Webware

More than 800 digital-media enthusiasts in New York RSVP'd for a Tuesday night "meet-up" held by Boxee, the TV browser software company that's ambitiously (and controversially) aimed to make it possible to have a full Web content experience in your living room.

Right now, Boxee sources content from outlets such as Comedy Central, Netflix, CBS (which publishes CNET News), and Web video content hubs such as Blip.tv and Next New Networks.

In conjunction with the get-together, Boxee (still available only for Mac and Linux) made a few notable announcements: First of all, it's overhauled its application program interface (API)--which was only three weeks old to begin with--so that developers can build more complex applications for the platform.

There are a few new ones at launch: streaming-radio provider Pandora now has an application to bring its content to Boxee, as well as terrestrial-radio hub RadioTime. A third-party company called BoxeeHQ has also created an app to stream content from PBS.

Boxee's content-browsing software is now built on the XUL framework, which makes it a "remote cousin of Firefox," CEO Avner Ronen said. It will detect a video in a regular Web page and then attempt to pull it into a full-screen view. Guess what this means: Content from Hulu will be back, at least for now.

For those who stepped in late: Hulu, the joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., had been available as a channel on Boxee until access was blocked at the request of content partners. Boxee brought it back by pulling in Hulu's RSS feed, but then Hulu blocked that too.

Still in alpha test mode, Boxee has gained a loyal following among geeks who love its hackability, futurists who see it as the best hope for the why-won't-it-happen-already convergence between TV and the Web, and people fed up with subscription cable services. But on the flip side, it's still unclear as to how the start-up will dig through the complicated stratigraphy of media industry regulations, and it's also unclear as to how it will make money.

Ronen hinted that an "app store" format will be part of its strategy, letting developers charge for their applications and taking a cut of sales, in addition to advertising. Also down the pipeline: an improved search feature that will let members search all Boxee content at once rather than only within individual content providers one at a time.

Boxee also released its first iPhone app this month. It's not a video app, though--it's an app to remotely control the Boxee browser over a Wi-Fi connection. Ronen says the company's received "great feedback" on it.

Media-center start-up Boxee, which aggregates Web video for television set-top boxes, has launched a new version that restores access to video hub Hulu. The NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture had pulled its content from Boxee after content partners took issue with it.

But it's not really the same: Boxee has brought back Hulu by extending its support for RSS feeds, and is pulling the video content in that way.

"Like IE, Firefox, or Google Reader, the RSS reader supports Google Video, Yahoo, YouTube and feeds from many other websites," a post on the Boxee blog by CEO Avner Ronen read. "While it's not as attractive or robust as our previous Hulu application, it will additionally support Hulu's public RSS feeds."

Industry talks continue, the post continued. "While we don't come from an entertainment or cable background, we are learning quickly. It is a complex business. Our meetings with Hulu and their content providers reinforced that point," Ronen wrote. "They are trying to adjust to a new reality, but they need time."

Boxee is releasing on Thursday a new version of its media center software that adds support for Netflix Watch Instantly streaming movies.

Unlike streaming solutions from Roku and Microsoft's Xbox 360, Boxee's effort includes the option to both browse and search through Netflix's library. Roku's box and the Xbox are currently limited to showing users the videos from their saved queues. The two also require special hardware (and in the Xbox's case a paid Xbox Live Gold membership), whereas Boxee works on any Intel-Mac or Linux PC. Boxee's service is not yet available for Windows.

Another caveat: Netflix streaming is not yet available for the AppleTV version of Boxee. I'm told the main reason is that Microsoft Silverlight, which is what Netflix uses as a delivery method for its streaming content, has hardware requirements roughly double that of the processor inside the AppleTV. Silverlight requires a 1.83GHz dual-core Intel processor, while the AppleTV only sports a 1GHz "Crofton" processor--a derivative of the Pentium M.

Along with Netflix support, Boxee now links up with MTV to pop up music videos for any songs in your library that it can match. There's also support for YouTube videos that have been encoded in h.264, and new player interfaces for Hulu, CNN, Picasa, YouTube, and Flickr. The updated UI offers slightly more streamlined playback controls, solving one of my big quibbles with the last release, which actually kept you from being to skip around a video's timeline in Hulu and CBS videos.

