Boxee User Manual 1
Table of contents About Boxee Boxee Features Boxee FAQ Installing Boxee Supported Platforms Minimum system Requirements Installing the Software Windows Mac OS Linux Ubuntu Apple TV Setting Up Boxee First Time Use Basic Settings Calibrating the Screen Setting Up Resolution Setting Up Secondary Screen Setting Up your Region Changing Background Image Organizing your Media Library Adding Media Sources File Scanning Naming policy Resolving Unidentified Movie files
Using Boxee Navigating Boxee Adding Removing Shortcut Removing Shows from History Search Movies and TV Shows Viewing a Local Movie or a TV Show The TV Show Library The Movie Library Adding and Removing to the Queue Music Listening to local Music Photos Viewing Local Photos Apps Adding and removing Apps Adding Third-Party Apps Repository Files Using File Browser Settings Local Sources Look & Feel Media System Network Personal Parental Control OSD – V
About Boxee Boxee is the first free, open source social-media software that allows users to personalize their home media experience. Boxee is available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Apple TV(through a 3rd developer). Boxee allows users to instantly access their personal library of digital movies, TV shows, music and photos, and stream content to their TV from websites like Netflix, MLB.TV, Comedy Central, Pandora, Last.fm, and Flickr.
Boxee Features Home Screen The Home Screen is your hub for recommendations and content: see recommendations from your friends on Boxee, Facebook or Twitter in Boxee's Feed; recommendations from Boxee’s staff and partners in our Featured section; and the latest episodes from your favorite shows or things you’ve saved for later in your Queue. The Home Screen is where it all starts! You will be able to navigate to any area of Boxee from the here.
Media Row Logout Row ShortCuts Row 6
Featured Featured Section on Home Screen Featured Feed 7
Feed Screen Queue Queue Section on Home Screen Queue Screen 8
TV Shows TV Show Library My TV Shows Movies 9
Applications 10
Files Sharing 11
Boxee FAQ 1. What is Boxee? Boxee is the best way to watch movies, TV shows and clips from the Internet on your TV. You can buy a device powered by Boxee or build your own Boxee using a new or used computer. 2. What can I watch on my Boxee? If it’s available on the Internet, then you can probably watch it on your Boxee - there are more than 40,000 TV show episodes and movies currently available through Boxee. Plus, you can play personal stuff from your network or hard-drive. 3.
(TS/AVI/MKV/MOV/M2TS/MP4), VC-1 (TS/AVI/MKV/WMV), MPEG-1 (DAT/MPG/MPEG), MPEG-2 (MPG/MPEG/VOB/TS/TP/ISO/IFO), MPEG-4 (MP4/AVI/MOV), DivX 3/4/5/6 (AVI/MKV), Xvid (AVI/MKV), and WMV9 (WMV/ASF/DVR-MS). 11. Which audio formats can Boxee play? Boxee supports MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AIF/AIFF, AC3/AAC, OGG, FLAC, DTS, and Dolby Digital/Dolby True HD 12. Which image formats can Boxee display? Boxee supports JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF. 13.
Installing Boxee Supported Platforms Apple Macintosh Mac OS X (Intel Only) (Tiger 10.4, Leopard 10.5, Snow Leopard 10.6) Linux Ubuntu (9.10 Karmic Koala, 10.04 Lucid Lynx) Windows Windows (XP, Vista, 7) Apple TV Boxee is available for the Apple TV through a 3rd party developer (firmware 2.x and above) What are the minimum system requirements to run Boxee? Suggested Hardware CPU Apple Macintosh dual-core x86 (Intel only) based system running at 2.
dual-core x86 (Intel/AMD processor) based system running at 2.4GHz or greater 2 GB system memory (RAM) or more Video Card (for hardware accelerated Flash(10.
