Boxee Box as an extender? (xbmc perhaps?)

[jerryt]

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 playback issue at all here. OTA HD from HDHR and H.264 from HDPVR. Windows 7 x64 with Nvidia GT-430 video card.

It just works.

[wayner]

I will try on other PCs to see if it works any better but these problems are on my latest and greatest PC -albeit with a 64 bit OS which could be causing issues.

By the way - what is the advantage of doing this through Boxee rather than XBMC? Is it that with the Boxee Box you have a hardware extender where you don't have this type of device with XBMC (other than ATV/ATV2 which can't playback MPEG-2)? It looks like there is already a fair bit of work done to integrate SageTV files into XBMC and the UI is very similar to Sage V7 - in fact I would guess that the UI for V7 "borrowed" heavily from XBMC.

[panteragstk]

I'll give this a try since I installed boxee and showed wify how to use it yesterday for netflix (which the quality is horrible). I'll let you guys know what I find out.

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

I'll give this a try since I installed boxee and showed wify how to use it yesterday for netflix (which the quality is horrible). I'll let you guys know what I find out.

I wonder if that is due to your bandwidth not due to the boxee silverlight integration??

I used a friends netflix account to try it out and mine looked really darn good.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

By the way - what is the advantage of doing this through Boxee rather than XBMC? Is it that with the Boxee Box you have a hardware extender where you don't have this type of device with XBMC (other than ATV/ATV2 which can't playback MPEG-2)? It looks like there is already a fair bit of work done to integrate SageTV files into XBMC and the UI is very similar to Sage V7 - in fact I would guess that the UI for V7 "borrowed" heavily from XBMC.

IMHO the advantage is that you can have a "lightweight", almost silent, affordable, hardware extender that does not require a SageTV license. And by lightweight I mean it will do many, but not, off the things an HD300 will do.

[mkanet]

Could someone please explain what limitations/advantages are between the following sageTV clients in respect to each other?

1. H200/HD300
2. Boxee STB
3. Boxee for Windows

In theory, how close would we be able to get Boxee STB functionality to what we have on the HD200/HD300s (core functionality, ease of plugin installation by users, porting current plugins to Boxee-compatible plugins).

Thanks!

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by mkanet

ease of plugin installation by users, porting current plugins to Boxee-compatible plugins

You won't be able to use any of the SageTV plugins in the Boxee UI, though since some of the same developers are involved, they might include some of the same functionality in the single SageTV-Boxee app...

[wayner]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Could someone please explain what limitations/advantages are between the following sageTV clients in respect to each other?

1. H200/HD300
2. Boxee STB
3. Boxee for Windows

I would add XBMC for Windows/Linux with the Sage plugins as well. There appear to be at least two XBMC plugins that integrate SageTV content in to XBMC.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Could someone please explain what limitations/advantages are between the following sageTV clients in respect to each other?

1. H200/HD300
2. Boxee STB
3. Boxee for Windows

In theory, how close would we be able to get Boxee STB functionality to what we have on the HD200/HD300s (core functionality, ease of plugin installation by users, porting current plugins to Boxee-compatible plugins).

Thanks!

HD200/HD300 is by far the best option since they do everything.

The Boxee app (which will work on a Boxee Box or a Boxee on Windows/Linux/Mac) looks like the Sage UI on the surface, but under the covers it's not. No plugins will work. The only way that plugins will ever be supported is if somebody creates a Boxee app that reads the sage STV xml and translates that to the Boxee UI on-the-fly. It's probably technically feasible but it would be a lot of work.

I need an extender to put in my kids room and the Boxee app running on a Boxee Box will fit the bill nicely. One "added bonus" is that the Box's wireless capabilities are much better than the HD300 with the USB wireless adapter. I could never get the HD300 to work reliably running wirelessly but the Box "just worked" from the time I plugged it in.

[mkanet]

Thanks for taking the time to explain in detail Tom. So, will the Boxee STB display everything in the standard SageTV 7 STV XML (and everything you can see in the standard menus/sub-menus work)? Such as, TV Recordings, BD Disc/ISO/Ripped BD folder playback from sageTV server, and Youtube.

Is the native video resolution for the Boxee (menus/general graphics) the same quality as an HD300? This is not to be confused with the video media playback resolution (which I'm sure would be able to handle 1080p for Bluray).

-Michael

Originally Posted by tmiranda

HD200/HD300 is by far the best option since they do everything.

The Boxee app (which will work on a Boxee Box or a Boxee on Windows/Linux/Mac) looks like the Sage UI on the surface, but under the covers it's not. No plugins will work. The only way that plugins will ever be supported is if somebody creates a Boxee app that reads the sage STV xml and translates that to the Boxee UI on-the-fly. It's probably technically feasible but it would be a lot of work.

I need an extender to put in my kids room and the Boxee app running on a Boxee Box will fit the bill nicely. One "added bonus" is that the Box's wireless capabilities are much better than the HD300 with the USB wireless adapter. I could never get the HD300 to work reliably running wirelessly but the Box "just worked" from the time I plugged it in.

[darcilicious]

I'll just add my $0.02 worth as someone who was hoping to replace the HTPC in the living room with an HD300 and a Boxee Box (already have one Box in the bedroom, would purchase a second).

