I am fond of it but, after the recent updates, the streaming is often problematic.
Is it time to change the system or I have to change the software?
(I like to provoke)
Have you ruled out that it isn’t just crappy streaming servers?
I suspect if you play back content locally you won’t have issues. The GUI is not as fast as more modern devices, but with a CrystalHD card you will still be able to play 1080p Blu-ray (L4.1, 5 reframes x264) content without any issues on a BCM70015 and minor seeking issues on a BCM70012.
Sam
Thank you Sam, I have a BCM70015. I’m little bit disappointed because my laptop running Kodi is quite different.
Maybe I have to try installing a fresh system.
Keep in mind that an Apple TV 1 is nearly 10 years old now, and is powered by a 1Ghz Pentium M - a very slow processor by today’s standards (slower than a Pi 3) and has only 256MB of ram which is very limiting. (Even a Pi 2/3 has 1GB of ram)
If you are expecting it to perform like your laptop, well it will not. It’s something of a minor miracle that Sam has managed to get OSMC running on the ATV1 at all, given just how limited it’s hardware specs are.
For $35 plus a case, power supply and SD card you could have a Pi 3 that will easily outperform an Apple TV1, use a fraction of the power and be a fraction of the size.
I am sorry to hear that. I have done my best with the AppleTV, but it’s getting a little limiting now. Kodi is consuming an increasing number of resources as it evolves – we will take some measures to combat this (using Confluence instead of Estuary for example), but it’s getting very near the end of its life.
Bringing up CrystalHD on 4.x and getting it to work with Kodi 16 when it was dropped in Kodi 14 was challenging as well.
I suspect that your laptop is not ten years old, so naturally performs better. If you want something relatively future proofed that will last a year you could consider the Vero 2 although the Raspberry Pi is not a bad bet either.
10 years is a very, very long time in this area.
Not just this – but we have to run X11 on this device! Still – it taught us a thing or two about how to do the PC version 
Sam
Sam, believe me, I’m very pleased and I appreciate your work; I am aware of the difficulties. My concern is just about the hardware. These are only considerations, the solution, as you rightly say, is obvious.
My ATV1 has been performing relatively well.
I’m running OSMC with the Zephyr:Arctic skin, which provides a minimal interface that still has a modern feel (and looks great).
No issues with playing local 1080p content, and streaming 1080p with a sufficiently fast internet connection has not been an issue. With the Arctic:Zephyr skin, scrolling fast through a movie library with fanart enabled will cause freezing/crashes, but other than that, no issues for me (I disable fanart anyway, which helps a lot).
@sam_nazarko, as you’re probably aware, there are far more users that appreciate your work than do, or ever will, post here. I would spend the money on a new device in a heartbeat, but there is something strangely satisfying about still running the horse until it’s dead. Also, the multiple output options (optical out, component, HDMI) all in the one device is really handy. Thanks so much for keeping the ATV1 going.
TL;DR: I still rate the ATV1 as giving quite acceptable performance (local and streaming), and there are a couple of skins that allow a modern feel whilst still providing decent responsiveness.
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I’m very thankful about the work @sam_nazarko has done and the tremendous effort it might be to support the ATV1 in 2016. I could have stayed on OpenElec 4, which performed really good, but I must admit I fell in love with OSMC and at the moment it’ts the only device I have that can run it.
In fact, I’ve considered (like for real this time) getting a RPi exclusively for OSMC, I haven’t before because of several reasons (like scarcity dollars in a third world country where the government denies access to foreign currencies, among others) but now’s the time. Pi Zero’s have been popping up on eBay at decent prices again and the extremely low profile of it makes it great for literally sticking it on the back of the LCD TV with double-sided tape if one must.
Regarding the OP, my ATV doesn’t have the CrystalHD installed and I’ve successfully streamed videos from the crappy plugins. I did it once with one movie and it freezes from time to time, like every 20-30 minutes or so, but I think it has to do with the buffer and the ATV’s lack of memory. Remember that it isn’t actually streaming in real (as in a live TV stream where the watched content can be discarded) but instead it’s playing the “hard” (complete) file that is also downloading. On top of that, many add-ons don’t play the file from a download server but via torrent, which impacts a lot more the already limited processor.
I myself play 90% of the content from my NAS and the playback in SD or 720 is never an issue, even without the CrystalHD. However, there are noticeable lags in the interface, eigher with OSMC’s default skin or Confluence or AppTV. I’ll take the advice on Zephyr:Artic but I think it’s gonna be the same, more or less. Any other skin recommendations, performance-wise, for the ATV?
Regarding OSMC’s skin, is it publicly available for download? I’d love to have it on my Nexus Player, it’s the lightest-looking and nicest skin I’ve ever seen.
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Estuary, so Kodi 17 is also coming to ATV?
After changes in video player I wasn’t sure.
I don’t anticipate any problems from a technical perspective.
The question is whether it is worth it. The number of aTV users will only decline. It seems there are only bad reports of OSMC on aTV in the forum. I suspect this is primarily hinged on people trying to get good performance out of the aTV when it’s become dated. Some will say that it did not perform as well as Crystalbuntu, but XBMC back then was a lot less resource intensive. Kodi v17 will only consume more resources.
There’s no point producing a Krypton build that performs like crap. With that said, I think playback with a CHD card will be OK, but I’m not able to comment on GUI performance at this time.
Ideally I would like to at some point hand over builds to someone else on this forum that has an aTV and still uses it regularly and show them the ropes. They will give the aTV a thorough workout and will be able to test new improvements in detail.
Sam
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TLDR: The ATV1 performs very well for me, to the point I can’t tell the difference between that and my quad-core i7 Server.
I’ve moved to other devices but still have my ATV1’s. They perform very well, in fact I can’t really tell the difference between that and my quad-core i7. I have a media server, so all content on all my devices is played over the network from the server.
I have the Crystal HD card and a solid state drive in the ATV1’s. Some have an IDE to MicroSD card adapter, some have an IDE SSD, and some have a IDE to SATA with an SSD. The interface is literally so fast it will scroll faster than you can read.
Now I use Emby for Kodi. The only issue I have is when it initially syncs the library. Cacheing all the images causes it to reboot because it uses too much RAM. This is easily solved because I sync the library without cacheing images, then once it’s synced, I enable the images. You can also limit the threads for image cacheing, so I set it at no more than 5 at a time. It will then sync images slowly in the background. Once it’s all synced initially, I have no problems. It’s automatic for new shows (they’re pushed by the server) and everything just stays in sync.
can u make a video in youtube to see if i change to a solid state drive
I had thrown a rock to get a reaction from who like me is still fond of this ancient piece of hardware. Hoping to hear some new ideas to improve its operation. Nothing new. Meanwhile I installed a ssd and the GUI reaction seems interesting. I will continue to use it until Sam will continue to support it. I began to appreciate his work with Cristalbuntu and I still do. I hope I did not take mine as a criticism of his good work. Go on like this!
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