XBMC vs. Boxee

[MILE]

Haven't found any real info on this yet, so...

...what are the actual differences between XBMC and Boxee (which is actually based on XBMC)...?!? :confused:

I mean, I do see the difference in the UI and such, but how would you distinguish one from another...?! Or from a sales guy's point of view: Why shoould one prefer using Boxee over XBMC..?! ;)

I'm not trying to diss one or the other, I'd just really honestly like to know what the idea behind Boxee is...! I mean, why start a new project instead of contributing to the XBMC project...? Are the two projects headed in different directions...?!

Can someone please shed some light on this for me...?

Thanks a lot...!

:: M ::

[jdarnold]

I wondered the same thing myself, but Boxee just uses XBMC for media playing, while adding the whole "social media" thing on top of it. See what your friends are watching, recommending things for them to watch, etc. It also adds a much better Internet experience, connecting to Hulu, Comedy Central, etc.

[MILE]

Okay, I see the 'social networking' angle, that might be one of the things separating Boxee from XBMC...

Integration of Hulu etc. is a nice touch as well, even though it has no value to all the users outside the USA... :( ...bot of course that's not Boxee's fault...!

I also kinda like te podcast integration, have yet to test it out though...

So while I do like the more sophisticated look & feel of XBMC I'm somehow leaning towards using Boxee as my media center solution in the future...! :)

(Right now it just doesn't feel ready for everyday use though, at least not for me..but that's a whole different issue...)

Anyway, might be nice to hear form one of the devs on their views concerning my initial posting...

:: M ::

[agentlame]

I mean, why start a new project instead of contributing to the XBMC project...? Are the two projects headed in different directions...?!


boxee contributes greatly to xbmc...


once the boxee is finalized, i think it will be kinda like fedora to xbmc's rhel.

[DGMurdockIII]

really then xbmc would have to be comerical

[agentlame]

nah... i posted that backwards.

boxee=rehl
xbmc=fedora

[ashtonisdrugfree]

nah... i posted that backwards.

boxee=rehl
xbmc=fedora
Boxees online content integration... enough said

[soulgrnd]

XBMC has no problem mounting SMB shares (ie my Airport Extremes attached USB Driver).... Boxee on the other hand is having a big issue with that... XBMC seems to also load videos quicker in general even local ones... i cnt wait until i can get Boxee to work properly but for the time being i recommend XBMC

[agentlame]

XBMC has no problem mounting SMB shares (ie my Airport Extremes attached USB Driver).... Boxee on the other hand is having a big issue with that... XBMC seems to also load videos quicker in general even local ones... i cnt wait until i can get Boxee to work properly but for the time being i recommend XBMC

keep in mind that xbmc is basically a stable (1.0-ish) product, and boxee hasn't even broken-out of alpha.

it'll get there, i'm sure of it. :)

[DiegoSanchez]

i think i might goto xbmc tonight

[mphype]

to me boxee is better suited for the new comer. xbmc has TONS of menus, customizations, and sub screens which can be confusing to people that havent been in it for a while


plus i love how boxee's interface works so well with a simple remote. things are perfectly placed and overall i prefer the navigation to xbmc unless im at my computer

<3 xbmc
<3 boxee

[vh-bil]

I really am enjoying boxee, I didnt really like xbmc. I hope boxee goes the distance!

[sfsmiley]

I describe boxee as more mainstream, for everyday users, where xbmc is for more of a target audience, people who like to tinker, customize, etc. both deliver what they intend to, very well i might add :D

[Linda_Ot]

I havent thought about installing Windows XP SP3, but yes my internet works excellent and there are no proxies set up.

Is there anything that I have to configure in order to have my XBMC connect to the network server?

My wii and ps3 connects fine to my router.

[jmk_428]

I found XBMC interface attrocious. Boxee automatically did everything for me like an appliance. XBMC i couldn't even get the darn thing to scrape properly, the configuration is confusing (haha, that wiki instruction is a joke) , and nothing just worked as easily in Boxee. In 10 minutes I figured out in Boxee how to setup the directories, and it did all the rest (all the video art etc was setup and categorized movies vs tv shows for me). Xbmc, I wish I could have even got that far.

Now I am sure XMBC is great, so please point me to some idiot setup process instructions, but XBMC feels like work to get it working...boxee not at all.

[killerbeesateme]

From my experience, running xbmc before boxee and boxee since the first linux version. Keep in mind, this is all on linux, its my opinion and i'm more technical than most.

Boxee wins hands down when it comes to anything online.

XBMC has its plugins, but they just don't work very well (at least on linux). Some plugins have worked well for me, others haven't. The interface for the plugins isn't very attractive either. I think alot of it boils down to how boxee has its own minibrowser built in. I find the whole online experience so much more satisfying with boxee.

XBMC wins hands down when it comes to managing a large local media collection.

I find the specifying of paths, type of content and notification of scraping process to be a necessity. I had a big problem in the first linux boxee alpha with files going thru a SMB share. Every time I closed it and reopened it, it would rescrape all of the content and it would get alot of items wrong. So, I had to migrate everything over to NFS shares to make boxee think they were local files and actually keep the data. Another problem I had was that it would pick up folder names as movies. This was because I have my movies seperated into some genre folders in case scraping breaks down and want to find something manually. So it would load movie titles of "Action" "Unsorted" "Family" etc. It also didn't recognize some of my movies very well, even though they were in a very standard format (i.e. "Dawn of the Dead (1978).mkv" would still show up as the 2005 version).

Interface wise, I think it's a tie.

