Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable

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Build a BoxeeBox and Wean Yourself From Cable

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @01:52AM from the but-what-about-chuck dept.

Since I've been having serious problems with satellite all week, DeviceGuru's submission was really interesting to me. He says "Inspired by Roku's awesome Netflix video download box and impressed with Boxee's free A/V media center platform, it was merely a matter of time before DeviceGuru blogger Rick Lehrbaum would create the BoxeeBox, an Ubuntu-powered HTPC with Boxee serving as its primary media center UI. Based on a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, the BoxeeBox has the look and feel of consumer A/V equipment and packs 2GB RAM, 1TB HDD, CD/DVD drive, USB, Firewire, HDMI, DVI-D, RGB, and 8-channel surround sound audio."

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Sub $500? by Thelasko · 2009-02-11 01:59 · Score: 4, Insightful

That's nice and all, but how about something sub $300. If one of these can be built sub $200 (including the tuner), I would buy it today.

--
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
1. Re:Sub $500? by QuantumRiff · 2009-02-11 02:09 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I couldn't agree more. A $500 box would free me from cable, at the price of about 18 months worth of cable. That's not a very good ROI. $300 would at least break me free in a year or so. (I don't have digital cable, if I did, it would probably be much quicker) Also, why do you never see these set top boxes with the over the air tuners? I would love one that acted as my digital TV tuner too
  
  --
  
  What are we going to do tonight Brain?
2. Re:Sub $500? by Striikerr · 2009-02-11 02:17 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Why? The point of Roku is that you can get netflix content. The BoxeeBox is not going to do that.
  Umm, yes the Boxee Box WILL get NetFlix streaming content. It can connect into your NetFlix account and it displays all of the Streamable content presently in your queue. It will also let you browse other streamable content. I have used Boxee to access my NetFlix streamable content on my Mac connected to my TV. It is an amazing application!
3. Re:Sub $500? by ShieldW0lf · 2009-02-11 02:20 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I've got an old Athlon with Mythbuntu and XBMC sitting in the living room streaming content off my home network, and I'm quite content not having cable. People who visit that do have cable with all the trimmings want to know how they can buy what I've got because it's better than what they have at home.
  I could use another terabyte drive on the thing though...
  Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...
  
  --
  -1 Uncomfortable Truth
4. Re:Sub $500? by 0100010001010011 · 2009-02-11 02:21 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Buy and old xbox. It's not going to do HD content, but Boxee is a fork of XBMC. Using XBMC+rtorrent+pytvshotws I have what can be assumed to be a near identical setup. The 'server' is in a different room and it has 2TB of space.
5. Re:Sub $500? by gEvil+(beta) · 2009-02-11 02:29 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  What good would a channel guide do you if you cancel your cable and no longer have "channels" to tune into? Sounds like some people haven't really thought this through.
  
  --
  This guy's the limit!
6. Re:Sub $500? by Thelasko · 2009-02-11 02:29 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  You would need to sacrifice some components for cheaper ones and sometimes these systems are tweaked so they do one thing and they do it well, but just barely.
  Which reminds me, from what I read of the article (before I restarted my browser and discovered the site was Slashdotted) they spent something like $190 on THE CASE! Why the case? I'm thinking I should start making cases in my garage out of plywood and selling them for $100 each.
  
  --
  One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
7. Re:Sub $500? by internerdj · 2009-02-11 02:34 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  HTPC cases are expensive because they can be.
8. Re:Sub $500? by Svartalf · 2009-02-11 03:03 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  In this case, the OTA's often about as good as basic cable these days, with the TV stations providing multiple feeds in addition to the network one. I'm only missing a few things like Discovery at this point- not sure if it's worth the $30-50/mo for Dish to get it.
  
  --
  I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
9. Re:Sub $500? by Lumpy · 2009-02-11 03:33 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  XBMC Live - Better than Boxee and uses far less Horsepower for 720p HDTV.
  I built one for $190.00 with a P4-3ghz proc and motherboard, all the goodies including a 8600gt video card and MCE remote. expense was the hard drive to hold all the 5Gig AVI HDTV movie rips. I use a python script with command line bittorrent and wget to silently pull all podcasts and tv shows I am after to the box. works great and I dont have to have a tuner card. Add an additional $99.00 of you want it to look like a stereo piece, or buy a old replay TV for $20.00 and hammer everything inside that case.
  
