The Alpha version of Boxee for OSX just became available.
Boxee is a Media Player / Social network that is built on top of XBMC. I have only just downloaded the Alpha and installed it on my MacBook Pro but since i dont have a internet connection where i am at the moment i cant really test any thing out until i get home later tonight.
The interesting thing here is its been in development for a while so this is effectivly a seperate port of XBMC for OSX… basically it looks like a xbmc installation with a heap of custom plugins and scripts… There may be a lot of ideas that can be borrowed for this project.
Given Team XBMC’s recent issues with the OSXBMC team over making source available you’d assume we’ll have access to the source for Boxee since Team XBMC have know about this project for a while…
I’ve already tried moving the Boxee skin into my OSXBMC directory and it sorta worked… next to try is the scripts and plugins…
anyways check out http://boxee.tv/ and see what you think…
I signed up for the alpha… I’ll see what I get.
PM me your email... i'll see if i can send you an invite from inside my account...
The option is there just not sure how immediate it is...
also... Just had another look around the Boxee site and the source code is available
[http://app.boxee.tv/download/source](http://app.boxee.tv/download/source)
You do need a login to get at it though....
Just to clarify, it is not a separate port. It's based on the original OS X port checked into SVN, plus (possibly) some of the changes in Git.
I’ve been playing with the Mac alpha release of boxee this morning and while there are some bits I like (the skin is quite nice in places, its got really good internet video/music sections) theres plenty I just dont like at all (the whole social networking bit for a start :blink:)
Personally I don’t see the point of having a socially aware media center. I just want something that has a good library, plays all my types of media, looks good (Aeon!) and is simple enough for the wife to understand. If you have to login to a profile (hello boxee) to even start the thing its too complex for her to understand.
Still its nice to see some competition in the market for the best Mac Media Center…
Got to agree not too sure about the social networking side of things but there is still a lot to like here…
For me the stand out features…
- Built in movie downloads…built in torrent client… Just awesome…
- Watch folders… basically you set up your source folders and any media items are automatically added into the library…we need to borrow the code for this…
Can someone please explain to me why having a torrent client or other potentially 'grey area' tool is worth it? :mellow:
Whats the point? Why not keep it a MEDIA center and not bloat either the code or interface with stuff thats better suited elsewhere?
Here here.
Hello all…
was wondering if you guys would be willing to post some ‘screenies’ of boxee. I’m curious but my original xbox is the only XBMC i have running currently (until my new Mac-Mini arrives). hehe
Thanks
-chris
When you download Boxee you get a huge click through NDA... I dunno if they want screen shots floating around yet or not.
I think having a torrent client in it is bloated in a way. While I don’t mind, since I’m getting a deticated Mini for a media center, as opposed to the one I use for everything now. It would be less taxing on my other Mini. Asking for an invite b33st, thanks.
does anyone have any invites remaining?
i submitted a request after they ended the first round and have not seen any news since
@xOrphenochx
If I’m controlling torrents from XBMC, I’d rather just have a torrent client running in the background looking for .torrent files in a specified directory, and give XBMC the ability to read rss feeds and save files linked to such feeds. This gets an extra benefit, since if you’re doing this, you can also theoretically connect to your HTPC via SMB of AFP, and upload .torrent files to be grabbed by your torrent client.
Boxee uses rtorrent running pretty much exactly as you describe - all it does is dump .torrents in a folder that rtorrent monitors, and retrieves the information about downloads from the usual rtorrent API.
Social Networking!!! :wacko: :wacko:
Are there not a billion of those web sites available now???
I want a media center to do media center stuff. Play music, movies, and view pics. That’s it.
I could care less what every other jerky is doing with their media or even what media they have.
Down with Boxee I say!!! 
Elan, send Barkley over to crap on their code and pee on their servers!!! 
Some screen shots here...
[http://lifehacker.com/396382/boxee-is-xbmc...nd-social-flair](http://lifehacker.com/396382/boxee-is-xbmc-with-newer-look-and-social-flair)
M.
I can't help replying, even if I found this a week later.
I had this same argument back when I had separate items. I had my Xbox with XBMC for playing content. My Synology network disk for media storage and my Mac for downloading content.
