DISQUS

boxee blog: boxee blog » from alpha to beta (help needed)

  • steve · 1 year ago
    1. I'd like to see boxee ported over to the PPC platform (eventually).
    2. I'd like to see some kind of integration of Amazon MP3/Movie Download (and/or rental) service.
  • Adam Merkley · 1 year ago
    If a movie (or TV Show, or anything) begins with the word "The" in the title, it will be lumped in with the rest of the movies that begin with "t".

    This is incorrect. "The Shawshank Redemption" should be in the S's, not the T's. Etc, Etc, Etc.
  • Tony · 1 year ago
    This is great, Let's do it!!
  • Justin Baum · 1 year ago
    Thats fantastic!

    I don't know the technical details/limits but it would be great to clear your closet of some of XBMC's user experience shortcomings. The thing at the forefront of my mind are people's mental model around how the library works - file naming, artwork/metadata downloading. I think this is a concept that will be new for a lot of people the farther you get into beta. It takes some leg work to get your whole media library to show up depending on what you have in it. Anything to smooth that process out would be awesome. I often found myself asking the question "whats missing?" And then doing a lot of comparison between whats on my HD and whats in my boxee movies and tv libs. I could see this as a potential barrier to entry.

    While I am blabbing I think a gimme is re-thinking the organization of the settings section. Consolidation etc. The fact that you have to scroll to see all the options could probably be fixed fairly easily.

    Psyched you guys are taking a user centered approach to evolving this thing.
  • Rick · 1 year ago
    I don't want to see Boxee to PPC. You guys are doing the best thing by spending your time on UI. Keep up the hard work and I'll try to think of some good feedback for ya!
    (I just put Boxee on my ATV... and it changed my life.)
  • Jedd · 1 year ago
    I've always thought i was a laggard :)

    i love that you guys are including us in this. and i think PPC is a waste of coding time...

    Boxee is so great but interface wise i think some obvious things (from comments and such) are maybe being able to choose the front screen - maybe a basic and advanced layout/setup... also maybe a genre or actor sort in movies?
  • TKidBoston · 1 year ago
    This is my first time dealing with an Alpha since you guys have made it so easy, accessable and enjoyable to provide feedback. I will reach out to Whitney and offer my thoughts if she wants them!

    Thanks to the Boxee team for a great product thus far! I'm looking forward to more advancements!
  • mosten · 1 year ago
    Release early, Release often.

    Stop working on features and concentrate on fixing the bugs in the existing code.

    Start using a "real" bug tracking system. Gnats or Bugzilla.

    CVS read-only access.

    Clarify the licensing future of bxflplayer and libboxee
  • dustin · 1 year ago
    Can't wait to see what comes from this! I want to help in anyway I can and I would love to be included in the "select group of users for feedback".

    P.S. Keep up the daily blog posts, they keep us interested and up to date :)
  • Lladnaar · 1 year ago
    Great plan, great news.
  • Dan · 1 year ago
    My biggest annoyance is having to click on my login every time I launch Boxee. How many people actually run it with more than one account? Shouldn't need to choose, should just automatically log me in. If you really think it's necessary there could be a choice to provide the login window on launch in the preferences.
  • Curtis · 1 year ago
    I'm in.
  • Barry Hess · 1 year ago
    My list of desires as a Boxee on aTV user:

    * Netflix
    * ABC (Lost is coming!)
    * Mark Hulu shows as favorites from within Boxee, so they'll appear in my queue
    * MTV videos direct access (I can't find it without first browsing music)
    * I'm using Boxee as a pure Internet media front-end. My 8000 song + 150 ISO library made Boxee crawl like a one-legged baby. Perhaps large library performance needs improved?
    * Similarly, some feedback while the initial scanning process is still taking place. I left it for a day or two, but never could tell if/when it was done.
    * If I could somehow buy Amazon music and get it shoved back into my iTunes library? Wow. I'm sure that's not possible, is it?
    * Likewise, an option to just mirror my iTunes library in the Boxee interface. I've got it all setup in iTunes, just make it available in the Boxee UI. It's that easy! ;)

    The latest fixes to the aTV UI have been a great improvement. Thanks for rolling them out!
  • Thomas · 1 year ago
    Can't wait for the beta to show up! I'm an aTV user myself and I would like to see a little faster interface...If thats even possible? ;)
  • SeanO · 1 year ago
    I love the UI myself, but if I had to teach my grandmother to use it, we'd be in trouble. Keeping the left bar hidden may be a big mistake. Does hiding it really buy much real estate?

