Boxee player not as smooth as iTunes.

[semanuel]

I have noticed that playing movies from within Boxee seems to be less smooth than playing them from iTunes. Specifically, I have observed occasional artifacts like short horizontal lines in the picture, audio slipping out of sync with video, random pixellation that does not repeat at the same place if I go back and play that segment again. I have never seen these issues playing the same files in iTunes. My question is, is there a technical reason for why this might occur? I thought Boxee used the Quicktime player just like iTunes does to play videos.

MacMini, 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 SDRAM

[NomadDNA]

Boxee's player is based off of an open-source app called ffmpeg, not quicktime

http://forum.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=26241&postcount=1

[Fuzzgtp]

That would be incorrect. Boxee uses their blfxplayer. Also, boxee does use more resources than your average media player.

I personally have no issues with my box, but windows supports hardware acceleration which makes a huge difference.

[agentlame]

That would be incorrect. Boxee uses their blfxplayer. Also, boxee does use more resources than your average media player.

I personally have no issues with my box, but windows supports hardware acceleration which makes a huge difference.

Actually, Nomad is correct.

bxflplayer is only used to play streames that are wrapped by browser plugins. (IE: Flash, Silvelight and Move Player.) Everything else uses ffmpeg.

[NomadDNA]

nevertheless, that doesn't really answer your question, semanuel...

I've been running Boxee on OSX for the last year, and haven't had much trouble playing mpeg based videos, or any of the symptoms you've described. Is it possible that you're symptoms are exclusive to your system? I haven't heard much complaint from other users in this area...

bxflplayer, on the other hand, has been troublesome for my xp machine, and sucks up a lot of resources.

[semanuel]

Thanks for the info everyone. I suppose it could be specific to my setup. I also see that backgrounds are patchier when played in Boxee player vs. iTunes; for example the wall over the shoulder of trinity in the Matrix (3:22 in) looks patchy and pixellated. I have a relatively new MacMini dedicated media center playing thru a Harmon Kardon AVR354 to a Panasonic 50" plasma. I guess it is what it is.

[bebrooks1]

I've actually started experiencing the same horizontal lines and artifacts since installing the latest version 0.9.21.11487 on my current gen mac mini. I bounced the mini (just to check) and that doesn't seem to matter.

I didn't experience these lines prior to installation last night. I checked with vlc and the lines don't appear at all. I know that doesn't really prove a lot, however it does show that it's not a problem with the file and that the mini is capable of handling the playback.

Should I open a JIRA ticket? Are there any additional configuration changes?

Beau

[bebrooks1]

Alright. Just checked Jira. My issue is resolved in a later version.

Thanks guys!

[anthonws]

@bebrooks1

Hi,

If you don't mind, where did you downloaded the 0.9.21.11487 version?

Since there is no SVN, or a download option from Jira I suspect that you must be a beta/alpha tester :)

Thanks,
Anthon
----------------------------------------------------------
Edit:

Well, it seems that there's a new version available :D (0.9.21.11487)

Happy days!

Still, if you can answer my question please do.

Thanks.

[Adalfredo]

I have noticed that playing movies from within Boxee seems to be less smooth than playing them from iTunes. Specifically, I have observed occasional artifacts like short horizontal lines in the picture, audio slipping out of sync with video, random pixellation that does not repeat at the same place if I go back and play that segment again. I have never seen these issues playing the same files in iTunes. My question is, is there a technical reason for why this might occur? I thought Boxee used the Quicktime player just like iTunes does to play videos.
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[joeyjojoe]

Since the OP felt the update would help him, I decided to jack the thread.

I'm using the latest version of Boxee on an older Mac Mini (1.66 GHz, 2 GB ram ... yes I know it's below the suggested requirements), and have noticed that there's significantly more stuttering using Boxee than Quicktime or VLC.

Is there some logic to this? I understand that Boxee has some overhead, but is that really it? I've tried a clean install and that doesn't help.

[darcilicious]

Boxee uses its own internal player and it is more resource intensive than most native/external players. And no, you can not tell Boxee to use a different player.

There's a reason for the suggested HW requirements ;)

[judgeschambers]

There's a reason for the suggested HW requirements ;)

That pretty much nails it.:cool:

As follow up: Neither VLC or QT do what boxee does. Not even the same league.... :rolleyes:

[joeyjojoe]

I should mention everything with Boxee was great before the last build. Regardless, I guess I understand that I'm not meeting the "suggested requirements", I just don't understand why the internal player is so much worse than VLC/QT.

Oh well, my loss.