[Released!!!] Navi-X for Boxee!!!

[iRoNBiLL]

@gmd024

As for items that say... "This item is not supported because it is a..." The reason you see this is because only video and audio playback is supported at this time. These things are being enabled at this time in upcoming releases of the plugin, as most of it is not yet supported. Good news is our buddy Frank has already got about half of it working in his beta.

As for slow playback, listen carefully... Just like any web browser, if you browse and playback movies from videofriender or whatever, especially on the weekends, ESPECIALLY if they are very popular movies to stream this moment, you will experience buffering, as these websites servers are constantly bombarded on weekends in particular. The week is not so bad, but unless Videofriender or whoever you are streaming from upgrades their network services and bandwidth, you will not like playback of movies from certain websites during the weekend. Nothing we can do about websites offering too little bandwidth to serve their users. Eventually, a download option will be offered in Navi-X for boxee so you can start a DL, then come back to a un-interrupted movie.

Remember as well, sites like MegaVideo who have a 72 minute playback limit, STILL have limitations in effect... so essentially, if you rack up what Megavideo site considers to be 72 minutes of video, you will have to wait an hour, then attempt playback again! Yes, it's annoying and no I'm not God or I would make other peoples servers work like a Ferrari.

So within all the power and glory that is Navi-X, even we are mortal and are subject to the environment around us. There is sooooo much to inform people about the Navi-X concept, but I will try to explain more as time progresses.

iRoNBiLL

[harlekin]

Great to sne Navi-X on Boxee nevertheless, I found that I start using Navi-X on XMBC and on Boxee for different kinds of content. In other words, I like it. I like it a great deal.

Two points of improvement that should be tackled asap.

Back Button Issue.
It is not feasible that you have to press four buttons in a specific order, just to get one playlist back and into the browsing process again.

Resume list browsing position, not default to top position.
Whenever you start to play an item and exit with x, the list position will reset to the first item on the page. Worse, Navi-X does that with an inbuild delay (at least on my machine), so that when you are in the browsing process again, skipping through new items, the set back takes place - due to the slight delay on exiting media. No set back would be the best solution, but the current delay is absolutely unacceptable, from a usability pov.

[iRoNBiLL]

I'm getting feedback faster then I can respond, but I expected this Will try to keep up with explanations if I can...

Back Button Issue.
1. It is not feasible that you have to press four buttons in a specific order, just to get one playlist back and into the browsing process again.

Resume list browsing position, not default to top position.
2. Whenever you start to play an item and exit with x, the list position will reset to the first item on the page. Worse, Navi-X does that with an inbuild delay (at least on my machine), so that when you are in the browsing process again, skipping through new items, the set back takes place - due to the slight delay on exiting media. No set back would be the best solution, but the current delay is absolutely unacceptable, from a usability pov.

1. Why don't you just click the back arrow at the top left with your mouse as suggested before?? This works better than arrows or keys. Not to mention, we are going to make it so the backspace key / and comparable remote button to do the same thing in 1 touch in next releases... just wanted to bring it up again peeps... we are porting from XBMC right now and the Navi-X plugin for boxee isn't even version 1.0 yet.... I promise if you give us a little time, well get there, lol!

2. We normally have Navi-X work like this! Check the XBMC script and you'll see your feature in action already... soon to be implemented in the plugin I'm sure. Also, the Navi-X plugin for Boxee is simply a parser for Boxee... so any delays you have encountered is due to your system resources or lack of them or unless Boxee is admitting to a bug, it's certainly nothing we can control... like I'm saying, Boxee is just linked to our online directory... that's it. We have no application coding in the plugin really... just linkage. I have not noticed any delays so far, but I am still testing as we speak. If you could give me an example to look at, perhaps I can re-create the error. In my testing of the plugin however, if anything I am noticing Navi-X running faster if anything... not slower.

iRoNBiLL

P.S. The reason I'm pointing out "lack of resources" as thee issue perhaps is I'm running Boxee and Navi-X on a Dell Optiplex GX270 (ooold machine) AND it still runs 4 times faster then the XBMC version... and my machine is on it's last legs... something we are overlooking maybe?

