Boxee Box as an extender? (xbmc perhaps?)

[wayner]

Originally Posted by alton987

How is everyone mapping the sagetv commands to the boxee remote?

I think most are still just using Boxee on their PCs.

[Hunter69]

So I see a goal is to populate, playback and delete recordings. Are you guys working on being able to manage favorites? I am wondering if the boxee can handle streaming movies (I have a few DVD's but I mainly stream blurays)?

Thanks for the info

[Jason]

Originally Posted by Mitch G

I'm trying to understand if I can use an AppleTV2 for this.
From some quick readings of the boxee forums, it appears that boxee cannot run on AppleTV2, but xbmc can. But, I'm not sure what the architecture is in that case.
Is it that the AppleTV2 is acting as an extender for a boxee service running elsewhere on the network?
So, if I put boxee on my media server (which happens to be where Sage is running) and boxee-ize an AppleTV2, and put said AppleTV2 in my bedroom, would I be able to use the sagetv boxee stuff?

Thanks,


Mitch

The ATV2 cannot run Boxee. The difference between the ATV2 and the ATV1, which CAN run Boxee, is simply due to the OS of each unit.

The origianl ATV1 is based on a slimmed down Apple OSX system, while the ATV2 is an iOS system. Boxee has a release for OSX, but does not for iOS...

As far as the ATV1 running Boxee... I will let you know. Right now, it appears to do mpg's just fine... However, other formats cause some stuttering issues that make it unwatchable. I am going to order a Crystal HD card for my unit, and that should make an appreciable difference.

With the most recent release of SageBoxee (Rel51), I am having some connectivity issues (path related...) that keep popping up on my ATV1. I am too busy at work to spend any quality time in playing with the path setup that would work for me right now... Maybe at the end of the week.

For the average user right now, the release is not quite there... However, with the progress that this group has made so far, it appears to be just 'around the corner'. Alpha release or not, it works!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by alton987

How is everyone mapping the sagetv commands to the boxee remote?

I'm not really sure what you are asking. The Boxee remote does not have any of the special SageTV keys (Watched, Like, Delete, etc) so their is no mapping. What I'm doing is re-creating the Sage dialogs so the user can navigate to the choice they want and press select.

Unfortunately there is no way to catch "keystroke events" when the user presses any of the keyboard keys unless you are in a specific "text entry" box. It would be nice if we could map "f" to "Favorite" and "w" to watched, but that's not possible in the UI.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Slugger

Ok, let's not call it an extender, but rather an alternative, light weight client providing:

• A minimal subset of Sage client/extender features that allows the user to load their list of Sage recordings, select one and play it back with DVR capabilities (pause, rewind, ff, etc.)
• Add as many of these clients as you wish as there are no licensing restrictions; this allows users to add to existing systems or complete unfinished builds in progress; something you simply cannot (legally) do anymore via Sage extenders and client software.
  

"Placeshifting" as done by the Sage PS software won't happen. The PS protocol is proprietary and not available for us to reproduce. Could something (i.e. VLC) be setup on the Sage server to transcode and stream recordings on demand such as is done by the web server plugin, mobile plugins/apps? Possibly, but that's not on my radar. We're simply looking to provide an alternative for playback of Sage content over the LAN. This is a way to add additional clients to an existing Sage server. There are no plans to do real time transcoding. Instead, we provide the Boxee app a file path to a recording on a network share and the Boxee software does what it sees fit to play it back.

My goals with this project are simple:

Eventually my extenders are going to die. I want to be able to replace them with a similar device that will allow me to playback and delete these recordings and I do not want to have to build PC clients at each TV. Basic Sage server configuration and other Sage tasks (view/config favourites, view EPG, configure recordings from EPG, etc.) would also be nice, but not absolutely necessary for me because the various web UI plugins allow me to do all I need via my laptop, desktop, iPhone, etc.

Basically, I want to be able to replace my HD200s when they die with a similar device and I'm thinking the D-Link Boxee Box can be that device. Is it going to be a full fledged Sage UI? No. Is it going to allow me to replace a dead HD200 with something that allows me to play back my recordings? Yes, or at least that's the goal.

This is my view as well. We're concentrating first on being able to select and play recorded shows and do basic things like delete, set/clear watched, set/clear archived. After that we'll look at other PVR functionality.

Boxee has very good support for all things online, photos, imported videos and music so those items will be low on the priority list.

[PiX64]

My biggest complaint with boxee is the lack of metadata support. I can def see the advantage of us building additional screens and support for videos, but agree with Slugger that it should be low on the priority list.

Tom - I sent you a question in google groups, did you get it? I have a bit of free time today and was going to start tackling something else on this. was thinking maybe favorites manager screen perhaps... any ideas on what you want me to tackel?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by PiX64

My biggest complaint with boxee is the lack of metadata support. I can def see the advantage of us building additional screens and support for videos, but agree with Slugger that it should be low on the priority list.

Tom - I sent you a question in google groups, did you get it? I have a bit of free time today and was going to start tackling something else on this. was thinking maybe favorites manager screen perhaps... any ideas on what you want me to tackel?

I can't post to the groups from work so I asked Slugger to post on my behalf. (Which I can see he did.) Favorite manager wasn't on my list but it certainly would be welcomed if you would work on that.

Just try to keep it as consistent with the other screens as possible (you can use recordings.xml as a starting point for the background, header and footer) and in general try to keep the same look and feel as Sage.

