Boxee verses XBMC? - Not asking for support, just an pro and cons overview.
#16
I have 2 modded XBOXs with XBMC. I love this solution, it is the most flexible, IMHO. The only issue with this solution going forward is HD. The XBOX is not capable of processing HD content. So I too have been looking for a new solution. I have purchased 2 WD HD Live, one as a gift (non RJ45) and one for myself (with RJ45). I spent a lot of time trying to setup the gift WD HD Live as close to XBMC as possible. I have gotten close, but there are a few short comings.

Firstly, here is my environment. I have an XP PC with 6 drives totaling 9TB of hard drive space. I have over 1600 movies on these drives that have been ripped to VOB, main movie only, using mostly DVD Shrink. I also have over 100 TV series in avi and Mpeg format, MP3 collection and family pictures. All drives are shared out.

I place VOBs in a folder such as AMERICAN_PIE, no VIDEO_TS and I used folder.jpg in the movie folder to get thumbnails. You will see why this is important in a sec.

Using XBMC, easy peasy. 4 drives contain all movies, I add 4 network locations under the heading Movies. So now when I go into this all 1600+ movies come up with thumbnails and a press of play plays them.

Series are across 3 drives combined under heading Series. So once again pressing Series all 100+ series come up. Pressing play starts selected episode.

Now when I tried to create the same setup using WD HD Live, the first issue I have is I can not combine multiple drives into one "Movie" folder. Minor issue, but it urks me. My biggest issue is I can not press play on the AMERICAN_PIE folder to start the movie. Now if I create a VIDEO_TS folder under AMERICAN_PIE and place the VOB files in there, pressing play on the AMERICAN_PIE folder now will launch folder.jpg and display the image. I tried to rename folder.jpg to FOLDER.jpg as advised in a form, this did not help. To get to the movie, you must select AMERICAN_PIE, then press play on VIDEO_TS to launch the movie. Not a big issue to some, but after being used to XBMC, this urks me. Also, now that I am able to launch the movies properly, I have noticed that movies, that I know play properly on XBMC, sometimes stop playing for a sec, or skip scenes with WD HD Live. I am using a hard wired network connection and have tried rewinding after the skip and playing again to see if it was just a random hickup. Nope the movies consistently skip or hang in the exact same spot.

Now that I have torn the WD HD Live apart, let me be fair in saying with the few shortcomings I have mentioned, I still love this box. It is small, the menus flow well and are well thought out. WD is constantly releasing new firmware with new features and fixes (which is a breeze to update especially if you have the RJ45 version).
#17
I don't wanna be one of those guys but the xbox is capable of up to 1080i, you just have to buy the component video cable and tweak a few settings with the dashboard and bam, you got HD. I will agree with you however that there are more solutions available that have more potential. I was simply stating that for the money(which he seemed concerned about) is the best solution on the cheap IMO. I still agree that a nettop or something similar would be great as well.
#18
@shmew22,

xbox can not play 1080i or 1080p video. It upscales SD video to 720p or 1080i.

You can play some 720P video on xbox if you encode carefully with xvid or divx, or very carefully with h.264.
#19
ok, i accept defeat. im just saying that the 720p content that i have played has ran fine. haven't tried 1080i/p content. thanks for clarifying.
#20
@shmew22,

I still think you are right to recommend xbox though.

I just bought 6 at a pawn shop for $10 each.

Granted, the DVD didn't work in 3 of them, but still...

For an average of about $15 a piece, I have some damn nice DVD-upscaling media centers.

I just wanted to give the OP a heads-up that if he has a lot of 1080i/p content, xbox isn't the way to go.

Otherwise, there's nothing better.

-Wes
#21
oh yea i couldnt agree more. they make for very nice setups. and 10 bucks on those things is a hellacious deal. good call though on the HD thing though didnt realize it wouldnt play 1080i/p.
#22
Never heard of Boxee til about half hour ago, thought it looked interesting, so donwloaded it and installed it.. noticed it was "powered" by XBMC...

Look a bit like a kiddies version of XBMC. why would you use this rather than XBMC, what does it have to offer that XBMC doesnt.....Huh?

One thing I did like was all of the applications available... as Boxee is powered by XBMC, would all these apps/plugins be available for xbmc, like the web browser etc...

Im new to XBMC, moved over from mediaportal (and glad i did!!).. and have looked for things like a web browser for it, but doesnt seem to be one...
#23
It has an social aspect to it, you can recommend and get recommendations with friends for musick, tv, moves etc.
#24
I completely agree with you for the "kiddish" look but .. boxee has something that XBMC Windows users dream from ages. It sports an excellent dxva gpu acceleration with subtitles support etc! when in XBMC?
#25
What like this Windows GPU acceleration?

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=61355
#26
The acceleration is implemented in a different manner. Boxee does it through ffmpeg. Tiben is doing it through the method usually used in windows. Both have advantages.
#27
think the kiddish look is replaced by a new look in the latest beta (or if that is what you are refering to) the old look/skin was in my eyes more "kiddish" but still it was a good UI to navigate.
#28
If you want to play with boxee without installing. I created my own livecd version:

http://www.xbmcfreak.nl/breaking-news-bo...ecd-beta1/
#29
blittan Wrote:It has an social aspect to it, you can recommend and get recommendations with friends for musick, tv, moves etc.

With respect that isn't the major difference for me.

The biggest difference is that non programmers can create RSS based apps in seconds and those apps can be installed directly from Boxee with the press of the remote.

This is a massive usability boost compared to the SVN repo installer an the incredibly complex way plugins have to written for xbmc.
#30
An example of a particular RSS based app created in "seconds" by a non-programmer would be most welcome. I suspect you exaggerate ever so slightly, but we're definitely wanting to improve that side of XBMC, and if there's a nice solution available, we're interested. Perhaps you could describe clearly how it works?

Cheers,
Jonathan
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Boxee verses XBMC? - Not asking for support, just an pro and cons overview.0