[gmd024]

@gmd024

As for items that say... "This item is not supported because it is a..." The reason you see this is because only video and audio playback is supported at this time. These things are being enabled at this time in upcoming releases of the plugin, as most of it is not yet supported. Good news is our buddy Frank has already got about half of it working in his beta.

As for slow playback, listen carefully... Just like any web browser, if you browse and playback movies from videofriender or whatever, especially on the weekends, ESPECIALLY if they are very popular movies to stream this moment, you will experience buffering, as these websites servers are constantly bombarded on weekends in particular. The week is not so bad, but unless Videofriender or whoever you are streaming from upgrades their network services and bandwidth, you will not like playback of movies from certain websites during the weekend. Nothing we can do about websites offering too little bandwidth to serve their users. Eventually, a download option will be offered in Navi-X for boxee so you can start a DL, then come back to a un-interrupted movie.

Remember as well, sites like MegaVideo who have a 72 minute playback limit, STILL have limitations in effect... so essentially, if you rack up what Megavideo site considers to be 72 minutes of video, you will have to wait an hour, then attempt playback again! Yes, it's annoying and no I'm not God or I would make other peoples servers work like a Ferrari.

So within all the power and glory that is Navi-X, even we are mortal and are subject to the environment around us. There is sooooo much to inform people about the Navi-X concept, but I will try to explain more as time progresses.

iRoNBiLL

Understood and thanks for the quick explaination -- I'll be patient and just keep hoping that Navi-X/Frank/and yourself get the wrinkles ironed out (no pun intended) asap -- Great app and a great addition to Boxee

Thanks

[darcilicious]

I've got the plug-in installed on Windows 7 Home Premium x64 and I only audio, not video for streaming TV episodes from ABC and CBS.

No problems with content from Discovery Channel or HBO...

[iRoNBiLL]

Thanks for the feedback darcilicious... this has been reported in our direct forums to be brought to our developers attention.
http://navix.turner3d.net/forums/?ac...ic_view&id=550

As for anymore technical errors (not questions), please visit here and create a quick and easy playlist hosting account, so we can address these issues for you faster and more effectively.
http://navix.turner3d.net/forums/

I have a feeling ABC and CBS are rtmp content, so maybe something to do with this. I have asked the folks upstairs to take a look on our forums however.

iRoNBiLL

[unisonband]

Plugin works great! If you have a premium account with megavideo, is there a way to enable that in Navi-X?

[iRoNBiLL]

I would think it's technically doable in Boxee, but not at this time. Will see what Frank thinks about this, and will try to get back to you. Definitely not doable on the XBMC versions though from my understanding, via script.

[frankboxeetv]

Hi everyone. I'm the one who ported Navi-X to Boxee. The app is already better than what I expected I could do when I started since it's my first Boxee app, first time writing python and first application development of any kind. The only programming I've ever done before is crunching numbers.

I wanted to do a first release even if it's feature-incomplete to get the ball rolling and get feedback from people.

I'll try to respond to some of the issues discussed here.

mchlmrtz
I'm still trying to get used to the navigation. I keep hitting the menu button and it backs me completely out of the app. Gotta remember to not hit that button.

This one is tough. Many Boxee apps behave like this one and exit as soon as you press Escape or Back using a remote. Some apps can back to the previous view by saving the previous window states. The problem is that I have to use the Navi-X data structures in parallel with the Boxee built-in data structures. I'm not sure if all the information can be saved in these window states. It's probably possible to get Escape working like you describe but it's not on top of the priority list unless someone can suggest an easy way to do this.

tcchris
The remote is not as functional in Boxee as XBMC so some options don't seem to be available , such as download .

Every item you see in the lists can be of different type: playlist, video, audio, image, html, script, plugin, download, text and a few others.

