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+--- Thread: Hacking the Boxee Box to run XBMC? (/showthread.php?tid=64578)
- Hannes The Hun - 2010-12-13
darkscout Wrote:3) He won't accept the fact that slapping an ARM compiled binary onto a SD card, tossing it into the Boxee and rebooting wil NOT get your XBMC on the Boxee.
please don't confuse that guy any further: Boxee Box is x86 intel-based (they switched from tegra at last minute) but that does not change the fact that the boxee box, as of now, will not execute anything that wasn't signed before. he simply refuses to understand this.
and now back to real discussions about XBMC on the boxee box and why it can't/won't/shouldn't happen
- Soju - 2010-12-13
My problem with it is- it's just not as economical as far as next gen platforms go.
What do we want? We want something as cheap as the original xbox with HD and it being small and quiet. Well The apple TV is much more interesting in that regard, if the community is going to do any hacking. Google TV appliances even more so long term.
And look at the cost benefit vs a offtheshelf ION box. Its not as if $180 is a huge improvement on $220 or whatever the specials you can get these days. Not with all the potential hacking involved. At $100, now we're talking.
- CrashX - 2010-12-13
New Firmware released and root access blocked again ...
Apple TV 2 can only handle content up to 720P. It terms of hardware alone + remote, Boxee box is worth the $200 you are paying for it, just wished the software was as good. It is slowly getting better and better though.
- yerbabie27 - 2010-12-14
prae5 Wrote:The key thing here that keeps being overlooked, is the team has no interest in supporting closed platforms. The boxee box is a closed platform, unless Boxee decides to open it up and offer a legitimate means of loading xbmc on it, then it will unlikely really get any real attention.
And the ATV is not?
I'm not following the logic there, clearly this has been done in the past with the ATV, and yes, it may be running 10.4 tiger, but the Boxee Box is still a basic unit with an atom under the hood. Given a choice of ATV or Boxee hardware I know which one I'd use.....
IMO the xbmc team should try to take advantage that for the first time since the xbox there is a piece of hardware that is generic requiring no additional hardware to work. (like the ATV, but with 1080p support, and its "snappy" enough). People are also moving more towards shared storage now days, it not having no harddisk IMO is perfect, less heat etc.
Boxee have allready addressed some of the main issues xbmc users had with a new firmware today, and in my opinion have a can do attitude. With this new firmware I can use the Boxee now, and I'm very happy to keep it because I know that there will be regular updates.
However it really would be nice to have it working with xbmc.
- topfs2 - 2010-12-14
the boxee box does look tivo'ed, which atv is not (not even running linux underneath)... you can't compare them. Up to this point it looks like boxee is actively against any attempts to use the box, we can't support breaking into it then. Besides, you think that the dev team is really happy and wants to support with having to hack into a box essentially running our software already..
- Robotica - 2010-12-14
yerbabie27 was arguing that teamXBMC has no interest in porting closed platforms since it is done with ATV before. Both ATV and Boxee are closed platforms al be Boxee tivo'ed (= restrictions against the spirit of GPL).
For XBMC-lovers it would be great to give Boxee, who raised lots of money out of XBMC code, a hard time, anywhere, anyhow and anytime. But it looks like teamXBMC threats Boxee as a business partner, rather than a competitor.
- poofyhairguy - 2010-12-14
yerbabie27 Wrote:And the ATV is not?
No not really.
The Apple TV hacks have not been actively blocked by Apple. Apple plans to make money off the AppleTV by selling the hardware and then selling content themselves directly- no third parties involved. If you hack the device to play downloaded content Apple still made money off the first purchase and heck even Steve considers the AppleTV to be a hobby to him.
Boxee is being sold with a Video Game Console business model- the Boxee group makes nothing on the boxes (heck they might take a loss) because they are trying to sell their platform. The money they want to make is from exclusive partners using that platform, just like Sony makes its PS3 money on independent game developers.
And with Boxee, just like a console, there has been an active push from the developers to keep the platform locked. Because Boxee's continued future rests with their content deals their literally livelihood depends on this community not hacking their box to bits.
Therefore Boxee is not different than a PS3 from XBMC's point of view, which means it is a development dead end...
- Robotica - 2010-12-14
Robotica Wrote:yerbabie27 was arguing that teamXBMC has no interest in porting closed platforms since it is done with ATV before. Both ATV and Boxee are closed platforms al be Boxee tivo'ed (= restrictions against the spirit of GPL).
For XBMC-lovers it would be great to give Boxee, who raised lots of money out of XBMC code, a hard time, anywhere, anyhow and anytime. But it looks like teamXBMC threats Boxee as a business partner, rather than a competitor.
But since Boxee is closed it is no option to hack it.