    It should be more focused on video. Most people don't want to turn on their television to listen to music or view photos. Not saying axe those features, but maybe they should be buried in the menu under "More" or "Extras."

    This app shouldn't be a jack of all trades. Play local media, play internet media. Primarily video. That's what's important. I think Front Row has the right idea in UI (just not features).
  • William Roddy · 1 year ago
    I signed up for Linux Beta and now it won't accept my user name (or password). I reset my password, but I think I might have mis-typed my user name. Help.
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    1. i don't when/if we'll ever get to it.
    2. pls post the request to http://getsatisfaction.com/boxee (i am personally going to vote for it :))
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    this is a raging debate...
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    i agree. we need to find a way to let you the list of videos that we were not able to identify and put into the library
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    i also think we need to provide users more control over the home screen
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    we're using Trac internally and planning to open it up to users as well

    licensing of bxflplayer and libboxee has been clarified in this week's release
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    i agree. please suggest the feature on http://getsatisfaction.com/boxee
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    - Netflix on ATV will come sooner or later
    - the issue with ABC is the Move Networks player.. we need to support it. Lost is coming indeed, one of the very few shows i am currently watching..
    - Agree re Hulu favorites
    - we are working to improve the big library performance and will provide a way for you to get more insight into the scan process
    - it is possible, we just need someone in Amazon to start answering our calls/emails..
    - iTunes support is big. no question we need to bring it to boxee.

    feel free to post ideas at http://getsatisfaction.com/boxee
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    there are 2 issues.
    (1) the performance of the UI could/should/will be fixed
    (2) the performance of the video playback. that one is a hard nut to crack
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    we hear ya
  • mosten · 1 year ago
    "licensing of bxflplayer and libboxee has been clarified in this week’s release"

    And that was what? What in boxee if anything is still not covered under the GPL?
  • John Russell · 1 year ago
    No, no, no!!
    Steps 4 and 5 are totally wrong. It should be

    4) code,test,code,test,code,test
    5) get other people to test that didn't write it

    :-) Happy coding/testing

    http://googletesting.blogspot.com/
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    LOL

    you're right. we have testers that are not coders, and we're constantly getting stuff into their hands.

    what we should get better at is getting stuff out early for testing among select group of users.
  • jae · 1 year ago
    Please offer a 64-bit build for us 64-bit Linux users (ie Ubuntu 8.10 64)
  • Mohan · 1 year ago
    Hulu needs a search bar.
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    it's coming
  • avner ronen · 1 year ago
    don't know when we'll get to it
  • Jann Gobble · 1 year ago
    An option to "remove 'The', 'A', (etc) from the beginning of the titles" would be nice.
  • Andreas Setterlind · 1 year ago
    Please start be not hidding the main menu (at least in the root / home screen) as having it hid away is not intiutive for first time users, I think it was better in the pre-alpha skin when it was always visible. Perhaps make it optional to enable auto-hiding from the settings if some users still want that. I also think that besides the home / root screen (which is pretty good as it is, missing is only the ability to bring up the main menu with one click on the Apple Remote) you could really learn a lot from the usability of XBMC's Project Mayhem III skin in the video, music and picture sections

    / My 2 cents

    PS! Will Whitney not also be reading the feature suggestions section in the Boxee forum? There are some great ideas about usability there as well.
  • Stephen · 1 year ago
    Still waiting on an invite to try out boxee, anyone have any?
  • xain09 · 1 year ago
    Nice Nice nice!
  • devolute · 1 year ago
    yay. I'm an 'innovator'.

    Loving the ride, guys.