This release supports playlist, video and audio only. image, html and text will be in the next release for sure. Download could be implemented later. script and plugin are specific to XBMC and will most likely never work.

Other useful features from Navi-X like the favorites and history should be in the next release as well since they're pretty useful.

judgeschambers
The menus are pretty deep, so I had a hard time finding things again later (navix search is your friend). Shows don't show in your Boxee History, but like ironbill said, if you luv or like them with boxee they show up in you Boxee.tv activity and you can download them if you so desire. But the streams were great, so why bother wit DL'ing...

Favorites and history within the app should help with this in the next release.

gmd024
Also - I have a 5Mb download Cable internet connection (Measures 4.8Mbs 99% of the time) - but a lot of the newer movies I try to watch stop to buffer almost every minute or two - Is 5Mbs down not enough BW for this content in Boxee - or is there an adjustment in Boxee to resolve the constant buffering - maybe a way to lower the resolution of the movies??

The gray text at the bottom of the app should give an idea of the video's actual source such as videofriender, stagevu, megavideo, etc. If one has a buffering problem there is not much you can do apart from trying again later when it's not as busy. In a later release (not sure when) it will be possible to download instead of stream media to get around this. Sort of like an online PVR.

harlekin
Back Button Issue.
It is not feasible that you have to press four buttons in a specific order, just to get one playlist back and into the browsing process again.

By my count it's only three buttons: Left-Select-Right I discussed this earlier.

Resume list browsing position, not default to top position.
Whenever you start to play an item and exit with x, the list position will reset to the first item on the page. Worse, Navi-X does that with an inbuild delay (at least on my machine), so that when you are in the browsing process again, skipping through new items, the set back takes place - due to the slight delay on exiting media. No set back would be the best solution, but the current delay is absolutely unacceptable, from a usability pov.

In the next release the list position will not be reset. As far as the delay goes, the way to completely remove it would be to use the window states discussed earlier. I'll look into it.

darcilicious
I've got the plug-in installed on Windows 7 Home Premium x64 and I only audio, not video for streaming TV episodes from ABC and CBS.

It's probably an issue with Boxee and rtmp streams. It looks like a bug with Boxee. Can you try with other streams? A current "symptom" of a rtmp stream in my app is that the title is not shown in the player OSD (this will be fixed).

unisonband
Plugin works great! If you have a premium account with megavideo, is there a way to enable that in Navi-X?

This would have to be implemented in Navi-X on XBMC first. All I really did is adapt their code for the Boxee API.

[iRoNBiLL]

Darcilicious, Turner just got back to me regarding ABC and CBS not playing...

This is what he told me directly...

"Again, this is a case of "not the fault of Navi-X". If media playback starts (even audio only), it's done its job. Not playing the media back properly is an issue with something beyond Navi-X."

So in short, he's stating that Boxee is having trouble playing this media format back. From my understanding, this is rtmp protocol and I don't know what Boxee's capabilities are with rtmp. I can tell you both ABC and CBS are working just fine for me, but then again I'm on a Dell Optiplex GX270 with Windows XP... and trust me, you don't want to use this thing, but it is definitely playing back ABC and CBS no problems here...

This leads me to think it is not an issue with rtmp, but maybe something different within Windows 7 video settings... I can't say for sure. Anyone who is good at troubleshooting video playback on Boxee... if you can chime in on this one, you would be much appreciated.

As in all cases, Navi-X simply points to the content and lets Boxee handle the playback parameters, just like XBMC... so if a Boxee troubleshooter could chime in here, you help would be greatly appreciated and I'll help do whatever I can to try and resolve this. Thanks!

EDIT: Hey Frank!!! Thanks for chiming in buddy, as your feedback will be very relevant since you the man here for Navi-X at Boxee. You certainly chose the right app to start programming with Mr. Numbers, ha! Anytime you see a post you can chime into, feel free to.