Installing Boxee Ensure the machine you are installing Boxee on has up-to-date software and drivers. Download the relevant version of Boxee for your operating system. To use the Boxee application you will need to register with Boxee. So why not do it while the file downloads? If you choose not to register at this time, you can also register when you first use Boxee. Just check New User and enter a valid email address, then pick a user name and password.
Click Finish Click on the Boxee icon that was added to your desktop Boxee will start Now go to first time use to continue the installation process Mac Installation Click on the .dmg file that was downloaded You'll now see the initial install screen for Boxee which currently looks like this.
Apple TV Installation Installing Boxee on an AppleTV will require three things: a computer running Mac OS X or Windows XP/Vista a USB flash drive which will work as a patchstick an AppleTV Here are a couple of video tutorials that will walk through this process: How to make the patchstick How to install the patchstick on Apple TV Not all USB flash drives will work to patch the AppleTV but there is an AppleTV Flash Drive Compatibility List .
Setting Up Boxee First time use Welcome to Boxee. Congratulations, you are about to use your TV in a brand new way! Once you download and install Boxee there are a few things that are specific for first time use. The first time you start / run Boxee you will be presented with the login screen. Registered User If you have already registered at the Boxee Website, you will be asked to enter your username and password.
Not Registered If you have not yet registered at the Boxee Website, check New User and then enter your email address, a username, and password. Choose 'Remember Password' to automatically log in to Boxee each time you start Boxee. (this can be changed at any time in Change User) Select Done You will then be asked if you would like to do a screen calibration. 20 If you feel your screen is OK (looks like the ones above), Select Skip.
Basic Settings Calibrating the Screen When running Boxee for the first time after an install, you will be asked if you would like to calibrate the screen. You can choose to calibrate now or skip calibration.If you choose not to calibrate at install, you can always do this adjustment at any time if you find your screen is not calibrated correctly and/or parts of the Boxee user interface are missing off the screen.
First, go to the top left cursor (seen above) and use the arrow keys to position it in the top left corner of the screen. You should be able to see the green arrow-head and two thin green lines in the corner. Next, switch to the bottom right cursor and adjust it so you see the arrowhead and the two thin lines in that corner. Now select the subtitle positioning bar and move it up or down to the position on the screen were you would like to see the subtitles presented.
Setting up a Secondary Screen If you have two displays attached, you can control the resolution for Boxee in your main, as well as your secondary display. Set your display preferences to "extended desktop" on you computer. 1. 2. 3. 4. Run Boxee. Go to Settings > Appearance > Screen. For Resolution, choose Full Screen #2. Click on Test Resolution. You can also toggle between window and full screen modes, by hitting the "\" (backslash) key.
CBS Hulu feeds Joost (only part of the content) MTV (most of the content) Netflix The WB Amazon Pandora Blocked for IP's outside the UK: BBC iPlayer So why are you showing me stuff I can't watch? If you do not wish to see those feeds and applications pointing to such content, please do the following: 1. Open Boxee Settings > Look & Feel > Region. 2. Check the Hide feeds and applications that cannot be played in your region option. That's it.
Organizing your media library Adding Media Sources Media sources are folders or drives Boxee looks through to identify and add media content to the TV Shows, Movies, Music, Photos and Files screens. By default, a few sources are pre-defined in the Boxee installation, and those include your operating system's default media folders (i.e. Microsoft Windows' "My Music", "My Videos" and "My Pictures" folders).
Once here you can then: Enter the SHARE NAME for your source (keep it simple so you can easily identify it later). Review the SHARE LOCATION for correctness. Check the source MEDIA TYPE (multiple selection is available for multiple media types in the source). Choose TYPE OF SCANNING for how often or if Boxee should scan your media: o PRIVATE (NEVER): If you don't want the content in the specific source scanned. o ONCE : Boxee will scan this folder once when added, and never again.
Correctly naming local media files After setting up your media sources Boxee will start to retrieve artwork and information, based on how your media files are named. There is a specific way you must name your movie files and your TV shows and episodes for the function to work correctly. For correct names of Movies and TV shows, please refer to IMDB.com Movies It is recommended to place a single movie inside a directory. Boxee currently supports the following naming convention for movies: Title.
