Boxee Offers Major New Features to Apple TV Owners

[MacRumors]

Scott Davilla has released a method to (relatively) easily install Boxee onto your existing Apple TV. The process involves using the atvusb-creator software (Intel Mac only) to create a bootable USB drive which you plug into your Apple TV. That bootloader will subsequently patch your Apple TV to install the Boxee interface as a separate menu option in addition to the existing Apple TV functionality.

Boxee is a free personal media center that offers an alternative and flexible media browser for several platforms. Boxee originated from the XBox Media Center project but has added social networking features and multiple platform support, now including the Apple TV. CNet took an early look at the software back in June and thought it was going to be the "next big thing" in media center software.

So what does Boxee do? If you've ever used Joost, it's somewhat similar. You can plug in feeds of Web videos and browse through them, complete with video thumbnails and meta data. What makes it different is that it taps into your local media like videos, photos, and music you have saved on your hard drive. Both layers of media (online and offline) are wrapped up together with a social network of other Boxee users, so if you like something you're watching you can recommend it to friends.

While the social networking features are nice, Apple TV owners will also enjoy the ability to browse media on their compuetrs, across a network, or on the Internet and playback a wide variety of video/audio formats including hard-drive saved DVD video with menu support. iTunes protected content, of course, is not available under Boxee, but those can still be played with the original Apple TV menu options which are preserved.

A demo video shows off the interface for Boxee. Boxee remains in alpha testing, so users should proceed with caution. At present Boxee is invite-only but users can easily apply and we've been assured that they will try to issue invites "as quickly as possible". Users can also invite other users and we ask that readers focus invite requests in this thread rather than cluttering up the article discussion thread.

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[ChrisA]

One more option: Myth TV also runs on the ATV. So all of you who've been asking of a digital TV recorder could build up a Myth TV system and use the ATV as a client.

More info here:
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-1.html#ss1.1

[GeekLawyer]

If this will take stuff I record in EyeTV and send it to the AppleTV without having to convert it first... My processor(s) will be very, very thankful.

Anyone know if it can??

[Mindflux]

Originally Posted by GeekLawyer

If this will take stuff I record in EyeTV and send it to the AppleTV without having to convert it first... My processor(s) will be very, very thankful.

Anyone know if it can??

If you hack it, load perian and atvfiles sure.

[jdwingnut]

This is good news for Apple and the Apple TV. Anything that gets more of them to sell should be a blessing for Apple as I don't believe this is one of Apple's faster moving products (time will tell).

Not only does this get more people interested in the ATV hardware, but is surely to generate revenue on the back end for Apple thru iTunes. I see this as a win, win for the consumer, the developer and Apple

[klittle32]

Would this make it possible to stream netflix movies on demand to apple tv?

[Peel]

Originally Posted by klittle32

Would this make it possible to stream netflix movies on demand to apple tv?

Oh, wouldn't THAT be sweet! If it did that, I'd run out and get an TV this evening.

[twoodcc]

this sounds great for apple tv owners. if i had one, i'd at least consider installing this

[donlphi]

Just watched the demo. It looks like an interesting interface, but it certainly doesn't look that useful. I guess my question for people planning on installing this is, what is the point, other than just adding another feature? AppleTV already plays my movies (iTunes and non-iTunes), it also plays my music, I can looking at internet photos. I'm not trying to sound like I'm against it, I think I'm just missing the point.

There is a concern of gumming up my ATV for a few additional features that I probably won't use unless I have terabytes of uncompressed, full featured ripped DVDs sitting on a server.

Has anybody installed it an uninstalled it?

[VoR]

I think most people that would take advantage of a media center like xbmc/boxee probably wouldn't have bought an atv in the first place.

If your atv does all you require then you don't need to change anything?
Irrelevant of any features it might bring to you, the main advantage that appeals from switching software is to remove the media limitations.

[Freis968]

While the social networking features are nice, Apple TV owners will also enjoy the ability to browse media on their compuetrs, across a network, or on the Internet and playback a wide variety of video/audio formats including hard-drive saved DVD video with menu support.