- prae5 - 2010-12-14
Robotica Wrote:For XBMC-lovers it would be great to give Boxee, who raised lots of money out of XBMC code, a hard time, anywhere, anyhow and anytime. But it looks like teamXBMC threats Boxee as a business partner, rather than a competitor.
Go and give Boxee a hard time then, it is their hardware and their restrictions - if you don't like it raise it with them it is their hardware. Trolling here will not help this situation.
- yerbabie27 - 2010-12-14
Anything I have to insert a SD / USB stick into with a downloaded hacked ISO image installed onto it to bypass security (ATV) IMO is the same. I'm Sure Apple does not like the fact that people are "hacking" their ATV's.
Anyhow, it's a bit beside the point, the main issue is here is can the Boxee Box run xbmc?, and clearly that is a yes.
The xbmc team or a third party needs to make the choice if they will attempt it, or potentially lose users as boxee gets there interface cleaned up.
IMO they should try if information becomes avaliable around getting a build working on it. xbmc was after all origionally built for xbox's
Here's hoping theres a geek out there somewhere with the skills to take the source and get a build working on Boxee, like the xbox.
On an associsated site note Plex is now runnng on the "jail broken" ATV2.
- poofyhairguy - 2010-12-14
yerbabie27 Wrote:Anything I have to insert a SD / USB stick into with a downloaded hacked ISO image installed onto it to bypass security (ATV) IMO is the same. I'm Sure Apple does not like the fact that people are "hacking" their ATV's.
You might be surprised. Apple makes money off each AppleTV, so they probably don't care what you do with it. I am a 5 year hackintosher so I can tell you Apple leaves the hacking community alone (iPhone jailbreaking excluded).
Quote:Anyhow, it's a bit beside the point, the main issue is here is can the Boxee Box run xbmc?, and clearly that is a yes.
Not so fast. The Boxee box uses a PowerVR decoding chip that has no open source drivers for XBMC developers to use. The fact that they can bitstream HD Audio in Linux implies that Boxee's base might not be FFMPEG anymore. If that is the case than it is wrong to assume XBMC can work on a Boxee box.
Quote:The xbmc team or a third party needs to make the choice if they will attempt it, or potentially lose users as boxee gets there interface cleaned up.
Ok, now you are trolling. XBMC and Boxee are NOT direct competitors. In particular Boxee's "idiot proof" media scraper does a TERRIBLE job scraping a media library set up for XBMC. Also Boxee's doesn't have XBMC's pluggins which gives features (such as Hulu support) that Boxee users can only dream of. Boxee can never offer such pluggins without pissing off their content partners.
Boxee on its best day is XBMC with training wheels. Many XBMC users might find it is "good enough" but then so are things like Popcorn Hours if you follow that logic.
To think that this locked down, watered down, suddenly not open source friendly Boxee box is gonna steal tons of XBMC users is nonsense.
- jmarshall - 2010-12-14
Quote:On an associsated site note Plex is now runnng on the "jail broken" ATV2..
This is offtopic, but no it's not. A modified version of one of the iOS apps that connects to the plexmediaserver is running on atv2. This is not the same as XBMC or an XBMC derivative running on ATV2.
Cheers,
Jonathan
- topfs2 - 2010-12-14
Robotica Wrote:yerbabie27 was arguing that teamXBMC has no interest in porting closed platforms since it is done with ATV before. Both ATV and Boxee are closed platforms al be Boxee tivo'ed (= restrictions against the spirit of GPL).
For XBMC-lovers it would be great to give Boxee, who raised lots of money out of XBMC code, a hard time, anywhere, anyhow and anytime. But it looks like teamXBMC threats Boxee as a business partner, rather than a competitor.
They are complying with GPL without any doubt, please don't say they aren't because thats a lie.
While I may sound harsh here its because I don't think what they are doing is necessary but they are NOT breaking GPL and they are free to do what they are doing. They are our partners and not competitors, they are complying with anything we have put for them to comply with. They have no obligation to have the box unlocked.
yerbabie27 Wrote:Anyhow, it's a bit beside the point, the main issue is here is can the Boxee Box run xbmc?, and clearly that is a yes.
What do you base this on? Until it actually runs (if ever) its not clear at all..
- Robotica - 2010-12-14
thnx poofyhairguy for your valuable info and clear vision.
@topfs: Boxee missuses flaws in GPL v2 to restrict the User Freedoms. This is not the spirit of GPL.
- Robotica - 2010-12-14
I think this is the route to hack the boxee box and have the cheapest XBMC solution:
1> Jailbreak Boxee
2> PowerVR closed source drivers should be wrapped into a OpenMax IL decoder component. That’s an Open API which XBMC can use to access video hardware to decode.
3> Upgrade VAAPI-support to the level of Boxee, Mplayer and/or VLC Player.
I even think 2 + 3 can be backported from Boxee. All by all I don't think this is rocket science. Knowledge already is available (even in this community!).