choose movie with boxee iPad/play on boxee box

[tqila]

I'm using a boxee box that I'm streaming movies from my server.

and I'm using an iPad 2 with boxee app.

so my question, is there a way to use the boxee app on iPad (or some other app or something) to choose which movie to watch and then make it play on the boxee box, but instead of using airplay it streams from the server

so in other words, use the boxee app on iPad as a "remote" to choose which movie to watch on the boxee box, and just tap/press the movie in iPad so it starts to play on the box.

(i know that i can use the app and airplay-stream it to the box but i want the box to stream from the server as that is hardwired and i don't want to stream it as airplay as i think wifi/airplay sucks for HD-material and such)

thanks in advance!

[darcilicious]

so in other words, use the boxee app on iPad as a "remote" The Boxee iPad app does not include a remote function as far as I can tell.

[tqila]

i don't want to use it in that sense.. not to control the boxee box, just to tell it which movie to start.

so exactly like the boxee app for iPad does when airplaying, but instead of doing it thru airplay, the box does it the regular way of streaming from server.

but if the boxee app can't do it, someone knows another way to do this?

[darcilicious]

You can do this with Boxee Media Manager installed, I just realized.

Install the Boxee Media Manager on your computer, add your local sources to BMM, and then in the iPad app, browse those local sources, select a movie, and play it. I'm pretty sure it's not using AirPlay to do that but that it will use BMM instead.

[tqila]

hm, ill check that later when I'm finished watching the movie I'm watching now :)
girlfriend will be pissed if stop/pause now haha

but if thats the case with BMM instead of airplay and it works i think I'm gonna be so happy that ill explode. (or implode)


edit: seems to work fine :) thanks for the help.
one thing that doesn't seem to work though is playing bluray-rips (bdmv/stream/.mts2-files)

tried to play Beastly 2011 BluRay 1080p AVC DTS-HD MA51-TTG but it just tries to start, but the image (at that moment the root/menu on boxee box) just flickers a second or two, then nothing happens..

but everything else seem to work great at the moment.

[kokkat]

First off, thank you tqila for saving me from typing exactly the same thing.
Hope you have not exploded (or imploded for that matter)
Second, in the iPad app if I select a file to play (shared via BMM) in the My Media tab of the app. it just plays it on the iPad.
Unless of course I AirPlay to destination Boxee. Any pointers?

I think turning on my 65in panel just to browse to another folder to play another FLAC is a bit of an overkill.

I am forced to leave a PC on just for BMM to run, unless someone can suggest a NAS which supports this feature.

[darcilicious]

Second, in the iPad app if I select a file to play (shared via BMM) in the My Media tab of the app. it just plays it on the iPad. Unless of course I AirPlay to destination Boxee. That's how it works by design.

You can play your local content on the iPad or you can play on the Box via AirPlay.

"The Boxee Media Manager enables you to stream all of the media that is available on computers or storage devices in your home network to your iPad." http://support.boxee.tv/entries/20348841-what-is-the-boxee-media-manager

[kokkat]

i don't want to use it in that sense.. not to control the boxee box, just to tell it which movie to start.

so exactly like the boxee app for iPad does when airplaying, but instead of doing it thru airplay, the box does it the regular way of streaming from server.

but if the boxee app can't do it, someone knows another way to do this?

and I saw darci's post saying BMM could do it, so I saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

[darcilicious]

Criminy, I've said it both ways in this thread, haven't I?

The problem is this: I see no reason to use BMM to send videos to the Box since it has direct access to them (via AFP/BMM/NFS/SMB). I see no reason to use BMM to play videos on the iPad because AirVideo (a different server/app) does it so much better.

So my direct experience using BMM is nill and I think I can't remember what all it does.

Sorry if I've mislead you :(

[kokkat]

with 11,680 posts and counting it is bound to happen. :P

I read your post http://forums.boxee.tv/showpost.php?p=229007&postcount=4
which is a shame

so Harmony or something else cannot do it huh?

[darcilicious]

Yeah, I don't know of any other way than AirPlay to "see" what to play and what's currently playing... And it's how I've been doing music on the Box without the TV powered... The nice thing about AirPlay (especially for audio) is that it works across all sorts of apps (e.g. native music player, spotify, many if not all "radio" apps, etc).

(Re: BMM -- apparently I played around with it just enough to be dangerous and not enough to remember :p )

[kokkat]

and yes, I have wasted 5 bucks on the so called amo "remote"

[kokkat]

Oh man I can't even think of degrading my FLACs into mp3 just to make it AirPlay compatible. Or maybe you have some trick to AirPlay FLACs too that you would ahem.. (picture the Quigon hand-wave) love to share.

[darcilicious]

Subsonic server + subsonic iOS client + AirPlay would probably do FLAC. Let me try it tonight when I get home and I'll let you know since the server isn't free for mobile (though it has a free trial period), the subsonic iOS apps typically aren't free and I'd have to see that subsonic does the right thing when streaming FLAC to iOS.

How's that for some Jedi hand-waving? ;)

(The FLAC would probably be transcoded on the fly, though, is that okay?)

[kokkat]

Thank you indeed. transcoding is ok for now, since I am positive boxee or a reputable licensee will come up with a remote.

[kokkat]

I will list out the NAS I have (incase you get any other bulbs lighting up)
LaCie 5big Network (first version)
LaCie 5big Network 2
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10485
iomega StorCenter ix4-200d
http://go.iomega.com/en/products/network-storage-desktop/storcenter-network-storage-solution/network-hard-drive-ix4-200-cloud/

[kokkat]

or you could suggest the best media server NAS solution out there, anything under $3000 is fine. In terms of speed. Reliabilty wise I am all set since I have not got rid of my discs (even my Laser Discs!)

[kokkat]

Just checking how subsonic worked out. Was it like SqueezePad and Squeezebox?

[darcilicious]

I just did a quick test and was able to stream a .flac file via subsonic server to a subsonic iOS app (iSub) and then use AirPlay to have playback on the Boxee Box. I didn't do it for very long but it did work.

[kokkat]

Thank you darci, will get cranking tonight.

[kokkat]

Well the FLAC plays splendidly on the iPad (worth the $5 for iSub).
But if I airplay it to the BBox, it plays fine for about 4 or 5 songs and then the infamous v1.2.2.20482 audio lag sets in.
(Visualization stutters, remote becomes unresponsive eventually etc.)

This was BEFORE I turned off transcoding in the subsonic server.
Er.. not that anything changed AFTER ;P