Boxee sucks!!!

[Timmer1001]

After having nothing but issues with boxee, usually after an "upgrade", Boxee now is stuck. I rebooted it several times by holding down the power button on the box, but it restarts, logs in, logs in again, and then show me the main page. And then it freezes up. I can't move to any app, option or choice. It just sits there.

Is there another way to restart boxee? Why is boxee such a nightmare? All I really want is to stream video and watch netflix? Is that too much to ask for $200???????????????

[Ronald]

After having nothing but issues with boxee, usually after an "upgrade", Boxee now is stuck. I rebooted it several times by holding down the power button on the box, but it restarts, logs in, logs in again, and then show me the main page. And then it freezes up. I can't move to any app, option or choice. It just sits there.

Something clearly went wrong with that update, so that the firmware code the CPU executes at startup is now corrupted, causing that lockup. But the fact that it works as far as showing anything at all means that there is good hope for fixing the problem, by replacing the broken firmware with another.

Is there another way to restart boxee?

Yes. Even after a broken firmware install you should still be able to boot Boxee into recovery mode. This is done (from shutdown mode) by pressing down the power button for around 8 seconds before releasing it. But don't press much longer than that, as doing so will cause it to boot up in another erroneous state (harmless so just try again if that happens).

Once in recovery mode you'll see a menu which includes two different methods for installing another firmware.

"Factory Restore"
This method loads the factory-installed firmware from internal storage and reactivates it, thus reverting the Boxee to the original state it had before you bought it. This means that ALL configuration will have to be repeated from scratch, and the Boxee will want new update over internet as soon as it restarts with an active internet connection. I only recommend 'Factory Restore' if the other method (below) fails.

"Upgrade from USB Storage"
This allows you to upgrade from a USB memory stick plugged into a USB port.
Such a stick should be prepared by formatting it to FAT32 and then storing a "boxee.iso" firmware file in its root directory.

The latest firmware (currently 1.2.1.20451) can be downloaded from the Boxee support pages, but older firmwares can also be downloaded by editing the needed version number into the following URL:

http://dl.boxee.tv/version/dlink.dsm...0310/boxee.iso

As written above that will download the stable version previous to the latest one, but if you know the version digits for some other version you want, then you can just replace the "1.2.0.20310" part with that other version number.

Note that if you revert to an older firmware than the latest one, then you may also want to set your router up to block future automatic upgrade downloads, which can be done by having the router block access to URLs containing "app.boxee.tv/chkupd/dlink.dsm380". With that blocked the Boxee is no longer able to check for new firmware upgrades, so it will never try to download any, which gives you total control over upgrades (via recovery mode)

Why is boxee such a nightmare?

Once you gain control over upgrades it should no longer be so terrible.

All I really want is to stream video and watch netflix?

I don't know about Netflix (don't use it myself), but streaming video works fine for me, using firmware 1.2.0.20310.

Is that too much to ask for $200???????????????

No. Of course the box should perform as intended (even if it were cheaper...), but all software is subject to bugs and we can only hope that the Boxee team will fix the worst ones soon. And until they do we can work around some of the worst bugs by reverting to a firmware released before those bugs appeared in their code.

That is what I did when the latest firmware broke access to two of my three SMB servers. After reverting firmware and blocking upgrades in router, I am back to the full functionality I had before that latest release.

Best regards: Ronald

[gizbug]

Unfortunately there are A LOT of problems lately with the FW's and Boxee. Hopefully sometime in the next 12 months the issues are finally fixed (for good).

[Sam_Ace_Rothstein]

Hopefully sometime in the next 12 months the issues are finally fixed (for good).

Ha, I'm definitely not waiting another year for the HD audio dropouts to be fixed. I'll be waiting till December (this year) and if it still isn't fixed, well BYE BYE BOXEE! (replaced Birdie with Boxee)

[webmastir]

no issues here. works great


cya.

[portnoy]

no issues here. works great


cya.

Works great here too. Only had a problem one time with a firmware update. I used the "update from USB stick" method and that did no good. Did the "return to factory" update and that made it work. Then did the auto update and it worked perfectly. I use the Boxee Box to stream video from a networked hard drive and to watch Netflix. The only files it burps on are files I discover are corrupted on the drive.

[Saiks]

After i installed the New Firmware (before the current one). After shutting down the box and back on the next day,it won't turn on all the way. Shows me the ring before the home, then it restarts.

How i fixed mine was restore it back to factory default and start the process all over.