It's not quite Valentine's Day, but we couldn't wait to show how much we love you all - so today we have a fresh new version just for you. Version 1.3 includes an all-new firmware backup option, new translations, playback enhancements and a whole slew of other improvements and fixes.

Full details on what's new and how to update can be found below.

Automated Firmware Backups

New in version 1.3 is an option to automatically backup firmware signatures. This feature will integrate seamlessly with the upcoming version of Seas0nPass, allowing for one-click restores to the firmware of your choosing.

Full Changelog

  • Added automated firmware signature backups
  • Added Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish translations
  • Added support for advanced (learned) remote commands
  • Added support for multiple external subtitles (movie.en.srt, movie.de.srt, etc...)
  • Added support for folder based organization/playback
  • Added support for embedded DVD chapters
  • Added chapters section heading to Playback Menu
  • Added global zoom setting
  • Improved playback performance for movies with invalid timestamps
  • Improved appearance of VobSub subtitles
  • Improved metadata fetching for localized file names
  • Improved audio track filtering
  • Improved playback bar to match native player
  • Improved metadata and bulk folder fetching stability
  • Improved Media > Settings menu layout
  • Resolved issues with folder name changing on metadata fetching
  • Resolved issues with buffering
  • Resolved rare DVD related crash
  • Resolved floating AFP issue that was causing connection issues
  • Resolved floating buffer overflow in software decoder
  • Minor changes to Grid View appearance
  • Minor UI improvements
  • Other miscellaneous bug fixes

Hooray! Where can I get it?

If you're already running a version of aTV Flash (black) the new 1.3 version can be installed through the Maintenance --> Manage Extras menu. Links for the new version can also be found in your account under the Downloads tab.

If you're not yet using aTV Flash (black) you can learn about all the great benefits here.

Enjoy. :-)

Comments

Submitted by dferch on February 8, 2012 - 11:29am

Where is the german translation ? I thought it's 100% done, isn't it ?

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 11:31am

Unfortunately not. There were some adjustments needed for a few of the languages, so we weren't able to include them all in this version.

They will be available soon though.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:39am

How can I opt myself to translate to a language not yet in development (Hebrew in my case)? If that's at all possible of course.

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 11:47am

Unfortunately Hebrew is not supported on the AppleTV. Sorry. :(

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:48am

Need A-Z fast shortcut search, am going mad scrolling through a large library!

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:48am

Need A-Z fast shortcut search, am going mad scrolling through a large library!

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:54am

How do we setup our Harmony One remotes to take advantage of the new features?

Submitted by jensm.9649 on February 8, 2012 - 11:56am

i wait too........ :X

 

you need a translator?

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:56am

Hi!
Love aTV Flash and am using the 1.2 mediaplayer almost everyday.
However it does crash on me very often when browsing a shared network (SMB) folder. More precisely it crashed when I click a level deeper in the directory tree.
Any chance of me providing you guys with some sort of crash log (like on iPhone / iPad)?

Cheers!

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:58am

Actually, it is. If you use the Remote app from the iPhone to try and enter text, you can easily do that. Also, the ATV basically runs iOS 4.x/5.x, both versions support Hebrew natively.
The only thing that keeps the ATV from getting a full Hebrew UI is Apple translating it's UI to Hebrew.
In any case, technically, the ATV can handle both Hebrew fonts and RTL text properly.

P.S
Aren't you guys working on the internal filesystem of the ATV in any case? Maybe adding more languages in the UI could be of minor issue, let alone if you let external translators, such as myself, do the majority of the work after you give them some *.strings files :).

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:58am

Seriously? Learn how to program your remote yourself or go to a logitech forum.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 11:59am

Another small feature to think about... saving subtitle and other movie playback options. My daughter likes to play the same movies over and over, and over... and having to reset the subtitle options every time is a pain. Thanks for a great product :)

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:00pm

Nice, thank you guys for working on this.

Will add my two cents on the report + wanted features :

1/ browsing the network is really really slow, much more than xbmc does and really much more than boxee box does. (Like by 4 or 5 times)
2/ can we expect a VPN setup like we hve on boxee box ? this would be great, not everyone is an american.

thank you very much

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:01pm

Any chance we'll see improve performance for CSS and Javascript transition effects in the browser in the future?

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:02pm

Hmm, these settings should be retained when starting a new movie.

Are you running the latest version (or at least a recent version) of Media Player?

Submitted by lilrkt on February 8, 2012 - 12:03pm

The firecore team is just amazing. Are you wizards or something? Love the new remote command support.

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:04pm

There isn't any special setup required. Just setup the Harmony One for an AppleTV (should be listed in the Media PC section when adding a device) and you'll be good to go.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:05pm

Did someone say folders, #winning ;)

My apple tv is now stuck in an infinite loop, loads the main screen and just keeps restarting, after updating maintenance.... :(

Submitted by Mirchichor on February 8, 2012 - 12:05pm

How close are we to getting uPnP support? Was told it was close the last time.

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:07pm

Do you have Plex installed? There have been a few similar reports lately and the newer Plex builds seem to be the only common thread.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:07pm

How about automatic updates for atv Flash?

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:08pm

It's in the works, so hopefully soon.

Submitted by rchaconb on February 8, 2012 - 12:08pm

Looks great! Can't wait to update... Lately I've been having trouble with Netflix, sometime is missing under the Internet options... I have to shut down, unplugged, wait for 10 sec... any ideas that might be happening? Thx!

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:09pm

Are you streaming via wifi or ethernet? A bug report may help track down what's going on.

http://forum.firecore.com/topic/4291

No word on a VPN feature yet. Sorry.

