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Look here: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=5773&highlight=AppleTV

Seems like using an AppleTV with Boxxee provides a nice elegant $229 Boxxee box. I haven't used it, but friends tell me its great and dirt easy todo.

I have been in touch with the Boxee people about sourcing content on Boxee, and they pointed me to their API for Developers and an RSS format.

What's not clear to me why there aren't templates or the equivalent for common video sources such as H.264 or Flash. (I.e., if I am sourcing a standard video stream, why do I even need an API ?

I have been in touch with the Boxee people about sourcing content on Boxee, and they pointed me to their API for Developers and an RSS format.

What's not clear to me why there aren't templates or the equivalent for common video sources such as H.264 or Flash. (I.e., if I am sourcing a standard video stream, why do I even need an API ?

Boxee

Sure if you want HD content the 733mhz P3 in the XBOX ain't going to cut it.

$400 http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=9999386 an MCE remote, and a little work with Ubuntu will have you with the times. HDMI audio\video capable of 1080 display. You'll want to overclock to about 3ghz though.

More here -> http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33 Can you say MAC, Linux, AND Winders ports?! :-O it will even run on an aTV just don't expect it to play too much more than your old XBOX :-( All of this still being tweaked mind you but it's looking pretty good.

Oh and Plex is a good MAC fork http://elan.plexapp.com/ and Boxee is a good fork on most every platform http://boxee.tv/

The other issue with the AppleTV is that you still need to hack it just like the Xbox. There was a Boxee installer for it; however, shortly after release an update magically came out that updated the system if you had automatic updates enabled. This updated the OS, removed Boxee and closed the hole they used to install it. That's not exactly the open platform I'm looking to run as my media frontend IMO.

I was thinking along those same lines, but I also did some searching and discovered that Boxee has a new installer for installation on AppleTV 2.3. It has two bugs right now, but there appear to be workarounds for them, and an updated installer is in the works to address at least one of them if not both.

Of course, everyone running Boxee on AppleTV will be turning off automatic updates and will be watching carefully for reports if another update disables it again. How Apple responds to the workaround will determine if they truly intended to cut out Boxee.

I wonder though about that other AppleTV mod that added functionality only if the thumb drive was attached was affected by the 2.3 update; disconnect the USB drive and the AppleTV is back to normal. If only I could remember what mod that was...

This PlayOn thing you mention sounds neat, but if I'm not mistaken it sounds like a piece of proprietary software that you have to pay for in order to stream free Internet content to your TV? Am I missing something?

Boxee looks to have great potential. My friend had a beta of it running on his AppleTV and was using it to stream Hulu content to his TV. It's not publicly released yet, but they promise that it will be open source and the current feature list outshines every proprietary set-top box so far. I'm hoping it will be the media center software that I've been waiting about a decade for. :P

When will readers complaining about Slashdot content learn the difference between a submitter and an editor? And that selective comprehension doesn't help either?

TFA (actually the link is at http://blog.boxee.tv/ ) does state the AppleTV was not powerful enough for this release, but then goes on in the very next sentence to say "we're still working on it, but don't have a solution, yet.. "

Yes the /. headline is optimistic, if not misleading. The summary is a tad better, but still has a heap o' high hopes.

For something that works on Ubuntu and Apple TV, you might want to look at Boxee. It is not open source though. Invites from the main site take a while but you can get one faster from Fred Wilson's blog .

Boxee can be used as a 'hulu box'. It is in limited alpha testing, but they do allow signups. It is pretty slick to browse through all of the Hulu shows with a remote, and watch anything on demand.