Can anybody tell me there real world exsperiance between apple tv 1st gen with unbuntu and vero .
I think I have tried almost everything out there and I love my atv1 , What do you guys think ?
Durrrr, Vero is better.
I mean, just look at the specs.
AppleTV will be EOL long before the Vero.
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At this moment the Apple TV with CrystalBuntu just works, flawless. It plays everything, except very high bitrate BD-images. The interface is snappy, and the remote is simple, very responsive just as the interface.
The Vero is a work in progress, and I don’t know for how long. OSMC final was promised in january 2015, but it still is not recommendable for people with less IT-knowledge. DVD’s don’t play or don’t play well, or the menu’s don’t work. Remote is irritating, interface is less snappy. Many things are still beta. For pure speed, the Vero is better, but what does that matter if the Apple TV can play 1080p just as good? You don’t watch a 2 hour movie in 1 hour so at the moment the Apple TV is the better choice.
I have unplugged my Vero last week, and I will wait for OSMC final to plug it in again. Too many flaws right now.
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Problem with AppleTV is that you will have to use Apple Streaming stuff or a remote iTunes server. And this is crap.
If you want to connect decently to your own NAS - you have to jailbreak it.
In the end - I gave my ATV’s away - because I could not watch the Apple Media in more than 5 devices. We are 6 at home … make the math.
The Vero is still in development, and has some issues here and there, I admit that. However I spent more time Ripping and adapting all my DVD’s to be able to watch these through ITunes on the ATV.
Sorry Smurphy, I guess you don’t know the Apple TV 1st Gen. with a CrystalHD-hardwaredecoder and Sam Nazarko’s great CrystalBuntu software? It makes aTV a Linux-XBMC mediacenter.
I’d been using the ATV1 with Crystalbuntu for ages and although it was awesome and solid(ish) - mine would regularly need a reboot - the Vero is a vast improvement. The speed, not only of the UI but starting playback, from my NAS and from Youtube (e.g. trailers). Everything is instant.
It has crashed once or twice, I think 3rd party plugin/skin related though, but it reboots in about 10 seconds. The ATV took a while to reboot.
It’s also smaller and doesn’t get anywhere near as hot, my AppleTV got really hot, I was always concerned about it.
I’d say you won’t be disappointed.
I wrote a review when I got it and have a wee video of it booting up and running from powered off. Worth a look maybe.
Thank you for all the feedback .
I have always had the best xbmc exsperiance with atv1 and SAMs software with every other option being a far second IMO . I was just thinking ahead to atv1 eol .
And since I give SAMs software most of the credit I’m hoping to stick with him .
As far as specs go I have never had a good exsperiance going with boxes with better specs .
Patiently waiting on the atv1 osmc install and for now SAMs crystalunbuntu is still doing the job very well for my purposes which is click and watch .
Maybe I’ll get one for Father’s Day 
Thank You Everyone !!!
I also still have an ATV1 - but the power consumption and the heat dissipation of that beast, with the limited amount of RAM do not justify to run instead of a raspberry PI or the Vero.
An Apple TV1 only has 256MB of ram - which is pretty marginal for Kodi these days even with a very lean purpose built OS…
A Pi 2 or Vero both have 1GB of ram, which does make a big difference. (Not so much for speed, but for stability, as running low on memory can cause instability and require reboots) The extra memory also makes it feasible to run background services without running out of memory.
I know that makes perfect sense but can’t understand why it doesn’t translate to better real world exsperiance . I have had many other boxes and even have xbmc on my PC . And none of them preform better them atv1 . I guess there’s a lot more to it .
Weird to me , just a average user with little it exsperiance
I suppose it is the CPU and the x86 code that is better tuned and more stable.
Right now, I would go with an rpi2 if looking to get a new device.
My experience is that my first gen rpis are a tad bit snappier than my atvs. Just guessing that the rpi2 is another step up.
