Boxee vs Xbmc

S

Spike..

Gawd
Joined
Feb 16, 2006
Messages
666
What do you guys prefer. I've been using boxes since it was in alpha and despite its bugs have been very happy with it. Does anyone use/recommend checking out any other programs besides these two? All the media I watch is streamed off of my server in my computer room via smb.
 
XBMC is probably going to be more popular here. The better comparison is XBMC vs Mediabrowser. I'd use Mediabrowser if you are bound to WMC for Live TV, otherwise XBMC all the way for its feature set, skins, and customization.

Boxee is a fork from XBMC that focuses on social features that are going to be hit-or-miss for people. Its UI is also uglier than the options available in Mediabrowser or XBMC.
 
I use XBMC but Plex is a nice app, especially if you have a lot of Apple devices.
 
I alway end up going back to WMC / Mediabrowser, the main reason is all the HTPC remotes are designed for WMC, and there is a learning curve on how the remote works with XBMC that guests just have problems figuring out.
 
af22 said:
I alway end up going back to WMC / Mediabrowser, the main reason is all the HTPC remotes are designed for WMC, and there is a learning curve on how the remote works with XBMC that guests just have problems figuring out.
Click to expand...

maybe an option if that's an issue would be to remap the remote for xbmc?
 
I use a Harmony One and if you just bind all the keypresses intelligently to the hard buttons of the remote for XBMC, you shouldn't have any problems. My fiance can use it fine and I'd say the end result is probably at least more intuitive than the typical Time Warner Cable remotes here.
 
af22 said:
I alway end up going back to WMC / Mediabrowser, the main reason is all the HTPC remotes are designed for WMC, and there is a learning curve on how the remote works with XBMC that guests just have problems figuring out.
Click to expand...

How in the world is there a learning curve? Left is left, right is right, OK is well... OK. I've heard some things against XBMC before, but a remote... that would be new. You can remap buttons pretty darn easily. In Windows there's even a plug in that will map the buttons for you.
 
All you need for XBMC is:

Up
Down
Left
Right

Select
Back

Context Menu popup

Play
Pause
Stop
FF
RW
 
Valaire said:
Boxee is a fork from XBMC that focuses on social features that are going to be hit-or-miss for people. Its UI is also uglier than the options available in Mediabrowser or XBMC.
Click to expand...

Not to mention that the PC version has been all but abandoned as far as new features and updates goes as Boxee has sold and put effort only into their STBs.
 
SirMaster said:
All you need for XBMC is:

Up
Down
Left
Right

Select
Back

Context Menu popup

Play
Pause
Stop
FF
RW
Click to expand...

Hell, I've had friends over be able to pick up the xbmc on an flashed atv2 with the 3 button apple remote and have no problems. Of the complaints that could be made against xbmc, this is just one that never stuck out to me.
 
Tiporaro said:
Hell, I've had friends over be able to pick up the xbmc on an flashed atv2 with the 3 button apple remote and have no problems. Of the complaints that could be made against xbmc, this is just one that never stuck out to me.
Click to expand...

Each time I try XBMC I've had remote issues using WMC remotes that work fine with many other HTPC apps; I should say this is running XBMC on Windows. I've heard that this is actually pretty common for the Win version.
 
Xbmc. (openELEC build). All I do is stream via SMB as well.

Coupled with the uber simplistic Boxee remote I purchased, I'm completely happy.
 
I've been playing around with XBMC on my laptop.. potentially evaluating whether to go ahead and piece together a budget HTPC or not..(to replace my buggy WDTV Live SMP)..
and I'm far from an expert, but it only took me about ten to fifteen minutes to figure out how to navigate XMBC.. a pleasant suprise is I loaded up the XMBC Android remote app on an "out of service" Android phone that I had as a spare and it seems to work well.

I might just hook my laptop up to the tv and see how this would all work in the real world and give it a test run....
 
CrimandEvil said:
Each time I try XBMC I've had remote issues using WMC remotes that work fine with many other HTPC apps; I should say this is running XBMC on Windows. I've heard that this is actually pretty common for the Win version.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's a Windows thing. I use XBMC on Linux and have never had a problem with remotes. Once it's set.... it's set.
 
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