Boxee Box as an extender? (xbmc perhaps?)

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Gerry,

I'll try to make the setup more robust.

The next version adds the episode names in the right panel. I already have that working.

No way to do page up and page down from the remote ASAIK. I'll look into it more.

I just discovered the keyboard page up/page down works fine. Maybe it's more of a Boxee thing with my remote. You're doing a great job. I just wanted to mention of few of those things that I thought would make it immediately usable for watching. Presenting the Sage interface thru Boxee is key for Sage users. It also appears that I didn't have to provide any UNC paths for my setup. The recordings play fine. It must be picking up the path via the Sage api's.

Gerry

[g-man]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I'm on WHS and I didn't have to give it any UNC paths. It should already know about them. FYI-on WHS I used the built in share called Recorded TV for my SageTV recording directory. I just checked the SageTV -Setup-Boxee and UNC path is blank.

Gerry

Thanks Gerry, I tried with the UNC blank and still didn't get video to play. I may have created the share (don't remember) but sits in the same grouping as the "RecordedTV" share.

\\Whs-server\Videos with a sub group of "SageTV" so it is \\Whs-server\Videos\SageTV. I will need to compare permissions on both shares.

[g-man]

Ok, I noticed when I mouse over the file it shows the file as local file. I am on a Windows 7 Boxee client does this require any different changes as it seems like it may be looking to my local Win 7 machine instead of the WHS server?

"Path: smb:\\localhost\Videos\SageTV\ExpeditionImpossible-....0.mpg"

Whenever I add anything to the UNC path the "Path: smb:\\localhost\..." shown above never changes so it always defaults to locahost. If it means anything, I am running Win 7 64 bit. I will install boxee on my Macbook later tonight and see if I get the same results.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by g-man

Ok, I noticed when I mouse over the file it shows the file as local file. I am on a Windows 7 Boxee client does this require any different changes as it seems like it may be looking to my local Win 7 machine instead of the WHS server?

"Path: smb:\\localhost\Videos\SageTV\ExpeditionImpossible-....0.mpg"

Whenever I add anything to the UNC path the "Path: smb:\\localhost\..." shown above never changes so it always defaults to locahost. If it means anything, I am running Win 7 64 bit. I will install boxee on my Macbook later tonight and see if I get the same results.

I don't know.

[SWKerr]

Wow. This could really solve the Client and Extender issue going forward. I have always like the Boxee interface for Online content and adding DVR functionality from SageTV would complete it.

The plugin loaded up on a Boxee PC Client without problems. Playback worked great.
Note: the auto comskip will be a problem as you can't even skip back so it would have to be perfect and that is not always the case.

Since Boxee does Movies, Music and Pictures already I am not sure that it makes sense to do anything other than the TV Library and Live TV. If only doing the DVR functions then replicating the SageTV interface is probably not necessary or desirable. Still looking great so far.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

No way to do page up and page down from the remote ASAIK. I'll look into it more.

Paging with the remote is possible but really not practical, the best remote UI I have seen for paging on the Boxee Box is in Naxi-X, you give focus to the scroll bar and then page with the up/down arrows.

Martin

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by g-man

Ok, I noticed when I mouse over the file it shows the file as local file. I am on a Windows 7 Boxee client does this require any different changes as it seems like it may be looking to my local Win 7 machine instead of the WHS server?

"Path: smb:\\localhost\Videos\SageTV\ExpeditionImpossible-....0.mpg"

Whenever I add anything to the UNC path the "Path: smb:\\localhost\..." shown above never changes so it always defaults to locahost. If it means anything, I am running Win 7 64 bit. I will install boxee on my Macbook later tonight and see if I get the same results.

My two cents on your playback problem. Since you can see a list of recordings, it is not an issue with the path. Leave the "UNC" path blank.

Work on getting the permissions correct so that you can open the recording directory without a login screen.

Just my opinion...

[g-man]

Originally Posted by jerryt

My two cents on your playback problem. Since you can see a list of recordings, it is not an issue with the path. Leave the "UNC" path blank.

Work on getting the permissions correct so that you can open the recording directory without a login screen.

Just my opinion...

Thanks jerryt,

I enabled the guest account on my WHS Share and was able to access the folder from the remote computer. I left the UNC blank and still no video. I am running out of options except to test it on either a 32 bit machine and/or my Macbook to see if the results are the same.

Just tested on my wife's Win 7 32 bit laptop and got the same result so it must be something on the WHS server. I'll keep digging

[willplaice]

OK I sorted it, for some reason what the path should be is wierd, when i remap the path i didn't get what i expected, if you select a file to play you can see the expected path on the screen, this allowed me to alter what boxee had and what was being sent to boxee so that i am now able to play my recordings..


this is great, i guess like everyone else the key thing for me will be when live tv is available?

this is fantastic for such a small amount of time, thanks for the hard work!

Will

[wayner]

Originally Posted by SWKerr

Since Boxee does Movies, Music and Pictures already I am not sure that it makes sense to do anything other than the TV Library and Live TV. If only doing the DVR functions then replicating the SageTV interface is probably not necessary or desirable. Still looking great so far.

That would be the bare minimum, assuming you are including guide and scheduling. But it would be really nice to have integrated content that is agnostic as to whether the files are SageTV recorded files, imported videos, or Netflix/Hulu streams. Diamond did much of this and I would hate to have to go backward on this.

