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How Does Boxee Work on Apple TV?

B

BoulderBum

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2008
513
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I keep reading about it, but I'm unclear:

1. Does it replace your Apple TV with a completely different interface, or just add to the existing one?
2. Does it interfere with your ability to upgrade to new Apple firmware?
3. How reliable is Hulu? I try watching it through my computer sometimes, and it frequently skips and hangs indefinately.
 
It does not replace your ATV interface. It simply adds a "Boxee/XBMC" entry in the list.

You can install firmware upgrades with no problem.

Hulu has been pretty reliable for me, although the quality is a bit lacking on a large screen. I've never had it hang or skip, but I don't use it all that much.
 
I watch Hulu a lot with Boxee. It's worked great, especially considering Boxee is only in Alpha. Colbert, The Daily Show, even classic TV shows like Mary Tyler Moore and Alf all work pretty flawlessly. I haven't used my Apple TV so often before this. I would highly recommend installing it as soon as you can.
 
Today I finally got time to install Boxee on my AppleTV. I'm on step 1 still. I watched Dave Matthew's Boxee videos part 1 and it took him 2 minutes to create the patchstik. I've been downloading for about 30 minutes now and the bar at the bottom isn't even at 25%. Is there something wrong? Did the world find out about Boxee and everyone is downloading it at the same time?! :D

I want to make some new Boxee friends today after being cooped up in the house working for clients!
 
I don't think Boxee is getting installed tonight, it's been over an hour and near 25% downloaded for that patchstik. Too bad, was looking forward to testing it out today since I had free time before the Misses got home. Oh well. If anyone can confirm that nothing is wrong and that it takes awhile to download, let me know. Thanks.;)
 
Thanks all who answered!

As a follow-up:

1. Has anyone experienced ANY problem with interfering with existing functionality (rentals, YouTube, Podcasts, etc.)?
2. How easy is it to roll back to the original non-Boxee firmware?
3. I assume updating the Apple firmware will overwrite Boxee?
4. What is the upgrade story for the Boxee hack itself? Do you get updates from online?
 
serpico said:
I don't think Boxee is getting installed tonight, it's been over an hour and near 25% downloaded for that patchstik. Too bad, was looking forward to testing it out today since I had free time before the Misses got home. Oh well. If anyone can confirm that nothing is wrong and that it takes awhile to download, let me know. Thanks.;)
Click to expand...


This happened to me when creating the patchstick for the Apple TV. After sitting on 25% for about 10 minutes, I just stopped the install and started over. The second time, it worked perfect. Give it another try.... :)
 
BoulderBum said:
Thanks all who answered!

As a follow-up:

1. Has anyone experienced ANY problem with interfering with existing functionality (rentals, YouTube, Podcasts, etc.)?
2. How easy is it to roll back to the original non-Boxee firmware?
3. I assume updating the Apple firmware will overwrite Boxee?
4. What is the upgrade story for the Boxee hack itself? Do you get updates from online?
Click to expand...

1. I haven't. It is recommended that you turn off the screen saver, however, as it can cause problems.
2. Just restore factory settings and Boxee is gone.
3. I would assume so as well, but as there haven't been any recent upgrades I don't know.
4. There is an upgrade option from within the Boxee menu. Upgrades are downloaded and installed straight from the ATV.
 
Thanks again, Spice Weasel. Out of curiosity, what happens if you have the screen saver on?
 
BoulderBum said:
Thanks all who answered!

As a follow-up:

1. Has anyone experienced ANY problem with interfering with existing functionality (rentals, YouTube, Podcasts, etc.)?
2. How easy is it to roll back to the original non-Boxee firmware?
3. I assume updating the Apple firmware will overwrite Boxee?
4. What is the upgrade story for the Boxee hack itself? Do you get updates from online?
Click to expand...