The.Day.the.Earth.Stood.Still.(1951).avi The.Day.the.Earth.Stood.Still.(2008).avi For multi-part movie both part# and cd# are supported. Title.part#.extension Examples: Seven.Pounds.cd1.avi Seven.Pounds.cd2.avi The.Simpsons.Movie.part1.avi The.Simpsons.Movie.part2.avi All parameters can be used in conjunction - Title.(Year).part.extension Examples: The.Stepford.Wives.(2004).part1.avi The.Stepford.Wives.(2004).part2.avi The.Stepford.Wives.(1975).cd1.avi The.Stepford.Wives.(1975).cd2.
Example: South Park extra episode called "The Spirit of Christmas (santa vs frosty)" http://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=episode&seriesid=75897&seasonid... should be named South.Park.S00E02 Music With music, the most important issue is the id3 tags. These tags hold all the information such as album name, artist, year, genre and even artwork. Whatever is there, will be presented in Boxee, so be sure to include as much info as possible in your id3 tags.
Enter the correct name for the movie or show. Click on Search. Choose the movie or show that matches the one you trying to resolve from the results list. You should now see the correct video information.
Select Done if you agree. This will usually do the trick. However, if the movie or show is not in the online databases that Boxee uses for indexing your media(IMDB), then Boxee will not be able to recognize the media. In such a case, you will always be able to access those unrecognized videos through the File Browser.
Select "OK" the erase the media database. To erase the thumbnails from the Boxee library go to Setting > System > Advanced and select: Clear thumbnails library (media files will remain intact) Select "OK" the erase the thumbnails from the library. Hide Adult content Boxee allows the user to get digital entertainment from across the entire internet. But, Boxee also allows you to block adult content not suited for all viewers. To set Boxee to hide adult content two things need to be done.
Then, to stop the unauthorized changing of the above action, select "Set adult content lock" by selecting: Setting > Parental Control > Set adult content lock... Enter a password of your choosing then select "Done" or hit enter. Boxee will ask you to enter the password again, so do that and select "Done or hit enter again. Now, the only way to uncheck the "Hide adult feeds and applications" is to enter the correct password.
Setting up Services and users Adding Your Account Services The Boxee App Library has services you get and use through Boxee. Boxee supports services from the following providers: Facebook Twitter Google FriendFeed Tumblr NetFlix Flickr Digg Buzz MUBI MLB.TV >> To access these services on Boxee, you’ll need to pair your account first. << Here are the steps to follow to get a service to work in Boxee: 1. You must first sign up for the service you want at one of the supported services websites. 2.
5. Now go to the Apps Library in Boxee and select the App for the service you would like to add. 6. On the next screen you can select Start, Add To My Apps or Add Shortcut. 7. Selecting Start will take you to that service app. Adding Facebook/Twitter/Google Buzz Feeds In addition to pushing out your recommendations to social networks, you can now also pull in recommendations from your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz.
Adding / Removing a User Adding a User If you don't have a Boxee account when you first launch Boxee or would like to set up a new user account, you can do so from the login screen. If you're already logged in to Boxee, and you want to create a new user, use the Boxee Power button and select Change User and then select Add User.
Check New User Enter your email address and then choose a username: Boxee will verify that your username is available and then prompt you to enter a password:
Select Done. There will be a slight pause as Boxee creates the new user profile. When everything is ready, you should see: Select OK and you will automatically be logged into Boxee. Congratulations! You're ready to begin using Boxee! Removing a User You can remove a user only if you have entered more than one account in the Boxee application by doing the following: 1. Select the Power icon(top left corner) and choose Change User. 2.
Using Boxee General Navigating in Boxee Navigating in Boxee is simple and intuitive. You can use a mouse, a keyboard, a remote control or a combination that suits your needs.