  --
  Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
10. Re:Sub $500? by hairyfeet · 2009-02-11 04:17 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Well, since I can't RTFA since it was slashdotted I can at least help you out there, bud. I have built an HTPC for around the price you state. The reason I say around is simply because you know how volatile PC prices are and can vary wildly day to day. Anyway here is how I did it.
  Lets start with the case. Here is the cheapest HTPC case I can find, but if you don't mind fugly you can go even cheaper and get a running box to boot. Simply look up "Compaq Deskpro SFF" or "Compaq Deskpro EN SFF 733" in Google. I was able to pick up a 733MHz for $35 with $10 shipping. It is just a little beige box, a little bigger than a DVD player. Makes a perfect HTPC case, at least I thought so. In fact I am typing this on a second one that I picked up and never got around to converting. For surfing the web the 733MHz paired with 384MB of RAM(max for this little board) and Win2K Pro(came with it) it makes for a nice little net surfer. Oops...back on topic.
  Motherboard. Since either the retail HTPC case or the Compaq Deskpro is going to need a little board to squeeze into that little case I would suggest this one which is the classic Atom+945 combo. If you decide you want more graphics and don't mind going over budget both NV and ATI make several PCI graphics cards for those that wanted to upgrade to Vista(shudder). As for RAM, here is a 2GB stick for $22 which will max out the board. Now I am leaving out the tuner for a reason, and not because of price. I am leaving it out simply because the features vary so wildly among tuners that it really is a personal taste thing. I picked up an analog tuner(since I have cable) for a dirt cheap $15 that does all I want it to do(Mpg2/4 and FM radio) so you will need to decide which features/formats are right for your situation. Finally the HDD, which is $33 for a 80GB but again you can get bigger if you don't mind going a little over budget.
  Now lets figure up the damage. If you build a Linux based HTPC like in TFA and and go analog with the tuner like I did you should just squeeze in at around the $200 mark, give or take $10 for shipping costs. The final total for the parts listed, which is the worst case since most tech guys have at least a few parts lying around, is $181.96 before shipping. So your $200 HTPC is doable, and with a few extra bucks thrown in for a larger HDD and a digital tuner could actually be quite nice. Well I hope this helps some, as it did give me something to do other than waiting on TFA to come back up.
  
  --
  ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
11. Re:Sub $500? by tepples · 2009-02-11 04:28 · Score: 2
  
  What good would a channel guide do you if you cancel your cable and no longer have "channels" to tune into?
  Free-to-air television still has channels, and DTV has three times as many as analog did.
12. Re:Sub $500? by Bassman59 · 2009-02-11 04:30 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  My big road block to ditching cable? My wife.
  Specifically, the fact that her main use for the cable is watching those god-awful HGTV/TLC shows: "John and Kate Plus Eight", "Flip that House", "Property Virgins", "Clean House", that kind of thing.
  If she likes that crap, you have grounds for divorce right there. No judge would deny it.
13. Re:Sub $500? by SomeoneGotMyNick · 2009-02-11 05:09 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I'm thinking I should start making cases in my garage out of plywood and selling them for $100 each.
  I got tired of cutting myself on the card slot openings on those metal cases. I'd rather try splinters for a while.
14. Re:Sub $500? by stevewahl · 2009-02-11 05:12 · Score: 2
  
  Believe it or not there are actually "channels" that you can tune in using an "antenna" for "free" in "HD"
  Shocking....
  ummmmmm, Digital != HD
  But your point is otherwise correct.
  The original point is not incorrect. There are channels you can tune in using an antenna, for free. A subset of those channels (until the analog cutoff in the US anyway) are digital, and a subset of the digital channels are HD.
  So there are free HD channels using an antenna. I watched the olympics and the superbowl in HD for free, and I'm not exactly a sports fan.
15. Re:Sub $500? by hedwards · 2009-02-11 05:43 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Because we operate under the premise that things like movies wouldn't be made in any meaningful quantity if people weren't going to pay. True some people do create low budget films for free, but the number is pretty small and the production quality isn't usually as good. Plus some types of movies are just too expensive to do right, even if you're being budget consious.
  The only reason we had protections for Copyright, Trademark and Patent in the legal code originally was to ensure that there was an incentive to produce. Even if you're wanting to give away your code, photos, books, what have you, the protection does ensure that you have legal redress should somebody use it for purposes you don't approve of.
  Were we to have that level of deregulation in the IP market, you'd have only the choice of produce or not produce, with no option to control it at all.
16. Re:Sub $500? by hedwards · 2009-02-11 05:47 · Score: 2
  
