Introducing the second screen companion for Boxee

[Ozpeter]

Maybe it would be useful for me to put on record that the Airport emulation in the Boxee Box can be used other than with iOS software and devices. I've mentioned that in a couple of other places but can't remember where...

So far I've tested it with...

Airfoil - http://www.rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/windows/ - which enables any PC (or mac) on your network to send the audio it's playing to the Boxee Box. The chief drawback I've encountered is that the Box delays the audio for a couple of seconds, so if you can hear the PC audio and the Box audio at the same time, it's a bit disconcerting!

Twonky Mobile - https://market.android.com/details?i...kyremote&hl=en - this Android app enables you to play audio (tested by me) and photos (also tested) and video (not tested) from your Android device to the Boxee Box. The media can reside on the Android device, or it can be sourced from Twonky and other media servers running on your PC (tested) or Mac (haven't got one). There seem to be some issues eg changing volume on the audio from the Android device seems to lock up the Box's streaming reception, but if you discover what the gotchas are and avoid them, it's handy.

The Twonky Mobile app is also available for the iPhone, and at a glance I can't help wondering whether it actually makes a complete alternative for the Boxee app??

Doubletwist Airsync - http://www.doubletwist.com/airsync/ - would probably work but I've not tried it, as it appears to need iTunes which I don't have.

I'll update this with any other "companion" software I come across.

[AminB]

when I share a movie/tv show on boxee box , how would my boxee friends see what I shared ?
and can they have access to that shared link from their boxee box ?

(not using fb/twt)

[M1ster_Happy]

Twonky Mobile - https://market.android.com/details?i...kyremote&hl=en - this Android app enables you to play audio (tested by me) and photos (also tested) and video (not tested) from your Android device to the Boxee Box. The media can reside on the Android device, or it can be sourced from Twonky and other media servers running on your PC (tested) or Mac (haven't got one). There seem to be some issues eg changing volume on the audio from the Android device seems to lock up the Box's streaming reception, but if you discover what the gotchas are and avoid them, it's handy.

The Twonky Mobile app is also available for the iPhone, and at a glance I can't help wondering whether it actually makes a complete alternative for the Boxee app??

Doubletwist Airsync - http://www.doubletwist.com/airsync/ - would probably work but I've not tried it, as it appears to need iTunes which I don't have.

Tried Twonky and I get very hit or miss performance... sometimes the audio doesn't even play or plays start/stop. Pictures won't work for me, always saying incompatible mime type or something like that. I actually got a video to play after having the same mime message... but never managed again.

Tried Doubletwist Airsync, you don't need iTunes you just need to get their player for your phone first as the airsync is like a plugin for it (here https://market.android.com/details?i....androidPlayer). It actually streams songs really well and the user interface is a lot friendlier than Twonky.... however... unfortunately it seems to stop after one song ... you have to skip to the next manually. It doesn't do this when playing just on the phone so it is a little weird. Didn't get a chance to try the video which was a shame as I had to get a refund within the 15 minutes.

Give the Doubletwist stuff a go and let us know... I can't refund it again so don't really want to pay for something I might not use.

I've also tried iMediaShare and although it sees BB it never seems to get there... just a spinning circle once I hit play on the phone... and BB acts like nothing is trying to play... weird.

[dwkerr1]

I have tried the app and it does work to send a youtube video from the ipad to the TV. What I would love is to be watching a streaming video on an ipad app (say CITYTV in Canada - which works on Ipad but not on Boxee) and send it to the TV through the Boxee - but I don't know if thats possible. Or can I pull up a Boxee browser on the Ipad app?

[allen114]

i want to be able to open the ipad app and see those files and play them on my ipad as i want. is this possible???

[darcilicious]

see those files and play them

What are "those files" exactly? Files on your LAN? Then download and use Boxee Media Manager or any other number of streaming video servers such as AirVideo, etc.

[Bups]

This is extremely misleading. You need software to stream media (they say media yet its only video) to your iPad which defeats the ENTIRE purpose of a media streamer. I want to be freed from my PC and just use my NAS.

The sales pitch for this app makes it sound straight forward yet you have to download and flash an update manually. I'm a bit dismayed With the current situation, i havent seen any improvements in the user interface since v 1

I can't really see any improvements to the user experience other than a very fancy app that basically just sends a link to your boxee for web content OR you have to transcode video from a PC to an iPad before you can play it on your boxee box.

I fail to see how this can possibly be a step forward. Any decent online content besides hulu/netflix requires flash which cant even be played back natively on an iPad. So that means europeans really have no use for this app.

European users are paying the same price for a boxee with limited functionality. Might as well call it boxee box lite and shave 30-40% of the price off. I really want to love my boxee but it seems like we're getting the short end of the stick in europe.

Recently bought the boxer box thinking it would stream my local music and other media onto my iPad and subsequently to the tv/ home theatre. Severely disappointed to know that I can only stream video through this app. Why have this limitation? If its apples copy right or anti piracy laws why not AirPlay music of off ITunes onto the iPad and then onto the boxes box? This is where the apple tv is so much better!

[darcilicious]

Recently bought the boxer box thinking it would stream my local music and other media onto my iPad and subsequently to the tv/ home theatre.

If you have a Boxee Box, you connect that directly to your TV / HT system and use the Box as a direct playback/streamer. No need for any other software or applications.

If you want to stream your local video files to your iPad with the Boxee iPad app, then you need Boxee Media Manager installed on a computer and use that to stream your local video content to the iPad.

[basilfawlty]

balls...

........

Balls indeed. Until root drives are allowed this app is useless for me (and others apparently). If you have your videos in root drives like I do, you may want to check out the streamtome app until the boxee folks fix this.

PS: If boxee can't add root drives, it would help to at least have a "select all" option for subfolders. Adding one at a time for thousands of movies is pretty tedious.