What I would like from a lightweight SageTV client running on the Boxee Box is:

1) Playback recordings
2) LiveTV
3) Guide / Search Airings
4) Schedule recordings (add, cancel, view upcoming, etc)
5) Manage Favorites

I (personally) don't need a full-blown SageTV client if something like this is running on a Boxee Box because Boxee already does:

• online streaming (Netflix, Playon via UPnP, Vudu, and a gazillion other choices including personalized RSS feeds)
• local content up the ying-yang (the only long-standing issue with local content is HD audio dropout issues, everything else pretty much "just works")
• music (the default player does suck but there are alternative music apps; I suspect that Boxee will fix their music player eventually)

It's true that you won't get the full blown metadata / fanart currently but to my mind, those are nice-to-haves -- even though I'm all about eye candy, at the end of the day, the real eye candy is the content

[darcilicious]

BD Disc/ISO/Ripped BD folder playback from sageTV server, and Youtube.

All of these work directly in Boxee except there is no BD menu support. That is, you could (would?) use Boxee's interface for your ripped content.

There are a couple of ways to get to YouTube on the Boxee Box: YouTube's default "set-top box" app, via the Boxee Box web browser (regular website or the XL version), or specific videos via the Boxee Bookmarklet / "Watch Later" queue.

Is the native video resolution for the Boxee (menus/general graphics) the same quality as an HD300?

720p is the default display resolution of the menus/graphics. The Boxee Box will upscale to 1080i/1080p if that is the resolution of your display.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by mkanet

So, will the Boxee STB display everything in the standard SageTV 7 STV XML

It doesn't use the STV file... So it depends what the developers feel like adding to their SageTV-Boxee app...

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by mkanet

Thanks for taking the time to explain in detail Tom. So, will the Boxee STB display everything in the standard SageTV 7 STV XML (and everything you can see in the standard menus/sub-menus work)? Such as, TV Recordings, BD Disc/ISO/Ripped BD folder playback from sageTV server, and Youtube.

Is the native video resolution for the Boxee (menus/general graphics) the same quality as an HD300? This is not to be confused with the video media playback resolution (which I'm sure would be able to handle 1080p for Bluray).

-Michael

To build on what darcilicious and Fonceur have said:

- The app doesn't read the Sage STV XML in any way, shape or form. What you see displayed in Boxee is all created from scratch.

- Things that Boxee supports natively (like online videos, imported videos, music) are very low on the priority list and may never get implemented at all. Boxee excels at online content and beats Sage hands down in this area. Imported videos and music aren't bad but everybody has different tastes in what they'd like to see. There are MANY high quality Boxee apps that support music, videos and online content as well so my feeling is that if you have those already available why reinvent the wheel? Just exit the SageTV app and use one of those.

And the Boxee UI looks just as good as Sage's on my HDTV. I think native resolution is 720p, but I'm not 100% certain of that. Output can be set to 720p, 1080i or 1080p.

[Challenged]

My HD100 in the bedroom just died last night, so I'm going to take the plunge with a Boxee device and try this out. I hope that Live TV and EPG are a possibility, or I imagine that my wife is going to force me to move on to some other system. I'll try to help out in any way I can to move this forward. Thanks for all the excellent work on this project so far, it's very much appreciated.

[keepersg]

[QUOTE=tmiranda;511035] Add the following repository to Boxee http://sagetv-boxee.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/repo/


Forgive the dumb question but I'm not getting how to add a repository to Boxee.--Never mind. Shouldn't try to figure this stuff out when I have a fever of 101.

[sabre]

Originally Posted by pjwerdna

If you go into the SageTV app, then down to setup and click OK. DOwn the bottom of this setup screen there a Boxee section with the three settings in

Sorry about the duh factor, but i put wrong user/pw in to start, and no when i click on the app it does not give me the option to change these. just click the app, and nothing happens. other than full reinstall of Boxee, any way to get these items to come up -- i am not able to get into the Sage app at all in Boxee - have sagex installed it seems. Thanks

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by sabre

Sorry about the duh factor, but i put wrong user/pw in to start, and no when i click on the app it does not give me the option to change these. just click the app, and nothing happens. other than full reinstall of Boxee, any way to get these items to come up -- i am not able to get into the Sage app at all in Boxee - have sagex installed it seems. Thanks

That shouldn't be happening if your running the latest alpha version. Can you send a logfile? If you're not running on the Boxee Box the Boxee/userdata folder contains boxee.log. (If you're running the Box point your web browser at http://boxeebox:8080 and click on the button to get the latest logfile.)

To start over go to the Boxee/userdata/apps folder and delete the folder com.googlecode.sagetvboxee.sageboxee. I have no idea how to uninstall it if you're using a Box.

[sabre]

Thanks Tom, cleared everything out and got it to work. It looks very nice. Not using the box right now.

Take care

Well, found a way to reenter log in data, but does not seem to like what i am putting in. will play around after vaca.

[Jason]

Originally Posted by PiX64

U can try it and let us all know :-)

Well, here are my brief comments re: using the ATV1 as a Boxee extender/alternative.

1. The ATV1 has great picture quality... then again it does out in 720p
2. It is underpowered (OEM...) for everything except for dixv/xvid up to 720p and SD mpegs.
3. With the Crystal HD addin card, XBMC will do almost everything thrown at it...
4. Boxee cannot/does not use the drivers yet for the Crystal card, so until they (Boxee) come out with a newer version (as XBMC did....) it is not a viable alternative for most of what I use SageTV for...

Just a few comments...