People want to do much more with their iPhone then Steve Job allows. So they jailbreak it. The same goes for the Apple TV. While it is a great and relatively cheap media center, it has restrictions, just like the iPhone. Wouldn’t it be nice to play xvid videos, stream shows from Hulu, listen to LastFm, Twitter the name of the movie you are currently watching or see what music your friends are listening to on your big screen TV connected to an Apple TV? Well, you can do that with Boxee!
Boxee is an open source media center, with social networking features, currently in an invite-only alpha stage. It is a fork of XBMC, a media center initially designed for the Xbox, but then ported to run on all major platforms. Boxee runs on Linux, Mac, and soon Windows. You can put it on your AppleTV with a grandma-simple “hack“, with no adverse effects.
What does it do?
As other media center software, Boxee allows you to browse and play media files (movies, music, photos) from local hard-disks or DVD drive and can stream music and videos from the internet or other computers in the network (SMB/SAMBA shares). It supports 1080p HD and it reads virtually any type of media, except DRM-ed files.
Boxee scans your default media folders and downloads the related metadata and artwork for your music and video files. Unfortunately, it doesn’t import your iTunes or iPhoto libraries – a big loss for Mac users.
When playing a song you can choose to see the lyrics (especially useful for a karaoke night) or display information about the band or artist.
Boxee seamlessly integrates with online video, music and photo websites and can actually download public torrent movies. You can also configure media feeds for your favourite podcasts on the Boxee website or choose one from the built-in Podcasts directory.
- Video : CBS, CNN, Comedy Central, Hulu, Movie Trailers, MySpaceTV, Next New Networks, ON networks, Revision3, YouTube.
- Music: Jamendo, Last.fm, NPR, SHOUTcast, BBC.
- Photos: Flickr, Picasa.
Social Features
Boxee wants to turn the TV in to “a social media center”. To achieve that, it gives the users the ability to rate and recommend content to their friends. The dashboard displays friends’ recommendations and the media they’ve recently watched or listened to, facilitating the discovery of new quality content.
On Boxee’s website you can set up your Twitter, FriendFeed or Tumbler account to be updated with the current playing media or media you recommended.
Interface
Boxee is not the first nor the last to bring to the table all the features mentioned earlier. The utility of a media center software is given by how fast and how easy you can get to the media files you want.
Boxee has a very clean and slick interface, and after little time to get used to, the menu is a breeze to navigate, especially if you have an Apple remote. It has no manual so you must figure out how to use the keyboard or the remote, but it’s pretty intuitive.
One key feature of the interface is the sliding panels approach for showing the menu. It uses the screen real estate very efficiently and in terms of usability it may be one of the best solutions for media center software I’ve seen.
What’s the catch?
None! Boxee is and will remain free. The business model is not yet established, but it should be based on content referrals or advertising. Being in Alpha it is buggy and crashes from time to time.
Is this the end of cable/satellite TV? Well, not really. But more and more people watch videos online, in detriment of traditional TV. And now, with media boxes that can stream content from sites like Hulu, for many of us there aren’t many reasons left in favour of cable TV.
Tags: apple tv, boxee, media center, music, videos
I can’t wait to try this, Please try to send me an invite.
Would love an invite as well. Looks promising!
I have an AppleTV and use Hulu a lot. I hope I can get a beta invitation to try it out.
Looks good to me. Send an invite.
Sounds like a great thing! Hopefully I can get in to the beta to check it out.
Have an appleTV I’d appreciate an invite.
Wow Boxee looks awesome, maybe it will become the future of home entertainment.
David
Sounds great.
Id like an invite if you have any spare.
Thanks
Looks awesome, I would really like an invite!
Looks wicked.
Sent invites to everyone so far – I’m letting Bogdan Stroe, the author of the article to continue sending them.
Badass.
What is the photo interface like? Photo browsing is an often overlooked feature in media players that it seems like just about anyone would use if it was easy and good enough.
day late, 43 replies short. but if by some chance you are still hitting people off, it would definitely make me a happy man. thanks.
I’m a big fan of XBMC and have been looking for a smaller unit to mount on the wall behind my plasma screen – this looks like the answer – send me an invite please if you still have any.
Thanks a lot!
Been following Boxee for a few weeks now, looks very, very promising. Would love an invite if any still remain!
Love an invite if any are still available!
Can Boxee read RAR files? I love how XBMC can and I never have to un-rar anything does boxee do the same thing?
awesome
on the off chance that you guys have 70 invites. here’s my comment
amazing, I love my apple tv but this look awesome!
*crosses fingers hoping there are still invites left
I would love to give this a shot on my Apple TV. Here’s to the revolution of television.
please send an invite to boxee, would love to compare to hulu!
Been following boxee for a while and would like an invite if you guys still got one.
Cheers
Looks awesome. Send me an invite!
sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet gimme invite
Would love an invite please!
I’d love an invite! Thanks for the reporting you guys do, this is awesome!
If theres any more invites left.. i want one
Using XBMC on my AppleTv and its great, but I would really like to try boxee out. 
I already have it installed..
Cool!! I’m at college and would love an invite.
I would love an invite!! This looks amazing!
One day will not need cable, that will be a good thing!!!
Like and invite
thanks
Cable TV era is close to being over, soon everyone will watch video on demand or TV in thair browsers. A good example of online TV website is: http://www.chooseandwatch.com/
Sounds promising. I’m really interested in trying this out.
invite please!
I’ve been thrilled with Hulu for the past 6 months, since I killed my DirecTv and rely only on Hulu and Netflix DVDs and instant view. I’ll never go back if I can get away with it! I’ll definitely be checking out this setup!!
sounds pretty cool. my girlfriend was asking me about this kind of solution the other day. this could be her answer.
an invite would be radical.
This sounds like a nice replacement for my MythTV setup. Could I have an invite please?
Boxee sounds great! I’d love an invite. It will be great when this gets added into xbmc though
Would love an invite to this. I was just saying yesterday that somebody should make something like this and now they have. I would test the hell out of this.
I would love an invite. Thanks!
Due to the very large number of requests it may take a couple of hours for you to receive the invite.
Thanks everyone for your support!
Maybe the end of TV in the US, but not around the world, thanks to Hulu which region-lock their content.
I’ve been looking to find something like orb for the mac. This looks promising.
I just put Boxee on my hacked apple tv last weekend… I’m going to cancel my cable, there really isn’t any point anymore. HULU is seemless, works really well… I wouldn’t mind a little better quality in the video, but i can deal with it for now.
awesome
So awesome. TV and the internet perfectly integrated. I may never leave home again. Next round of beta testing, plmk.
I’d like to test this..
Very cool – dying to try this out. Any help with an invite? Thanks!
I would like an invite if you have any left thanks!