Apple TV 2 Gets A Jailbreak. Should you do it?

When the iOS jailbreak tool Absinthe 2.0 was released, it brought support for the new iPad.

The Apple TV Too

For iOS 5.0.1 Seas0nPass has made it possible to jailbreak the Apple TV 2.0. The best part is that the jailbreak is untethered, meaning you can have the AppleTV unplugged from your computer when you boot the device.

we are happy to release a brand new version of Seas0nPass that provides an untethered jailbreak of the latest 5.0.1 (iOS 5.1.1) software for the 2nd gen Apple TV. Massive thanks goes to @pod2g and Co. for the countless hours that went into making this new release possible.

The Apple TV Three

It’s a shame, but the new 1080p model of the Apple TV is still incompatible for jailbreak. A while ago, iPhone developer MuscleNerd said that it was likely that such a jailbreak would never come.

Jailbreaking the Apple TV

If you’re wondering why you would want to jailbreak the Apple TV, I can give you a few reasons, but the biggest is Plex.

Plex allows you to stream any type of video file. If you’re like me you might have a few files on your computer that aren’t in M4V format, ready to play directly on the Apple TV. Converting them can take a while and is quite the pain. With Plex you can stream the movies as they are.

Plex also allows you to show files on your network storage directly on the Apple TV. So without importing them into iTunes you can point to the videos in your Plex Media Manager, and the Apple TV will play them.

Try it out

The jailbreak process for the Apple TV is pretty simple. Try it out, and let us know what you think.