I never bothered with an AppleTV or Boxee because I have all of my Blu-rays ripped to my server (which AppleTV can't play), so I bought a 2009 Mini and added Plex. I have been nothing but satisfied. It just works, and it works well. I tried XBMC for a little while, but I prefer Plex.
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Plex vs. Boxee vs. XBMC - which is best?
- Thread starter m021478
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I have XBMC/Boxee installed on my TV, and have installed Plex on my iMac , but have not used it for more than an hour or so.
XBMC on TV:
Pros: Good for non-HD content. I have a few hundred movies and TV shows, and my favorite feature is being able to put my 'Kids shows' folder on random - instant Nickelodeon/Sprout channel w/ no commercials. iPhone/iPod Touch Remote
My setup: I have XBMC running on my iMac (which is on 24/7), set up as a unpnp server. All media is on an External 1TB drive (which backs up nightly to a second 1 TB drive via Chronosync). XBMC on my TV connects as a unpnp client, so all content is streamed.
Cons: HD content stutters, and the audio goes out of sync. Can't figure out how to tap into music/pictures from iTunes/iPhoto (I just reboot into the normal TV mode for that)
Boxee on TV:
Pros: Streaming video, iPhone/iPod Touch remote.
Cons: S-L-O-W - especially if you need to rewind/fastforward. If you are just pausing/playing, it's fine though.
I don't really use Boxee very much, since most shows I already have on TiVo (I know, I'm cheating), or I'll just fire up Hulu on my iMac.
Plex not on TV:
If/When I upgrade to a Mac Mini, this is what I'm going to use as the frontend instead of XBMC. It's really slick, but doesn't run on TV's anemic hardware.
XBMC on TV:
Pros: Good for non-HD content. I have a few hundred movies and TV shows, and my favorite feature is being able to put my 'Kids shows' folder on random - instant Nickelodeon/Sprout channel w/ no commercials. iPhone/iPod Touch Remote
My setup: I have XBMC running on my iMac (which is on 24/7), set up as a unpnp server. All media is on an External 1TB drive (which backs up nightly to a second 1 TB drive via Chronosync). XBMC on my TV connects as a unpnp client, so all content is streamed.
Cons: HD content stutters, and the audio goes out of sync. Can't figure out how to tap into music/pictures from iTunes/iPhoto (I just reboot into the normal TV mode for that)
Boxee on TV:
Pros: Streaming video, iPhone/iPod Touch remote.
Cons: S-L-O-W - especially if you need to rewind/fastforward. If you are just pausing/playing, it's fine though.
I don't really use Boxee very much, since most shows I already have on TiVo (I know, I'm cheating), or I'll just fire up Hulu on my iMac.
Plex not on TV:
If/When I upgrade to a Mac Mini, this is what I'm going to use as the frontend instead of XBMC. It's really slick, but doesn't run on TV's anemic hardware.
Plex for the following reasons:
1) It actually scrapes the metadata for my files properly
2) Seamless integration of local and remote iTunes libraries
3) Their 'App Store' is genuinely useful and provides quite a few useful plugins for streaming media
1) It actually scrapes the metadata for my files properly
2) Seamless integration of local and remote iTunes libraries
3) Their 'App Store' is genuinely useful and provides quite a few useful plugins for streaming media
Chris Rogers
macrumors 6502a
i have a few video files roughly 1.5 GB each that Plex or Boxee won't play more than 3 seconds of. Any idea why?
stop trying to hijack this thread... your question is completely unrelated to the original post...post your question elsewhere.
Thanks!
Plex rocks!
I had Boxee installed first on my iMac. It missnamed half my movies. Then they lost Hulu. I did not care much for the interface and it tended to lock up when I tried to exit it.
I installed plex about a month later and have not looked back. The instructional videos had me up and running in no time. If there was an issue I just look at the trouble shooting videos or the forum and there is a simple resolve. It misnamed one movie so I followed the fix shown on the video to rename it according to IMDB and it works perfectly.
I then bought two Mac Minis and installed plex on both.
The interface is great. It drills down similar to Tivo. My six year old taught my wife to use it while I was at work.
