xbmc -vs- Boxee

[chad.socolovitch]

I downloaded XBMC today to just see what its about etc.

so far i havent played with it much but what little i did i was AMAZED at the quality of the skinning etc.

seems they have a lot of plugins for videoes and some programs scripts.

so what i want to know is what is the main difference between the two and why should we use one over the other?

i think if we ever see the Boxee Box that will be the BIGGEST reason but from people who have used both, whats your opinion(s) and why?

[dan1son]

There are a ton of posts about this on this forum and the XBMC forum.

Basically boxee is based on XBMC.

Boxee does not allow skinning. Boxee has limited scraping support for local files (XBMC has far better support for locally or network stored files).

Boxee adds app support (xbmc has plugins and scripts but they are far more limiting). Boxee adds social networking support (see what friends watch, recommendations, etc.) Boxee adds many streaming sites like Hulu, Netflix, Fox, BBC, etc. etc. XBMC can do plugins for some, but it lacks the flash support boxee has.

Basically XBMC looks prettier and works better for your own content. Boxee excels at online content and social networking.

[chad.socolovitch]

yeah i been playing with it a bit and even when you use some of the plugins they don't feel the same and the few i loaded which took forever by the way to do. didn't even work right or updated.

not a huge fan of it like my boxee so far

~ Chad Socolovitch

[MrHipster]

@dan1son,
Thanks for answering questions that I never asked.
I mainly use my own content, thus your advice about XBMC made me more interested. I have the alpha's of XBMC and Boxee installed on my ATV, using FUGU to send content from my iMac running Snow Leopard 10.6.2.
I have been happily using Boxee for 16 months with no problems, so I want to be sure to upgrade correctly if choose to.
I noticed on my TV screen that I have Launcher 3.2.4 and
XBMC 9.11 available.
If I want to upgrade to XBMC 9.11 without screwing up my alpha Boxee can I do so. I noticed that the XBMC that is installed was in April of 2009. Do I have to DELETE that first before I install 9.11 ?
I would really appreciate your opinion and the exact order to upgrade if you think so.
As I said Boxee is working fine so "if it aint broke, don't fix it"
But the confluence skin and the lack of need for the apps and social networking makes XBMC sound more appealing.
thanks

[dan1son]

It should be safe to upgrade XBMC to 9.11 from 9.04. That's completely supported by XBMC. It won't alter your boxee setup at all. They're completely separate applications.

I really like the ideas of boxee, but I do tend to leave XBMC running on both of my setups. I use almost exclusively local content so XBMC just works better for me at the moment. Although when baseball season starts back up, that will likely change.


Read this if you're interested. http://xbmc.org/davilla/2009/12/29/b...-hd-its-magic/

A lot of work has gone into supporting the CrystalHD card in the AppleTV. You have to take out the wireless card to install it, and run non-released XBMC, but it's quite amazing. It gives full 1080p decoding capabilities to the ATV in XBMC. There are numerous posts on the xbmc forums about it with detailed instructions on how to install the card, drivers, and SVN xbmc builds. Full support should be included in the next official XBMC release.

[NomadDNA]

I'm a day late, but for future reference:

http://lifehacker.com/5462275/which-...enter-compared

::edit:: crap... I was going to try to hold off on my 1,000th post. That didn't work as planned...

[MrHipster]

Thanks for your advice. So just tap 9.11 and I should be good to go ?
I know Jim Wiley did a lot of work to make this happen, and I corresponded with him
back when it looked like support for the ATV would end with the announcement of the Boxee Box. If you get a chance google the owner of Broadcom, I think you'll enjoy the story about the 'cave'.

[chad.socolovitch]

awesome post...

i will play with it some more to see what all i can do with it, i can say that my music plays smoothly with it unlike Boxee

the set top box will make all the difference i believe but if its gonna be around the $200 mark you could almost go this route now

http://lifehacker.com/5391308/build-...r-on-the-cheap

ans still use it for something else if you decide to walk away from a HTPC, instead of adding one more box to the basement when your bored with it or something new comes along! lol

[MrHipster]

NomadDNA - congratulations and thank you for your 1000th post to me. It was helpful.
I don't know if that will qualify you for a free trip in Avners' motorhome to Austin.
But if you come to France, we'll open a bottle of good Bordeaux.

[MrHipster]

Last question, is the only thing I have to to do is push 9.11. Do I need to touch the Launcher (3.2.4) at all ?????? to make it upgrade ?
thanks for your help