Boxee media center for Mac

Boxee is an interesting new media center application for the Mac based on the XBMC. Separate from the OS X branch of XBMC (now called Plex), Boxee focuses on a social networking experience by allowing you to get (and give) recommendations to friends who are also on the service. You can also share your media activity with friends and vice versa.

Once installed, Boxee scans your hard drive for videos, music, and pictures. It also interfaces with various streaming sources, both for audio and video, including last.fm, revision 3, YouTube, etc. Even when playing local content it will download things like album covers and descriptions from the internet. All in all, Boxee looks like an interesting entry into the media center competition and its social networking features set it apart from more straightforward implementations like Plex.

Boxee is presently in a closed alpha test, but they're expecting to open a public beta by the early autumn. You can sign up to be notified when the open beta is available. Since it's based on XBMC it's Intel Mac and Leopard only.

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Source: http://www.boxee.tv/

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Multimedia Leopard

Boxee is an interesting new media center application for the Mac based on the XBMC. Separate from the OS X branch of XBMC (now called...

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Jack Gray

if anyone has an extra invite to send out, I would be forever grateful.

jack.whhs@mac.com

November 04 2008 at 12:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

dido89

Hi! Who can send me an invite for boxee? Thanks!!!

August 25 2008 at 6:51 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to dido89's comment

now4real954

i got my invite today...and i am not clear as of yet how to really use it...but i havent had enough time to really look at it...but i had to go in and tell it to allow the mouse to be used...cuz until i realized that i had to use my remote...cuz i was lost until then...but it has possibilities but i have yet to really enjoy them yet

September 29 2008 at 11:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mickey

Plex is better.

August 08 2008 at 6:55 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Acariquara

I've got some invites laying. Although it is an alpha, and I've had a fair share of crashes, the sharing options are wonderful, and if you are into foreign movies, it can connect to opensubtitles.org and d/l them on the fly.

August 08 2008 at 10:58 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ben Murray

Hmmm, i like the look of this. But it seems look is all I can do at present.

Te more competition in this market the better if you ask me.

Looking forward to DoubleTwist getting their mac version out the door.

August 08 2008 at 5:53 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Blackstar

I've been using versions of XBMC, OSXBMC, and now Plex. Every version has gotten better and better. Plex has a great support group and community. But 3 things about the Boxee's information make me want to pass on trying it. "Social Networking" "Scanning Hard Drive" and "Alpha".

August 08 2008 at 3:37 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ChrisG

Could I please have an invite to Boxee?

August 08 2008 at 3:06 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to ChrisG's comment

Acariquara

August 08 2008 at 11:12 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave

Yeah - I got excited until heard you need and Intel chip MAC.

Dave

August 07 2008 at 10:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jollyllama

Er, I'm not sure how I feel about an application that has social networking built in which scans my hard drive for all my media files, presumably to share with others as "my tastes."

August 07 2008 at 8:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to jollyllama's comment

avneron

you can always turn off the sharing, or you can share only with your friends. so the social aspect is optional.

August 07 2008 at 11:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

BabyGotMac

I've been looking for a media server app for a while now ( http://babygotmac.com/a/the-mac-media-server-project/ ). If this thing does upnp effectively it will be a big boon for the Mac community.

August 07 2008 at 8:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply