Boxee Video Tutorial: Sharing files on Mac

[iBog]

I create a short Boxee video tutorial and posted it to YouTube.

My first tutorial is about sharing files on your Mac so they can be viewed from Boxee.

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai8lGU-mX1U

Let me know what you think and if there are any other topics you'd like to see.

[marcel]

great job ..extremely clear instructions ..:)

[iBog]

I just figured out a way to screen capture Boxee so my next video tutorial will cover adding the network share I just created as a media source in Boxee.

[agentlame]

dude... nailed it!

that was great! clear, simple and well explained.

[tsella]

nicely done! iBog video tutorials FTW!

[jamesfoster]

nice. way to spread the love. can't wait to see more.

[pictor]

forgive the ignorance, I am not that familiar with setting up networking. When I go to my system prefs, there is nothing in the workgroup picklist. No options, no text. I can type in the word workgroup, but if I click ok, and go back in, it's blank again.

How do I get the workgroup value set?

[iBog]

Make sure the lock in the bottom left corner is unlocked before you make edits.

Otherwise, you may have a similar problem I had. If you delete the profile and recreate it everything will be fine. I don't know how it got corrupt.

Also, make sure you're editing the WINS values for the correct network connection (ethernet or wifi selected on the left side)

[pictor]

it is unlocked.

I am not sure what you mean by delete the profile. Built in ethernet is the only active connection....do you mean delete that profile?

[iBog]

Bfore you go into advanced, select the dropdown list for locations. Click edit. Create a new location and delete the other one.

[NavarNative]

Great job iBog. One quick question. I have all my music and videos on my Time Capsule External HD. I am unable to add those folders to the shared folder list. Anyway that you know to do this? Thanks! NN

[xain09]

Great video ! Amazing.

[pictor]

still no entry under the workgroup drop down, even on the new location.

I don't want to keep pestering you...maybe I can go find a solution on the support forums. If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them, but I don't want to presume upon you, you didn't sign up to be my personal tech support person :)

Boxee on my ATV does me little good until I can figure out how to give it content though.

[iBog]

NavarNative: So your content resides on an external USB HDD that happens to be a Time Capsule drive? What is the patch to the media on the Time Capsule drive? You'd have to add that as a source.

Xain: Thank you

Pctor: I want to help. I think once you get it working you'll love how Boxee works. You're having a very bizarre problem. Can you create any screen shots? Are you editing the properties for your ethernet or wifi connection? What version of Mac OS are you running?

[pictor]

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/114023/Picture%201.png
Not much to see really. This is what I get every time I go in. If I type something into the NetBIOS name, or the workgroup, I can click OK no errors, but it's gone again when I go back in.

I am running Leopard.

I have no problems aside form that. I can sync my ATV from my iMac fine, I can get online fine, as can the ATV and my xbox 360 (via an airport express).

*shrug*

I'm stumped

[iBog]

This is the issue I was talking about...

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1432533

Before going into the advanced settings, check your location settings and do what it says in that thread.

[mgoi]

Thanks guys. Very useful and well done. Makes the learning curve less steep.

[NavarNative]

iBog, You are correct. I have my iTunes folder on my time capsule and stream it to my ATV. I can find my Time Capsule in Boxee to add this folder as a souce but when I select it it says "No files found at source". Thanks for your help.

[iBog]

There's something up because it's an iTunes folder.

There are some preference in iTunes when importing music to your library. Is it set to copy files to the iTunes folder and to allow itunes to organize it (sorry, I don't have iTunes on this computer so I can't see the exact wording)?

If iTunes is copying and organizing the files it will be creating a cryptic file structure and file names. Browsing the folder may not make any sense. Boxee doesn't currently support importing music stored this way. This is the default behaviour of iTunes (however, you've moved the iTunes library to your Time Capsule so I don't know how you did it).

If your iTunes preferences are set not to copy, iTunes does not change the file name or folder structure. In this case, Boxee should be able to import the music.

Can you confirm what the directory structure and file names are on your Time Capsule?

[John Doe]

great video!!.. keep them coming.

[Bulldog]

idd, very nice.
i have my iMAC since yesterday and wanted to do that, know i don't have to search for it.

thnx

[lombok]

Hi Ibog. Great video. Unfortunately I run on OSX 10.4. Could you pls advice detail instructions on how to share files?

