Boxee Box out tomorrow

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Shadowpaw

I own both and I'll never go back to the WDTV Live. It depends on the person, but the WDTV is just clunky and outdated in comparison. I have 7 different shares that I need to pull data from and it's tough to navigate my movies when I'm looking into each share and just seeing the text listing like a folder structure. Boxee takes all my movies and downloads the movie posters, the synopsis, rating, genres, etc... and let's me view all of my movies in one location and I don't have to keep things organized on the back end. I just throw my movies into whatever share has space and Boxee takes care of the rest. You also get the ability to filter all the content, by genre, watched/unwatched, alphabetical order etc... (at least in the 0.9 firmware, which is what I'm running).

WDTV is equivalent to connecting to a folder on your computer and just playing the file... Boxee is far more dynamic and simplifies things. If people want to watch "Avatar", they don't have to figure out which share Avatar is stored, they just go to the movie list and see the poster along with all the others and select the movie poster, read a description about it, see the rating, and watch it.

If you're plugging in an external hard drive to the back of a WDTV and you plan on doing the same thing with a Boxee, save your money and use a WDTV. But if you have lots of content that you need to organize, the Boxee Box is the way to go.

Oh ok, I see.

With my WDTV I just put all my movies in the "movies" folder, and all my TV shows in the "TV" folder on my computer which takes 2 seconds, and then I don't have to search for them in the WDTV interface. I guess if you didn't want to do that the Boxee solves the problem. WDTV sorts alphabetically, but not by Genre I don't think - if I wanted that I could do it in 1 min on my computer and then it would be viewable like that through the WDTV. I have a shitload of content and I organized it in about 1 min on the computer side, and it's completely organized on the WDTV side as a result.

The only significant difference seems to be the fetching of online content, like posters, synopsis, etc. At least for me I don't care about that stuff, I just want to watch the damn movie haha - if I have it I already know what its about or I wouldn't have got it in the first place. I don't download a bunch of 10GB movies and then start sifting through them, reading their synopsis, reviews, etc. That seems like a huge waste to me, and something you would do before downloading a huge movie. I only get what I know I want to watch.

[Shadowpaw]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt


Oh ok, I see.

With my WDTV I just put all my movies in the "movies" folder, and all my TV shows in the "TV" folder on my computer which takes 2 seconds, and then I don't have to search for them in the WDTV interface. I guess if you didn't want to do that the Boxee solves the problem. WDTV sorts alphabetically, but not by Genre I don't think - if I wanted that I could do it in 1 min on my computer and then it would be viewable like that through the WDTV. I have a shitload of content and I organized it in about 1 min on the computer side, and it's completely organized on the WDTV side as a result.

The only significant difference seems to be the fetching of online content, like posters, synopsis, etc. At least for me I don't care about that stuff, I just want to watch the damn movie haha - if I have it I already know what its about or I wouldn't have got it in the first place. I don't download a bunch of 10GB movies and then start sifting through them, reading their synopsis, reviews, etc. That seems like a huge waste to me, and something you would do before downloading a huge movie. I only get what I know I want to watch.

With your setup it definitely looks like it makes sense to stick with the WDTV. I have the problem that you don't, which is that I have over 600 10+ gig movies and can't put them into one folder, let alone one drive, which is why things are not organized cleanly and it was a hassle trying to find the content I wanted through WDTV's interface.

I certainly loved the WDTV while I had it, but I outgrew its usefulness. I also like having a large collection of movies and it's a lot of fun having a group of people over and letting the group decide which movie they want to watch by just scrolling through the movie posters and reading synopsis of ones not everyone is familiar with. It's like having higher quality netflix, basically. But for a small, private collection, the WDTV is still a good deal and I certainly loved it while I had it, but I definitely prefer my Boxee.

[sputnik]

XBMC > Boxee

[jjmac]

Originally posted by sputnik
XBMC > Boxee

This

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Shadowpaw

With your setup it definitely looks like it makes sense to stick with the WDTV. I have the problem that you don't, which is that I have over 600 10+ gig movies and can't put them into one folder, let alone one drive, which is why things are not organized cleanly and it was a hassle trying to find the content I wanted through WDTV's interface.

I certainly loved the WDTV while I had it, but I outgrew its usefulness. I also like having a large collection of movies and it's a lot of fun having a group of people over and letting the group decide which movie they want to watch by just scrolling through the movie posters and reading synopsis of ones not everyone is familiar with. It's like having higher quality netflix, basically. But for a small, private collection, the WDTV is still a good deal and I certainly loved it while I had it, but I definitely prefer my Boxee.

Yeah I guess if you have that much content, wow haha. I don't keep nearly that much stuff around but I can see why it would make sense for you if you can't put it all one one drive.

[Shadowpaw]

Originally posted by sputnik
XBMC > Boxee

Absolutely. I'm just hoping for an XBMC hack for the Boxee and then I'll have the best of both worlds!

[old&slow]

nm

[GoChris]

Originally posted by Shadowpaw

With your setup it definitely looks like it makes sense to stick with the WDTV. I have the problem that you don't, which is that I have over 600 10+ gig movies and can't put them into one folder, let alone one drive, which is why things are not organized cleanly and it was a hassle trying to find the content I wanted through WDTV's interface.

Well, you can put them into one folder. Do you just have movies spread across multiple drives with no backup/redundancy?

