Filed under: iTunes, Open Source, Mac mini, Interviews, TUAW Interview, Beta Beat, Apple TV
TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites
Happy Thanksgiving! I'm super thankful that I have been able to spend the last 13 months blogging for TUAW and interacting with all of you. On a more superficial note, I am also thankful for my Macs and all the cool stuff Apple products enable me to do.
The newest member of my Apple family is the Apple TV. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to talk to Avner and Andrew from boxee, the company behind the social media player of the same name. Boxee released an update earlier this week, but the next big version is set for December 4, 2008. Avner and Andrew were nice enough to answer my questions, share some details about the future of boxee and best of all, provide a link so that TUAW readers can join in the fun! If you want to try boxee on your Mac or Apple TV, enter your e-mail address at http://boxee.tv/tuaw and you should get an invite within 24 hours.
In the comments, on Twitter and via e-mail, many of you have asked questions about boxee, its limitations and its future. I took these questions and comments to Avner and Andrew, and here's what I got back.
On .MKV support for Apple TV
Boxee supports the .MKV container and if you are using a Mac mini, MacBook, iMac or Mac Pro, boxee can play back 1080p .mkv files without a problem. Apple TV is limited by its processor and GPU, and it maxes out playing back 420p and 720p .MKV content. I don't usually deal with .MKV, but a quick Google search turned up a lot of information about programs that can be used to convert files. Apparently, the PS3 has this same limitation.
Hulu performance
A number of users have complained about the quality of boxee's Hulu playback. I also noticed a decrease in quality after the latest update. The update on December 4 is going to address this. The big problem, for Apple TV owners, is once again the limitations of the hardware. Seeing as Apple TV's can stream HD content from iTunes (when downloading anyway), I think this is something that can be greatly improved, but it might take some time. Boxee is still in alpha and the goal is to enter beta sometime next year, so while I think the fact that Hulu is supported at all is fantastic, the Apple TV experience might take some time to fully evolve. If you are using a Mac for boxee playback, your performance will be much better.
Future Support
One of the aspects of boxee that stands out the most is the team's commitment to its users. Last week, the boxee blog posted a survey asking users what they want out of the service. The results were posted and the team is committed to working on the most requested features. Netflix support is at the top of the list and boxee is focused on making this happen.
The boxee team is also looking at getting on more playback devices. The Windows alpha will start rolling out in very small increments next week, and boxee is also evaluating the PS3 as a possible platform.
Remote control apps
The development team is very interested in working on a remote control app for the iPhone and iPod touch (similar to the applications Apple and Sonos have already released). This would be a great compliment to a Mac mini or Apple TV HTPC setup.
Supporting Open Source
Boxee is based on the XBMC project, and the teams work closely together. Scott Davilla from XBMC is responsible for the incredible USB Creator and it is clear that the team at boxee clearly respects and fully supports XBMC and its contributors. Personally, I think this is a nice departure from some other media player distributions.
Try boxee yourself
Go to http://boxee.tv/tuaw and sign up for the alpha! I'm filmgirl on the service.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ian said 7:44PM on 11-27-2008
Within 24 hours, I got mine in 61 seconds. Thanks TUAW!!
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avner ronen said 7:48PM on 11-27-2008
i am testing the new version (coming out on Dec 4th) on my Apple TV at home. Hulu is playing much, much better
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Mike said 11:12AM on 11-28-2008
Thanks for all the hard work, Avner! The WAF on Boxee is very high.
Is there any chance you fixed the MythTV support in this release? I know that may have been an upstream fix in XBMC, but it is a HUGE bonus for those of us currently relegated to Mythfrontend on Linux.
HS said 7:53PM on 11-27-2008
FYI - The hyperlink isn't working for http://boxee.tv/tuaw (You have it directed to http://boxee.tv.com/tuaw)
Thanks for the invite! I'll be checking this out!!!
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Christina Warren said 7:59PM on 11-27-2008
D'oh! Fixed it! Thanks for the heads up!
kylemurpehy+tuaw said 7:59PM on 11-27-2008
I have been a big fan of boxee for quite a while, and frequent the forums, apparently the 720p mkv issue will not be an easy one to resolve, because currently boxee does not support hardware acceleration, and the video chipset is rather closed source. This is why apple can play back 720p no problem (they have all the info on the chipset) and the open source community cant (they don't have all the info) apparently everything would have to be reverse engineered in order to get it to play back smoothly. Other than that one issue boxee is great.
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Algenon said 9:24PM on 11-27-2008
We antipodeans need some way of VPNing to the US so we get an American IP and can view Hulu using an Apple TV... easy to fix on the Mac, haven't been able to sort it for the AppleTV... any suggestions?
kevin said 12:36AM on 11-28-2008
You can always setup a proxy server. Of course to do that you need a proxy server(based in the us) available.
You need to be comfortable with linux but there are a few US based services that are cheap and that give you full linux access, command line, webmin and such.
Big John said 6:14AM on 11-28-2008
Something's not right. VLC plays back 1080p MKV files without breaking a sweat. My guess is the software implementation is difficult/complicated and they just don't have the coders to pull it off.
