TUAW talks to boxee and brings you invites

PS3 has what limitation? It doesn't play back mkvs, no, they have to be converted into a different container...but the processor easily supports 1080p h.264 video that is contained in the mkv

@Mike we have an open bug on the mythtv support, i hope we can have it fixed by the upcoming version.

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."

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.

Can I play movies with my ATV from an external HD off my Intel Mac Pro?

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).

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!

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.

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...

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.