  Actually OTA HD has been the way to go for quite a while, mainly because most of the Cable providers were compressing the signal down to somewhat lesser quality than OTA. The only problem is a lack of selection, last I checked there was only one genuine HD channel available here.
17. Re:Sub $500? by dalhamir · 2009-02-11 07:35 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Why isn't the free distribution of cultural content considered part of a countries diplomatic budget? It should be...
  oh yeah, I'd love for congress to decide what sitcoms get made, that would be wonderful. And you do realize that even if a government pays for it, it still actually costs you money right? Someone has to actually pay for the content to get made, and the way to actually get what you want in the long run is to pay for it yourself. That said, the cable model of payment is certainly idiotic in the age of the internet, and boxee's integration of Hulu and netflix make it both practical and responsible way to get your media more efficiently.
popcornhour rules by grub · 2009-02-11 02:02 · Score: 5, Interesting

If you don't want DIY and something non-geek friendly for ~$200 check out the popcornhour network media tanks. Streams from a server or user-installed hard disk. Plays x264, divx, xvid, wmv, etc all at up to 1080p.

We own two and just love them.

--
Trolling is a art,
1. Re:popcornhour rules by CopaceticOpus · 2009-02-11 02:32 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  The Popcorn Hour boxes look very nice. Still, they are rather limited by their lack of ability to play web based video. I'd like to see a box around the size and cost of the Popcorn Hour box, which adds the following:
  1. Runs Boxee, in order to give access to Hulu, YouTube, and many other online videos.
  2. Is a licensed Netflix device.
  Maybe they are working on it, or Roku is, or someone at Boxee is. Whoever gets there first should find plenty of waiting customers.
Good article if... by MrBandersnatch · 2009-02-11 02:05 · Score: 2, Interesting

You're looking to build a media PC but I couldnt help but be disappointed by the use of a micro-atx rather than mini-itx motherboard. While we may have to wait for Nvidia's Ion platform before mini-itx can do HD playback the current batch of boards are quite nice for SD playback.
Boxee looks interesting...are there any comparisons out there between it, Freevo and MythTV?
1. Re:Good article if... by wagnerrp · 2009-02-11 04:41 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Boxee looks interesting...are there any comparisons out there between it, Freevo and MythTV?
  There is no comparison that can be made between it, Freevo, and MythTV. Freevo and MythTV are DVRs. They record TV. Boxee is simply a media player (if perhaps a very fancy one).
Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota by modf · 2009-02-11 02:13 · Score: 5, Informative

It's back up for me, but here is a cached version just in case:
http://74.125.47.132/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.deviceguru.com%2Fthe-boxeebox-cookbook%2F
Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it by Overzeetop · 2009-02-11 02:14 · Score: 4, Interesting

TFS makes it sound like you can replace your cable (or satellite) provider with this box. Where is the (non-OTA) broadcast content coming from. Has he made a wife-capable Hulu scraper? If so, and Hulu agrees not to break the box every couple of months, then I'm interested. If it's just "you can download stuff that's a year old and on DVD from netflix, do OTA, and access your personal media collection," then it's really not much better than what already exists.
Unless it's that he's put it into a nice looking box. In which case...he's just discovered the world of HTPC cases.
I'd love to believe, but without an article I'm puzzled at where the novelty is.

--
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
1. Re:Since we can't RTFA, I don't get it by stickyc · 2009-02-11 06:14 · Score: 2, Informative
  The wins with Boxee are:
  
  It's got a fairly high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) in that the UI is pretty easy to use (certainly much easier than Finder/Explorer).
  
