Comments on: Boxee vs. Zinc vs. Hulu

By: gonzo90017

gonzo90017 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:10:03 +0000

I use Zinc on a daily basis. Even though you state that there are minimal add-ons for Zinc you are mistaken. Since Zinc is based on Firefox almost all of the extensions that work on Firefox work on Zinc. I use Greasemonkey and Adblock Plus just to name a couple.

A lot of the applications that people are waiting for or that are broken in Boxee have been available in Zinc (in working state) for a long time:
Hulu
Netflix
Amazon Video On Deman
ABC
FOX
Are the big ones that come to mind.

But the biggest advantage that Zinc has over boxee is that you don’t have to be in attendance at a big event twice a year just to get a bug fixed or to get the newest version. The folks over at Zinc fix a lot of the bugs in a couple of days. Most of the time a new version isn’t even required since most issues are with the websites and not Zinc based.

By: Rocklebee

Rocklebee — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 06:35:07 +0000

@David Abrhams- Good call adding the fact that you can put Boxee as an app in Zinc

@CDeutsch – have an iPhone or iPod touch? boxee has a remote app that works on my Mac and Apple TV.

for some reason i can’t get any of my local content to show up under movies and i have to go pretty deep into my folders with Boxee which is a little annoying

Don’t forget that Boxee has pretty nice Video options for dealing with interlacing and aspect ratio etc.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:12:20 +0000

I agree that XBMC it is by far the best solution, but now that we are moving into High Definition viewing, Boxee does plays HD videos from the hard drive or over the network with a fast connection and XBMC can’t

By: David Bartle

David Bartle — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 06:29:44 +0000

I also like Plex. The 10 foot experience is nice and it has just enough eye candy to look nice yet stay out of your way.

I also prefer the emphasis on getting to your videos as I too have run into the 3-4 menus deep problem with boxee.

http://plexapp.com

By: TheCatWhisperer

TheCatWhisperer — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:02:24 +0000

@CDeutsch I’ve been running Boxee for Windows (Vista, then 7) for quite a while now, besides the very occasional crash, it runs great, and I’m running it on a 64 bit platform (which is unsupported).

Since the “public” alpha, the remote functionality works well too. Not sure why you had such a hard time?

My only real gripe with boxee is that TV shows show up in the movies section… and you can’t tell something not to show up there

By: CDeutsch

CDeutsch — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:24:07 +0000

Boxee for OS-X works great as a “device-like system”. My Mac Mini doesn’t even have a keyboard or mouse hooked. All I use is the Apple Remote and occasionally Air Mouse for the iPhone on the rare occasion I do need a keyboard/mouse.

I tried to use Boxee the same way with Windows and it’s “not ready yet” to say the least.

I think you should really stress in the review your comparing “Boxee for Windows”, because “Boxee for OS X” would win this review, no question.

By: Spectre

Spectre — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:17:17 +0000

@Salim Q Plex for Mac OS X is much better than Boxee IMHO and its access to Hulu is pretty good with support for accessing your subscriptions and stuff. If you have a Mac definitely check out Plex http://www.plexapp.com

Plex and a MacMini = great HTPC

By: JHawk

JHawk — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:15:10 +0000

I run XBMC on an old Xbox in one room and on a HTCP in another

By: JHawk

JHawk — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:13:50 +0000

OK, so why isn’t XBMC listed?

By: Brian Crescimanno

Brian Crescimanno — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:48:01 +0000

@DeviceGuru Good point about the Roku box. But didn’t they have full support and partnership with Netflix to make it happen? I honestly don’t know enough about the Roku technology to comment further–but I hope someone here does.

The whole with Hulu is just unfortunate. Hulu’s statement should be: “So close, yet so far away”

By: Aaron

Aaron — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:03:20 +0000

I am still good with XBMC (Xbox version) for the moment. I would like to add Boxee for Youtube & other video site support, but Can’t justify an HTPC just for that when I already have a great solution in XBMC.

FYI:
XBMC has a great 10 foot UI, access to local & shared LAN content, scripts for youtube (that I can’t get working), most codecs, etc and runs on a $75 Xbox (not 360).

By: DeviceGuru

DeviceGuru — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:48:23 +0000

@Brian Crescimanno… thanks for your comments. I’m well aware of hulu’s ludicrous efforts to keep hulu out of boxee — thanks for adding greater detail regarding that issue. ditto for the netflix-on-linux problem. regarding the latter, I primarily wanted to send a message to boxee urging them to do what roku did: get the required drm working from within boxee if they’re serious about wanting to see boxee deployed in lots of set-top-boxes (roku’s success proves it can be done on linux without microsoft’s help).

By: phrend

phrend — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:47:46 +0000

FYI, as with Zinc, Boxee for Mac is Intel-only as well.

By: DeviceGuru

DeviceGuru — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:42:01 +0000

@Gable… sometimes I use a logitech di novo mini, and sometimes I use a wireless keyboard. both work fine. the di novo mini is a good fit with boxee’s UI controls

By: Gable

Gable — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:31:45 +0000

Rick,

Nice overview. What kind of “handheld remote” did you use? Something like the Loop Pointer?