I don't want to derail this thread, but look at unraid, this is a perfect scenario for it. It's what I use, I have over 8TB of space for my movies and TV, so I can have all my movies in ONE movie folder. Also if I lose a drive, I lose no data, I just replace the drive, and it uses any mixture of drive sizes.

Back on topic...boxee box seems cool.

[mushi_mushi]

The boxee box seems pretty cool. Based on initial reviews whats holding it back right now is the software. There appears to be some problems with iso files as well some audio issues. Most of my collection is mkv's and its supposed to play those pretty well. One of the things I would like to see them fix is having the ability to save scraped data. It doesnt make sense to re-scrape the movie data every time you turn the box on, specially for people with large collections. The remote is supposed to work well, but is not back lit. This isnt really a deal breaker as you can use an iphone/ipad as a substitute.

I think eventually this thing will get hacked where you will be able to run xbmc. Im not sure when this will be or what kind of performance it will have but that would be awesome. I like the interface of xbmc because its more customizable and has more of a wow factor. The only areas boxee excels at is access to online content and the availability and ease of use of plugins.

The online content sucks here in Canada, but its a big improvement over what was available several months back. It would be cool try boxee with something like strongvpn and get access to US content. I could care less about the social aspects of boxee as nobody I know has one. I get the impression the software wasnt really tested prior to release but boxee does have an active developer community who are working hard on solving the current issues.

[Isaiah]

Bump.

It's been almost a year since the last post so I thought I'd check back and see if anyone else had thoughts on this.

I've read the thread and it looks like most people are staying that WDTV > XBMC > Boxee. I didn't really research too much before I picked up a the Boxee for my mom's birthday last week but what I liked about it is the ability to the ability to watch online content with the combination of an onscreen browser.

She doesn't have a laptop so it's nice for her to be able to just pop on the large screen TV and surf the net from the comfort of her couch with a keyboard on her lap.

I also read through rage's Apple TV thread and am now wondering if I should return the Boxee and swap it out for one of the alternatives. Here's the deal:

• Mom is cheap and won't purchase movies at $5.00. Does Apple TV have free content or is it all PPV?
• Apple TV, according to an Apple store employee, does not have an onscreen browser so you can't surf the net which is a feature she really likes.
• She won't download shows or movies on her computer and do all that techy stuff just to watch TV so is there a point to WDTV?
• XBMC requires an Xbox right?

[Bladeh]

I've been looking for something to play BBC iplayer on the big screen in the basement, does this have an option to setup VPN? I notice the UK boxee has the BBC iplayer app.

[Khyron]

What do all these other options have that I can't get from a PS3?

[Kinjou]

Originally posted by Khyron
What do all these other options have that I can't get from a PS3?

Boxee has all the codecs to pretty much play ANYTHING. PS3, you can't play certain files.

Boxee also locates all the TV shows you could imagine and with a nice on screen browser, allow you to browse through the episodes. These episodes are pretty much hosted by the network provider. Last I checked, there was over 992 different series you could browse through. Boxee does have some free movies but they're like 5-10 years old and not the best collection.

Boxee has a full keyboard with arrows to move a mouse around. A tad bit better than a PS3 with the attachment. Pretty straight forward to use.

Biggest thing I like about this is the ability to have it detect and sort all your downloaded materials. For movies, as long as it recognizes the title, boxee will automatically download the movie poster, a preview of the story line as well as what it's rank is on the net.

Other repositories can let you stream live TV shows and games using jTV and what not.

[tenth]

Originally posted by Khyron
What do all these other options have that I can't get from a PS3?

Proper rewind/fast forward during HD streaming, a beautiful interface, coverart/fanart/metadata integration, hundreds/thousands of plug-ins and skins (some of which are absolutely fantastic), emulator integration (I have every NES/SNES/Genesis/N64 game linked into XBMC), and thousands of different options and setting customizations. There's really no comparison, other than the fact the PS3 plays media, but obviously for some people that's enough. I did the PS3 streaming for years, and I'll never go back.

[SmAcKpOo]

Can some of you post pictures of your interfaces.

Thanks.

[WhippWhapp]

Having some trouble getting my jailbroken APTV2 to show USA Netflix, PS3 and 360 were not a problem.

Debating between a Boxee Box and a Revo/EEE booting XBMC now... decisions, decisions!

[mushi_mushi]

Originally posted by SmAcKpOo
Can some of you post pictures of your interfaces.

Thanks.

I can try to do this next weekend, although there are plenty of pics/ theme trailers online. Is there something particular you want a picture of?

[Doozer]

Hrmm, I was going to pick up a PS3 mostly for the media center ability, but also to have a blue-ray player which we don't have in the house yet.

So are the benefits of Boxee worth buying a separate blue-ray player instead of going with a PS3?

[WhippWhapp]

I went with a Boxee Box, and I' m very glad I did.

Subtitles work in Netflix, scraper automatically downloads cover art and movie info for all my mkv' s, the seek is reasonably smooth, and setting up DNS for American Netflix was straightforward.

Minor quibbles: RF remote isn't compatible with the Harmony in living room, and the remote is glossy plastic... also the enclosure looks like odd man out sitting with all the other gear.

Highly recommended!

[imjimmylin]

Who owns a Boxee and uses it mainly to play mkv files.

I'm looking for something to attach to my other TV, I have a popcorn hour attached to 1 but it seems to have problems playing maybe 1/10 mkv files that I download.

How does the Boxee handle mkv files specifically?