We know, we know...Every few months some new (or just new on the scene) product, application or service comes along and everyone starts talking about how it will change the media center for good. They talk about how TVs won't exist anymore and how we'll all have hard drives attached to our screens and get our TV shows, music and movies over the internet. Apple TV does an OK job of putting that future on the horizon, but when you combine an Apple TV unit with free online application Boxee...
Apple TV + Free Boxee App: A Cable Free Life?
What is Boxee? Think of Boxee as an open source, cross platform Swiss Army knife solution for media streaming and content, most notably opening doors normally closed for Apple TV users: Hulu, Netflix, ABC, CBS, Comedy Central, Youtube.com, Last.fm, and Flickr integration all within a user friendly interface. It's what Apple TV should have been from the get go.
By adding Boxee Apple TV users or any TV-connected computer also apply the aditional layer of social networking feature that ties your media device to FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr, while also integrating Boxee specific user/friends recommendations and playlists. We're already Boxee users ourselves, complimenting our XBMC media center software; both were installed after we followed this pretty darn easy step by step tutorial. All you need is time and a flash drive.
The Apple TV makes for an excellent cable or satellite replacement (though we admit we've kept our own DishNetwork subscription for now, thanks to NBA season). Starting at $200, the fairly affordable Apple TV unit complimented by Boxee solution offers users a plethora of media options, including movie purchase, rentals, Flickr integration, Airtune broadcasting from your computer, weather reports (via XBMC), direct file transfer via GUI file transfer (we use Fugu and it's simplified the wait between transferring media from our laptop to the Apple TV tenfold) and playback of just about any video or music file anywhere on your network not normally available to Apple TV software itself.
So what's stopped us from cutting ourselves off from digital satellite service completely. Two things: Apple TV's limited selection of back catalog films. We've been supplementing our movie choices via Boxee, XBMC and The Auteurs, skipping actual broadcast times for our favourite shows like LOST and just watching them in large commercial free increments (without the need for TIVO or their ilk) after downloading them via the iTunes Store. But it's specifically sporting events that's kept us tethered to the monthly obligation; sports events in full HD, in real time is still one of the missing links in an Apple TV-only existence. Just food for thought for those of your considering the Apple TV/Boxee route. For now, Apple TV remains the Robin to our DSS's Batman...but we look forward to the day we can ditch cable altogether and just download/purchase content a la carte to our heart's content.
[via Lifehacker]
Additional edits: gregory
Comments (12)
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How do you install it on the Apple TV?
view mscot's profile
I'm in a holding pattern on buying a new DVR/streaming solution. There are so many product coming to market and all of them are half-baked, hacks, and/or "beta". If you have money to throw away on a beta solution like aTV Boxee, great. I don't. If I'm going to spend a couple hundred on a new solution, it is going to be a finished product.
Until then, I'm sticking with Sage TV.
view haggie1's profile
i'm using boxee on my mac mini and it's been pretty good. i like how it unifies hulu and joost content with my own media. i'm not too sure about the social networking aspect of it though yet. do i really want my friends to know that my gf watches "the devil wears prada" three times a week?
view eec007's profile
DVI --> HDMI cable to my MBP to connect to LCD tv
plug in speakers to MPB for sound
done.
view Matt. M's profile
haggie1: no need to throw away any money. Boxee is currently a free beta, and is relatively free of any beta-like worries. I seriously use it day to day without even thinking it's a beta. The only part which does reveal its unfinished state is the installation process for Apple TV users.
view gregory's profile
I haven't had cable TV for a long time. Most TV is brain rot, IMHO. I'm trying Boxee. I like the concept of having one place to access online video content but the jury is still out. I wish it came with better instructions. What's provided is too minimal and it's not intuitive. I don't like that I can't switch easily from Boxee to my computer desktop. I have to quit Boxee to check an email. Though it works with Netflix, you have to have the content in your Watch Instantly queue, no on-the-fly browsing. I don't care for social networking about my video viewing or listening to iTunes on my TV. Some company (maybe Boxee) is going to figure out how to give consumers what they want and cable providers, with their packages of unwanted products, are going to be out of luck.
view Annieo's profile
For clarity purposes: the Boxee/Netflix integration mentioned above does not work on AppleTV; and may never on the current generation of AppleTV hardware. Hopefully Apple's hobby product will get some additional focus-time and improvements.
Until then the combination of an XBOX360 Netflix account gets you more than an AppleTV ouot of the box. Boxee's additional abilities to stream Hulu and major network content is nice, but Hulu and other streaming services won't last without advertising revenue support.
Worst Case Scenario:
If you're on the Hulu or the network site, they can show you ads in the 'chrome' of the application. They can't do that in Boxee. Inevitably then, ads come to be integrated into Hulu content itself...and Boxee has ruined it for all of us.
view RJHD3's profile
What is that box under the ATV on the 2nd pic?
view rolando g's profile
MBA super drive?
view Matt. M's profile
rolando g: it's a XtremeHD 4-port HDMI switch.
view gregory's profile
being less savvy on the tech side, I got my appletv with boxee preinstalled at boxeeonappletv.com .
well worth the extra $15.
now i got hulu, abc, joost, cnn and others w/o needing to pay for cables. i just wish netflix would work on appletv.
view aaronco's profile
We're currently in progress on exactly this solution to get rid of our dreaded Time Warner cable box and service. Ever since we got the Time Warner HD DVR (made by Scientific Atlanta) we've been less than thrilled about the service and experience, though Time Warner has been good about adding HD channels and on demand movies.
Live TV is the only thing you cannot get using Apple TV, so if you're into sports, politics, or morning talk shows, this solution isn't for you. We're not that household, though. As it stands, buying every show we watch in HD (if available, otherwise in SD) would save us about $400/year over Time Warner. Add Boxee to the mix and we get a reasonable and free channel flipping solution too.
Re: Netflix. I'm sure it's great, but it's older content, and the price might not be that great a deal compared to the iTunes store, or the free movies available on Hulu through Boxee.
Re: Xbox. Again, I'm sure it's great, but this is really the gamers solution, or at a minimum the invested Windows user's solution. Apple products integrate easily and well together, regardless of whether they're software or hardware. Microsoft is generally not a hardware manufacturer, however, so Xbox is about the only device you'll ever see from them. The rest is up for grabs, and there are no clear winners when tied to Windows. Apple is clearly an early winner with its iTunes Store (for music, TV, movies, podcasts, etc.), and other factors like Unix support make it a platform and suite of products that will continue to be relevant for years to come.
view mattyl's profile