SEcond Whack At HTPC

[sholling]

Just for grins I've decided to take a look at Boxee. I'm happy with my WDTV Live but just before I ordered the WD I ordered a HTPC keyboard and it finally arrived today and it's so tiny (5" x 5") and cute. I just have to try it out. If the Boxee knocks my socks off I'll keep using it and move the WD into my bedroom. If not I'm only out small change. One thing that does bother me is that you are logged into Boxee's site when you use Boxee and as an old OT security guy I don't feel comfortable with that. Any known security issues?

So here is the plan... I'm taking my old HTPC, with a Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, and a 500GB HD, and adding a second larger drive and updating the video card. I'm reading reports that the Sapphire 100264HDMI Radeon HD 4350 will do sound over HDMI. Is this true and if so do I still need a sound card in the system? I'm really on a tight budget here. I just put $800 into cancer surgery for my dog so it's this cheapy card or wait. Anyone have any experience with this card?

 

[GlocksRock]

All the radeon 4350 cards do sound over HDMI, I have a 4350 in both of my media PCs, one is a gigabyte brand, and the other is the OEM one that came with me new Dell. You can get 7.1 PCM lossless audio, or bitstream regular dolby digital and dts, so unless bitstreaming HD audio is a must, then a radeon 4350 is the best bang for your buck card out there. The video playback is great, it doesn't stutter or chop, but any gaming on those cards won't be all that great, but for a strictly media PC, who cares.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

In general Boxee have better support for nVidia cards video acceleration.
But If you really must have TrueHD and DTS HD bitstreaming get the 5760 (already announced yesterday) which would cost under $100.
I believe with Core 2 you don't really have to rely on gpu anyways

 

[sholling]

Thanks, I've ordered the 4350 and it will be here Monday. I have a PS3 for my main BD player and with more cancer surgery possible for my dog it's all I can do right now.

I went ahead and loaded Boxee while waitiing and I find it weird that you log into their site. It makes me wonder if they plan to make this a monthly subscription. Why else would they need to authenticate you before you use the software? It just doesn't make sense and it's a huge turn off. As an old network guy it makes me wonder what information they are collecting.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks, I've ordered the 4350 and it will be here Monday. I have a PS3 for my main BD player and with more cancer surgery possible for my dog it's all I can do right now.

I went ahead and loaded Boxee while waitiing and I find it weird that you log into their site. It makes me wonder if they plan to make this a monthly subscription. Why else would they need to authenticate you before you use the software? It just doesn't make sense and it's a huge turn off. As an old network guy it makes me wonder what information they are collecting.

Boxee forces you to create account with them because of the social aspects of their software, like sharing favorites and making suggestions to friends - they want boxee to be heavily social and honestly - it's not such a bad idea - netflix got it too

 

[sholling]

Boxee forces you to create account with them because of the social aspects of their software, like sharing favorites and making suggestions to friends - they want boxee to be heavily social and honestly - it's not such a bad idea - netflix got it too

That's something that should be voluntary and controllable from the HTPC. We would never put up with Microsoft tracking our surfing or what songs we listen to or what songs and DVDs we have on our hard drives. Why would anybody allow Boxee to track that information? Just for that reason I think that this is going to be a really short experiment. At least until they clarify privacy policies and how the information is tracked and used.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

That's something that should be voluntary and controllable from the HTPC. We would never put up with Microsoft tracking our surfing or what songs we listen to or what songs and DVDs we have on our hard drives. Why would anybody allow Boxee to track that information? Just for that reason I think that this is going to be a really short experiment. At least until they clarify privacy policies and how the information is tracked and used.

I think are misunderstood me, I meant to say is only people who you added as friends are the ones who'll get you recommendations... Boxee doesn't do any content tracking, except your own recommendations to your network.

 

[sholling]

Well I got the HTPC and Boxee up and running and have started testing. So far it looks like the place the Boxee shines is access to online services. Hopefully I'll figure out a few of the issues bugging me. The first of those is freeze ups when trying to adjust video - to be expected with beta code. The one that's bugging me most is that it doesn't appear to play ISOs, at least not yet. Maybe later. I'll play with it more tomorrow and see how it does.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Well I got the HTPC and Boxee up and running and have started testing. So far it looks like the place the Boxee shines is access to online services. Hopefully I'll figure out a few of the issues bugging me. The first of those is freeze ups when trying to adjust video - to be expected with beta code. The one that's bugging me most is that it doesn't appear to play ISOs, at least not yet. Maybe later. I'll play with it more tomorrow and see how it does.