I think Handbrake is a nice program, plus it is free, but the thing I REALLY don't like about it is the fact that you lose the menu ability of the DVD. This is a nice feature of this boxee program. I only wish that this could be built into the AppleTV without having to use this program. Or if there was a way to access the DVD WITH full DVD menu via the PS3. I know there is MediaLink in that situation but it does not allow you to access the DVD menu and the DVD is accessible only by "chunks" of files with no rhyme or reason. Regardless of how nice Handrake is and regardless of the size of the data of DVDs I still like the menu asepct of the DVD in that you get scene selections, and all the other goodies that are left out by Handbrake.

[amac4me]

Apple won't like this (at least that what I think)

[Mindflux]

That's pretty sweet. I'm still on the 1.x software though. I need a new TV with more inputs so I don't need to run the component kext hack.

[arn]

a few more notes:

- historically, Apple's AppleTV software updates have been "ok" with these hacks but you can never know
- you can restore to factory default settings if something messes up. (how to)

arn

[iphonewiz]

Very interesting indeed...I love my Apple TV but I wonder if Apple will find some way to break this.

[Philberttheduck]

Ahh, that is one good looking project. Definitely something I'll put on my AppleTV down the road when it's finalized. And like Arn said, you can easily restore it without any real software hacks, just the remote (hold down "-" button and Menu and click restore).

[bennyboi]

wonder if it will play dixv avi files. the current method of getting to play natively is too in depth for me. don't suggest converting the file either I want native playback baby!

[Philberttheduck]

Originally Posted by iphonewiz

Very interesting indeed...I love my Apple TV but I wonder if Apple will find some way to break this.

The only way I see Apple countering this is if they offer something in a future firmware release that is worth upgrading. Really, the only thing I can see is if they allowed a VLC codecs compatibility on the AppleTV, which of course requires upgrading to iTunes 9 or something drastic, and even then this project seems to have taken care of that already, plus more. Basically, it's unlikely that Apple will be able to do much (similar to how people decide whether or not to jailbreak their iPhones after a new firmware release)

[bommai]

Originally Posted by Mindflux

That's pretty sweet. I'm still on the 1.x software though. I need a new TV with more inputs so I don't need to run the component kext hack.

Why would you stay with 1.x software? No reason to! 2.x is way better.

[Mindflux]

Originally Posted by bommai

Why would you stay with 1.x software? No reason to! 2.x is way better.

Becuase I'm using the composite to component kext hack, which at the last time I checked did not work with 2.x. I do not want to start fresh at the moment and once I get a new tv (after I move next week) I'll start fresh with that since I won't need that hack anymore.

[Rireal]

I wanted to note that I've installed XBMC via atvusb-creator (waiting on boxee invite) and I'm having problems with streaming MVK files to ATV over SMB (XBMC does not have an AFP option). I do know, however, that the ATV can play the file fine (~3700kb/s avg bit rate) because changing the container to MOV works fine at the same bit rate. Also, using MOV as a container, I've successfully played ~5000kb/s+ files streaming. I'm currently copying the test MKV file locally to the ATV and will see if the problem persists. Of note, the file plays with the audio at normal speed but the video is in slow motion.

Just an FYI to those asking about HD content.

[tominated]

please tell me there is a way to get plex instead of boxee on ATV. I like both but plex has a better UI, and I have no need for all that social crap in boxee

[donga]

sweet. i hope apple's okay with these new interfaces.

[GeekLawyer]

Originally Posted by tominated

please tell me there is a way to get plex instead of boxee on ATV. I like both but plex has a better UI, and I have no need for all that social crap in boxee

Says Plex:

We believe that it is probably technically possible to get Plex to run on Apple TV hardware. The processor would be underpowered for most HD content, and it would probably perform very closely to the original XBox hardware (unless someone figured out how to utilize the onboard h.264 hardware). While it seems to be technically possible, this team has no plans to support Plex on Apple TV. We are big fans of both Apple and their technology, so we are not willing to engage in anything that Apple could consider "hacking" or encouraging people to hack. Our official recommendation is you want something like Apple TV, either buy an Apple TV, or spend the extra $200 and get a Mac Mini and be able to do both!

http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/FA..._on_AppleTV.3F

[Cave Man]

Originally Posted by tominated

please tell me there is a way to get plex instead of boxee on ATV. I like both but plex has a better UI, and I have no need for all that social crap in boxee

Plex requires 10.5; the ATV runs on 10.4. While I also believe Plex has a nicer interface, XBMC is a bit better at decoding high bit rate video without dropping frames.