This being a Plex forum I understand that most of you folks are biased toward Plex, but I wonder if someone who has experience with both could outline the pros and cons of each. How do they stack up against eachother in terms of features, active development, stability, extensibility, compatibility, and all the other ilities. Why might someone choose XBMC over Plex? Why might they choose Plex over XBMC?
Thanks.
PS I found what seems to be a good video review of XBMC and Boxee. Boxee is another one I need to look in to more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1JwI0dhpAg
-Dustin
I stopped the review the minute the guy started enthusing about the boxee ui… 
If they don't have a mac, then they wont be able to use Plex. I actually bought my mac mini just for Plex. I did that over windows/linux because of the form factor/noise of the mac mini. Its a pretty little box that can sit quietly without looking out of place. It has digital audio out and built in IR. I tried for years to get a linux box to work correctly with ir and 5.1 audio - to no avail, the mac mini "just worked". I didn't use an xbox because it is underpowered. I didnt choose something like a popcorn hour because I like fiddling/hacking. I also wanted an opportunity to learn macosx which I hadnt previously played with.
So once I had decided on the mac-mini as my hardware I had to choose between plex, xbmc for mac or boxee. I find the boxee UI just plain ugly. Most people that see m setup love the way plex looks, as soon as I switch over to boxee they tend to turn off. It is a functional UI - but its trying to do too much I think, and instantly looks like a computer application - not a home theatre solution. The features that boxee has are very nice - but the quality of all the internet feeds is just too low for me to be watching regularly, maybe in a few years our bandwidth and things like netflix and hulu will be where I want them to be (netflix is already there on the 360...but that quality is not the same as through boxee...). So that leaves plex versus xbmc for mac. This decision is pretty easy - as on a mac you are probably using itunes. So why would you not want Itunes support? Also, I have a harmony remote so since the harmony support was integrated my mind was made up - Plex is the only media center for me...for now ;)
I also feel that the Plex development team are working really hard and providing frequent updates to keep plex slightly ahead of the curve from the xbmc mac version. I'm really looking forward to seeing more internet streaming capabilites in Plex for the odd occasion I want to watch a netflix movie.
Sorry for the long post! Hope its helpful.
That’s very helpful. Thanks, Steve. I asked the same question on the XBMC forums and the general consensus there was that if I’m using a Mac (which I am) then I’m better off using Plex.
Maybe a more interesting comparison would be running XMBC on Linux on Mac hardware - which'd be something I would like to read about.
yea the only real reason to check out Boxee is if you watch a ton of online content. Other than that the interface doesn’t do it for me, and I hate the way it brings in media.
Plex on the other hand has much more class, and I appreciate the flexibility it gives you. I also love how it integrates with iTunes and iPhoto. I know the devs are hard at work implementing new features like improved online video access and such. Plus when the new Aeon skin “stark” comes out you’ll have not only one of the best functioning media centers, but one of the best looking as well.
Thanks for the info guys. Aeon Stark looks awesome, I’ll definitely keep my eyes peeled for its release.
I don’t have my external drive yet, but I installed Boxee the other day just to play around with it and I’m getting some serious lag when running it. The mouse moves slowly, Boxee sometimes locks up completely. Who knows, maybe it’s a known bug and they’re working on it. I do watch my fair share of Hulu and Youtube, so I like Boxee as an access point to those sites.
Mark, when you say you hate the way it brings in media, what exactly do you mean by that?
I’ll probably end up running Plex as my primary MC, and keeping Boxee around just to play with and keep tabs on the progress they make on it. It has promise.
in plex you are able to give it a folder or series of folders and tell the program that the content inside are movies or tv show or whatever. plex will scan the information and shows you that it’s scanning.
in boxee it’s not that specific, and it does everything in the background, so you are unable to see what it’s doing or how far along it is. also it seems to mess up or skip a lot of media. pretty frustrating.
i for one value presentation of movies and tv shows that i have on my hard drives and so i appreciate Plex because of the ease of access to, and the great presentation it gives you for this content.
And like i already said, internet video integration is most likely coming soon, so no worries. Over the next year Plex will only solidify itself as the most impressive media center on the mac. but competition in all forms is good so best of wishes to Boxee and what’s it’s doing.
The iLife-support is a big difference.
Dustin, read the xmbc forums. Those guys are real elitist jerks, and I can see why the Mac developers left. That being said, you will have much better OSX support with Plex than you will with XMBC
Maybe this new release will end the debate once and for all?
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