boxee <3 Netflix
when we planned the Dec 4th release we had minor changes in mind, mainly bug-fixes…. but we were undisciplined and immature.. and it turned from a minor release into a big one..
we could not ignore the number of people asking for Netflix on boxee.. so we called, emailed, and in general harassed the Netflix team.. in the meantime, we went to the keyboards coding ferociously to make it work on boxee.
the good news: you can now access Netflix on boxee, get your Instant Queue and Recommendations, browse Recently Added and Most Popular, sift through the entire Netflix Watch Instantly selection by Genre and Search.
the bad news: we could not make it run on Apple TV ☹ . we tried real hard. vulkanr was almost able to tame it, but he was bucked by the Apple TV’s 1Gz processor. it screamed back at him in thick Scots brogue, “I can’t do it captain, I just don’t have the power!” we’re still working on it, but don’t have a solution, yet.. also there is no Netflix for Ubuntu, yet (i believe Netflix mentioned they will support Linux later in 2009).
the latest version of the alpha is not just about Netflix, though. there is also:
- a new Hulu – looks more like hulu.com, enables you to login (so you can get your Hulu Queue), works faster, and playback should be greatly improved on Apple TV
- a new YouTube – new look, as well as higher quality video playback. some of these YouTube clips look pretty good on your 46†LCD
- a new CNN, Flickr, Picasa and Apple Movie Trailers – we’ve re-written all of these plug-ins to work faster and look better
- Boston Globe’s The Big Picture – it’s a great photo-blog, which we really like, and thought could be pretty cool in a 10-foot experience. if you’ll like it we could bring much more of these type of services (let us know!)
- integration with MTV Music – when you click on an album you’ll see a new option to let you watch music videos of the artist. check it out. MTV said they can give us higher quality videos, and we have a few more ideas for providing a great music video experience on boxee
- theWB – on our quest to bring more TV content to boxee theWB is the latest addition. it means shows like Buffy, Babylon5, Firefly, One Tree Hill and The O.C. are now available on boxee
on the bug fixing/polish front:
- support for skip forward, rewind in Hulu, CBS, etc. – this is a big one.. should work now. the code behind it is sooo ugly that yuvalt had to chew on anti-nausea tablets while writing it
- improved streaming of podcast, trailers and youtube videos – we rewrote the buffering/caching mechanism. Skip and rewind within video streams is now much better
- more boxee less crashee – it’s still alpha, and it will crash from time to time (we promise), but this version is supposed to be more stable. we are trying to weed out those nasty bugs – help us out by submitting bugs to support@boxee.tv or post in our forum
- faster scanning of local/network media – your movies, tv shows and albums should be identified faster. if you have a huge music collection then you could still cook a 7-course dinner, wash the dishes and read a telephone book before it will be done, but it’s greatly improved..
- new on-screen keyboard – as dave described when he reported the bug “typing a URL with our on-screen keyboard is a once in a lifetime experience. you do it once, and never want to do it againâ€. so we made it a bit better
- faster loading of the movies/music screen in case you have hundreds or thousands of albums..
- fixes and new look for to the lyrics and subtitles features – the new auto-scroll of the lyrics is arbitrary… but sometimes it works pretty well. fooled me the first time I tried it
if you’re on Apple TV run the Update to get the latest version. if you’re on Mac go here to download. for the Ubuntu crowd, an update will hit the APT repository in a few days, including an official release for Intrepid Ibex.
Windows user? we have not forgotten you. also released today is the pre-alpha of the Windows version. a select group of 214 users (no idea how we came up with this number) is starting to test our Windows release. based on their feedback we’re going to start opening it up for more testers.
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update: atv users with status 1 error, issue has been resolved. please update boxee again.
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Great release guys !!!!
It’s shame about Netflix not working on the Apple TV– oh well. I love the effort you guys but in your blog updates.
Thank you again!!
Guys i’ve got two words for boxee… AWESOME & LEGENDARY!
Can you not implement Netflix on Linux through WINE?
http://www.winehq.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_(software)
You can even run iTunes through WINE these days
This looks fabulous. One request — and I can help make this happen if you want because I know them — wouldn’t it be insanely cool if you could support the Hillcrest Lab’s airmouse with this (www.hillcrestlabs.com). It uses standard windows mouse drivers, is there a way to enable that over the mouse used by the box? Let me know if you need to talk to them technically, but this would be a huge attention-getter too. I love my Hillcrest box but it needs your software (there’s a ‘You’ve got your chocolate in my peanut butter’ quote in here somewhere.
Will Boxee auto update or do I just download the newest version on my own? Thanks
Hi, awesome job on the new release, it’s looking really nice! I’m curious, I saw somewhere recently that Moonlight has been released. As I understand it, Moonlight is an open source implementation of Microsoft Silverlight. I’m wondering if this is the route you guys will take (or maybe even Netflix will take) to get the Netflix stuff working on Linux. I run boxee on an Ubuntu box and would absolutely LOVE to get the Netflix integration there. Anyway, great job, boxee is awesome!
put down one more vote for the Boxee elfin’ magic to get netflix on AppleTV…
Thanks!
ugh. no boxee for me then.
silverlight is *really* a show stopper, deal breaker and really a total dud
any chance I could get someone to send me an invite? i’ve been waiting for weeks now….
I love the interface… Much nicer than netflix on Xbox 360… still some bugs, which i would expect, but it looks great… Nice Job guys!!!
“[Hulu]…playback should be greatly improved on Apple TV” Really? Still jerky as ever on my AppleTV.
@Rob thanks!
Thanks Boxee team, great update! ATV playback is improving.
New HULU UI looks fantastic and works well!!!
The newest Boxee is a bit Flakee tho. I’ve UPDATED it twice and it frequently causes an ATV black screen that won’t go anywhere (can’t back out, can’t go forward — the remote makes ping sounds, but no luck.) Only an unplug seems to make it operable again… Sigh
yesterday i had blissfully connected all the assets on my iMac wirelessly–it would even stream VIDEO_TS smoothly…
today i update, cannot connect to any of my local assets any more at at. ran update again. now i’m trying to see if i need to have the same version on imac as ATV–I dunno.
Yes, I restarted Mr ATV–surely I don’t need to run ATVUSB loader again?! Any clues for a fellow boxeeteer?
Where does it say the version number in the program UI itself?
im still waiting for the invite! I’m so excited to try this out!!!
Can you guys work on adding support for the video content at cartoon network’s Adult Swim site??? That would freaking kick-ass.
@nate i think there is some adult swim stuff under MySpaceTV
Could Boxee use Moonlight to run Netflix on Linux?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_(runtime)
Moonlight (runtime) is a free and open source implementation of Microsoft Silverlight currently being developed for Linux by the Mono Project with the help of Microsoft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_(software)
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@Dave & @PTTP moonlight currently supports Silverlight 1.0, where netflix requires Silverlight 2.0, so no dice. for now.
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Hello, guys. Been waiting patiently to get in on the Windows Alpha, no luck. Can I haz invite?
PLEEEEEEEEEEASE support Netflix on the Apple TV! Otherwise I’m in trouble with my girlfriend…
Boxee sounds great. Just purchased my Apple TV and can’t wait to install Boxee. Please someone send me an invite to tony.peterson@mac.com. Thanks!
I usually don’t post in Blogs but your blog forced me to do so, amazing work!
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Hey guys – any update on the integration of Netflix for the Apple TV?
Any idea of when this might be available for Ubuntu? When I downloaded boxee I was under the assumption that this would let me watch netflix instant movies… it’s cool but doesn’t seem to do a lot without netflix and hulu…