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I want as close as I can get to an all-in-one solution for (i) streaming music files and the occasional video off an attached USB hard drive (ii) streaming Netflix/Comedy Central/Pandora/etc and (iii) listening to internet radio streams. I ordered the latest Roku box, the XD/S, with the assumption that the USB port would allow me to stream my local music off a USB drive, but perusing the Roku forums has convinced me that it is lousy for that purpose, although it seemed pretty good for the rest of my needs. So I cancelled that order. I think my choices are a Boxee Box or a WD Live Plus box. Would either or both of these serve my purposes? Does one have a nicer interface/ease of use with regard to browsing/playing local music or browsing streaming radio than the other? I want a turnkey solution, I'm not particularly interested in connecting my PC to the television and want to stick with an attached USB drive with the media. Listening to music (either locally streamed or via internet radio are at least as important as streaming remote video.
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| # ¿ Jul 12, 2011 15:07 |
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| # ¿ May 22, 2013 14:59 |
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OK, I've tested out the Boxee Windows App, and the music browser for local files works fine. Question -- is there a way to shuffle songs or set up playlists?
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| # ¿ Jul 14, 2011 15:06 |
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OK, I've had my boxee box for a couple of days. I had played around with Boxee for Windows. As someone noted earlier in the thread, the Boxee Windows software is a lot more useable than the Box software. My biggest peeves thus far, which I'm sure have been noted by others: 1. You apparently can't delete/hide unused apps, and the "favorite" apps section isn't reachable from the main menu and is instead reachable through the browser overlay thingy. You can't organize the streaming TV section either. Hell, you don't seem able to organize much of anything. 2. There is no direct way to get to local content-- instead, you have to go to files then music or video. 3. The Box defaults so that only one audio output can be used at once - it took me a while to figure out how to activate the RCA outputs (and that I needed to restart the Box for it to work). (not a problem anymore, but just dumb). Box also defaults to 720 for no good reason. 4. The remote is way too simple for a program that hasn't been elegantly designed and the remote functions are inconsistent. 5. Some of the TV streams/apps just pull up the lousy Boxee browser, and you have to pause, etc. using the pointer, controlled by the afore-mentioned remote. 6. The music player is stupidly limited when it should be trying to compete with the likes of AppleTV. With that said, this thing has so much potential, and I love the ability to pull up pretty much anything (like ESPN3 yesterday) but it worries me that they apparently went backwards from 0.9 to the current version and took away a lot of the ability to customize. I'm pretty unsatisfied right now. I like a lot of of the apps, and local content is working fine, but it feels very kludgey. Realistically, is Boxee going to be able to fix this? It wouldn't be that hard to allow the user to customize the interface, right? Why can't I just have a home page that lets me go to the 4-5 apps I actually use, and to my music/videos, and to the 4-5 TV shows I watch? It seems purposefully obtuse. In short, is it worth waiting for Boxee to fix this stuff and come up with a decent interface? Or do you think that someone will figure out a way to hack the firmware? This could be such a cool product, but right now it feels like it has been purposefully limited for whatever reason. I want it to work, but I'm pretty disappointed thus far.
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| # ¿ Jul 18, 2011 17:44 |
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Don Lapre posted:In the options you can make it so choosing apps from the menu takes you directly to favorites. OK, cool, that will be helpful. Thanks.
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| # ¿ Jul 18, 2011 18:51 |
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Don Lapre posted:In the options you can make it so choosing apps from the menu takes you directly to favorites. Doing this w/ TV shows and apps has made my experience with the Boxee Box much much better, as has finding new sources of content (Navi-X). Although I'm still looking forward to UI improvements, I'm now much more satisfied with the device. EDIT: I kind of love the Boxee Box now. It has gone from regretted purchase to favorite purchase rather quickly. Seventyfour fucked around with this message at Jul 19, 2011 around 14:01 |
| # ¿ Jul 19, 2011 13:39 |
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:I think I might be ready finally to get a Boxee. I mainly want to use it for Netflix and various web video streaming sites (and I want to dump my XBox Live Gold subscription I'm paying for Netflix right now). What's performance like for 1080p Netflix video? Any stutters or hitches, or can I expect the same performance I get from my 360? Same with web vids, do they play pretty much as well as I'd expect them to play on my desktop browser? I don't have any issues at all playing streaming 1080 videos, I've never seen so much as a stutter or pause to buffer (though most the 1080 stuff I stream isn't through Netflix). This is probably dependant on your broadband connection though. I have pretty steady 12mbps.
