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Boxee-ing Clever

Posted in Linux on August 28, 2008 at 11:14 am

As an avid MythTV user, I’ve been quite excited by Boxee, which appears to be a considerably better media player than MythTV. MythTV is an excellent PVR, but the music and video add-ons really do feel like bolt ons with poor integration. Selecting a video launches external video players (mplayer/vlc), giving a clunky feel. Not only this, but because they are separate players, any remote control bindings need setting up for these applications too and none of your video settings are carried across.

Boxee is really very slick, with seamless integration - none of this loading up external players, if you want to access the menu while watching a video, the translucent menu pops up over the top. Once you’ve got the screen displaying as you want it - everything will stick to your settings and the interface follows common rules. There is naturally support for practically all video types (including HD) and will even run off and tag your MP3 tracks and videos that are untagged. There is a widget-like feel to the application, as it has support for sites like Jamendo and Last.FM. However, what makes Boxee different is the social networking integration. By inviting your friends, you can see directly what other people are watching and listening to. This raises potential personal security concerns, and the integration of a BitTorrent client into the interface is a strong suggestion of how they expect the application to be used.

I spoke to the CEO a few weeks back, where he suggested a Mac version would be released before long but I wasn’t expecting it so quickly. The latest release sees a Linux and Mac version with Windows well on the way - now that’s the sort of software I like! Go and give this free to use alpha a try - with priority to IT Pro readers.

Not quite time to dump MythTV yet, but it is quite easy to add Boxee in as a menu option in MythTV. To do this on my Ubuntu machines, I edited /usr/share/mythtv/mainmenu.xml and then just after the first entry I added.

<button> <type>MENU_MEDIA_LIBRARY</type> <text>Launch Boxee</text> <action>EXEC /usr/boxee/run-boxee-desktop</action> </button>

Lovely.