We have sorted thru all of the how-to's out there and narrowed them down to a very quick and short list of commands. In this episode we go step by step and tell you everything you need to know. There will be no guessing or trying to look up commands, we lay it out for you in a simple step by step procedure.

COMMAND TO FIND THE DISK IDENTIFER FOR YOUR DRIVE
diskutil list

COMMAND TO START DISK COPY: Remember to replace (disk1) with your ATV disk identifier and replace (drandolph) with your user name.
dd if=/dev/disk1 of=/Users/drandolph/AppleTV.img bs=1024k

LOAD THE IMAGE ON A NEW DRIVE: Remember to replace (disk1) with your ATV disk identifier and replace (drandolph) with your user name.
dd if=/Users/drandolph/AppleTV.img of=/dev/disk1 bs=1024k

USE IPARTITION FROM CORIOLIS SYSTEMS TO RESIZE THE MEDIA PARTION TO USE THE REST OF THE FREE SPACE ON THE NEW DRIVE.
http://www.coriolis-systems.com/

COPY SSHD FROM YOUR LOCAL INTEL MAC DRIVE TO THE ATV.
sudo cp /usr/sbin/sshd /Volumes/OSBoot/usr/sbin/

MAKE SSHD EXECUTABLE
sudo chmod +x /Volumes/OSBoot/usr/sbin/sshd

BACKUP THE ATV SSH.PLIST
cp /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist ~

DOWNLOAD AND COPY NEW SSH.PLIST
http://www.engadget.com/files/ssh.plist

cp /Users/drandolph/Downloads/ssh.plist /Volumes/OSBoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/

CLEAN UP AFTER SPOTLIGHT
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/OSBoot/.Spotlight-V100
sudo rm -rf /Volumes/Media/.Spotlight-V100

PUT THE NEW DRIVE BACK IN THE APPLE TV

SSH LOGIN
ssh -1 frontrow@AppleTV.local

SSH PASSWORD
frontrow

MOUNTING THE ATV DISK.
sudo mount -o remount,rw/dev/disk0s3/

MAKE SURE YOU CAN WRITE TO THE DRIVE.
sudo mount -uw /dev/disk0s3

LAUNCH FUGU
http://rsug.itd.umich.edu/software/fugu/files/Fugu-1.2.0-English.dmg

LOGIN TO
AppleTV.local

FORCE SSH1 UNDER ADVANCE OPTIONS

PASSWORD
fronrow

CODEC'S USED. DOWNLOAD THEM AND COPY THEM OVER USING FUGU TO THE FRONTROW HOME DIRECTORY.
http://trac.cod3r.com/a52codec/
http://perian.org/

DOWNLOAD THE ATVFiles PLUGIN AND COPY IT OVER USING FUGU TO THE FRONTROW HOME DIRECTORY.
http://ericiii.net/sa/appletv

MOVE THE ATVFiles PLUG-IN OVER TO THE RIGHT LOCATION.
sudo mv ATVFiles.frappliance/ /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns

MOVE PERIAN OVER TO THE RIGHT LOCATION.
sudo mv Perian.component/ /Library/QuickTime/

MOVE A52 CODEC OVER TO THE RIGHT LOCATION.
sudo mv A52Codec.component/ /Library/QuickTime/

DROP YOUR MOVIES INTO YOUR ATV USING FUGU.
/Users/frontrow/movies

DOWNLOAD, COPY AND MOVE THE RSS READER AND RSS.FEEDS FILES
http://blog.twenty08.com/2007/04/07/appletv-rss-plugin-beta-1-available/
sudo mv RSSAppliance.frappliance/ /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/PlugIns

IF YOU DID IT RIGHT YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO DO THIS STEP BUT IT NEVER HURTS.
sudo mv rss.feeds /Users/frontrow

REFERENCES:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/10/how-to-play-divx-and-xvid-on-your-apple-tv
http://www.appletvhacks.net
http://wiki.awkwardtv.org
http://blog.twenty08.com/2007/04/07/appletv-rss-plugin-beta-1-available