use of the official Apple VideoToolBox API, which offers direct video acceleration from the 1GHz Apple A4 chip lurking inside the Apple TV. Normally that tops out at 720p HD with iTunes HD video streams, but it's capable of 1080p for non-Apple content.

You can download XBMC here, though you'll need to jailbreak your Apple TV first since this doesn't exactly sit well with how Apple would like you to use the STB. PwnageTool will do that for you, however; instructions here.

[via Download Squad]