Played with Boxee a bit...

[panteragstk]

I got board the other day and started looking at other HTPC front ends. I already knew of quite a few of them and decided to see what all the buzz is about.

XBMC does look pretty, but I've got Sage looking very nice thanks to SMW, BMT, TV Explorer, and the Serenity Theme so there isn't much to add there. I think I may download it and play around, but I don't know yet.

My main point is I tested Boxee for it's VOD capabilities and really like the selection and integration of the various channels. It was nice to be able to go to the apple trailer app and browse around and watch trailers. However, I personally think the interface could use a massive overhaul. It doesn't exactly work well. I understand that it is still an alpha build, but still.

I can't help but wonder why a free app such as boxee was able to integrate these features and remain free. Sage, to me, is SO much better in every way that I don't understand why there is no integration of these same services. Granted, there is the online services menu and now the play-on plug-in but as I've read it isn't exactly stable yet.

My netflix plug-in is great and a step in the right direction, but I've read recently that it has become very unstable. This seems to be the fault of netflix because of the silverlight player.

Basically, boxee will be integrated into my sage setup for online content if I can get the remote to work correctly, but I'd rather have sage do all the work. It is nice that a free app has this functionality for streaming, but you get what you pay for as far as stability/usability goes.

What do you guys think?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

My main point is I tested Boxee for it's VOD capabilities and really like the selection and integration of the various channels. It was nice to be able to go to the apple trailer app and browse around and watch trailers. However, I personally think the interface could use a massive overhaul. It doesn't exactly work well. I understand that it is still an alpha build, but still.

It's a lot less complex, legally, to integrate 3rd party services in a free product than a commercial one. Sage would have to set up licensing agreements with all the service providers to be able to use them probably, where Boxee may not (yet).

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by stanger89

It's a lot less complex, legally, to integrate 3rd party services in a free product than a commercial one. Sage would have to set up licensing agreements with all the service providers to be able to use them probably, where Boxee may not (yet).

That's what I figured.

I got xbmc also and noticed that it and boxee have a very similar interface. Makes me glad I got sagetv when I did.

Next is W7MC.

[simonen]

I tested out win7MC and although the interface is quite nice and there is an external app to integrate PlayOn, the extenders (xbox360 in particular) have a lot of issues playing blueray rips. I guess the present codecs do not make use of the GPU to play them like it does with HD-DVDs so there is a lot of stuttering.

[reeven]

For the first time i test Boxee yesterday, crap crap crap crap.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by reeven

For the first time i test Boxee yesterday, crap crap crap crap.

I agree. You just have to remember it is an alpha build.

W7 took all of five minutes to freak out on me once I installed it. Granted I was telling MC to scan my very large music collection while playing an album and trying to switch tracks. It didn't like that one bit. I still prefer sagetv to MC as far as the interface goes. Granted, I've spent months of tweaking to get to this point, but it was worth it.

The only part of W7MC I liked over sage was the way they organize and let you view music. If Plucky will finish the music wall (hint hint) then I will have no more complaints about sagetv. I've actually gotten to the point where I don't have anything to tweak. I never thought that would happen. Maybe I should get an HD-PVR and try the PlayOn plug-in to see what I can screw up.

[drewg]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I got xbmc also and noticed that it and boxee have a very similar interface.

That is because Boxee is a fork of XBMC.

Drew