Am I crazy or is Boxee Beta a nightmare? Mac Help.

[exile]

I'm trying very hard to use the Beta on my mac mini running 10.5.8 and I have to admit that I have almost reached my limit of what I can take as an end user.

the things that don't work:
the apps page- it only works on startup. after watching something it's impossible to get back to the apps page.
my apps- when i try to return to apps it takes me to my apps and gets into an endless loop of nothingness.
tv shows & movies- has the usual and longstanding problem of not finding shows and movies.
the Boxee program cannot be quit without doing a force quit

and this is just for starters.

the beta problems are far worse than any alpha problems I ever experienced. I don't even know where to start in dealing with all of these new problems.

[kristallin]

Did you do a clean install (deleted your old User Data folder and app first)?

[exile]

i've done multiple clean installs and all of the listed problems remain unchanged.

[gatherlight]

I have your exact configuration and none of the problems you list.

maybe try repairing your permission in the computer. Seems odd to me you can not quit Boxee unless doing a force quit. Something else is going on here outside of Boxee to cause all this would be my guess. The beta is very usable for me.

[timesync]

the things that don't work:
the apps page- it only works on startup. after watching something it's impossible to get back to the apps page.
my apps- when i try to return to apps it takes me to my apps and gets into an endless loop of nothingness.
tv shows & movies- has the usual and longstanding problem of not finding shows and movies.
the Boxee program cannot be quit without doing a force quit


I have the same problem w/ "myapps" and "the apps page". In addition, up until recently, I've had the same problem w/ quitting out of Boxee. I also have the same setup as you: OS/X 10.5.8 on a Mac Mini.

I don't find it nearly as frustrating as you do, though (but then again, I'm used to beta software). Give them some time to work out the kinks. They released a completely new platform and they crammed a lot in to it. If you want, there are a couple of threads in the forum that have links to the Alpha; you can reinstall that.

[exile]

gatherlight, it seems that fixing permissions on my machine has resulted in better Boxee performance.

Hopefully another release will come in the near future as well.

[AJerman]

That's good that repairing permissions helped out. I can also say that I've seen Boxee hang while closing a few times. It doesn't happen every time, but sometimes it will get stuck and I have to force quit it.

My biggest issue is the CPU usage, but I'm 99% sure that my high CPU usage is coming from using SMB shares to access all of my media on my PC. I need to find an alternative to that.

[gatherlight]

That's good that repairing permissions helped out. I can also say that I've seen Boxee hang while closing a few times. It doesn't happen every time, but sometimes it will get stuck and I have to force quit it.

My biggest issue is the CPU usage, but I'm 99% sure that my high CPU usage is coming from using SMB shares to access all of my media on my PC. I need to find an alternative to that.

Yeah, good to know that repairing Permissions helped out.

In regards to the CPU usage, I have that same complaint as well, especially when I switch into another space on mac, Boxee will ride my CPU at 50%.

Firefox just came out with 3.6 under a Beta release that fixes a lot of memory problems when sitting idle. Firefox would sometimes eat up my CPU as well because I leave a lot of tabs open and with this new beta it is much better with memory and CPU handling. I would imagine that the next versions of Boxee will tap into some of these new features in Firefox 3.6.

[darcilicious]

God I hate Firefox 3.5 on my W7 box. I finally had to switch to Chrome ;P Maybe I'll check out the 3.6 beta...

[fowler]

You're not crazy.

The frustrating thing about boxee is it is fantastic "demo" software. It looks so good and when everything works it just looks and feels RIGHT, like the way media should work.

So every time I see a new version, I get excited, download it, then I'm reminded why I never use boxee in the first place.

But the biggest problem with boxee is, when something is wrong, there is no easy way to fix it.

For instance, in My Movies, I have Slumdog Millionaire listed. Which is odd, because I DON'T HAVE Slumdog Millionaire. When I play it, I get the first episode of Season 7 of 24. This makes no sense, but I'm willing to forgive it; everyone makes mistakes. But how exactly do I go about correcting that mistake? I cannot find a way to tell boxee: Hey, this is a TV show called 24, not a movie called Slumdog Millionaire.

I can't even figure out why they'd do that. Ease of use? Can you imagine your mother using this? She'd be totally flabbergasted.

I know it's only a beta, but really... boxee is so far from being a consumer-ready product that I fear for D-Link's boxee box. I WANT it to be good, I WANT to replace the aging Xbox 1s with XBMC in my house with a fleet of boxee boxes, but it just doesn't work -- and yes, like the OP, that drives me crazy.

[iblastoff]

You're not crazy.

The frustrating thing about boxee is it is fantastic "demo" software. It looks so good and when everything works it just looks and feels RIGHT, like the way media should work.

So every time I see a new version, I get excited, download it, then I'm reminded why I never use boxee in the first place.

But the biggest problem with boxee is, when something is wrong, there is no easy way to fix it.

For instance, in My Movies, I have Slumdog Millionaire listed. Which is odd, because I DON'T HAVE Slumdog Millionaire. When I play it, I get the first episode of Season 7 of 24. This makes no sense, but I'm willing to forgive it; everyone makes mistakes. But how exactly do I go about correcting that mistake? I cannot find a way to tell boxee: Hey, this is a TV show called 24, not a movie called Slumdog Millionaire.

I can't even figure out why they'd do that. Ease of use? Can you imagine your mother using this? She'd be totally flabbergasted.

