Boxee Box Owner's Thread - Reviews, tips, tricks, bugs and feature requests - Page 302

any MCE2 USB receiver will get the job done. I use an HP IR receiver which works great with my harmony.

if you search there is thread in this forum on the subject.

All "enhancements" to existing IR support are DEAD so its take what you get. Its not bad buts its not XBMC or PLEX.

Sean

I have a Manta TR1 (I think that's the model), which seems to work, so long as the Boxee is previously running. Does yours wake up by itself when you power on? Or do you have to power the Boxee on manually to get it to work?

I am...and did the same as you (using 950Q). Works perfectly fine...getting about 50 channels OTA.

One question, though...is the boxee modifying the HD stream? I'd really prefer that it just pass the stream to the display in whatever format was native (using a JVC PJ). Some of my locals are 720p...while others are 1080p. I really don't want Boxee scaling the video stream at all...but not sure how to make it work that way.

Nope, it appears to be passing the streams as is. PQ looks identical via my HDTV with its ATSC tuner.

I really don't think so...my PJ tells me what the format of the feed is (1080p 50hz, for example)...and I know for a fact that my local Fox affiliate serves 720p while NBC serves 1080i. As I switch between these two channels...the Boxee always serves 1080p. I think it is falling back to the configuration setup and scaling the signal (which I don't want).

You may be right. When I flipped back-and-forth between OTA via Boxee Box and my 50" plasma TV, PQ seemed identical. Not a scientific test by any means. Noticeably better PQ than those same locals via my DirecTV HD DVR.

You are correct, its scaling the video to whatever you have set on the Boxee Box.

Which is not good...is there any way to bypass this? I really don't want Boxee touching the feed...just pass whatever format it receives. I can see a noticeable degradation in PQ on a 96" screen with my JVC RS45.

This is normal though. Very few devices have native resolution output.

The only one I can think of off the top of my head was the SageTV HD300

As of the last update I've been getting buffering issues on basically all of my local content, which is all DVD rips. I share through an external hard drive attached to my Windows 7 PC, and therefore it is an SMB share. I don't know if I CAN switch to NFS, as it's attached to a Win7 box. Can I switch to NFS somehow? If not, are there any tweaks I should try to make? Perhaps roll back to an older version of the Boxee firmware? I'd hate to have to do that, as I do like the new UI, but if it comes at the expense of buffering on SD content, the price is too high.

The TiVos have native resolution output too. Although I stopped using it after getting my Elite(since switching between four tuners introduced too much of a handshake delay. With just two tuners I was fine with it) and then I stopped on my two tuner boxes as well.

I had trouble sharing via Win7 (mostly on bluRay, but had some minor issues with DVD) before making some registry changes for win7 to give priority to SMB clients - but that was with firmwares even before Netflix was added). I've had no NEW streaming issues from DVDs w/newer firmware & the buffering on bluRay has been an issue since June releases.
I can't find the instructions for registry changes at the moment (I re-posted them earlier in this thread & they are on the boxee forums). try googling Win7 Boxee registry, I'm pretty sure that will take you where you need to go.

You might also try connecting the external drive directly to the boxee, you might have a bottleneck there.
You'll have to have 3rd party software for NFS on Win7, and it looks like a PITA to set up.

I have my allow beta firmware and still nothing...still on v1.5.0.23615.... is it available anywhere?

They are specifically not releasing via any auto-update mechanism. For that matter, I don't know if I've ever seen a beta actually auto-updated despite the implication that it is an option!

Anyway, the link to dl the beta is in the first post of this thread. You'll need to use a thumb drive to manually perform the update but the same post has a link to instructions on doing that if you need them.

I have most of the previous firmwares here.

http://www.aaronwt.net/BoxeeFirmwares/

They also released another Beta firmware today for bugfixes.(v1.5.1.23679)
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=53730

ever since the big firmware menu change update, the audio on a bunch of my backups has started skipping. Anyone else have this issue? never happened before.

Also, I'm using a Synology 211j NAS and have an external hooked into it via USB for extra space. I can't seem to find a way to share that so the Boxee can see it. I tried sharing it with NFS privileges, but when going into NFS setup on the boxee it sees nothing.

I assume you have the privileges setup for the folder setup properly. I just tried it on the Box, and at first it didn't show up, but once I changed the Synology folder name from "usbshare1" to "External USB", then from the Boxee - browse to SMB-->DISKSTATION-->"External USB"

Just tried nfs as well...setup through control panel--->shared folder-->nfs privileges--->Create.

Interesting though that the location under nfs appears as /volumeUSB1/usbshare

Hope that helps.

thanks, I'll give that naming a shot!

Thanks pdellera & aaronwt!

Downloaded the beta and it appears to fix some of my App issues. I don't usually go to the Boxee Forum cause the logon page used to be blocked but I just realized it's not any more....go figure (guess they realized the .tv was not a streaming site).

Thanks again.....BB is finally getting there!

I'm still having buffering issues. I tried a factory restore followed by an upgrade to the latest firmware. I may have to start testing previous firmware versions to see if it really is the latest version or something else entirely. I've tried using it both with the internal wireless and through HPnA networking. I may be putting together a media server "soon" using UNRAID and then I can see if using NFS is superior to SMB for my issue. Ugh.

I would think you would need to try it with wired Ethernet to really rule out an issue with the boxee box. Hpna is homeplug, right. I see issues all the time on this forum with homeplug and wireless. Any chance you can run an Ethernet cable for testing purposes?

HPNA is similar to MOCA, where it runs over Coax. It's not home plug. I don't currently have a capably long ethernet cable, I don't have anything over 6'.

I have buffering issues over 1Gb wired ethernet streaming Blu Ray isos over SMB. No issues with my Popbox using same connection. Annoying as hell

You think there's any chance its related to the ISO container? Virtually all of my rips are in ISO format. Maybe I should encode something in MKV to test.

Think it could be. I have far fewer buffering issues with 1:1 MKV's than 1:1 ISO rips.

Ok, time to do some MKV encoding when I get home.

Any recommendations on an easy way to do that with a few existing ISO rips? (Main movie only, with commentary/audio tracks, no menus.)

Quickest would be to mount the ISO (like with SlySoft's free Virtual CloneDrive) and use MakeMKV. You can try a couple of titles to test buffering before/after.

BD ISO over SMB is fully supported by the Boxee if I understand correctly. You shouldn't have to convert them to anything else or change to NFS.

I'm certainly not going to convert my 200+ isos

I wouldn't waste my time converting anything to MKV. If you have the buffering issue on the Boxee Box in your network environment then you pretty much have to revert to one of the older builds that didn't have the problem or wait until they fix it. Most of my rips are MKVs made with MakeMKV and I still have buffering on the Boxee Box yet can play those files without issue on my Dune D1.