Gubatron said 9:33PM on 11-27-2008
Your link to http://boxee.tv.com/tuaw is wrong, it should link to http://boxee.tv/tuaw
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Douglas said 10:30PM on 11-27-2008
Thanks Christina, TUAW and Boxee! :D
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Justin D said 12:38AM on 11-28-2008
Indeed, Apple TV + Boxee won't do 720p .mkv containers that well. But, if you use VisualHub or Handbrake to convert the .mkv (and other utilities to extract subs, if needed), to an .avi at the same 720p resolution, they will play perfectly.
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tomeranaray said 3:45AM on 12-02-2008
If you want to use iTunes do sync your MKV files to your AppleTV without reconversion, I can advise VideoDrive (available at www.aroona.net). It allows you to put any kind of video in iTunes without reconversion.
If you check the import option "Force compatibility with enhanced AppleTV" the videos will sync or stream to your AppleTV. Very handy...
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Big John said 6:11AM on 11-28-2008
Yay for invites and all, but Boxee obviously isn't ready for prime time. It shouldn't even be in a beta this large (that is, prioritizing TUAW readers for a mass-invite event) at this stage of development because it's painfully clear that the support and program isn't anywhere close to what I would consider usable for an end user. I do get a bit rantish on the next paragraph, feel free to skip down to my thoughts on the program below.
I got my acceptance into beta a few days ago, which I had been waiting a few weeks for (didn't take advantage of the TUAW prioritized deal). I instantly had problems. First it didn't like my chosen username (firstname.lastname), so I took the period out. Then it didn't like the passwords I was throwing at it for being too long/complex characters/some other reason that was unspecified every time. Finally I got it to take a password, only to find I couldn't login! So I hit the button saying forgot password and it bounced back saying invalid e-mail for a while. OK, fine, I'm not quite in the database yet. I gave it a night and it sent me a password reset e-mail. I click the link and it says "invalid password reset token" or something along those lines. Great! So I pop off an e-mail to their support, who basically went to the forgot password page, dropped in my e-mail address and said "there, now you have a reset e-mail" which of course did the same exact thing as before. I explained in (yet) another e-mail that it wasn't working... to which they replied a day later to "open it in a new window". Sure, fine... still nothing. I e-mailed them back saying it didn't work. Haven't heard back from them yet, but magically my username/password started working today!
Hey, and I haven't even *touched the program yet*!
So I fire it up and stumble through the semi-confusing menu system (I can so tell it's powered by the godawful XBMC, their controls are just as bad) to start Hulu. I go to full TV episodes, 30 Rock and turn on the latest episode posted. Blank screen for quite a while... I just thought it was loading. I had no idea. I move the mouse to find out that I'm about 45 seconds into the show yet have no audio or video! I try a few other shows and episodes with the same result. I try a different service (Comedy Central, I believe) with the same result. That's when I gave up on Boxee. Boxee should just be a nice interface for some Flash-based programming, but it falls extremely hard and flat on its face trying to pull it off. I'll stick with typing www.hulu.com into Safari for a while.
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avner ronen said 9:21AM on 11-28-2008
really sorry about the experience you had.
we usually do our best to respond to emails, twits, forums posts as quickly as we can.
please email me at avner [ a t ] boxee d0t tv and i'll do all i can to help you out.
PookieBadMuffin said 9:10AM on 11-28-2008
I was fortunate enough to have received an invite last week from one of the other testers.
Boxee is fantastic! Plenty of content, it's amazingly stable for an alpha release, the developers are receptive, etc.
Great job!
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chris said 12:59PM on 11-28-2008
I'm pretty much a fan of boxee, though it really sucks on appletv. Hulu is impossible to watch -- and CBS is only slightly better. Having said that, I did watch all of the "Jericho" episodes... after a while, the jerkiness stopped being so obvious (until I watch some *real* tv). My GF couldn't stand to be in the room while the CBS video was playing though (due to the playback quality, not the show's content).
I'm hopeful it'll just keep getting better and better. Other than better playback, my biggest request is for pause/play to work... pause, well, pauses, but I cannot get the video to ever play again (the program counter changes, but no sound/video).
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mplsboywonder said 4:24PM on 11-28-2008
Can I play movies with my ATV from an external HD off my Intel Mac Pro?
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sal said 7:03PM on 11-28-2008
i been with boxee for a lil over a month on apple tv.. its gotta be the best thing to happen to apple tv... i really dont understand how u can get confused by this app.. its laid out very well and its even easier to install... did the patchstick twice without any problems... i highly recommend this to any apple tv owner... i feel like im getting my moneys worth and i love showing it off to friends and family.
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JKT said 10:59PM on 11-29-2008
You guys are able to get Boxee to work? I got it over a month ago and haven't been able to get it to play any of my local content. It seems to see it (I get lists of my shows by series) but it won't show any of the specific files and/or play them. The files are in .avi format by the way, so maybe Boxee doesn't handle that format? That's what I've been assuming and as such I will stick with VLC as my player. How can a program that has such a severe limitation get so much press? I'm quite confused.
Or maybe I don't want the same thing as you guys--maybe you want Boxee as a Hulu player and not for playing local files? I'd prefer to have a single player to play them all and as Boxee doesn't like the most popular file format (.avi), it really doesn't fit that bill, so I'm stuck saying "Meh."
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