Now with OSXBMC I not only can have it all together but I actively want to.
I want my mac mini, with a stackable external disk mounted for the media, which is shared to the network for my other macs. I also want THAT mac mini for downloading automated content (TVShows).
Having it all together is, to me, a bonus.
I currently have it all together but I use a bunch of tools for the same purpose:
[list]
[*]TVShows for automatically downloading TV episode torrents.
[*]Transmission picks up the torrent file from a dir, downloads the episode, puts it in a separate folder.
[*]I pick up the .AVIs from the folder and rename them automatically with tvrenamer.pl from Rob Meerman
[*]I move the file to its appropriate location "/TV/TV Show/TV Show Season/."
[*]I download the subtitles for it automatically with a program I made that interacts with opensubtitles.com
[*]I have OSXBMC to automatically scan for new content
[/list]
This means that, for me, this whole process has become transparent for tv shows. I just have XBMC opened and all episodes are there, including new ones, renamed and with subtitles and thumbs and info.
This also means I have had to re-think my original reasons for having things separate. Is there an actual reason for me now to have things separate? No, there isn't. Not in my current set-up. What I thought was a preference before in reality turned out to be the best approach for my set-up then. My set-up has changed so I had to re-evaluate my whole installation.
I wouldn't switch back for anything now. My Mac mini is self-reliant and everything is self-contained. I have now realized I kept content separate from my media center because it couldn't cope with it.
And the best part is that I haven't sacrificed one bit of functionality. I can still download in other machines if I want. I can have mounted network drives if I want to.
One thing that hasn't really been mentioned is that OSXBMC (and Boxee, I guess) opens the market for complementary tools that run in the background in the mac that weren't possible in the classic X-Box. Some of these we're already seeing but there's still a lot that can be done.
I have even considered a version of my set-up above that runs as a single program and feeds OSXBMC in the background. Pushing a "search for new content" order when new content becomes available.
I must also put in a little note here. Even though I hate the fact that OSXBMC would move to close with Social Interaction, there are some things that would absolutely kick ass if it made it into OSXBMC.
I have to friends which uses XBMC. We have drifted a part geographically, and we do not talk or chat that often. But we still a share an obsession of new series and movies… which sometimes tend to be not… big Hollywood movies. If I mention movies as Bubba Ho Tep http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281686/ and the likes you will understand what I mean. They are not movies or series that you would hear of in the papers or movie-sites that often.
I have noticed that I miss a lot of excellent series or movies when I finally meet or talk to these guys. If osxbmc would have a feature where you can add your friends, and be able to tag your newly discovered movie or TV show as “Recommend to friends”… that would be amazing.
When I start up OSXBMC, and find a notification that my friend have recommended a new show, well that would be supersweet.
All other social interaction is for me unnessecary.
When thinking about this it occurred to me that this type of interaction is not different to what last.fm offers and, as such, it's also a good candidate to being a third-party service that can, or not, be added through a plug-in or extension.
I don't need "social" features within XBMC itself, like I don't need it downloading Torrents. The results of social tools, though, can benefit XBMC in the form of plugins and apps (like Last.FM, Youtube, flickr, etc.) in the same way XBMC benefits on the result of torrent download programs.
It's complementary, but the only parts that should be in XBMC are the ones relevant to it.
In the same way having a plugin that shows you when you have new mail is an interesting idea but having an email client in XBMC is not.
By the way, I signed up for the alpha and got a download link in, like, five minutes.
I know it’s all for the best and all, but I hate to see parallel efforts wasted. Forking from the main XBMC branch was OK but having two versions geared for the mac based on the same codebase seems like a wasted effort.
Boxee seems to be focusing on mac integration outside normal XBMC workings. OSXBMC seems to be going through a rock-solid release route and bug-squashing.
Currently Boxee is benefitting from OSXBMC’s fixes. I wonder if some of their specific plug-ins will be made available separately, or the theme.
BTW, I’m not arguing here pro-licensing or pro-sharing code. Just mentioning that it’s possible both teams are attacking the same issues and not going in obviously different directions.