[wayner]

I want to try this out but I want to make sure that I know what I need for install.

1. Download Boxee from http://www.boxee.tv/download (is this required if using a Boxee box?)
2. Follow Tom's instructions from this post http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=135

Is that all I need to do?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by wayner

I want to try this out but I want to make sure that I know what I need for install.

1. Download Boxee from http://www.boxee.tv/download (is this required if using a Boxee box?)
2. Follow Tom's instructions from this post http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=135

Is that all I need to do?

Not quite.

#1 is required for a PC client install. If you have an actual physical Boxee Box then you'll have to proceed a little differently.

For those of you with a box and plan on trying this out - make sure you get the "development certificate" or it won't work. Let me know if you don't know how to do that and I'll post instructions, it's painless but you need to have the box in your hands because the process requires a MAC and serial number.

You'll need to ask Tom (tmiranda) for those instructions.
#2 should be followed either on the PC client or the physical Boxee Bos. (I believe.)

Gerry

[kmp14]

Man, you guys are good. I figured I would give this a try. I don't have a Boxee box yet, so I downloaded the PC software. I was shocked when the SageTV UI poped up in Boxee! I realize it is very much a work in progress, but still....very, very cool!

Just a note - I was not able to play TS files recorded from my Ceton using SageDCT. I am guessing it is more a problem with my PC not having the right codecs to play TS files?? I wonder if they would play on a Boxee box?

Anyway, just thought I would report that, also also say NICE WORK!

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by kmp14

Just a note - I was not able to play TS files recorded from my Ceton using SageDCT. I am guessing it is more a problem with my PC not having the right codecs to play TS files?? I wonder if they would play on a Boxee box?

I have the exact same issue on my Boxee client... although some TS files play fine, others do not. Try a couple different ones. And I am assuming the Boxee Box will handle things fine (given it uses hardware-based decoding similar to the HD300 extender).

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by LehighBri

I have the exact same issue on my Boxee client... although some TS files play fine, others do not. Try a couple different ones. And I am assuming the Boxee Box will handle things fine (given it uses hardware-based decoding similar to the HD300 extender).

Comparing the Boxee Box to an HD300 for mpeg quality playback is wrong. Probably better to compare it with a WDTV product or native Popcorn Hour. Many files will play fine but some won't play or will have bad timelines and fast forward backward etc. Most hardware player vendors focus on mkv and avi playback and are weaker in mpeg especially with transport streams.

Martin

[PiX64]

For anyone in Illinois frys has boxee box new for 184 and has 3 on clearance for 147!

Glad u guys like it so far. We got a solid group of developers working on it and it def. Shows!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by wayner

I want to try this out but I want to make sure that I know what I need for install.

1. Download Boxee from http://www.boxee.tv/download (is this required if using a Boxee box?)
2. Follow Tom's instructions from this post http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...&postcount=135

Is that all I need to do?

As Gerry said, no need for the first step if you have a physical Box. Just add the sage repository to your boxee and then load SageTV for Boxee.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by kmp14

Man, you guys are good. I figured I would give this a try. I don't have a Boxee box yet, so I downloaded the PC software. I was shocked when the SageTV UI poped up in Boxee! I realize it is very much a work in progress, but still....very, very cool!

Just a note - I was not able to play TS files recorded from my Ceton using SageDCT. I am guessing it is more a problem with my PC not having the right codecs to play TS files?? I wonder if they would play on a Boxee box?

Anyway, just thought I would report that, also also say NICE WORK!

Thanks. The next version will improve the physical appearance quite a bit. If you are running this as a "test app" you can download the latest from the repository. If you installed it as a normal app you'll have to wait a few days until Slugger does the next build.

If the Ceton content isn't playing and you're using a software client (not the box) it is probably a Codec issue. No way to tell for sure until somebody with a Box tries it out.

[evilpenguin]

Anyone ever try this on a Mac? I can't get anything to playback on my Macbook, but I suspect its an issue with OS X with UNC paths.

Aside from that, this project is looking very promising. Great work guys!

[CyRex]

Wow lots of posts in the last few days! I didn't realize we were going pre-alpha already! Let me clear up some of the mystery surrounding the UNC path mapping.

You only need to define UNC paths for media files that Sage references by a path local to the SageTV server. The UNC paths setting must contain a list of directory pairs, which are used to map the local server paths to UNC paths accessible over the network. You can define as many directory pairs as required for your setup.

The paths should be in the format:

local_path_a,unc_path_a;local_path_b,unc_path_b;etc

The path mapping algorithm will use the most specific local path that matches the media file path. For instance, if you had the following directory pairs defined:

D:\TV,//htpc/TV
D:\TV\The Office,//htpc/The Office

the file:

D:\TV\The Office\The Office S01E01.mpg

would be mapped to:

//htpc/The Office/The Office S01E01.mpg

Also, the "local path" doesn't have to start with a drive letter. If your media files are in the following format:

//localhost/TV/someshow.mpg

you can specify //localhost as the "local path".


Hopefully this clears things up a bit. Eventually, the Boxee app will probably have better support for this. We should be able to detect the local paths used by Sage, and provide a cleaner interface for users to specify the network-visible path.

-Dan