I set up my Hulu account to show all shows in 480p and the picture is much better than the standard Direct TV picture on my Sharp 46". I've got about 60 of my DVDs ripped to an external 1.5 Tb hdd. I used Handbrake in the appletv mode. The files run 1.5 to 3 gb in size. They play fine and look great.
I had Boxee installed first on my iMac. It missnamed half my movies. Then they lost Hulu. I did not care much for the interface and it tended to lock up when I tried to exit it.
I installed plex about a month later and have not looked back. The instructional videos had me up and running in no time. If there was an issue I just look at the trouble shooting videos or the forum and there is a simple resolve. It misnamed one movie so I followed the fix shown on the video to rename it according to IMDB and it works perfectly.
I then bought two Mac Minis and installed plex on both.
The interface is great. It drills down similar to Tivo. My six year old taught my wife to use it while I was at work.
I set up my Hulu account to show all shows in 480p and the picture is much better than the standard Direct TV picture on my Sharp 46". I've got about 60 of my DVDs ripped to an external 1.5 Tb hdd. I used Handbrake in the appletv mode. The files run 1.5 to 3 gb in size. They play fine and look great.
Chris Rogers
macrumors 6502a
Wasn't looking for IT Support.
I was looking more for "With Plex/Boxee and these types of files, you need....." Which would contribute towards an opinion of one over another, or even a different program altogether.
I should have been more clear. But thanks anyway.
Plex (and I'm assuming Boxee since they are both forked from XBMC) can play files much larger than 1.5 GB. I believe they can also play any file that ffmpeg supports. So you would need to give us more details about what type of files you're having problems with.
I'm torn between all Plex, Boxee and Front Row, actually. I use iTunes to manage all my music and movies, and pictures are in iPhoto. Because of this, it seems I'm basically stuck with using Front Row for my digital media. Boxee is better than Plex with photos (if I recall,) but both are pretty bad. I don't want to have to rename my movies so the information can be pulled from IMDB... that's why I've spent so much time using Lostify to get the metadata correctly entered.
For me, Plex and Boxee serve one purpose: streaming online content. I prefer Boxee's navigation (not a lot of menus to drill down through, and I find it easier to locate content I want to watch.) I think Plex looks nicer, and they have some really great apps for streamed content (Bill Moyers' Journal, Charlie Rose.) Boxee offers CBS, WB, and Discovery Channel podcasts. Also, when it comes to Hulu... Boxee allows you to jump to a letter, which is much easier than scrolling through everything. I may end up using Hulu desktop anyhow, though.
If Plex could tie into iTunes and iPhoto seamlessly, I'd probably be done with Front Row and Boxee both. And while I find Plex's apps/content more desirable, it's not enough to be completely through with Boxee, and definitely not enough to be done with Front Row.
For me, Plex and Boxee serve one purpose: streaming online content. I prefer Boxee's navigation (not a lot of menus to drill down through, and I find it easier to locate content I want to watch.) I think Plex looks nicer, and they have some really great apps for streamed content (Bill Moyers' Journal, Charlie Rose.) Boxee offers CBS, WB, and Discovery Channel podcasts. Also, when it comes to Hulu... Boxee allows you to jump to a letter, which is much easier than scrolling through everything. I may end up using Hulu desktop anyhow, though.
If Plex could tie into iTunes and iPhoto seamlessly, I'd probably be done with Front Row and Boxee both. And while I find Plex's apps/content more desirable, it's not enough to be completely through with Boxee, and definitely not enough to be done with Front Row.
Because it's a mac forum and totally caters for that crowd? 🙂
I don't think that many people on this forum run xbmc/plex/boxee anyway, certainly don't talk about it 'too' much.
I use xbmc. It works brilliantly, has a huge community and most importantly, has and will have endless development from many very talented folks.
I really didn't think much of elan when he forked off xbmc, and from what little I've tried - it seems to be pretty much the same thing, with more quirks, out of date (compared to xbmc trunk) with a closed source add-ons manager.
As far as I can tell XBMC and Plex are both fairly similar in how they work. Plex is supposed to be optimized to run Mac OS though.
I currently use Plex and think it's pretty sweet. It's not perfect but I like it.
