So I pre-ordered a Boxee Box

silvine

I am undecided about this box. What kind of changes are they making to the UI?

Also is there anything the box does to make it more useful or even easier to use than a PC with boxee installed?

PogMoThoin

silvine wrote: »

I am undecided about this box. What kind of changes are they making to the UI?

This is how the old Ui everyone was used to looked. It focused on local content with a lefthand opening menu in Movies and Tv Shows that allowed You to toggle between local and online content:



This is how the new Ui looks. As You can see they removed photo and music, local content is all accessed through files. Shows and Movies from the home screen brings You to online content, with local content listed at the end of a long list of online content.

silvine wrote: »

Also is there anything the box does to make it more useful or even easier to use than a PC with boxee installed?

No, Its just a neat box with usb ports, card reader and a fancy remote. It doesn't have the overheads of running Boxee on top of an OS.
Edit: Has optical surround sound out, nettops don't have that

PogMoThoin

Anver has posted on the Boxee forums about the new UI changes in the next release:
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?p=131322

An.Duine.Eile

Just thought I would should share my experience using Boxee.

So far it has been great fun. Love the remote control, it is a bit slow entering stuff with one finger, but beats having an larger keyboard and mouse. Biggest problem is finding the remote controller when the kids have been using it.

Initially connected to a old PC for local media via wireless. Between the poor wireless reception and the old pc, local media didn't play great with lots of buffering. Attached a WD USB driver and now works great.

Also got 2 plugon ethernet connections and changed the boxee to a wired network connection. This helped with the accessing of internet content. The girls have been using vevo and Youtube leanback.

Turn on windows sharing, so i can now access the WD drive from my pc, which makes it easy to transfer files.

The movie section has nothing that I would ever want to watch.

The majority of Apps looks like more dross. The RSS Feed has some interesting stuff.

TV Shows looked great until you discovered you can't access any of it. But then I discovered Chanel 4 in the channel listing. This is great, loads of shows and had no problems playing the ones I tried. I even found an episode of Father Ted that I had not seen before.

I was looking for a device that would enable me to

- get rid of the DVD's and player
- look at home movies and photo's
- play background music when I want to sit in the living room ( get rid of Stereo )
- Access Internet players ( rte, channel 4, iPlayer etc...) only got channel 4 to work
- access to sopcast for the occasional football match have not tried that yet.
- access video on demand ( blinkbox.com) ( have not tried this yet )

without getting off the couch.

So for the most part the boxee is doing what I want.

PogMoThoin

An.Duine.Eile wrote: »

So far it has been great fun. Love the remote control, it is a bit slow entering stuff with one finger, but beats having an larger keyboard and mouse.

The remote is absolutely fine, one of its best features. Just hold it in both hands and use both your thumbs (thats why the buttons on the other side of the remote are centred, so Your fingers don't accidentally press them), if You're anyways used to a qwerty keyboard it'll just come naturally. You don't need to point it as its a wireless remote, it will even work with the Boxee Box inside a cabinet, I've My Boxee hidden behind the TV. The only grievances I got is that caps is caps lock, not a shift state like alt, nobody used to a qwerty uses caps lock.

PogMoThoin

New update out for Boxee this evening puts local shows back in the Home screen (through a choice on 1st startup) and adds an a-z scroll bar as well as other slight changes and lots of fixes. Movies are laid out with 4 in a row instead of 3, looks much better IMO. It even feels snappier too. Glad they're putting in the time and ironing out the kinks. Hopefully some of the sites that reviewed it will redo their reviews. Its gone from a 6 out of 10 to a solid 8 out of 10 with this update. I have little interest in online content, (although it was handy to show visitors the Rubberbandits video on Youtube yesterday) but this appears to be unchanged. They really need to get Hulu, Netflix and Vudu onboard quickly for the American market though

Changes in this version:
Enabling user flavor selection (online/local inclination) during first login and via Settings - defaults for users selecting local will direct to local content and will not mandate multiple clicks to get to local content
Added alphabetical scrollbar for local content
Enhanced sorting options in browse screens (A-Z, Z-A, most popular, newest/oldest...)
Main menu supports additional filter options
Mark items as watched/unwatched from the Action menu
Added option for hourly scan of local libraries
When watching side-by-side or over/under video, the subtitles and OSD would not be visible when wearing 3D glasses. The user now has the option, under Settings, to have the user interface properly displayed when watching this kind of content
Added SMB client defaults to network settings

Full release notes, including bug fixes, here.

Wcool

Pog, look at this!

Gesture control Boxee

That must be the ultimate Christmas gift for you

PogMoThoin

Wcool wrote: »

Pog, look at this!