The 'keyboard' icon shown on the 'on screen keyboards' allows you to toggle through the 3 available keyboard languages that are set in Settings > Appearance > Region During Playback: Volume control: +/- OR Up/Down arrow keys Show the OSD / make selections by pressing Select / Enter Play / Pause: Space bar Short skips: Left/Right arrow keys Long skips: "[" and "]" keys Use "," to go to the beginning Use "x" OR ".
Adding / Removing a Shortcut You can add Apps, TV shows, media folders or even specific files as shortcuts for easy access on the Global Menu. How to add a shortcut 1. Browse to the appropriate file via the Movie, TV Show, or File icon or chose an app from the App Library. 2. Select the Movie, TV Show, File or App and then choose Add Shortcut. 3. The shortcut will be added to the Shortcuts Row in the Jump Menu for easy access.
How to remove a shortcut 1. Open the application window and select the appropriate item. 2. Select the Remove Shortcut button. How do I manage shortcuts? 1. Open the Jump Menu 2. Select the cog/settings icon on the bottom left corner of the Shortcuts Row 3. A dashed border will appear around each shortcut icon as you move from left to right.
4. Select the shortcut and you will be given options to either Move or Remove it. Removing Shows From History Boxee keeps a history of all of the media that you have watch on your computer so you will be able to go back and replay it without having to track down where you found it in the first place. If you ever want to remove any or all of your history, Boxee makes it easy to do that as well.
Click the "Remove From History" icon Done... the file is no longer in your history file. If you would like to clear the entire history from Boxee you can delete the playbackhistory.dmp file located in the Boxee userdata folder. The location of this folder depends on the platform in which Boxee is installed. The generic location for this file is: /userdata/profiles//playbackhistory.
Boxee will search your local sources any TV Show, Movie, Music or Apps and also go out to the internet to seacrh for online TV Shows and display the results.
Movie Search (local and online) 46
Movies and TV Shows Viewing a Local Movie or TV Show Once Boxee has imported and indexed your local media shares you can watch them in My Movies or My TV Shows. Local Movies 1. From the Home Screen, click on Movies. 2. Select the movie from the right side of the screen. 3. Watch movie. 4. A Video will automatically be marked as watched after a you finish watching it. You can also mark videos as watched or unwatched manually when clicking on them.
Local TV Shows 1. From the Home Screen, click on TV Shows. 2. Using the left/slide menu and select My TV Shows. 3. Select the episode you would like to watch. 4. Watch movie. 4. A Video will automatically be marked as watched after a you finish watching it. You can also mark videos as watched or unwatched manually when clicking on them.
The TV Show Library There are a number of ways to view online content from Boxee. The most popular method is to use the TV Show Library: 1. From the Home Screen, click on TV Shows. 2. Using the left/slide menu, select TV Show Library. 3. Select any TV show, for example Chuck. A list of available episodes will appear. 4. Select the episode and as needed, select which source you want to watch. 5.
Don't see the TV show you want in the "top 200"? Try the search function also in the left/slide menu: The Movie Library Boxee now includes a "Movie Library" option in the sidebar that provides access to a huge global catalogue of streaming movies from: MUBI* Indie Movies Online OpenFilm EZTakes YouTube * To access MUBI on Boxee, you’ll need to pair your account first. To add more credit to your account go to the Mubi website. 1. From the Home Screen, click on Movies. 2.
3. Select any movie, for example Home. 4. Select the source(if more than one source is available) you would like to want to watch the movie from.
Adding and Removing a TV Show to the Queue Boxee can automatically add new episodes of your favorite TV shows to your Queue when they become available for online viewing. 1. From the Home Screen, select TV Shows. 2. Navigate to the TV show you want to add to your Queue, either from the My TV Shows screen or from the TV Show Library screen. 3. Use the left/slide menu and select Add to my shows (queue new episodes).