Submitted by jean-francoisg.2211 on February 8, 2012 - 12:09pm

Hi, 

Have a look in the Forum. I found the solution for this. 

http://forum.firecore.com/topic/6770

 

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:10pm

Seriously? Learn how not to be an internet dbag. There are vital details missing that are needed to program the remote to take advantage of this new feature, not at all worthy of your "LOL GTFO NOOB" response.

The Harmony already works fine with the Apple TV for all of the buttons that exist on the small remote (arrows, menu, etc). So I too am curious about the what and how of this new feature. e.g. What exactly is the new functionality and what does it provide? How do we enable it? by selecting an XBMC profile for the Harmony?

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:10pm

Good job guys,
Keep up the great work!

Sam.

Submitted by shrewd on February 8, 2012 - 12:10pm

DID THIS UPDATE FIX THE NBA LEAGUE PASS DISAPPEARANCE? 

(Yes, caps were intended.)

Submitted by Fofer on February 8, 2012 - 12:10pm

Your snarky, unhelpful response misses the point. We could have used the Harmony One BEFORE this 1.3 update, too!  Many do, including myself.

But there's something NEW here now, as the notes suggest: Harmony One remote support.  "Added support for advanced (learned) remote commands." 

So, we're wondering what this new feature means, specifically, and how it might benefit us.

 

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:11pm

Did you guys FIX mirror-play? it doesn'tw work with 1.2

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:11pm

Well there are two issues with Hebrew on the AppleTV.

  1. The native AppleTV plugins are not localized for Hebrew
  2. The list of available languages to choose from does not include Hebrew

We'd love to support it at some point in the future, but right now it just doesn't seem feasible. Sorry.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:12pm

Hi James,

Can you expand on this. As I said in my comment below the AppleTV profile for Harmony already worked fine for me running aTV Flash since prerelease. Does it just add additional functionality within the aTV Flash media player (which I don't use as much)?

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:13pm

You Always have to have a smart a$$ give their 2 cents!

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:13pm

Updates can be installed on the AppleTV through the Maintenance --> Manage Extras menu.

Unfortunately that's about as automatic as we can get for now. Sorry.

Submitted by rjackal on February 8, 2012 - 12:14pm

Please explain "Added support for folder based organization/playback"

The previous version already allowed folders to be played back as a playlist.

Thanks!

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:15pm

Thanks for the brazilian portuguese translation. Very pleased to be an aTV Flash user. Keep up the good job!

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:15pm

Gooood jooooob.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:15pm

while playing MP4 video files and hold the main button pressed to see the tracks as soon as I move the cursor I got a low memory warning.

Also, I don't get 5.1 dolby with MP4 automaticaly that is why I wanted to change the track. On MKV it works fine.

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:18pm

A number of users have chosen to organize their media by creating an individual folders for each movie.

For example, you may have a folder named 'Inception' inside which you would have things like: Inception.mkv, Inception.srt, and Inception.jpg.

In the previous version you would need to navigate inside the Inception folder to view the metadata and play the movie. Now metadata will be shown for the folder itself, and clicking it will begin playback.

Submitted by Cybergy on February 8, 2012 - 12:18pm

I'm not entirely sure that the Harmony One works fine with ATV2.  I cannot seem to get my ATV2 to sleep, ever with Harmony One.  I have not had a lot of time to investigate, but the command time to power on/off the ATV2 seems to take quite a long time.

Not finding fault here, but I am curious what specifically was fixed by adding Harmony support that was already there.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:18pm

That's a LOTTA caps for US$19.99 :)

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:18pm

Hmm. Can you send in a bug report?

http://forum.firecore.com/topic/4291

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:19pm

Great job on this app. Love it. OK, now for a few feature plugs... :)

1. Ability to uninstall the installed modules.
2. Mobile app to control the Media.
3. Support for pandora radio.
3. Karaoke file support.

Thanks

Submitted by Fofer on February 8, 2012 - 12:20pm

So I ran the Backup Firmware command, and it saved the signature for iOS 4.4.4.

Thing is, I am still on iOS 4.3 (2557) for a very specific reason and intend to stay here for awhile.  (In case you're curious, it's for interaction with this EXCELLENT Safari extension.  http://www.macstories.net/?p=26415      

This works great with 4.3 but got a bug with 4.4.  With 4.4, video stops playing after about a minute.  With 4.3, it plays perfectly. AirPlaying video direct from desktop Safari is my #1 use of AppleTV... I love it.  And FireCore's MediaPlayer is a close second.)

So... back to my original question:

Can the Backup Firmware command not save SHSH for the older OS I am staying on?

Submitted by Cybergy on February 8, 2012 - 12:20pm

Folder based organization/playback!  Good News!  Can't wait to upgrade and try it out.  Thank you!

I would love to see and option to disable the metadata fetch entirely, but this is a start.

 

Submitted by MacFever on February 8, 2012 - 12:22pm

Hi,

 

When will .rmvb video files be supported ?

 

Thanx

 

Eric

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:23pm

The Firmware Backup option will only support firmware versions that Apple is currently signing.

This may be expanded in the future to support the currently installed firmware (if possible).

Submitted by james on February 8, 2012 - 12:25pm

Yes, the added functionality was added to the Media Player app.

If you don't use this, you won't see much of a difference.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:27pm

Regarding the MP4 files I was able to finally go to the track change menu while playback and 5.1 track is selected.

There is something wrong with the MP4 decoder with the media player. Version 1.1 worked fine on 1.2 it stoped working and on 1.3 the current one it's not working. MKV and M4V are decoded just fine.

Please advise of a fix. Thanks.

Submitted by Anon on February 8, 2012 - 12:28pm

This is greatly appreciated!