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Boxee Box Owner's Thread - Reviews, tips, tricks, bugs and feature requests - Page 9

post #241 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:33pm
So, there seems to be a lot of probles with streaming DB isos and bitstreaming Dolby True HD, correct?

Hope it gets resolved cuz all my BD rips are isos. My Popbox has no issues streaming BD isos. It has a lot of other issues, but BD iso playback is not one of them
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post #242 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elisemory View Post

Please try this - when you see the rebuffering, seek forward (press right on the remote). Does this solve the problem? (This is just for testing, not the proper way ofc).

nope, pausing. ff, req dont make anything better

Sean
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post #243 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:35pm
Can anyone comment on the browser? Any feedback at all.
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post #244 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:45pm
My local files played well initially. A couple apps worked pretty well, but then they started getting unwatchable - extremely choppy, and then when I would go to a new app, the old one would still be there while the new one tried to start. Now even my local videos are choppy, and take up only part of the screen while other weird stuff and images from previously played videos remains on part of the screen. I've never used the Boxee software on my computer before, so I'm new at this, but something seems really wrong.
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post #245 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:45pm
Here's something else really anonying. Looks like the sorting options in the music GUI are gone. I can't sort by date, or anything. This was one of the best parts.

also seems there is no way to create a audio playlist either....

so far, boxee does its XBMC roots injustice as a music player.

Sean
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post #246 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:45pm
OK I see lots of reports of streaming files,does anyone have a HD connected directly to the Box? If so have you tested 720/1080p? I dont have my storage networked as of yet, so my HD will be directly connected to the Boxee Box, just trying to see if people are experiencing the same issues with a direct connection with 720p/1080p MKVs and or AVi files. Mine isnt due until next week so I wont be able to test until then, but Id like to know what I am getting into before then .
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post #247 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elixxxer View Post

Can anyone comment on the browser? Any feedback at all.

its slow as hell loading pages....

I tried desperate housewives on ABC.com

and CSI via fancast.

neither presented a watchable picture that was not stuttering and CSI had 0 audio and housewives was stuttering.

both are playing fine on my PC sitting right here plugged into the same switch.

Sean
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post #248 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elisemory View Post

Hi aaronwt,

Which software are you using to create those ISOs? Was the "9" ISO created with the same one?

Eli.

I run Any DVD HD and they are full 1:1 BD ISO rips.
Mostly it's through My Movies(which is using Any DVD HD in the background)
or IMG Burn(which still has Any DVD HD running in the background)

But it could be that the ones created using Image burn are working since I've only found 5 Bd ISos out of around 70 I've tried now that will work.

But on those five there was a buffering issue when playing it where it would have to re buffer every few seconds.
With the two high bitrate MKVs I tried there were zero isssues.

But back to the BD ISos. They will all play on all the media players I've used, Xtreamer, C200, A200, PopBox, Dune Base 3.0 and Dune Prime 3.0.
So if there is something different between using IMG Burn or My Movies it has no effect on the other media players playback of the BD ISOs.
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post #249 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:52pm
Thread Starter 
Okay, it's here, time to get to work!

Attachment 190859
Attachment 190860
LL
LL
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post #250 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:52pm
Just set mine up and heres a quick take on my initial findings, for online content it rocks. However the shape Ahhh!!!!! the fan can be heard from all four corners of a quite bedroom.... not a problem when playing, but have to shut Boxee down to sleep. BD ISO some play, some do nothing and some cause the Boxee to reboot. The ones that play, continually stop and start every few minutes/seconds (maybe its scanning, will retry later). I just took back a WDTVLive Hub which was a pain to network but played BD ISO with no stop start on the exact same wired cable I am using for the Boxee. Basically if I could merge my Dune Prime with the Boxee Box bingo.... not being able to play my BD ISO well is a problem... but getting at the online content really rocks.

Just played Avatar mkv and that works flawlessly sending a stop start stutter free image with DTS sound, nice picture also .
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post #251 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

- All those freakin online movies that show up (over 1,000). There has to be an option to disable them from even showing up. Right now I just want to see my local content

Files > Movies or Movies > Files

Quote:


and for online content I can just head over to the Apps sections.