Music Listening to Local Music Boxee can play many common digital music formats with options like track mix, repeat all tracks, repeat 1 track and visualization. To change the settings in Boxee go to Settings > Media > Music from the Boxee Home Screen. It is important to note that for Boxee to find your local and network music you must set Boxee to access the appropriate shares and allow some time for Boxee to do the file scanning and identification process after adding the share the first time.
To activate the on screen display controls (shown below) press select/enter the use the right an left arrow keys to navigate the OSD using enter to select the action. You can see the effects of the visualization(Mike Drop) below.
Photos Viewing Local Photos Boxee can display all common digital picture / image formats with options like slide show with the "Ken Burns Effect" and the ability to zoom / pan on an image. To change the settings in Boxee go to Settings > Media > Photos from the Boxee Home Screen. To change the slideshow to show photos in a random order check mark Settings > Look & Feel > Screensaver > Randomize.
The OSD shown below allows you to control the pan and zoom functions on a particular image.
Apps The full list of Boxee apps can be found in 3rd party app repositories. Adding and Removing Apps from My Apps By default, the My Apps screen is populated with some of the more interesting and popular Boxee Apps. However, there are many many more Apps available in the App Library: 1. From the My Apps screen, use the left/slide menu and select App Library 2. From here you can peruse the large list of additional applications available in Boxee for accessing various kinds of online content.
You can even use list mode instead of thumbs: Once you have found an App (or several Apps) of interest, you can do any of the following: 1. Launch the App (take it for a test run, so to speak) by selecting Start 2. Select Add to My Apps so that the App will show up in the My Apps screen every time 3. Select Shortcut to add the App to your Shortcuts (more on Shortcuts) Note: Once an App has been added to the My Apps screen, the option Remove From My Apps is displayed instead of Add to My Apps.
Adding a Third-party Repository Although Boxee has many Apps to start, believe it or not, there are even more Boxee applications available to chose from. Third-party developers (those not on the Boxee team) can also create and share Boxee applications with Boxee users. They do this by creating a Boxee Repository, a place where they publicly store their Boxee application and from where you can access it via Boxee. First, find a Repository with Boxee Apps that you want to add to Boxee.
Select Done. If the repository was successfully added to Boxee, the name of the repository will be listed in the My Repositories screen.
Files Using the File Browser Boxee has a File Browser that allows you to browse through and select any media on your network that has been shared. You can play/view the media, add a selected source as a Boxee Mediashare or go to the Unresolved Videos folder and work through resolving them. You can reach the File Browser screen from the Home Screen or Global Menu by selecting the Files icon.
Settings Settings > Local Sources Here is where you Add Sources for media and resolve any Unidentified Files. This screen also informs you of the status of the file scanning progress, files found and number of unidentified files. Settings > Look & Feel The settings under Look & Feel are a group of settings in Boxee that control how Boxee presents itself to you.
Your location - New York, NY(default) Time Format - 12h(default), 24h Temperature Scale - F(default), C Hide feeds and application that cannot be played in your location - checked(default) Screen » 63 Resolution Test & apply resolution Screen format & overscan... Test patterns...
Resolution Full Screen (default) Windowed Test & apply resolution To test an apply the resolution settings. Screen format & overscan... o Overscan None (default) , 3%, 4%, 5%, 6% o Aspect Ratio 4:3(1.33), 16:9(1.78) (default) , 16:10(1.6), 21:9(2.35) o Advanced Calibration Allows the user to set the boundaries on the TV screen that Boxee will use. The user can select the top left, the bottom right and placement of subtitles.