Hmm,mine does and IMG files as wel... but like I said before the build im using is older one - off torrents... I noticed they removed some feats from public beta, like netflix stuff now only in netflix app, while before it was integrated with other movies/tv shows -trust me - much better

 

[sholling]

Hmm,mine does and IMG files as wel... but like I said before the build im using is older one - off torrents... I noticed they removed some feats from public beta, like netflix stuff now only in netflix app, while before it was integrated with other movies/tv shows -trust me - much better

A little searching on Boxee's forum answered my BD ISO question. No support for Blu-Ray ISOs now or planned. I'll play with it for another week or two while I wait for my back-ordered 1.5TB external drives and then more than likely switch back to the WDTV Live. From a "super moderator" on their forum:

"Bluray support probably won't happen due to licensing."​

Just in playing with Boxee for 2 days it has a prettier (but no more user friendly) interface then my WDTV Live and Boxee does support a lot more online services. But that's just not something that interests me. I have no desire to watch youtube on a 52" TV. For me a lack of support for BD ISOs is major a deal breaker.

Boxee is also less Logitech Harmony friendly than the WDTV Live. The little Lenovo micro QWERTY keyboard makes up for that to a large degree but not completely. For example even if you get a remote working (no mean feat) you still need a way to navigate into Boxee.

The third thing that bothers me is energy usage. I'll break out the Kill A Watt this week but I suspect that difference will be well over 50% with two drives each. Add in that the remote powers off (and back on) the WD I think the difference will be substantial. Note I'm using an Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM, 1x 500GB WD and 1x 1.5GB WD Green. The box has a 350w PS.

Just at first blush I see the Boxee as a solution for an integrator or a techie that wants to devote time to setup all of the features and doesn't care too much about monthly energy costs. I see the WDTV Live as a better plug and play solution for someone that just wants a simple way to play stored (local & local network) media. I'll update my opinions as the experiment continues.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

A little searching on Boxee's forum answered my BD ISO question. No support for Blu-Ray ISOs now or planned. I'll play with it for another week or two while I wait for my back-ordered 1.5TB external drives and then more than likely switch back to the WDTV Live. From a "super moderator" on their forum:

"Bluray support probably won't happen due to licensing."​

Just in playing with Boxee for 2 days it has a prettier (but no more user friendly) interface then my WDTV Live and Boxee does support a lot more online services. But that's just not something that interests me. I have no desire to watch youtube on a 52" TV. For me a lack of support for BD ISOs is major a deal breaker.

Boxee is also less Logitech Harmony friendly than the WDTV Live. The little Lenovo micro QWERTY keyboard makes up for that to a large degree but not completely. For example even if you get a remote working (no mean feat) you still need a way to navigate into Boxee.

The third thing that bothers me is energy usage. I'll break out the Kill A Watt this week but I suspect that difference will be well over 50% with two drives each. Add in that the remote powers off (and back on) the WD I think the difference will be substantial. Note I'm using an Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM, 1x 500GB WD and 1x 1.5GB WD Green. The box has a 350w PS.

Just at first blush I see the Boxee as a solution for an integrator or a techie that wants to devote time to setup all of the features and doesn't care too much about monthly energy costs. I see the WDTV Live as a better plug and play solution for someone that just wants a simple way to play stored (local & local network) media. I'll update my opinions as the experiment continues.

I didn't realized you were trying to play BD-ISO's - I usualy serve my HD mkv compressed and honestly I can't tell the difference.. but this is just me...
I may need up my screen to 1080p to be able to tell.

Boxee actually integrates nicely with harmony, if you setup the remote as MCE Keyboad.

Power issue is localized with your over-speced machine as Boxee runs great on my 40Watts tops (full-load) ion 330 box.

But the root problem remains - Yes, its still made mostly for techies, until Boxee box will released to masses, however I doubt it will ever support BD-ISO's.....