Boxee has never put "online content" just in the apps; at least not since the first public beta.
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post #252 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:54pm
Thread Starter 
Initial thoughts.

Setup was extremely pain free other than the box not detecting that my TV was 1080p capable... after a trip to the settings menu that bit is sorted out.

Remote control is pretty much worthless in any kind of dim environment. I just ended up giving up and using the arrow controls for everything.

Fan noise appears to be a non issue to me at least (and I consider myself fairly sensitive to it). I think my TiVo is louder than this thing so I don't foresee problems in that department. It produces a little bit of a fan "hum" but not the higher pitched fan "whine" that would make the unit worthless in a bedroom.

Subtitles appear to be enabled automatically on all titles that have them (in my case this is all of them) and no way to make it so that subtitles are by default turned off unless you choose to turn them on. This is annoying, I don't want to have to go into each movie I play and turn off the subtitle track.

I am indexing a movie folder now and will provide a few more thoughts and then a short video run through in just a little while assuming there is enough light here to shoot.
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post #253 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:55pm
How is music handled on the Boxee Box?

Can you group artists by first letter of their name or is it one huge folder?

Any iTunes integration (eg. playlists, artwork, etc.)?

Can you do song searches (or albums for that matter)?
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post #254 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by met_fan View Post

My local files played well initially. A couple apps worked pretty well, but then they started getting unwatchable - extremely choppy, and then when I would go to a new app, the old one would still be there while the new one tried to start. Now even my local videos are choppy, and take up only part of the screen while other weird stuff and images from previously played videos remains on part of the screen. I've never used the Boxee software on my computer before, so I'm new at this, but something seems really wrong.

i'm in the same boat. at first all was cool, now it's like it is retaining the last streamed file in memory or something and not able to distinguish which file to play. currently nothing is working or watchable; online content or local files from my server. i've tried 6 different files - 2 from the online repositories (daily show) and 3 from my network and each one retains something from the previous stream and can't manage anything.
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post #255 of 9564
11/11/10 at 1:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean_w_smith View Post

its slow as hell loading pages....

I tried desperate housewives on ABC.com

and CSI via fancast.

neither presented a watchable picture that was not stuttering and CSI had 0 audio and housewives was stuttering.

both are playing fine on my PC sitting right here plugged into the same switch.

Sean

Blech. I appreciate your feedback, but I hope they get this sorted in due time because having a capable browser is one of the Box's principal selling points (as far as I'm concerned).
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post #256 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmpage2 View Post

Initial thoughts.

How is the beer?
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post #257 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by darcilicious View Post

Files > Movies or Movies > Files

the problem there is when you are at the home screen and hit movies it takes you to the full list of thousands, you then have to hit the menu key to bring up another menu where you can drill down and start filtering. same for shows.
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post #258 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dyevin View Post


i'm in the same boat. at first all was cool, now it's like it is retaining the last streamed file in memory or something and not able to distinguish which file to play. currently nothing is working or watchable; online content or local files from my server. i've tried 6 different files - 2 from the online repositories (daily show) and 3 from my network and each one retains something from the previous stream and can't manage anything.

And now after another restart I'm back to the no video/only audio stage....very frustrating. Am I going to have to factory reboot this thing twice a day?
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post #259 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dyevin View Post

the problem there is when you are at the home screen and hit movies it takes you to the full list of thousands, you then have to hit the menu key to bring up another menu where you can drill down and start filtering. same for shows.

That is absurd.
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post #260 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dyevin View Post

the problem there is when you are at the home screen and hit movies it takes you to the full list of thousands, you then have to hit the menu key to bring up another menu where you can drill down and start filtering. same for shows.

couldnt agree more, very annoying....
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post #261 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by flynn337 View Post

What's the challenge? Boxee (via IR) just takes the same kind of discrete codes used by the PC software, doesn't it? left, right, up, down, enter, backspace, page up, page down, etc. Very similar to media center.