Existing Boxee users should get an update notice when firing up the app later Thursday. The service remains in private alpha. You can sign up for it here.

Netflix on Boxee includes both your instant queue and the option to browse and search through Netflix content.

(Credit: Boxee)

AppleTV has a rich history of getting hacked for the sake of adding extra utility. Contained within its small confines is a reasonably powerful computer that's capable of running Mac OS X (albeit slowly). The problem is that despite this power, the system software is tied to iTunes and its sister store for movies, music, and TV shows. This hinders it from competing with devices like mini-PCs and game machines that offer a huge variety of media playback, including DVDs and Blu-ray movies.

To help solve this, Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen has published instructions on how to get his company's media center software to run on the AppleTV. This system requires the use of developer Scott Davilla's ATVUSB-Creator, a Mac-only application that lets you create special programs that boot off a USB thumbdrive. The application comes with simple tools for putting SSH, Xbox Media Center for Mac, and its Boxee derivative on a drive with just a few clicks.

Once installed on the AppleTV, you can enjoy the same Boxee experience that's currently available on Macs and PCs running Linux. This includes being able to play Web video from multiple sources, and DivX- and Xvid-encoded content through your network--all without having to use any special transcoding software. You're also able to switch back to the Apple TV interface without having to make any massive changes to the way the system runs.

Within the next two months the software will be updated to play videos off of Hulu, meaning AppleTV owners who run the hack will be able to watch full-length TV shows (with ads) without having to purchase them from Apple's proprietary storefront. The company is also trying to get Netflix's freshly improved Watch Now streaming service running too.

Boxee is currently in private beta and limited to Mac and Linux users. We've been told that it's coming for PC users within the next month, with plans to open it up to everyone come next year's Consumer Electronics Show.

Once installed, you can run Boxee right off the AppleTV's source list.

(Credit: Boxee)

Related: Hands-on with Boxee: A gorgeous social-media viewer

Tuesday, I got a peek at Boxee, a personal media center that's currently in private alpha. My colleague Greg Sandoval wrote about it shortly after it was unveiled last week, but it's worth delving into what I think will be the next big thing in media center software.

Created by a small team of just under a dozen developers, the framework for Boxee is actually a project that was already in use in hundreds of thousands of machines around the world: Xbox Media Center. This software was created by gaming enthusiasts who had modified first-generation Xboxes to run it once it was sent over to the machine through FTP. When installed it would transform the box into a media server, which is what Boxee will do with your laptop or desktop computer.

While media servers like Windows Media Center, AppleTV, MythTV, SageTV, and others compete for attention and consumer dollars, Boxee founder and CEO Avner Ronen told me he thinks Boxee's got the upper hand because it's not requiring you to purchase new hardware, install it in place of an operating system you're already using, or buy into a marketplace/device being pushed by its creators. It's also completely free, although Ronen says a premium version later down the line is not out of the question.

So what does Boxee do? If you've ever used Joost, it's somewhat similar. You can plug in feeds of Web videos and browse through them, complete with video thumbnails and meta data. What makes it different is that it taps into your local media like videos, photos, and music you have saved on your hard drive. Both layers of media (online and offline) are wrapped up together with a social network of other Boxee users, so if you like something you're watching you can recommend it to friends. Ronen said one of his influences for this was watching TiVo and its built-in recommendation feature, and wanting something that was tailored more toward people who are using services like Delicious and Facebook, and are sharing links with one another all the time.

What makes the platform particularly exciting is that it's been built with developers in mind. That means anyone can work with the source code and create their own plug-ins, skins, and alternate interfaces. There's already a plug-in created that integrates Muxtape (as you can see in the video above), along with music from Last.fm, both of which can be controlled with an Apple remote if you're on a Mac--as is the rest of the interface.