Gesture control Boxee

That must be the ultimate Christmas gift for you

Think I'll give that a miss, it looks annoying
Remote is fine for me

PogMoThoin

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/04/iomega-tv-with-boxee-chooses-function-over-form-packs-in-a-hard/
http://blog.boxee.tv/2011/01/04/boxee-partners-with-iomega-nas-device-running-boxee-is-coming/

Ewwww, looks fugly, yuck
Remote looks like a brick

It has the advantage of having internal storage and can be bought without storage for around the same price as the Boxee. It also has composite out, Dlink has Hdmi only. Both boxes have identical Intel chips so the new firmware releases would be compatible with both

davidsatelle100

thinking of picking up the boxee, just one question that i cant seem to find a straight answer for

is the database of local files from the nas etc stored on the boxee or on a file share on a server or similar?? I would have multiple sources around the house and not all of them would be on all the time for scanning etc

thanks

PogMoThoin

davidsatelle100 wrote: »

thinking of picking up the boxee, just one question that i cant seem to find a straight answer for

is the database of local files from the nas etc stored on the boxee or on a file share on a server or similar?? I would have multiple sources around the house and not all of them would be on all the time for scanning etc

thanks

The database is stored on the Boxee, it doesn't store the thumbanils though, these come from the internet from their own IMDB database. When it boots it touches each file to make sure its still there, then downloads and caches the thumbnails as You scroll. In service pack 2 they added the ability to use local thumbanails by adding thumbnail.jpg's into the folder with the media , I'm unsure how much further they expanded this with SP 3, but they've promised to improve it in future updates.

BArra

An.Duine.Eile wrote: »

This video shows the boxee box 1.0 browser in action. Looks like we will be able to access catch-up content that there is no boxee app for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGoo1J1iYo

I now looking forward to getting my hands on one, sitting back in the couch, and using the remote to get the episode I missed. [Might just have to deliberately missed stuff so I can catch up]

Now let's see when I can get one.

Sorry for bump

I just got the boxee box yesterday, is there any further tips on maximizing its content?

Can you get Rte player to work?

Any other tips n tricks?

BionicRasher

I don’t have the Boxee Box but have Boxee installed on a HTPC and use it for all my local content. Its great.

We have just moved house so don’t have a TV set up yet and I am using Boxee for a lot of stuff. I also use it to view some online content and there is a few apps that I have been using which work great. There is loads of stuff here http://fuzzthed.com/
If you check out the Nexthop Repository – (Official Nexthop.ie repository. All apps developed by dkane) there is some RTE stuff there. The developer also has an RTE Player type app – see the details below
I have also developed an RTE Player App. This app is not 100% working so it is in my development repository which must be added separately. The development repository is at http://dir.nexthop.ie/testing


I have been trying to add the TV3 Catch Up Player and the RTE Player and MagnetWebTV via RSS feeds and the Watch Later button (you can get that on the Boxee.TV website) but no luck so far. I have yet to try to watch content via the built in browser or via Navi-X. Hopefully I will get to try that out soon and will post any details here

PogMoThoin

I had the free months trial of both Netflix and Vudu running fine on the free vpn provided by these guys, SD only mind you as the speed of this free vpn topped off at 1.5-2mbit, their paid for vpn is faster, some UK users posted in the Boxee forums that they have HD running absolutely fine on the paid one.
https://www.overplay.net/
https://www.overplay.net/blog/overplay-vpn-on-the-boxee-box

To get the details of the free vpn, register but don't select any package and then just select server details, its listed at the top

An.Duine.Eile

There some handy tips on this
http://gigaom.com/video/boxee-box-tips/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newteevee+%28GigaOM%3A+Video%29

You can access the rte player using the boxee browser. The video sometimes does not show but if you maximise it, it will sort out. Watch the Munster match on it last night.

BionicRasher

An.Duine.Eile wrote: »

There some handy tips on this
http://gigaom.com/video/boxee-box-tips/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newteevee+%28GigaOM%3A+Video%29

You can access the rte player using the boxee browser. The video sometimes does not show but if you maximise it, it will sort out. Watch the Munster match on it last night.

So would TV3 catch up and MagnetWebTV work on the browser on Boxee also? I hope so - I can nearly ditch the TV in that case:D

PogMoThoin

The latest firmware I just installed adds much better local thumbnail and .nfo support for all media. I spent a few hours last night with Ember Media Manager and got all local thumbnails from thetvdb.com and nfo's with all the info from IMDB. The thumbnails are now pretty much instant (well would be if I hadn't 550 movies and 3TB total of media) when I turn it on. I now also have the ability to change the thumbnails at any time or make my own for any media without info.

This version includes New Features / Enhancements such as:

• Browser enhancements

• Faster Browser Launch
• Faster Page Loading Speed.
• Improved HTML 5 support.
• Added ability to “Favorite” web sites for quick access.
• New “Favorites” section in the browser.
• New “History” section for browsing previously visited web pages.
• New confirmation pop-up when exiting HTML applications (YouTube Leanback, Netflix, etc.).
• Support for drop down lists.
• Current URL is now displayed in the address bar
• Removed auto full screen button for consistency across websites

• *NEW* - Trailer Library - added a trailer section to the Boxee movie library.
• Enhanced UI look and feel.
• Modified look & feel for On Screen Display (OSD).