One of the things I'm going to add is a .txt file to the app directory that will list the Window IDs because they all have to be unique.

[panteragstk]

I agree that basic TV functionality is a must. Everything else can be handled on the other boxee apps. Metadata would be nice, but isn't a must. If they weren't almost $200 I'd grab a boxee box just to see how this works.

I can't believe how fast you guys are pulling this together.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I agree that basic TV functionality is a must. Everything else can be handled on the other boxee apps. Metadata would be nice, but isn't a must. If they weren't almost $200 I'd grab a boxee box just to see how this works.

I can't believe how fast you guys are pulling this together.

Try out the software version of it...it works the same

*software version of boxee that is..

[rhinoman]

Originally Posted by PiX64

Try out the software version of it...it works the same

*software version of boxee that is..

The software version is a few versions behind but they are currently working to bring it up to the same place.

Just taken delivery of a Boxee box so looking forward to testing this. I agree TV should be the priority but eventually the ability to filter video views like Diamond does would be an excellent addition.

[PiX64]

right but i do all my dev for this project on a client pc not a boxee box and everything works perfectly fine...

[rhinoman]

Originally Posted by PiX64

right but i do all my dev for this project on a client pc not a boxee box and everything works perfectly fine...

Not criticising, looking forward to how this turns out

[tmiranda]

We just updated the repository with a new build that has many visual enhancements. Feedback welcome.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by rhinoman

The software version is a few versions behind but they are currently working to bring it up to the same place.

I test on both a PC client and the latest released Boxee Box software and there are many differences in how they behave. I try to make things function on both platforms as best as possible.

I haven't even tried the Boxee Box 1.2 beta firmware that they are working on and don't plan on doing that until our project is more mature.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

We just updated the repository with a new build that has many visual enhancements. Feedback welcome.

Super. I think Google is going to have to buy out the "SageTV app for Boxee" developers next...

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jerryt

Super. I think Google is going to have to buy out the "SageTV app for Boxee" developers next...

I can't speak for the others, but I can be had cheap.

[evilpenguin]

I've neen thinking about this project a bunch recently (even almost bought a Boxee Box at Costco yesterday ). I know you guys have been doing great work getting Sage Playback/Navigation working and I'm the last person who'd want to throw cold water on a neat project like this but have you considered something like this...

Boxee is already designed to handle scraping/organizing/navigating of TV/Movie/Music content so rather than re-inventing the wheel why not massage the Sage Recordings into a naming format that Boxee can handle (either by renaming or creating a soft link) and let it pull the content right into its core?

Both @southrnprogrmmr and I played around with this a while back with good results and now with SJQ v4 it'd snap to implement triggered off of either recording start/stop events.

Then for the SageTV Boxee App you'd just need to worry about the things you couldn't do in Boxee like manage favorites, view future recordings, or use the EPG.

[Slugger]

I had similar thoughts at the beginning, but without the "Sage" view within the app, you'd view your recordings in Boxee and play them back, but then would have to go into the Sage app to manage those recordings (delete them on the Sage server, etc.). Then when you wanted to play back something else you'd have to exit the Sage app and then go to your video listings in Boxee to find the next thing to play back. Doesn't seem natural to me.

I don't handle much (any) of the UI, but I think the end goal is to provide the Sage look and feel + core functionality all in one app. But only bringing the DVR (i.e. TV/Recordings) features of Sage into Boxee.

[wayner]

I am having some problems with video playback - OTA HD MPEG-2 recordings sometimes repeat a certain section and occasionally get stuck in an endless loop. Same thing with H.264 recordings from my H.264. MPEG-2 SD recordings don't play smoothly either. I also have deinterlacing issues with pretty much all files.

I take it that others aren't seeing this level of problems.

I am using Boxee on Win7 Pro x64 - CPU is an i5-2500K and I am using the onboard GPU.

edit - This appears to be a Boxee problem as it happens when I try to play a video file straight from my library.

[Slugger]

Originally Posted by wayner

I am having some problems with video playback - OTA HD MPEG-2 recordings sometimes repeat a certain section and occasionally get stuck in an endless loop. Same thing with H.264 recordings from my H.264. MPEG-2 SD recordings don't play smoothly either. I also have deinterlacing issues with pretty much all files.

I take it that others aren't seeing this level of problems.

I am using Boxee on Win7 Pro x64 - CPU is an i5-2500K and I am using the onboard GPU.

edit - This appears to be a Boxee problem as it happens when I try to play a video file straight from my library.

No, I see this exact problem, expcept my mpg2 recordings tend to play back fine. My H.264 content is unwatchable with all the same symptoms you list.

There's a few factors here:

* The Boxee for PC builds are 0.9.x, the latest is 1.1, but that's only available for the DLink device. I expect that to play these files better.

* There are various network issues in Boxee, especially reading files from Windows shares. The SMB network code was completely rewritten in the latest Boxee code, again only available for DLink device.

* I don't know what codecs Boxee is using to play back H.264 on Windows, but I don't think it's the OS installed/configured ones. (This could be completely inaccurate.)

1 and 2 are certainly issues, maybe 3 as well. Once we get a little further along then I'm going to purchase the Dlink box and give it ago, I'm really hoping playback is better on the device than it is on the PC otherwise my opinion on the usefulness of this project (for me) sinks rather quickly.