I've spent a good 10 hrs yesterday tinkering with my settings to enable file sharing with ATV.

Here's my situation:
- I successfully installed Boxee on ATV and even managed to sync my itunes library to ATV.
- Now I want to be able to stream videos to ATV via Boxee.

Tks in advance.

[marcel]

for tiger users you need to check the windows share (check the Accounts) ,from the ATV add the source manually by IP (settings>media sources>networks) and add the username/password...if you want to read from a directory outside the public folder e.g external HD then you need to install a 3rd party application such as sharepoints (http://www.hornware.com/sharepoints/)

[Romanian]

Please send me a boxee windows invitation.
Thank you!

[edwademd]

Thanks for the great video. But Boxee still can't see my network. Under Settings/Network/SMB Client I have the correct info but the WINS-Server reads 0.0.0.0 and I can't delete this. I don't know if this might be the problem.
Also, I have attached a 500 GB Ext HD to the ATV. What do I fill in under Settings/ Media Sources so Boxee can retrieve the media?

[marcel]

you can use the media sources>local and browse for the HD ...

[Dubhead]

I too am having the same issue as NavarNativ with my TC 1TB and AppleTV unit running the latest Boxxee release. I 'think' I was able to get Boxxee to recognize the share by manually entering the IP address to the TC, then using the workgroup name as the username and the TC's password as the password in Boxxee. It does appear that it doesn't work that way either. I am pretty frustrated just trying to connect up AFP file shares. I haven't even tried to get some to some of my Windows SMB shares yet...I can't imagine it will be any easier. I am still pouring through the forums and net looking for tips on how to 'map' the TC's 1TB drive so that I can pull content from it via Boxxee. Any hints on this would be MASSIVELY appreciated!

Overall, I am very happy with Boxxee's abilities, this is only the first four hours with it, but I am impressed!

Cheers!
~Dubhead:cool:

[CheeseheadIllinois]

iBog - This was an outstanding help. Would you create a video for how to download a torrent of a tv show and movie? And then how to view that on boxee via the apple tv?

This is super. Thanks again.





I create a short Boxee video tutorial and posted it to YouTube.

My first tutorial is about sharing files on your Mac so they can be viewed from Boxee.

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai8lGU-mX1U

Let me know what you think and if there are any other topics you'd like to see.

[foreigner1999]

Hey there,

I have all my content sitting on an external drive behind my airport extreme base station. I can't seem to get boxee to find it. Any ideas?

Thanks can't wait to get this working.

Ben

[Enderend]

Background: I followed the directions in the video. It worked very well. My concern was that I didn't want my files shared when I was off my home network (the shared files are on my laptop). The video implies that the shared folders can be password protected but still read by boxee over the network. All attempts at making this happen failed.

Frustrated, I decided to return the the original settings as laid out in the video. Unfortunately, I am no longer able to see my shared folders in any of the other boxee installations on my network (one mac, one pc). Please help.

Ideally, I would like to get to a place where the shared files are password protected, but at a minimum, I would like the mac and windows machines to be able to use my shared files over the network.

[murfmv]

IBOG-great job easy to understand.

[iBog]

Thanks. I'll gladly make more videos if people suggest topics.

[iBog]

Enderend: Good point, let me create a video for that. In the meantime, you would have to set permissions on your network share. This isn't as simple as specifying a shared password. Rather, you would create a user account iBog and set a password for that account. Now you would grant the user iBog read privileges to the network share. I would have to access the network share using my username and password now.

[massfords]

I am able to connect to my shared folders on my mac desktop from my macbook via the Finder's command-k but Boxee isn't able to load data from this source.

I add a network source with the same address (smb://192.168.0.199) and it always reports "No files found at source" or "Failed to load data".

Is this a known issue on 10.6.2 ?

Update: If I mount the share using the finder prior to running boxee then the share will appear in the devices but still no joy with connecting while not mounted.

[igirl]

Thanks for this - the only part that was missing is the second half - showing what's needed to be done in Boxee to find and enable the networked computer! As it turned out for me that was quite tricky, and I don't think it ever did appear until I finally rebooted the ATV/Boxee after enabling file sharing on my Mac.

I've actually enabled sharing on a folder on an external 1TB firewire drive connected to my Mac, and been able to play .M4V over the wireless network - indicating that I will be able to achieve my goal of a master library on HD, with no limits to the amount of storage! :D No more syncing with iTunes!

