Boxee etc

I have previously mentioned that we now can easily hack the Apple TV with atvusb-creator which install both XMBC and Boxee. Now that Boxee has been updated and that I have finally received an invite for the testing, I would like to talk a little more about it.

Boxee is a social media center based on the popular XBMC. It allows you to play videos, music and pictures from your own computer or from the internet (streaming content from websites like Hulu, CBS, BBC, Comedy Central, Last.fm and flickr). Its “social” aspect means that you can share with your “friends” whatever media you're listening to or watching and send them your recommandations. So, basically, it is exactly the same type of media entertainment center than XBMC, but with a fancier interface and the social twist.


I like the general look of Boxee, particularly the way you can browse through your media library, but I prefer the XMBC video player which is simpler and seems to provide a better picture. Like XMBC, it is controled through the ATV remote which is too simple to offer a comfortable experience (but apparently you can pair it with a different remote). I particularly like the fact that Boxee offer much more streaming websites and a much easier interface to browse them, but unfortunately many of those websites (like Hulu) have geofilters and can be watched only from the USA. All in all, I prefer XMBC. I don't feel I have any use for Boxee, but I'll continue to play with it once in a while (after all atvusb-creator install both Boxee and XMBC) and it might grow on me. In any cases, I recommand you to try it.

Apple recently updated the AppleTV operating system to version 2.3, which forced me to use the Terminal application for the first time (to send to the ATV commands in Unix source code) in order to prevent my ATV to auto-update until a newer version of atvusb-creator was created. Then I had to send the code to force the ATV to update its OS, before finally installing the new version of atvusb-creator compatible with the new OS. Complicated for someone who's not used to deal with those command codes. But I survived and the ATV is now working again (with XMBC).

I also discovered that atvusb-creator now also install SofwareMenu, an application that facilitate the installation and update of plugins like ATVfiles (a file browser), CouchSurfer (a web browser) and nitoTV (a video player, which would allow to play video without the need of XMBC). Unfortunately, most of those plugins are still not compatible with the ATV OS 2.3 and their installation made the ATV crashed, so I had to use Terminal again to remove them (not without difficulty, but I finally succeeded thanks to the help from atvusb-creator's developpers). Once this problem is fixed, those plugins will be quite useful for sure, but for now I'll be more prudent and avoid install new stuff.