I have a Harmony remote. Looked up Boxee in the Logitec software and it was there, but when I create a Boxee device, there are no codes. Kinda useless. Has anyone set this up with a Harmony? How can I hack this sucker? I really hate multiple remotes.
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post #262 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:09pm
There is a video of the browser and new youtube app in this guys video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqZAgu4CSpY
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post #263 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post

I run Any DVD HD and they are full 1:1 BD ISO rips.
Mostly it's through My Movies(which is using Any DVD HD in the background)
or IMG Burn(which still has Any DVD HD running in the background)

But it could be that the ones created using Image burn are working since I've only found 5 Bd ISos out of around 70 I've tried now that will work.

But on those five there was a buffering issue when playing it where it would have to re buffer every few seconds.
With the two high bitrate MKVs I tried there were zero isssues.

But back to the BD ISos. They will all play on all the media players I've used, Xtreamer, C200, A200, PopBox, Dune Base 3.0 and Dune Prime 3.0.
So if there is something different between using IMG Burn or My Movies it has no effect on the other media players playback of the BD ISOs.

I used AnyDVD to create my ISO's
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post #264 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:11pm
The black screen while playing .m4v files is annoying. Most of my wife and son's movies are encoded as .m4v files via Handbrake to save space. I really don't feel like re-ripping a few hundred movies.

As for the UI, I much prefer the old one.
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post #265 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sean_w_smith View Post

I tried desperate housewives on ABC.com

and CSI via fancast.

neither presented a watchable picture that was not stuttering and CSI had 0 audio and housewives was stuttering.

I agree the web page loading needs to be better speed-wise. Playback however has been fine, audio was fine with episode 6 of CSI and no stuttering with No Ordinary Family ...

Not sure what's up?
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post #266 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dyevin View Post

the problem there is when you are at the home screen and hit movies it takes you to the full list of thousands, you then have to hit the menu key to bring up another menu where you can drill down and start filtering. same for shows.

Exactly. That is great aggregating all the online content but I feel like it is being thrown in your face. The navigation needs to be more intuitive, especially if this is something you would want family members using.
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post #267 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by met_fan View Post

And now after another restart I'm back to the no video/only audio stage....very frustrating. Am I going to have to factory reboot this thing twice a day?

i shut down and started back up and it was fine for 2 local files which i played for ~4 mins each. starting the 3rd file and it's back to the original issue.
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post #268 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dyevin View Post

the problem there is when you are at the home screen and hit movies it takes you to the full list of thousands, you then have to hit the menu key to bring up another menu where you can drill down and start filtering. same for shows.

Ah, you know once I start bopping around Boxee I rarely go to the home screen -- I'm always using the menu so as soon as I navigate to Movies, the submenu shows up with Files...
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post #269 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by elisemory View Post

Please try this - when you see the rebuffering, seek forward (press right on the remote). Does this solve the problem? (This is just for testing, not the proper way ofc).

No. This does not help. On lower bitrate movies I am fine, higher bitrate it just keeps rebuffering. Ironman 2 for instance rebuffered 20 times before the credits were even done. I know my network is not the problem. It makes watching a movie impossible.
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post #270 of 9564
11/11/10 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Civuck View Post

How is music handled on the Boxee Box?

Can you group artists by first letter of their name or is it one huge folder?

Any iTunes integration (eg. playlists, artwork, etc.)?

Can you do song searches (or albums for that matter)?

pretty poorly. all the cool features of XBMC are gone.

There search does not even search your local music library so bottom line is there is no search.

no playlist creation on the fly

no genre or year support. just artist and album

no smart playlists

you can't hit play on artist and have it play all music from that artist like in XBMC

it doesn't use the folder.jpg art it appears

and the milkdrop visualizer is gone

no lyrics support I can see.

no crossfade support controls

no replay gain controls

and XBMC as much as I like it as a music player doesn't have something like genius built in.

Come to think of it. I'm not sure there is playlist support at all?

I have seen no menu options indicating any playlist support

you can't look at the most recently added songs or albums....

basically most of the functionality that a great music player should have is missing.

Thats sad because XBMC did all these things quite well and that's an area I expected to excel over NMT type players which have always had poor music support.

At least you can view a pictures slide show while listening to music

SEan
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