  It's a "social" media player. In that it has a "friends" system like most other social sites. You can see what your friends are watching (opt-in, of course) and use that as a tool to find new content.
Could someone fill us in? by elrous0 · 2009-02-11 02:15 · Score: 3, Interesting

Since the site is slashdotted and the summary is a little shy on details, can someone summarize how this thing works without cable? I know you can torrent some shows and watch some on sites like hulu, but that doesn't really "replace cable" (especially if you watch HD content). So how does this media center work with no cable input?

--
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
1. Re:Could someone fill us in? by SilverJets · 2009-02-11 02:48 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  So then it doesn't free you from cable since you cannot reliably download copyrighted content.
  Bittorrent? Ok..if you don't mind waiting days for it to dribble down to your PC. And that's if the file is actually what the title says it is. Not that anyone would offer a file for torrent with one name and have it be something completely different.
  Usenet news suffers from the same problem. Trying to decipher some of the file names people use can take longer than the actual download.
  Hulu? Nice start. But so much is missing and content is getting rotated off pretty quickly lately.
2. Re:Could someone fill us in? by powerlord · 2009-02-11 05:33 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Hulu is good in that its free.
  1) Hulu works with OSX, Windows, Linux, PS3, and some other Set Top Boxes.
  If you don't mind paying a few dollars to watch a program or movie:
  2) Amazon Video has a lot. They work with OS X, Windows and TiVo.
  3) iTunes has a lot. They work with OS X, Windows and AppleTV.
  4) PlayStationNetwork Store has a lot of Video content. Works with PS3/PSP.
  5) MicroSoft's MarketPlace has a few programs that you can download to XBox 360s.
  6) NetFlix streams video to subscribers and works with OS X, Windows, TiVo, and some other Set Top Boxes.
  Depending on which programs are "must see" for you, you can pay for some of the programs and still spend a lot less money than you would have on cable. If most of what you watch is free (OTA or Hulu), then the savings become even more pronounced.
  If you don't care about being a season or so behind, wait for the boxed sets at the end of each season and pick those up (probably about the same cost as buying them), or get through a NetFlix subscription for substantial savings over buying either individual episodes ala'cart (through iTunes/Amazon/PSN Store/MS Marketplace), or buying the Season Boxed Set.
  There are LOTS of options for delivery. The only thing I haven't figured out how to get are those cheesy SciFi Original Movies. some of them are fun and I'll miss them when I give up cable, but it'll probably keep my brain from rotting (any more). :)
  
  --
  This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
3. Re:Could someone fill us in? by AncientPC · 2009-02-11 06:26 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Try http://www.tvrss.net/shows/
  They even offer RSS feeds so you can subscribe to them with your torrent client and download automatically.
Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota by CopaceticOpus · 2009-02-11 02:17 · Score: 5, Funny

Sides good trolls know how to time things JUST right.
Skipping unnecessary characters such as "b", "e", and "," can make all the difference!
Version 1.6 Warning by tepples · 2009-02-11 02:25 · Score: 2, Insightful

Buy and old xbox.
Any ideas on how to buy an old Xbox console without buying one that has version 1.6 firmware?
1. Re:Version 1.6 Warning by tepples · 2009-02-11 04:09 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Buy a used xbox from someplace that lets your look at it first.
  Who has tried this at a local GameStop or somewhere? Or where else would you recommend that would be available to people in most parts of the United States?
  
  Short version: if it was made before 2004, it's pre-1.6
  The Version 1.6 Warning page states that Xbox consoles can be updated to 1.6 through the Internet. By "look at it" do you mean "turn it on before paying for it"?
  
  You can still use a hardware mod chip on a 1.6 box.
  For many users, it takes less time==money to buy a Popcorn Hour box than to learn to solder.
2. Re:Version 1.6 Warning by ubercam · 2009-02-11 04:37 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  That's not the firmware version, it's the "version number" of the motherboard given by the scene/community to differentiate between the different boards as they were revised/changed/made cheaper over time. It's not official Microsoft version numbering. Also, no matter which board you end up with, there are mod chips available. Divineo still sells them, whether you're in Canada, US or Europe. I'm sure you could find some on Ebay/Kijiji/Craigslist or even at a game shop in your area.
  I bought mine in 2002. It's a 1.0 board. I started with XBMP and kept up with XBMC development over the years.
  If you were planning on running Linux, I'd have to ask why? It's no problem with a mod chip, but keep in mind that XBMC runs _natively_ on a modded bios (Xecuter, Evox, etc). Running GentooX, or whatever Linux distro on a free/open bios, and XBMC for Linux on top is 100% redundantly redundant. Just make XBMC your default dashboard and forget about the rest of that garbage.
Re:This Account Has Exceeded Its CPU Quota by Anonymous Coward · 2009-02-11 02:27 · Score: 2, Funny

