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Plex vs. Boxee vs. XBMC - which is best?
- Thread starter m021478
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I've been using both but I might be leaning more towards Boxee (but only by very little). I think Plex has a structually better UI and more classy), but but Boxee seems to me to be more fun. Both are a hog with CPU and memory, but it seems moreso with Plex even after the update. While plex does have a skinnable UI, skins like Aeon are still fundamentally unstable and seemed to be geared more towards Windows users.
I like both but they both still suck when it comes to photos and music. They need to find better ways of handling it. Throwing Hulu desktop into all of this all of this complicates everything even more as well. How many desktop media clients do we need on one computer?
I like both but they both still suck when it comes to photos and music. They need to find better ways of handling it. Throwing Hulu desktop into all of this all of this complicates everything even more as well. How many desktop media clients do we need on one computer?
Since 0.8.1 Plex is a lot more stable and less resource-hungry.
I would say that Boxee and Plex are nearly equal as far as features. I use Plex because I don't like needing an account to watch my videos. The social networking aspect of Boxee just annoys me.
I would say that Boxee and Plex are nearly equal as far as features. I use Plex because I don't like needing an account to watch my videos. The social networking aspect of Boxee just annoys me.
Boxee has been nothing but a PITA for the last few months. So much that I ditched my Apple TV and got a Mini with Plex.
Boxee's tech support is HORRIBLE too
I have zero problems with Plex and no where near the headaches I've had with Boxee.
LONG LIVE PLEX
Boxee's tech support is HORRIBLE too
I have zero problems with Plex and no where near the headaches I've had with Boxee.
LONG LIVE PLEX
I use XBMC on an Xbox and it is great. I have a server set up downstairs that serves all of my media to my computers around the house. I have modded an original Xbox and it is set up connect to the server in the basement. It works great for playing my DVD rips in .iso format.
I think it's sort of sad how fractured the xmbc community has become. If you take the best features of boxee & plex you have a really good media center app. As it is now, one has features the other lacks and it's going to take years for both to be a fully featured client for the mac. They are both time consuming if you just want to get your library as close to perfect as it can be.
That's exactly what I haven't put my feet in the water yet.
I struggled with front ends for my HTPC for years including the PC versions of these same front ends. They required constant work, and I always found them to be a lot harder to set up than advertised.
I'm still waiting for someone to make it SIMPLE to use. I guess I'm just not that smart when it comes to configuring and making things work - part of why I like my Mac computers.
PLEX is the only thing i have found that can play my 1080p mkv's on a macbook pro, vlc and loading them into quicktime player choke it and never is smooth playback. didn't have high hopes with plex, fired up an imax movie and watched the whole thing in awe without a single stutter.
give people too many choices and they can't make up their mind...
I noticed that with a large library people can't choose from it what to watch, the sheep that are used to tv need a media player that basically has a comedy central channel, a cartoon network channel, discovery channel, etc, and just randomly pick a show playing the first episode you haven't watched, then if you're not into it just hit next show for it to change to something else that fits the channel.
I haven't played around with any of these players to see if any of them can simulate tv channels well since my friends need that kind of structure more than me. They'd even benefit from commercials to be thrown back in there so they know when to get food, piss, smoke etc...
I noticed that with a large library people can't choose from it what to watch, the sheep that are used to tv need a media player that basically has a comedy central channel, a cartoon network channel, discovery channel, etc, and just randomly pick a show playing the first episode you haven't watched, then if you're not into it just hit next show for it to change to something else that fits the channel.
I haven't played around with any of these players to see if any of them can simulate tv channels well since my friends need that kind of structure more than me. They'd even benefit from commercials to be thrown back in there so they know when to get food, piss, smoke etc...
For me, QuickTime does choke with Perian playing mkv files (hopefully fixed with QuickTime X), but I never really had a problem with VLC. Plex is far better than Boxee when you're using your own library. You can't even rename movies after they have been imported into Boxee and it has a tendency to screw up with some titles as opposed to Plex (ex: Children of Men) even though they're both scraping from IMDB. Boxee has an advantage (albeit slight) when it comes to the Internet related area. The Pandora plugin is better than Pandora's own desktop app and the Plex version is a hack.
I have used all three and I have dumped them all from my ATV and my iMAc. Absolute waste of time for me.
I have tried and tried but they are just plane hopeless.
I have tried and tried but they are just plane hopeless.
Plex is also under continual development by a developer(s) who care to listen to the users.
I have to go with Boxee being the best for now. Mt reason? you don't have to add channels in Boxee. They (most) come pre installed.
tv and Plex on the Mini. Boxee was a turd on the Boxee is really nice interface wise, and seems to have better support than plex when it comes to web based content..
But their support sucks, and for some reason subtitles are horrifically broken on it, something xbmc and plex have no issue with.
But their support sucks, and for some reason subtitles are horrifically broken on it, something xbmc and plex have no issue with.
I've been using Plex on my desktop for a while, but tried it on my MBP and it just bounced once in the dock then quit so I tried XBMC. I find XBMC easier to use and it seems to be more stable (ie. it actually works on my laptop). I've never tried Boxee though.
Boxee if using AppleTV, Plex if using Mac Mini. But really folks. Apple could just sell a piece of hardware that's opened up, plays 1080p HD, and marketed for home theater, and I'd be sure something as simple as even Frontrow would probably be just fine for everyone. They'd make a killing. Such a no-brainer.
I have been using XBMC for about 4 months, no problems with it at all. Allows play back for most video formats and will mount ISO's if you have any dvds backed up.
Reminds me of Linux. Slightly off topic question. Has anyone had any problems with Plex not remembering the playback position of a video? I'm using 0.8.1, the latest release.