Plex is supposed to be in a major re-write of the library right now. The developers are promising some great stuff, but have been pretty tight lipped. Elan recently posted an update in his blog.
Unfortunately they aren't saying anything about a release date for version 9. Might be soon, but could be months away. 🙁
I use XBMC on my AppleTV. It works great for my large library of non-HD movies, all with a slick easy to use interface. Another reason I use it is because I'm not interested in social features/apps/channels that the other options offer. I didn't like Boxee as much for local playback only. Never tried Plex.
I love Plex. I stumbled across it watching some YouTube videos on how to turn your Mac Mini into a Media Centre - which is what I want to do later this year/when I move out and get my own apartment.
There was a bit of trouble getting it to recognise my TV files etc, but after reading the FAQ's, watching the video instructions etc, it was soon sorted and looking fantastic.
I love the interface, the way it can be skinned, the IMDB/TVDB integration, the fan art downloads along with the different artworks available and the fact you can put your own images as fan artwork - like I've done for a cool LOST wallpaper that I found. The BBC iPlayer application on it is great, too.
I've managed to rip the majority of my DVD collection to my external hard drive (and the movies to the iTunes movie folder) using Handbrake with relative ease. I've just begun to run out of space though, so I'll have to invest in a new 1TB/2TB external hard drive at some point in time to store everything on. Or, 2x 1TB drives, with the second one acting as a backup.
Either way, it's made it a hell of a lot easier to watch my DVDs and whatnot. For example now, I'm watching a few Arrested Development episodes from Season 1 after having previously watched an episode of Dexter S1.
Also, perhaps the best thing I've found for use with Plex is the "Hippo Pro" remote control app from the App Store that I use on my iPod Touch when I hook my MBP up to my TV in the evening to watch things through - TV is next to my desk. It has pre-set remotes for OSX itself, Safari, Plex, iTunes and others. A fantastic App. Probably the best I've ever purchased.
There was a bit of trouble getting it to recognise my TV files etc, but after reading the FAQ's, watching the video instructions etc, it was soon sorted and looking fantastic.
I love the interface, the way it can be skinned, the IMDB/TVDB integration, the fan art downloads along with the different artworks available and the fact you can put your own images as fan artwork - like I've done for a cool LOST wallpaper that I found. The BBC iPlayer application on it is great, too.
I've managed to rip the majority of my DVD collection to my external hard drive (and the movies to the iTunes movie folder) using Handbrake with relative ease. I've just begun to run out of space though, so I'll have to invest in a new 1TB/2TB external hard drive at some point in time to store everything on. Or, 2x 1TB drives, with the second one acting as a backup.
Either way, it's made it a hell of a lot easier to watch my DVDs and whatnot. For example now, I'm watching a few Arrested Development episodes from Season 1 after having previously watched an episode of Dexter S1.
Also, perhaps the best thing I've found for use with Plex is the "Hippo Pro" remote control app from the App Store that I use on my iPod Touch when I hook my MBP up to my TV in the evening to watch things through - TV is next to my desk. It has pre-set remotes for OSX itself, Safari, Plex, iTunes and others. A fantastic App. Probably the best I've ever purchased.
try them, you probably won't like them
I haven't tried Boxee yet. But I have tried XBMC and Plex.
I have TiVo HD boxes in the house, and I really like the way I can FF, REW, go back 8 seconds, skip ahead 30 seconds, etc. Both XBMC and Plex are far inferior to TiVo in terms of navigation within a program. Also when I try to do a lot of file positioning in Plex it tends to get really confused and loops on the content for a while. XBMC seems better behaved.
My program sources for my experiments were DVDs and HD MPEG files download from a TiVo. So YMMV.
Apple has recently enabled hardware support for H.264 decoding. Plex has already taken advantage of this. This allows smoother playback of HD media. This could be an important consideration for some people.
I haven't tried Boxee yet. But I have tried XBMC and Plex.
I have TiVo HD boxes in the house, and I really like the way I can FF, REW, go back 8 seconds, skip ahead 30 seconds, etc. Both XBMC and Plex are far inferior to TiVo in terms of navigation within a program. Also when I try to do a lot of file positioning in Plex it tends to get really confused and loops on the content for a while. XBMC seems better behaved.