For now Boxee is Mac-only, but coming in just a few weeks is the Linux version, with a Windows version to follow in the fall. That's not the end though, Ronen's plan is to get it into set-top boxes, gaming consoles, and eventually televisions. In the meantime, if you want to get your hands on it you can sign up for the alpha here. I'm told people are being let in on a weekly basis, so you'll have to exercise some patience.

Using Boxee's service, users can access their songs, videos, and photos on a TV.

(Credit: Boxee)

LOS ANGELES--Boxee wants to give Steve Ballmer what he wants.

The Microsoft CEO complained recently how unsocial the television set is compared to the Web.

"My son will stay up all night basically playing Xbox Live with friends that are in various parts of the world," Ballmer told The Washington Post. "And yet I can't sit there in front of the TV and have the same kind of a social interaction around my favorite basketball game or golf match."

Boxee, a start-up that will launch a test version of the service on Monday, has plans to enable users to transfer their digital content from computers to their TVs and eventually turn the TV set into a "social-media center," CEO Avner Ronen said.

Sure, lots of other companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are trying to tie the PC to the TV. The difference is that Boxee is relying on the creativity of developers to build the kind of applications that consumers want. The company emerged from the XBMC project, an open-source effort to turn Xboxes into media centers.

Boxee's open-source software already lets users to share reviews, songs, video, and photos with friends. Executives expect that one day, Boxee users will move their Facebook content to Boxee and turn their TV into a hub for communications, social-networking, and media.

Nonetheless, the service still doesn't have an elegant answer to hooking up the TV to the Web. A user must connect them through a cable. That means hauling the laptop and plugging it into the TV every time you want to use Boxee. This is "clunky," Ronen acknowledges, but the company intends to eventually sign deals that would place them on a set-top box.

The service works only with systems running Linux and Mac OS X, but it will soon be compatible with Windows. NewTeeVee was first to report on the Boxee launch.

Do you find Windows Media Center's blue, remote controlled façade easier to navigate than the cold red, white, and yellow world of Netflix? Then check out Andrew Park's new plug-in for the Vista version of Windows Media Center called MyNetflix. The plug-in lets users link to their Netflix account, search for movies, and make changes to their queue without leaving the couch.

Users navigating from their computers can also partake in Netflix's streaming service, letting them watch movies without having to wait discs to come in the mail. Because of the reliance on software, users enjoying Media Center via extenders (read: the XBOX 360) cannot partake in the streaming--that is, unless they've got their PC hooked up directly to the TV, or are planning to get one of those newfangled Netflix Watch Now-enabled set-top boxes due to arrive later this year.

The software is in "beta" and we haven't tested it out, but if you're a Netflix user who happens to use Media Center, this is definitely the missing link.

[via Engadget]

Watch your 'Watch Now' streaming movies from Netflix on big TVs in a more eyeball-friendly manner with this Vista Media Center plug-in.

(Credit: Anthony Park / www.anpark.com)

(Credit: CNET Networks)

We checked out MeeVee in September, and cited its lack of integration with recording and viewing services. Today, MeeVee has strengthened its viewing service with two new features: personalized networks and community video. Essentially the site lets you pick out your favorite shows and then aggregates relevant videos from hosting sites like YouTube and EVTV1 (with several more on the way). Clicking on any of these videos will actually take you outside of the MeeVee site, but there's a helpful frame put on the top of the screen to direct you back. We're told MeeVee is moving to an embedded system for some content providers before its official release next week.

What's interesting is the differentiation in the channel results: the network videos come from major content providers, whereas the community videos are often fan-made. Adding the CBS show Jericho gave me some great results for network, but the community videos gave me mostly clips of WWE wrestler Chris Jericho (who is arguably more entertaining than Jericho's Skeet Ulrich).

You can quickly add a variety of shows, actors, or keywords, and MeeVee grabs videos for you to watch. What I like even more is not having to register with MeeVee to enjoy these personalized features (note: you do have to create a profile to save your favorites). There's still no Tivo or Windows Media Center integration like we had hoped for, but as far as work-entertainment sites go, MeeVee clearly has a winner with this new video aggregation tool.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

(Credit: CNET Networks)