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kram351 and All,
My original venture into the ATV1 hardware was because of my wife having an extensive iTunes video library. Afterwards, started looking at higher resolution video support which the ATV1. At the time, the ATV1 was not able to quite measure up to supporting a variety of HD content until Mr. Nazarko jumped in and convinced me of his commitment to stick with his VOLUNTEER support of the ATV1 hardware.
Jump in time to today…
Because of his commitment to support the ATV1(Apple - Cupertino’s vision) hardware, then witnessing his new venture into the VERO (Custom Hardware - Sam’s vision), which I see a renewed passion in what Sam would like to do with this hardware. Yes, initial roll-out of the Vero is bound to have growing pains. Look at what the old ATV1 went through when Sam finally integrated the Crystal Video card onto the ATV1 platform. There were patches galore, but at the End of Life (I see a new direction & life to the Vero).
I have retired three ATV1 that had the latest Crystalbuntu and the latest Gotham XBMC. I had tailored my video library files to the capability limitations of this ATV1 hardware. I was not having any issues at time of taking the ATV1’s out of service. What did I do to replace the 3 ATV1’s? Yup, Sam allowed me to purchase 3 Vero’s. The Vero hardware has much improved performance handling all of my video content in my Whole Home entertainment systems. I still hold old habits in tailoring newly created video content to ATV1 capabilities. I fault myself in not challenging the Vero hardware, but am confident that it will provide the service I expect.
All, Sam’s approach to this HOBBY is VOLUNTEER, along with the team of OTHERS he has assembled. I believe we will see the growing pains disappear and develop into a mature platform… I’m COMMITTED!!
Typical video content that is transcoded onto my entertainment network library.
Video: English, 2 144 Kbps, 1280*580 (2.40:1), at 23.976 fps, AVC (High@L3.1) (CABAC / 4 Ref Frames)
Audio: English, 166 Kbps, 48.o KHz, 2 channels, AAc (LC)
I have a Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I would love to use OSMC / Vero instead of purchasing an AppleTV. To try it out I installed OSMC on and RPi 2. While the interface is pretty and user experience is good, my issue is that AirPlay from my devices does not work.
After some reading even if AirPlay worked sometimes it wouldn’t all the time due to DRM.
From a user’s perspective, I just want a seamless experience. I would even pay for an AirPlay license to get the seamless experience.
For now, for me, a vanilla ATV is my choice.
Thanks.
Apple don’t publish the Airplay protocols - the only 3rd party implementations (eg all those except a physical AppleTV) are developed by reverse engineering the protocols. This reverse engineering is very difficult to do and is incomplete and tends to break as Apple keep making changes to the protocol with every major iOS version.
Many implementations (such as Kodi) don’t support mirroring because the only way to do that at this time is the legally questionable approach of including some Apple copyrighted binary libraries lifted from a jailbroken AppleTV - I believe this is the way Reflector and Airserver and other commercial Airplay implementations work, however an open source project like Kodi is never going to include legally questionable material like this.
At the end of the day it is Apple that refuse to allow sanctioned 3rd party use of Airplay so if you need 100% Airplay compatibility then you’ll have no choice but an AppleTV.
Airplay is only possible on Apple TV untouched not jail broke correct ?
Over the years I have always been the guy my circle goes to get XBMC . It has always amazed me how human nature always seems to focus on what something isn’t . I have always strongly recommended ATV1 with SAMs Crystalunbuntu .
This box would provide user with so much for so little cost/time . But it would be very common to hear what no Netflix , No HBO Go , No Airplay . Now don’t get me wrong they have always been grateful for the hook up . But comments /questions like that use to bug me . We are all like that I guess . Just the other day my buddy brought over a Fire TV box and I actualy was more impressed then I thought I would be but it was completely ruined when I realized that his Fire Tv box did not have the ability to connect to external storage . What no Library ? I hate myself sometimes lol . Gotta love this hobby !!
Actually it does. It also runs Kodi VERY well too.
Not the units I have seen , Also have spoke to 5 sellers who install kodi and only one said they would be able to do it . Several mention Amazon updates and it was a work in progress.
Obviously they are misinformed…
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