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| # ¿ Aug 16, 2011 15:57 |
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Bloody Hedgehog posted:Everything the Boxee does is web-based. So if there's a website where you login and can watch ESPN 360, or there's specifically a Boxee app that lets you watch ESPN 360, then you'll be fine. Your cable provider doesn't really enter into the equation. Confirming that you can watch ESPN360 off of the browser if you otherwise have access to it. There's also an app that someone put together for it, but I've had trouble getting it to work the last couple of times I've tried.
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| # ¿ Sep 1, 2011 15:46 |
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Prefect Six posted:So I guess you guys are pretty convinced this thing is superior to Roku/Apple TV/Google else you wouldn't be posting here right? I think it is, after some initial reservations. It took me a little tweaking. But the expandability with 3rd party apps is just wonderful, and it plays local media very very well. The last update has helped too with some of the interface issues. I still wish it handled music well.
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| # ¿ Sep 1, 2011 21:33 |
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WithoutTheFezOn posted:Yeah, sorry. I messed up; meant "benefits over a Roku/AppleTV". That is correct.
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| # ¿ Sep 3, 2011 02:34 |
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It doesn't work b/c ESPN3 (or whatever it is renamed to now) needs flash 10.3, and Boxee Box hasn't yet been updated with flash 10.3. Since lots of other things will need the newer flash soon, this is going to be a very big issue. No workaround that I know of.
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| # ¿ Sep 11, 2011 17:39 |
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devmd01 posted:This cannot download torrents but it can do everything else you need. Well, at and least for the time being, Boxee Box can't use the newest version of flash, which means that some streaming media (like ESPN360  ) doesn't work.
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| # ¿ Oct 6, 2011 14:49 |
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Moniker posted:How often do they update? As I understand it (and I'm not really a tech guy), b/c Boxee uses linux or a type of linux for which Adobe hasn't released the latest flash. So that it really isn't an update issue on Boxee's side -- they can't do anything until Adobe releases the new version. EDIT: I think it is Linux CE that doesn't have the new flash version, and that's what Boxee Box uses. Seventyfour fucked around with this message at Oct 6, 2011 around 18:58 |
| # ¿ Oct 6, 2011 18:55 |
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I was forced to download the update; immediately after I let the download proceed, my boxee box started blinking green red red. I turned it off and on a few times, still blinking red. I followed the (various) instructions online as to how to reach the recovery console, but nothing worked. Am I just screwed here or is there something else I can try? EDIT: I unplugged my USB hard drive and the power cord for a while. Plugged em back in and it worked. Seventyfour fucked around with this message at Oct 14, 2011 around 01:11 |
| # ¿ Oct 13, 2011 21:30 |
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Boxee w/ an attached HD here. While videos play fine, the interface for online content (Netflix, etc.) is painfully slow, and seems to be getting slower over time. The thumbnails for the apps usually don't load at all.
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| # ¿ Dec 9, 2011 13:18 |
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Seventyfour posted:Boxee w/ an attached HD here. While videos play fine, the interface for online content (Netflix, etc.) is painfully slow, and seems to be getting slower over time. The thumbnails for the apps usually don't load at all. I read on the boxee box forums that the BB allotted 100mg for thumbnails, but didn't do a good job of prioritizing which ones it would cache and which would be pulled from the net. So I disconnected my USB HD and erased the cache from options window. Result = full speed again. Not a great solution if you're regularly using something other than Netflix, Pandora, and Navi-X.
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| # ¿ Dec 11, 2011 20:27 |
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| # ¿ May 22, 2013 14:59 |
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This is the first update that hasn't crashed my Boxee, and the interface is so much better looking than before, let's see if it is more stable as well. Still, this is the first update that's actually meant anything to me.
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| # ¿ Jan 26, 2012 03:15 |
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