Boxee Quality?

[jmorrow76]

I am going back & forth on my decision to give Boxee a go & was hoping that those of you that are up & running could provide some insight as to the quality.

How is the quality on a large screen tv? It seems to me that the quality must suffer to some extent. Is the quality at least comparable to the shows purchased via iTunes?

 

[spice weasel]

I'd be interested to know as well. I'm still waiting for an invite, but I hope to be able to give Boxee a spin soon. I'm seriously considering ditching cable once and for all, and Hulu access on my Apple TV would certainly make this a much easier decision.

 

[trentiles]

I'd be interested to know as well. I'm still waiting for an invite, but I hope to be able to give Boxee a spin soon. I'm seriously considering ditching cable once and for all, and Hulu access on my Apple TV would certainly make this a much easier decision.

If you want an invite PM me your email and I will send one right away.

 

[frankiepdx]

It's worth a try. When streaming free content from the internet, the quality will always be lacking. The list is getting bigger. Access your PC and/or Mac for content, use Last.FM, CBS, Hulu, Comedy Central, CNN, and time will only make it better.

I wouldn't compare to iTunes. If you could download the shows i'm sure the quality would match.

 

[TuckBodi]

I've only played one movie, Master and Commander, and while the video quality was pretty bad (pixelated - 46" Sammy) I was actually expecting worse. I was also pleasantly surprised on the amount of dropped frames as I was expecting that to be worse as well. The movie was also not widescreen, it was 4:3, and obviously didn't have surround sound. Even with all this I was extremely excited to finally see Hulu running on my AppleTV and even sorta liked their navigation system they built for it (worked great with the Apple Remote). Being an Alpha we can only hope the Boxee developers will improve this over time and in the meantime I'll mainly use it to watch old TV shows.

Sidenote: I've also heard you can run their Boxee.app standalone and I'm gonna try that next on my Mac mini tied into my TV in the bedroom.

 

[Bulldogger]

Action sequences

I've noticed that the more action on the screen during streaming, the slower it gets. So far South Park and Family Guy look awesome on my HDTV. BTW the new Boxee interface is pretty sharp and snappier than the last version.

 

[theBB]

On my iMac I get better quality from Hulu, but I would not call the difference between the "day and night." Of course, neither of them is close to HD I get from cable. In the end, it is more convenient than going into the other room or hooking a laptop to the TV. Besides, how good the image quality needs to be for you to enjoy "Daily Show"?

A bigger problem is the alpha software. The pause or fast forward buttons don't work yet, so when you click on a video, you have to watch it through or start from the beginning again.

For Hulu, it is easier to use the website, but the interface for CBS and Comedy Central is simpler to navigate with Boxee's interface. Why do some companies have horrible interfaces? A link to shows, then a list of shows available, then a list of teaser clips and full episodes available. Why is it so hard for them to arrange that without cluttering everything with extra links and tabs?

 

[Superman07]

I assume this means if there is a 480p option on a Hulu stream you can't select it/switch to it through the ATV Boxee interface?

 

[spice weasel]

I assume this means if there is a 480p option on a Hulu stream you can't select it/switch to it through the ATV Boxee interface?

First off, thanks Chris for the Boxee invite. I installed it last night and had fun tooling around with it. I couldn't get Hulu to work properly, but I understand a lot of people had the same problem yesterday. CBS and Comedy Central worked fine, however, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good it looked.

My understanding is that Hulu's 480p option isn't available for the Apple TV.

Many thanks to all involved with the Boxee team. Between Netflix, Apple TV/Boxee, and maybe a good antenna, I'm almost ready to ditch Comcast once and for all.

 

[theBB]

First off, thanks Chris for the Boxee invite. I installed it last night and had fun tooling around with it. I couldn't get Hulu to work properly, but I understand a lot of people had the same problem yesterday.

I had a problem with some Hulu streams last night as well, but they just fixed it and now it works properly for me. Try updating Boxee to the new version.

I assume this means if there is a 480p option on a Hulu stream you can't select it/switch to it through the ATV Boxee interface?

I think they tried 480 version at first, but appleTV could not handle it. If they find a way to utilize the GPU, they might be able to improve it, but I would not hold my breath.

 

[Superman07]

Thanks, although it sounds a little weak. All else being equal, I'd rather have Plex installed on the ATV since it does the same thing, but looks better while doing it.

 

[theBB]

Thanks, although it sounds a little weak. All else being equal, I'd rather have Plex installed on the ATV since it does the same thing, but looks better while doing it.

Well, Plex is not available for appleTV, but Boxee is running now. A bit glitchy and slow, but better than nothing.

 

[knux11]

i don't post here much, but if anyone wants a boxee invite i also have no prob sending them. just shoot me a pm.

 

[donclarkjr]

I like boxee but im running into a little problem on my imac. The shows stream from hulu through boxee look like its just streaming the lower res, I can not for the life of me find the option to stream the 420p in boxee. I have the same show pulled up right now at hulu.com and boxee right now with the windows right next to each other and the boxee on looks horrible. Any thoughts on this I understand the atv cant do 420p but my imac should.