• *NEW* Seek Slider allowing for precise fast forward and rewind.
• Reduced OSD size so users see more playing content.
• Added Seek ability for Music playback

• *NEW* “Share” menu allowing users to select where there message will be shared (Facebook, Twitter, and/or Tumblr).
• *NEW* Support for NFO files (see this support entry on how to use.)
• Boxee uses IMDB and other sources to identify and tag files. This meant that Boxee could not identify home movies and that correctly identified files were not able to be customized. This new release allows users to:

• Tag home movies with custom meta-data and artwork
• Update movie metadata with alternate artwork and information
• Customize the genres of films, TV shows for better personal categorization
• Customize how TV Show Episodes are tagged and displayed in Boxee.

• *NEW* Support additional languages and keyboards

• German
• French
• Italian
• Spanish
• Swedish
• Hebrew
• Danish
• Dutch
• Turkish
• Russian
• Arabic
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Czech
• Norwegian
• Finnish
• Polish

• Keyboard shortcuts during playback:

• I - Video info
• Z - Toggle zoom
• Numeric keys - jump to time in video in minutes:seconds

• Ability to filter local content by source (USB, Network, SD).
• Remote control low battery indication.
• Ability to delete browser cache and cookies (Settings -> System -> Browser)
• Removed volume control to maintain consistency across playback experience
• Without the ability to control volume in HTML 5 apps like Netflix and YouTube Leanback and apps like VUDU we decided to remove the volume control to make the experience consistent across any app, movie, or show on Boxee. Now, volume control is similar to that of a Blu-Ray player or game console where users can control via their TV or A/V receiver.
• Added Leave/Stay pop-up when exiting Apps
• New MLB application
  
• Watch live and recorded games
• Improved ffwd and rewind functionality
• Ability to jump to a specific inning or game event
• Added pitch f/x statistics overlay
  
• All 2 channels PCM audio is output as DD 5.1 (on Dolby Digital capable receivers)

http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=35140
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=33055

The new firmware seems better optimised than before, the Boxee boots up and logs in much quicker. The browser has much improved also, its now much more usable than before. My outstanding issues have all been resolved.

BArra

What about this dolby issue? Would you mind explaining it as I can't get my head around it

PogMoThoin

BArra wrote: »

What about this dolby issue? Would you mind explaining it as I can't get my head around it

Only reading about this now, its a bug that doesn't affect me as I just use HDMI to the tv (for now until I buy a surround system). I expect they'll hotfix it as its an issue that they introduced with this latest firmware that wasn't there before.
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=35232&highlight=dolby+issue

BArra

My boxee goes into a new onkyo 509 via hdmi with 5 speakers, and from there to a projector

Does this mean I am not getting true surround sound and its being downmixed to two speakers even though I have five speakers

Ps a bug? Is it not a licence issue

PogMoThoin

Its a bug marked as fixed, just gotta wait for them to release it
http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-7070
http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-9776

banquo

The 1.1 interface is similar to the .9 beta original yes? And not like the desktop version?

PogMoThoin

banquo wrote: »

The 1.1 interface is similar to the .9 beta original yes? And not like the desktop version?

No, its a modified version of 1.0, some pics of it from this blog
http://www.techau.tv/blog/how-to-get-the-boxee-box-1-1-update-now/

banquo

Damn that's pretty.

*bashes F5 on order tracking*

PogMoThoin

New firmware fixes Dolby Digital and adds option to re-enable volume control (removed in 1.1)
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=35551

BArra

excellent, thanks for the heads up pog

thankfully they didnt wait 3 months till the next firmware update to remedy those issues

BArra

anyone else having trouble downloading ember media manager?

i can download the file easilly, but when i start the install it says the ember download version site is unavail, been this way since yesterday

PogMoThoin

No idea, I re-installed it fine 2 days ago, You want me copy my directory for you and upload it, you'd then just have to click the setup.exe

Here it is:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/56355/Ember%20Media%20Manager.rar (uploading, may not be there yet)
Just unpack to your C:\Users\your_name\AppData folder (need to allow showing of hidden folders in control panel folder settings), then double click the embersetup.exe and it will install, then right click on the ember media manager application and send to desktop (create shortcut)

PogMoThoin

Ember is really powerful, but one wrong move could really mess up your collection with it adding lots of stuff to your collection. I've mine setup perfectly for Boxee.

You can check out my guide on my blog:
http://leetstreet.net/blog/2011/05/embe/

Voodu Child

BArra wrote: »

anyone else having trouble downloading ember media manager?

i can download the file easilly, but when i start the install it says the ember download version site is unavail, been this way since yesterday

Its been like that for a good while, the project has been abandoned. Look up 'Ember Revisted' if you want to install it.