A little more work and I'll be able to add the function of playing Video_TS folders as well - thus eliminating the tedious step of having to convert. Cool stuff - and I didn't have to buy ATV Flash to do it!

[CHrisG]

Could you make a video on how to install the Boxee Beta on the AppleTV with simple instructions for those of us who are stumped when it comes to these kind of things.

[fluko]

Many thanks for the rkeply

[fluko]

Many thanks for the reply iBog....fluko

[konglinda]

There are many producs in the market ,but according to the use frequency,this

product is the best choice, I bet you will have a suprising result,just have a try!

[hugejames]

really helpful info , thanks for sharing.

[wouldrichest]

Make sure the lock in the bottom left corner is unlocked before you make edits.

Otherwise, you may have a similar problem I had. If you delete the profile and recreate it everything will be fine. I don't know how it got corrupt.

Also, make sure you're editing the WINS values for the correct network connection (ethernet or wifi selected on the left side)

it is unlocked.

I am not sure what you mean by delete the profile. Built in ethernet is the only active connection....do you mean delete that profile?
Reply With Quote

[Pokes23]

I followed the video instructions and when I go to network and select my mac from the list I keep getting the same error "Loading Error: Failed to retrieve data".

Anyone have any insight on this issue? In my shared settings the 'Everyone' user has read only access to both folders.

I would gladly appreciate any help resolving this!!

[cobble]

Me too, Loading error and failed to retrieve data. I followed the video but assume somewhere along the way something didn't "apply" that needed to...

[ellyka112]

nice. way to spread the love. can't wait to see more.

forgive the ignorance, I am not that familiar with setting up networking. When I go to my system prefs, there is nothing in the workgroup picklist. No options, no text. I can type in the word workgroup, but if I click ok, and go back in, it's blank again.

How do I get the workgroup value set?

[Duffan]

very clear Video, but one Q
Can I show IPHOTO library with Boxee Box on my DLNA HDTV?
Or only Photos-pictures.
AppleTV shows IPHOTO incuding faces etc

[AmuddyGassara]

But when I go to import the a file named Standalone, the application will not import that file. Message says it can not import a database format. So what would the correct format be? And would I rename the file?

[freedog]

So far, boxee is the most frustrating software I've tried to use in a long time. Do I need to turn on file sharing to play files on the same mac that boxee is running on? If so, where does it say that? And why would that be? None of the other apps on my computer need file sharing to be turned on. Not word processors, not itunes, nothing.

[Maffew]

I've followed the video, to the best of my understanding, but i can't see any shared files from my mac on the boxee box.

I can (occasionally) view files from a shared drive, connected through wifi, but the stream stutters like crazy.

I can also view files using the boxee media manager, but that only streams some of my files (most are grayed out).

I tried calling the tech support number on the box for the boxxe box. i figured i'd get through since it claims to be 24/7. ive tried for the last week and never gotten through to anyone.

can i get a little help over here please?

[jimsohan]

I create a short Boxee video tutorial and posted it to YouTube.

My first tutorial is about sharing files on your Mac so they can be viewed from Boxee.

Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai8lGU-mX1U

Let me know what you think and if there are any other topics you'd like to see.

I have found your video tutorial quite helpful.Thanks.

[recpros]

i just got my boxee and for three months I have been searching the web to determine how to maximize it...how to expand it to eliminate rogers...who I can find to tell me what exactly a boxee is and does...how to add usable apps without beating up any well meaning expert user. For example, I added navi-x to my repositories with minimal success...how can I learn to be a boxee power user?

[allen114]

Boxee on my ATV does me little good until I can figure out how to give it content though.

[Leon10]

Its an important video tutorial for me. From that tutorial i have learned that how can i share files on my mac. Thanks for that useful and important video tutorial.

[sampionce]

Hello everybody.
Any help will be more than appreciated!
Here's the trouble...

I've got a BoxeeBox and succesfully set up the sharing from my iMac (24") to BoxeeBox following the video description (thanx to the author!) but I still don't manage to see the files from my two WD Hard Drives connected to two USB ports on my iMac. I do see folders and files on my iMac through SMB sharing but not the folders and files on two WD HDs. I always get the same message "Boxeebox could not acces file..."
Can anyone help please?
Thanks!