can Boxee play DVDs?

[fozzie]

Simple question: can Boxee on ATV play DVDs mounted on my Mac? I don't have a DVD player for my TV and would like a find a solution to stream them from my Mac. Thanks in advance for advice.

[seand5018]

I'm not sure. I think you could do it Boxee does a reasonable job of iso files on aHD with an ATV from what I have seen but most people would rather just rip the file if there is any chance they will want to watch the video again.
It might be a lot of lag if the DVD is not already reencoded to move the data over your network.

Thats what most people do, is backup their DVD's digitally on their computer so they have access all the time without thumbing through the stacks or risking scratching the disks. You could burn the DVD to a Boxee format using something like Handbrake or Make MKV for Mac. Use h264 and keep the bit rate low (below 1,000 kbps I think) and it should play fine.

But if you know for sure you only want to watch it once why not try it and tell us your results.

Also you could just get a cheap PC USB DVD player drive (like the kind you would get for a cheapie PC laptop that didn't have one) for around $30 Like this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827230001

I've read that Nito TV supports playing movie DVD's like this if Boxee doesn't.

[fozzie]

Thanks for your reply! I thought of ripping my DVDs, but I'm short on hard drive space. Thanks for the link to the DVD drive—but what would I plug this into?

[nuggyblake]

Thanks for your reply! I thought of ripping my DVDs, but I'm short on hard drive space. Thanks for the link to the DVD drive—but what would I plug this into?

Assuming you have nitotv installed on your atv, you can plug a usb hd or dvd player into the back of the atv. I never tried it so good luck. In terms of streaming the easiest route is via a vnc app. This can work as I have done this but it was laggy (I suspect this was due to the atv hware and the vvnc app - chicken). In theory you could produce a .srm file but I'm not familiar with that. Google is your friend.

You can install nito from software menu. Run smart installer to activate the usb port.

[fozzie]

Thanks again for replying. It sounds like using my AppleTV to stream DVDs requires is actually quite complicated. I may have to find another solution, I think!

[seand5018]

Its worthwhile, IMO, doing the process with nitotv's "smart installer" to turn on the ATV1's USB port and Mac-style AFP file sharing if you are going to have the thing. If you are mac user you can then easily access the ATV1 as another mac on your network. You can do screen sharing (which is great for entering text or force-quitting a stuck program without pulling the plug), you can move files back and forth on USB drives and flash drives or over the network more easily.

But yes attaching a USB DVD drive to an ATV means you have to first do the software bit to turn on the USB port because Apple by default had disabled its functionality on these boxes. Once you do that from what I've read its as easy as plugging the USB DVD drive into the back and hitting play on the NitoTV menu.