My program sources for my experiments were DVDs and HD MPEG files download from a TiVo. So YMMV.
Apple has recently enabled hardware support for H.264 decoding. Plex has already taken advantage of this. This allows smoother playback of HD media. This could be an important consideration for some people.
So true or false Boxee is geared more for streaming content while Plex is setup more for iPhoto/iTunes?
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I'm going with plex.
Boxee seemed too meh..the whole layout and everything.
Xbmc seemed like it was missing something...but plex is just wow.
I'm going with plex.
Boxee seemed too meh..the whole layout and everything.
Xbmc seemed like it was missing something...but plex is just wow.
Sky Blue
Guest
Don't know about Boxee to be honest, but Plex is for streaming web video (Hulu, Netflix etc.), playing local content (DVD rips, MP4) as well as iTunes/iPhoto integration.
I upgraded from a Popcorn Hour A-110 video player (An aTV competitor, but vastly more flexible), to one of the new Mac Mini's with HDMI, and Plex. I tried XBMC first, but Plex is just a lot more refined on a Mac. Love having full HDMI support (with audio!) without adapters and audio-injectors.
In my case, most of my content was already pre-ripped, mostly 720p H.264, in MKVs, sitting on my PC, organized by folder. It was trivial to use the built-in SMB client in Plex, to connect up to my Desktop. I really don't care about all the meta-data / movie poster heavy navigation. I already have a well-organized folder structure. It's all I need.
Most of my MKV movies (ripped via Handbrake, re-muxed via MKVTools) have built-in subtitles and multiple audio streams. Plex handles all of these flawlessly. In addition, I can now play WMV content that previously would not work with any other set-top player I have seen.
Navigation is lightning fast. So is playing a file, even over the LAN. I've used aTV, and it's painfully slow.
The Netflix integration is superior to my BD player's built-in support. Navigation is lightning fast. iTunes integration is great when using local syncing and sharing a library between my PC and my Mini. I can flip into Front Row from within Plex if I so choose. Mac sleeping is configurable from within Plex.
Occasionally the remote navigation flakes out, and I need to restart Plex. Doesn't happen that often.
Plex is in the middle of a complete UI re-write. It will pretty much slough off anything left from XBMC, and will allow you to configure your library from a traditional Cocoa app, without having to use the 10-foot UI of Plex.
In my case, most of my content was already pre-ripped, mostly 720p H.264, in MKVs, sitting on my PC, organized by folder. It was trivial to use the built-in SMB client in Plex, to connect up to my Desktop. I really don't care about all the meta-data / movie poster heavy navigation. I already have a well-organized folder structure. It's all I need.
Most of my MKV movies (ripped via Handbrake, re-muxed via MKVTools) have built-in subtitles and multiple audio streams. Plex handles all of these flawlessly. In addition, I can now play WMV content that previously would not work with any other set-top player I have seen.
Navigation is lightning fast. So is playing a file, even over the LAN. I've used aTV, and it's painfully slow.
The Netflix integration is superior to my BD player's built-in support. Navigation is lightning fast. iTunes integration is great when using local syncing and sharing a library between my PC and my Mini. I can flip into Front Row from within Plex if I so choose. Mac sleeping is configurable from within Plex.
Occasionally the remote navigation flakes out, and I need to restart Plex. Doesn't happen that often.
Plex is in the middle of a complete UI re-write. It will pretty much slough off anything left from XBMC, and will allow you to configure your library from a traditional Cocoa app, without having to use the 10-foot UI of Plex.
Plex hands down. Dedicated and active developer community. Works great. But most importantly, Boxee requires registration and has stupid social networking aspects. I have no interest in sharing my TV watching habits with the world.
jmpage2
macrumors 68040
Plex can play your audio files that were purchased from iTunes with no problems. It actually sees your entire iTunes library including playlists, etc.
As to video, well, no 3rd party utility can play DRM content from iTunes, but Plex can be configured to launch Front Row and play your iTunes DRM content there.
All of this begs the question of why bother with iTunes in the first place. Far better to rip the purchased BD in full quality and just stream it to the Mac with Plex.
until apple allows 3rd party software to play their files, none of their content will be on my mac mini