Screensaver mode - Slidshow(default), Black, Dim, Off Screensaver preview - use to preview the screensaver currently set Screensaver mode idle timeout - 5 mins(default), set time delay in minutes(1-60) before the screensaver starts Enable power saving when idle- Off(default), set power saving mode off or in increments of 5 minutes up to 240 Screensaver fade level - 20%(default), set amount of fade (0-80%) when screensaver mode is set to dim Slidshow folder - ~\Boxee\media\boxee_screen_saver(default),
Sounds » Navigation sounds Background Image » 66 Set background image Set background images folder Reset background image
Advanced » Vertical blank sync Show hidden files and directories Advanced 67 Vertical blank sync - Always enabled (default), Enable during video playback, Disabled, Let driver choose(requires restart) Show hidden files and directories - unchecked(default)
Settings > Media Here is where you set the Boxee configurations pertaining to Media. Video Subtitles font - boxee.
Additional keyboard 1,2,3 Pause video when exiting playback screen - not checked(default) Music Visualization - MilkDrop(default), Spectrum_win32dx, Waveform, None Auto play next item - checked(default) Photos Show each image for - 5 secs(default) - range 1-100secs - The amount of time in seconds the image is displayed Transition time - 2500ms(default) - range 100-10000ms - The amount of time in milliseconds of the fading transition between displayed images 69 Use pan and zoom effects
- Use pan and zoom effects when the images is displayed Autoplay Autoplay DVD-Video - checked(default) - Play a DVD when inserted into the drive Autoplay VCD/SVCD - checked(default) - Play a VCD/SVCD when inserted into the drive Autoplay Audio CD - checked(default) - Play a CD when inserted into the drive Advanced 70 Enable hardware assisted decoding when possible - checked(default) Automatically generate thumbs for videos with no cover art - checked (default) Do not resolve videos und
Settings > System This is where all things related to the Boxee "System" are set.
Audio hardware Audio output - Analog(default), Digital - DTS Capable receiver - checked(default) - Dolby Digital(AC3) capable receiver - checked(default) 72 Audio outout device - Primary Sound Driver(default), 'other' Audio Output Downmix multichannel audio to stereo - checked(default)
Settings > Network This is where all things relating to the Boxee network settings are configured.
Servers -Please make sure this option is enabled if you are using the Boxee Remote for the Iphone/ipod Enable webserver - checked(default) Web server port - 8080(default) Web server Password - blank(default) SMB client 74 Default username - blank(default) Default password - blank(default)
Navigation Enable mouse - checked(default) Advanced 75 Clear media information from library (media files will remain intact) Clear thumbnails library (media files will remain intact) Debug Level - INFO(default), Show Debug Info Line - unchecked(default) Start BOXEE on login - unchecked(default)
Settings > Personal Follow what your friends are sharing with you from Facebook, Twitter and Google Buzz. You can control what is being put into the Feed section on your Home Screen from these sources by using these settings. Feeds Toggle which services you'd like to include in you video feeds. Facebook - unchecked(default) Twitter - unchecked(default) Google Buzz - unchecked(default) NOTE: You must first activate your Facebook, Twitter and/or Google Buzz before these can be set.
Settings > Parental Control Adults 77 Hide adult feeds an applications - checked(default) Set adult lock... - Allows you to set a password for adult content.
OSD > Settings > Video While you are watching a video, there are video settings that can be adjusted. 78 To adjust settings while watching video, click/select the 'gear' icon in the upper right corner of the screen. After selecting Settings, a group of settings will appear in the upper left corner of the screen.
OSD > Settings > Audio While you are watching a video, there are video settings that can be adjusted. To adjust settings while watching video, click/select the 'gear' icon in the upper right corner of the screen. After selecting Settings, a group of settings will appear in the upper left corner of the screen. To adjust the video settings select Audio OSD > Settings > Subtitles While you are watching a video, there are subtitle settings that can be adjusted.
A new drop-down will appear with the settings that are available for subtitles settings In the drop down you will find: o Enable subtitles - Checked(default) - Toggle check box to enable or disable subtitles. o Subtitles offset - 0.0(default) - The amount of time in seconds the subtitles is offset from the audio.
Boxee Useful Links Boxee Site Knowledge Base 3rd Party Apps App Submission Video Tutorials 81