Boxee and XBMC just have different ways of displaying information. I prefer XBMC personally, but that is just because of the different skins. I know this will come to boxee and when it does, I may fully switch. however, boxee annoys the bejesus out of me with its stopping at the end of lists. if i need to get to the bottom of a list, i want to push up and go straight to the bottom. same with reaching the end, i should be able to go to the top. I have ALOT of video, and this is a big big headache to me. I'm sure there's a hack, but I'm just lazy. Oh, and another big headache i have is with the last viewed video list on the home screen. I wish there was a way to disable certain things from ending up on there so i don't have to manually remove certain items.

All in all, I use both. I use boxee for internet, xbmc for local, and mythtv for television. I have a harmony remote and set up scripts that close and open each, and programmed the activities to handle it gracefully. The switch between takes about 15-20 seconds.

[unisonband]

Boxee has some great features from an online angle... XBMC actually does have more video plugins available than boxee, if you take a look around teh forums. Boxee is ideal for people that want a user friendly experience, while XBMC has a lot you have to read about to get it working.

There are two things I do like about XBMC over boxee: customizable skins - there are some great skins that makes the UI fantastic! My peresonal favorite is the Aeon LowList

The other is teh built in media flagging - it skans you media as you add it and identifies codecs, audio and viseo, studios, ratings, resolution, source, etc. Super cool :D

[PandaBear]

I found XBMC interface attrocious. Boxee automatically did everything for me like an appliance. XBMC i couldn't even get the darn thing to scrape properly, the configuration is confusing (haha, that wiki instruction is a joke) , and nothing just worked as easily in Boxee. In 10 minutes I figured out in Boxee how to setup the directories, and it did all the rest (all the video art etc was setup and categorized movies vs tv shows for me). Xbmc, I wish I could have even got that far.

Now I am sure XMBC is great, so please point me to some idiot setup process instructions, but XBMC feels like work to get it working...boxee not at all.

+1

I gave XBMC a go and it's not for me. I want something that enhances my viewing experience without dedicating so much time configuring and customizing. Some don't mind that and enjoy it but I just wanna fire an app up and go.

Running both Boxee and XBMC, I had a much easier time with boxee. XBMC just refused to add many of my shows and movies. Boxee did this though it misread a few. Now I don't mind manually correcting a few files as opposed to manually adding the majority of my media with XBMC. I'm sure I'm in the minority here and most XBMC users have an easier time but this was my experience.

Boxee has better online streaming and "applications" are much simpler to hunt down and install.

I've been using boxee for awhile and kept giving XBMC a shot because of the beautiful AEON skin. But I spent sooooooo much more time configuring XBMC to work how I wanted to that I've finally given up.

[jeryruse]

I've been using both but I might be leaning more towards XBMC (but only by very little). I think Boxee has a structually better UI and more classy), 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?

[agentlame]

I've been using both but I might be leaning more towards XBMC

The beta update really puts Boxee ahead of XBMC, IMHO. http://livestream.com/boxee

But really, people using either is the goal. Keep in mind, XBMC is the upstream of Boxee.

[b00sted4fun]

XBMC > boxee untill I get some nfo support on boxee and some of the more advance options XBMC has to offer.

[deanhash]

I like XBMC more then Boxee because it is faster and is a lot more stable. I use both on my Apple TV and as far as playback of videos (local and streamed) is concerned XBMC beats Boxee hands down, they are crisper and more vivid on my HDTV. Boxee is good software and I think Team Boxee kicks ass but I do not think it will ever be there for the Apple TV because they have higher goals.

UPDATE!
I just upgraded to XBMC 9.11 Release Candidate 1 and for all you people who feel intimidated and confused by XBMC they have a new SVN Repo Installer. It makes it easy to install plug-ins and scripts with just a few mouse clicks plus they have a PPC version that I downloaded for my old Power Mac.
It looks like I will be using XBMC a lot more now since it has just about everything Boxee has to offer but with a crisper video experience.

[tlamarca]

XBMC is infinitely more stable and more customizable. A couple new skins are available with the latest release Aeon, Xperience (beta right now but a lot of potential) Rapier and Transparency! that make it a real pleasure to use. I'm really impressed with how fast and flexible it is.

[DPK]

Stay on topic or I'll lock this.

[tlamarca]

This is the "off topic" forum... LOL

[DPK]

This is the "off topic" forum... LOL

This is a topic about XBMC vs. Boxee. Compare/contrast them in a manner that doesn't sound like you're pushing an agenda. That's the topic within a forum about topics that are off-topic.

:rolleyes:

[tlamarca]

I totally get it. It was ironic that's all. I understand and can appreciate your concern. :D

[DPK]

I totally get it. It was ironic that's all. I understand and can appreciate your concern. :D

Happy ending! :cool:

[andre.lourenco]

what exactly is the version of xbmc that boxee forked from?

Thanks

[agentlame]

Boxee is closer to a branch than a fork. (Think of it as Ubuntu and Debian.)

PLEX is a complete fork. Boxee and XBMC merge feathers every few months. Each taking what they are interested in from the other.

The Boxee team works closely with XBMC.

[MosBen]

I checked out XBMC a while ago, but didn't care for it. When I installed Boxee it just worked. It was easy to add local media and to set up online subscriptions and such. It's not perfect, but it worked pretty well out of the box.

XBMC, on the other hand, I wrestled with for an hour or so to get it to add my library of local media. Eventually my frustration level was reached and I decided it wasn't worth it.

I haven't used either a ton (I plan on getting a HTPC later this year), so I can't speak to stability issues. Still, when I downloaded Boxee I was so impressed with how easy it was to get to the fun that I showed my friends, who were similarly impressed. I never got passed the setup for XBMC, so I never bothered to mention it to them.

[ezriderz]

They removed a ton of functionality and submenus to tweak video playback, file maintenance, etc from XBMC when they built the BoxeeBox. It seems crippled compared to XBMC.