July 29, 2008 Apple Core have released an updated version of their Apple TV hack, dubbed aTV Flash. The unofficial update addresses many of the Apple TV's shortcomings including underwhelming format support, turning it into the device it should have been from the start.
The aTV Flash features a GUI installer for loading the hack onto a USB stick and installing on your Apple TV with no modification or coding required. Most importantly, Apple Core claims the unofficial Apple TV upgrade will not void your warranty.
Amongst its many goodies, aTV adds support for external USB devices, the Sapphire media organizer, a Safari-based web browser, game emulators and the ability to FTP content to your Apple TV, avoiding iTunes altogether. It also enables the Apple TV to handle just about any file format you care to throw at it including AVI, DivX, Xvid, FLV, MKV formats (only supported up to 480p resolution due to hardware limiting), uncompressed VIDEO_TS rips and subtitle support for SSA and SRT. All this and more without blocking any of the Apple TV’s out of the box functions makes the Apple TV + aTV combo quite an attractive proposition as a home media center.
The aTV Flash is available for US$60 which includes 1 year of updates as they become available.
For further info visit Apple Core.