1. None at all with rentals, youtube or podcasts (or any of the other ATV functionality. The only odd thing it did once was pair to a non existent remote...not sure what that was about...easy to fix though...
2. Just hit restore on the Apple TV. This is like DS hacking...its totally painless and transparent to the system itself
3. I don't think anyone has an answer for this, as apple hasn't released an update since boxee has been out. My guess is yes, the next ATV upgrade will kill boxee.
4. There is an upgrade option within the boxee menu. Its easy, the only problem is it doesnt keep track of what update you did last, if you don't right down the number, its hard to know if there is a new update or not.

I haven't turned off my screen saver, and it hasn't caused me much of a problem. Boxee did freeze up on my once, not sure if that would have had anything to do with screen saver.

I just got my ATV this week, and hacked it the day I got it. Its a awesome little machine now. however, while boxee is very very good, it isn't perfect. You will get some stutter in hulu for example. it seems worse at times and better at others. not sure what causes it. hope it can be fixed in a future update. I watched through the first episode of "fringe" on boxee, and it was almost perfect. Tonight i watched through the first episode of "Crusoe" and the stutter was terrible the whole way though...seems a bit hit or miss...
 
dmm219 said:
3. I don't think anyone has an answer for this, as apple hasn't released an update since boxee has been out. My guess is yes, the next ATV upgrade will kill boxee.
Click to expand...

Upgrading from 2.x to 2.2 killed Boxee and the assumption is that future updates will kill it too. Reinstalling it from the patchstick worked though and all preferences were saved. So I'd just keep your patchstick sitting next to the :apple:tv in case of any future updates.
 
It's not firmware. It's software. When you update the ATV all it does is replace the OS on OSBoot partition with a revised 10.4.9. There is no modification to the ATV's firmware at all.

tkidBOSTON said:
Upgrading from 2.x to 2.2 killed Boxee and the assumption is that future updates will kill it too. Reinstalling it from the patchstick worked though and all preferences were saved. So I'd just keep your patchstick sitting next to the :apple:tv in case of any future updates.
Click to expand...

Yes, it does because the updater reinitializes the OSBoot partition and installs the new OS from the downloaded OSBoot.dmg.
 
How do you get Hulu to work? I can't figure it out :(

Plus, I can't get any video to play ??? It will say loading and just not play :(
 
Chris Rogers said:
How do you get Hulu to work? I can't figure it out :(

Plus, I can't get any video to play ??? It will say loading and just not play :(
Click to expand...

I put Boxee on my ATV and all I can find is youtube. CNET and Blip TV, where is all the decent stuff like Hulu and CBS?

Also, can't for the life of me connect to my media on my Mac, is this an issue for everyone?

Thanks
 
Chris Rogers said:
go to update and only install the middle one and then retry...you should see that the UI is slightly different
Click to expand...

thanks, i updated Boxee and everything looks different, although I still can't find Hulu, CBS or anything worthwhile, I just get a blank area with the rock concert desktop when I select Video > TV shows. When I go to Video and then Sources and try and add Hulu it just says failed to retrieve data. Please help. :confused:
 
Changepoint said:
thanks, i updated Boxee and everything looks different, although I still can't find Hulu, CBS or anything worthwhile, I just get a blank area with the rock concert desktop when I select Video > TV shows. When I go to Video and then Sources and try and add Hulu it just says failed to retrieve data. Please help. :confused:
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what you want. Now, go to video on the left and then you should see internet as a source. You should see all of them in there.
 
seems like your sources were not updated properly you will need to ssh into Apple TV. from Mac OSX, use the ssh command line via the terminal.

1.ssh frontrow@{ip address}
2.To retrieve your IP (boxee>settings>general>IP or ATV>settings>general>about>IP
3.enter Password "frontrow"
4.rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/{boxee user name}
5.restart boxee
 
I had problems with the Boxee screen saver as well. When using the floating Boxee logo it wouldn't release, but you could get to the screen saver setup and then back to the regular menu. Mainly, just annoying but never had to unplug. I now use the dim feature on the screen saver and it doesn't seem to have the same issue.

BTW: this happened on both atv that I had it installed on at the time.
 
If any of you brave the upgrade to Apple TV 2.3, please let me know how it goes!
 
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