For example, pressing Menu and Up (+) simultaneously, for approximately six seconds, will cycle through possible display resolutions. Like the iPod, the Apple TV-specifically, its included Apple Remote-has special button combinations for accessing various “hidden” features. (If you don’t feel comfortable doing this yourself, at least two companies haveĪlready announced for-fee drive-swapping services.) SuperDuper and then swapping, it’s not terribly complex-given the small capacity of the included hard drive, I suspect that more than a few Apple TV owners will be upgrading to a significantly larger drive. ) Although the process isn’t as simple as cloning the stock drive to a new one using a utility such as (My replacement hard drive hasn’t yet arrived when it does, I’ll be performing just such a warranty-voiding transplant and writing up the procedure here on Macworld. Saw performed around the Web was a hard-drive upgrade. The first thing you’ll see after doing so is the unit’s hard drive, which helps explain why the first Apple TV surgery we Lift the corners, loosen a few Torx screws, and the bottom of the case lifts right off. The rubber “foot” on the bottom is attached using adhesive but peels back easily. Surprisingly, Apple hasn’t made it difficult to get inside the Apple TV. On a software note, Apple TV runs a version of Mac OS X version 10.4.7 Build 8N5107, to be exact. On the other hand, the ALC885 also supports “advanced lossless content protection technology,” so perhaps we have hardware DRM in our video-playing future. Sample DTS audio file through your Apple TV, the Apple TV’s optical digital-audio output jack does indeed put out 5.1 audio. Realtek ALC885, which the manufacturer describes as a “7.1+2 Channel High-Performance High Definition Audio Codec.” The specs on this chip are quite impressive, and seem to indicate that the Apple TV’s reported audio-output limitation-Dolby Pro Logic II-is due to software, not hardware. More interestingly, the audio chip in the Apple TV is a GeForce Go 7300 with 64MB of dedicated video RAM the latter, a laptop-focused GPU, isn’t exactly a barn-burner, but it’s more than capable of handling HD video. For example, after a bit of sleuthing, they deduced that the Intel chip in the Apple TV is an “Ultra Low Voltage Pentium M based on the Dothan core, running at 1GHz (max frequency), 400MHz FSB and a 2MB L2 cache.” The Apple TV also includes 256MB of RAM and an NVIDIA The fine folks over at AnandTech went above and beyond my basic disassembly byĬompletely dismantling their Apple TV to find some interesting stuff inside. The bigger issue is the size of the drive I’ll get to that shortly.) (To be fair, the slower speed and smaller cache of the Apple TV’s stock drive is unlikely to result in reduced performance-it should be able to easily keep up with network transfers and media playback. On the other hand, this stock drive is a 4,200-rpm drive with a 2MB cache, specs that aren’t all that impressive given that all currently-shipping Macs, even the laptops, use SATA drives with a minimum speed of 5,400-rpm and an 8MB cache. When I took my own Apple TV apart last Friday, I discovered that the hard drive inside is actually a standard 2.5-inch ATA drive, just like the ones used in older Mac laptops this bodes well for inexpensive upgrades (seeīelow ). It turns out the Apple TV isn’t so “limited” after all-at least not when it comes to the hardware inside. New sites sprung up focused on hacking the set-top box. In fact, within days of the first Apple TV being delivered, But then something happened: People started receiving their Apple TVs, and some of those people-including myself-started taking them apart.
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