I know it's only a beta, but really... boxee is so far from being a consumer-ready product that I fear for D-Link's boxee box. I WANT it to be good, I WANT to replace the aging Xbox 1s with XBMC in my house with a fleet of boxee boxes, but it just doesn't work -- and yes, like the OP, that drives me crazy.

i kind of agree that boxee doesn't seem anywhere near being a consumer-ready product. i come from using plex media server on my macbook and was completely bewildered at how 'behind' boxee seemed in comparison. its unfortunate because i really want to get a boxee box but it seems the software side has a *long* way to go.

at this point i cant see the boxee box being released until waaay late into Q2 of 2010 for $199. when that happens, the acer revo will probably drop even further in price and it'd probably be better to just set up an actual htpc by then.

[judgeschambers]

It ain't that bad, boys (at least in a Windows 7 environment). For having some movies being labeled wrong with a brand new database. I have no issues and have 3 out of 300 movies labeled incorrectly. Submitted the corrections to the Update doc for movies and two have already been addressed.

When I think of just how much Boxee does do well, I'm thankful I have and use it daily. The glass is more than half full here.

And my mother would not be using a beta product. They are meant for beta testers for troubleshooting and feedback purposes only. So, expectations must be aligned with that.

Check the First Stop link in my sig to learn about the TV & Movie database submission form to help Team Beta Boxee work the kinks out. ;)

[fowler]

Forgive me if I sound extra-frustrated; I typed out a long reply and it disappeared. Not Boxee's fault, just irritating!

Anyway: I'm not being sarcastic when I say it's great that Boxee works for you. Seriously, that's awesome. I wish it worked like that for me -- it just doesn't. It's not a glass half-full/empty thing -- it doesn't recognise my TV shows, it doesn't recognise my movies, and I have no idea whether it's even bothering to scan because I see no obvious result. So I'm using the Files view, which is basically an uglier version of Front Row.

My problem and worry with Boxee is: Yes, it's beta now, but it's trying to be a consumer product. And soon, too -- those D-Link boxes are supposed to ship in the second quarter, so at most that's what, six months? And it feels confused to me. It's got a very consumer-friendly face, looks slick, and hides a lot of options presumably to make it easy to use. But at the same time... to use it, you need to be an advanced user.

Look at the file names you need for Boxee to recognise videos. Firstly: The ancient XBMC was more flexible than that. Secondly: Have you guys seen what a "regular" computer users' files look like? Have you seen people's iTunes collections? Man, I'm no organisational freak but looking at my friends' computers kill me. Misspelled song titles. No artist listed. Name of the ripper in the genre field. And you expect Boxee to recognise their videos? No way, no how.

I WANT Boxee to work and I want Boxee to be great. The reason I brought up making your mother use it is because, eventually (not now!) I do want a fleet of Boxee Boxes in my house to replace my aging Xbox 1s. But every time I go back to Boxee I see that it still has a long, long way to go, and I'm not confident it'll make it.

[judgeschambers]

Forgive me if I sound extra-frustrated; I typed out a long reply and it disappeared. Not Boxee's fault, just irritating! Anyway: I'm not being sarcastic when I say it's great that Boxee works for you.......

Sorry (beta) is not far enough in it's development at this date in time. Try it again come this spring or summer and it may work better and be all it needs to be for you. ;)

Now, in this thread, I think a Mac user needed some help getting his apps to work?.....

[NomadDNA]

gatherlight, it seems that fixing permissions on my machine has resulted in better Boxee performance.

I think it's been taken care of, Judge ;)

::edit::
I've included "repairing disk permissions" to the Global Announcement.
http://forum.boxee.tv/announcement.php?f=8

[exile]

i don't want to mislead anyone so to follow up...

fixing permissions has caused some improvement but overall the boxee beta is a total mess. Great to hear that others are using it and having virtually no problems-good for them.

However, i agree with the other folks who have said that this product is nowhere near being consumer friendly. I've been a champion of this product from day one but now a fair amount of time has elapsed between the early alpha releases and the highly hyped recent beta and the improvements to the product are minimal at best.

am i in the minority in thinking that the graphical interface modifications (i.e-the happy little chime at startup) are close to pointless if the software doesn't consistently work correctly? more channels??? again. i could care less that there's a fishing channel if i can't consistently open the program, maneuver through the menus and reliably play content.

also, we need much more documentation. a fully developed wiki? thorough faq? the intro video that is built into boxee beta is aimed at an idiot's level of intelligence. How about nightly releases of updates to the software? video tutorials for settings, etc?

Boxee folks, you have been given a golden opportunity to capitalize on the emerging internet tv market. The way in which you support your product will make or break your company. If the frustration of use overcomes the excitement over the possibilities of what boxee can do then the game will be over and people will very quickly gravitate to something else like Plex or whatever. Please don't get fixated on adding even more online content. remember that one of the great aspects of leaving the chains of cable tv is being able to leave behind 400 channels of garbage.

[mrmr]

I can attest to the beta boxee being quite buggy. I have consistent crashes in opening up Movies to launching Apps... I am running it on SL 10.6.2 and it always hangs upon exit as well without fail. I am going to try the disk permission fix but I have the alpha on another machine and there seems to be less issues with the Alpha? Something positive though I do like the new Interface and Navigation within the Beta but am hesitant to update all my machines until some of these basic issues are worked out.

Thanks for a great piece of software.

[marcel]

Thanks guys for the feedback we are now working on making Boxee more stable in order for us to do that we will need all your help trying to recreate the scenarios and as well as the boxee logs and crashreporter logs ...i know this will not happen overnight and it might take a few versions to fix everyone's issues..regarding the resolving of TVshows/movies we are updating our DB with all the information you guys have sent us via the support thread and we hope to implement the manual resolving asap.