aTV Flash (black) 1.1 Now Available

Happy Tuesday! Today we are pleased to announce the release aTV Flash (black) 1.1 for the 2nd generation AppleTV. This new version includes a healthy dose of goodness by adding things such as custom view options, web page auto-load, playback improvements, and a huge pile of bug fixes.

Full details on all the great new features as well as how to update can be found below.

New View Options

For the most part we found people love the grid view, but for some media types a list view may be more desirable. Now it's possible to have the best of both worlds!

Once the default view type has been set through the Media --> Settings menu, a different view can be set for a specific folder or group of folders. To access this option simply highlight the folder you wish to adjust, hold the center button (to open the popup menu) and choose the desired view type. The chosen view will be used when viewing the contents of that folder, as well as any subfolders contained inside.

We've also added a sort by date view option. This option can be found in the Media --> Settings menu, and when enabled will cause the most recent media to appear at the top.

Improved Couch Surfer with Auto-Start

Couch Surfer has gotten a number of improvements, not the least of which is a brand new auto-start feature. This feature enables the AppleTV to automatically load a 'homepage' anytime it's powered on. Support for automatically reloading the specified page is also included. This allows the AppleTV to be used as a low-cost digital signage solution.

Full Changelog

  • Added support for .IMG files
  • Added option to mark specific folders as grid or list view
  • Added subtitle position setting
  • Added support for larger thumbnail images
  • Added support for UTF-8 paths in DVD files
  • Added web page auto-loading feature
  • Added screen position setting in Couch Surfer
  • Added show/hide menus option
  • Improved audio synchronization in DVD and AVI files
  • Improved metadata fetching logic
  • Improved filenames parsing logic
  • Improved playlist logic that marks files as watched
  • Improved buffering performance
  • Improved ISO files handling (resolved network error warning)
  • Improved error handling for DVD files
  • Improved growl notifications display logic for audio files
  • Improved warning messages for unplayable files
  • Improved grid view stability
  • Improved fanart loading
  • Improved memory management
  • Improved installation routine
  • Improved installer device detection
  • Resolved issues with long DNS names
  • Resolved issue with extra period appearing at the end of some DNS names
  • Resolved crash observed when audio subsystem could not be initialized
  • Resolved issues with chapter handling logic
  • Minor UI improvements
  • Many other miscellaneous fixes

Excellent! Where can I get it?

If you're already running a version of aTV Flash (black) the new 1.1 version can be installed through the Maintenance --> Manage Extras menu. If you need to re-install aTV Flash (black) links for the new version can be found in your account under the Downloads tab.

New users can order aTV Flash (black) here.

Note: Installing 1.1 requires AppleTV 4.2 or later.

Enjoy! :-)