Many people have been wondering how it is that we write these wonderful guides on using the Apple TV. No, it’s not magic, although many of you would probably like to believe that. We used a Screen Capture functionality, which can be easily installed through nitoTV, to accomplish taking screenshots on the device.
TAKING SCREENSHOTS WITH THE APPLE TV 2
Requirements
- nitoTV Installed on Jailbroken Apple TV 2
Step 1: Launch the “Install Software” tab from the “nitoTV” main menu option.
Step 2: Select the “screencapture” item from the list. We’ve already installed it obviously because otherwise how would we be taking these screenshots?
Step 3: Choose the “Install” box in the middle of the screen.
Step 4: Wait a minute while the process takes place.
Step 5: You’ll know it’s finished once you see the “Installation/Upgrade successful” message at the top. Press the “MENU” button on your Remote a few times to return to the main menu.
Step 6: On your computer, launch the “Terminal” application, or Windows users should use the “PuTTY” application.
Step 7: Windows users, connect using the Apple TV’s “IP Address” as “Host” and “root” (without quotations) as when promoted to “Login as.”
Mac Users, Copy and Paste the Following Command, without the brackets obviously:
ssh root@[Apple TV IP Address]
You’ll need to Agree to any security prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations) on Mac, or by clicking the “Yes” button on Windows.
Step 9: When prompted for Password, type “alpine” (without quotations), it’s normal that text won’t display as you type.
Step 10: Navigate to whatever Screen on the Apple TV you want to take a Screenshot using.
Step 11: Type the Following Command and then Press Enter to take the Screenshot:
screencapture
Step 12: Wait a second while the screenshot engine processes.
Step 13: Connect through FTP (using Filezilla or Cyberduck) to your Apple TV Device, using the Same Login details as you used for this SSH session.
Step 14: Each time you use the “screencapture” command, it will save a file called “Screenshot.png” in the “/private/var/root” folder on the Apple TV. You’ll need to rename the file after each screenshot, otherwise it’ll overwrite the same file each time you use the command.
Congratulations! Maybe you can help contribute by starting to write guides for us, or for your elderly grandmother. You won’t be able to take screenshots of XBMC though because it’s run on OpenGL graphics, but nice try.
