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aTV Flash (black), Firecore’s flagship product for the 2nd generation Apple TV, has been updated to Beta5. This time the developers’ main focus has been on building and improving the Media Player feature: according to Firecore, the Media Player has received a “big boost” in Beta5, but is still under heavy development with many more features and improvements still to come.

What’s new in Beta5?

General

  • Added AppleTV 4.2.2 compatibility
  • Improved installer routine
  • Improved handling of failed installations
  • Improved error handling
  • Minor UI adjustments

Media Player

  • Added SMB streaming
  • Added photo slideshows
  • Added basic video playlists
  • Added ‘Favorites’ section
  • Added individual photo browsing and viewing
  • Added support for ‘xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/folder’ shares
  • Added support for guest/anonymous NAS logins
  • Added volumes list sorting
  • Added option to disable metadata fetching
  • Added option to hide file extensions
  • Improved handling of HD video files
  • Improved memory management
  • Improved DVD file detection
  • Improved remote share folder browsing (root folder issue)
  • Improved Remote.app support
  • Resolved artifact issues (green line near bottom of screen)
  • Resolved rare crashes related to AFP streaming
  • Resolved issues in share navigation resulting in incorrect ‘menu’ button handling
  • Resolved issues resulting in incorrect video playback after rewinding on ‘fastest’ speed
  • Resolved issues related to removing saved shares
  • Resolved duplicate AFP share entries
  • Resolved conflicts with XBMC
  • Minor UI fixes
  • Other miscellaneous fixes

Couch Surfer Pro

  • Added HTML5 audio support (for sites like https://tv.tunein.com/)
  • Added EyeTV streaming
  • Improved web pages scrolling and layout handling
  • Improved iOS-optimized JavaScript support
  • Improved highlighting of large web elements
  • Auto-complete history is now cleared when clearing history
  • New SSL indicator
  • Other minor bug fixes

Weather

  • Added 5-day forecasts
  • Added location search option
  • Added automatic location detection (if no saved locations exist)
  • Added day/night weather forecasts
  • Added ‘Feels Like’ temperature info
  • Minor UI fixes

Last.fm

  • Added lightweight audio streaming player
  • Improved memory management

What Firecore is still working on

  • New lightweight audio/video player
  • Additional codecs
  • DVD chapter controls
  • AC3/DTS (5.1 surround) sound
  • Subtitle support
  • Multiple audio track support
  • Improved UI and file browsing
  • Better memory management

Beta5 is available through the Downloads tab in your account. If you’re already running aTV Flash (black) on your AppleTV all the new features can be installed through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu.

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