Here was their list of recommendations:

The solution would be to optimize your applications to use less CPU.
Adding appropriate indeces to your SQL tables can often help reduce CPU.
Using static .html documents instead of painful .php scripts will practically eliminate CPU usage.
Painful? I think someone enjoys Perl a bit too much :)
Linux as an HTPC frontend by Riddles · 2009-02-11 03:06 · Score: 3, Insightful

And this basically sums up my experience with these devices over the past couple of years. Getting any pc to do decent tv-out is a nightmare (Modeline Hell as he calls it). Getting sound on both regular outputs and digital outputs with Alsa is "challenging" to say the least. And then I just want the box to suspend and wake-up using a remote. Again, that's possible in theory, but somehow I've never found a board that will reliably go into S3 and wakeup from S3 over and over again. If you finally get it to work once, it suddenly doesn't work the second time.
Finally, I've just switched to a UPNP frontend for my Mythtv backend. It turns on and off in 5-10 secs, does both analog and digital audio outputs and I've never had issues with its tv outputs. I've lost some functionality, but at least it's reliable and "just works".
1. Re:Linux as an HTPC frontend by JustNiz · 2009-02-11 05:07 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  >> Getting any pc to do decent tv-out is a nightmare (Modeline Hell as he calls it).
  This sounds like you're trying to use some horrible analog interconnect like S-video or something. Last time I remember modelines was on my Amiga.
  Funny how connecting my PC to my TV has never ever been a problem for me. But then I have always used newer (nVidia) videocards, and have a TV that also supports DVI.
  If you really want decent TV-out then upgrade to 1990's tech and get a video card and a TV that supports DVI or HDMI and use that instead. All your modeline problems will go away too.
  I don't know if you're one of them, but the number of friends I see still using legacy analog interconnections rather than digital even though their TV and other boxes already have digital connectors is frustrating.
2. Re:Linux as an HTPC frontend by JoeBorn · 2009-02-11 10:30 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I have a kind of unique perspective on this, we're actually building a discless Ubuntu TVPC box for mass production and its clear that getting it to "just work" at least in all situations does take some work. We use a new chipset (AMD 780g) because it supports audio over HDMI (note that many of the comments on here quietly note that they are using DVI with analog audio of some kind) nVidia's drivers still don't support this. We're actually working directly with ATI to make sure that the graphics chipset resumes properly from sleep, that it auto-senses the display properly, etc. For many on here, those kind of hiccups are no big deal, but when it comes to the WAF or making a real mainstream product, there is a lot of little details that need fixing. Take my word, there is a lot of tweaking needed to truly have something "just work" and bear in mind that we're dealing with production runs of perfectly identical hardware, so the problem goes up dramatically if you are piecing together a variety of components in a DIY way, although I suppose you have more options of tweaking during install than we have for a product sold to consumers at retail.
  
  --
  If you're going through hell, keep going -Winston Churchill
I PATCHSTICKed my Apple TV by Philip+K+Dickhead · 2009-02-11 03:54 · Score: 2, Interesting

Have Boxee and XBMC, now.
Ditched Dish Network.
Kids don't care its gone.
Watching Rocky and Bullwinkle, now.

--
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Re:slight difference by Beat+The+Odds · 2009-02-11 04:09 · Score: 3, Funny

"Inspired" by this little $100 box, I decided to make a clone that's 30x bigger and only cost me $600.
Damn, I'm impressed. That thing must be HUGE.
Where do you put it? In spare room? In a shed out back? Please, let us know.
Re:The only thing keeping me on cable/satellite by keithpreston · 2009-02-11 04:27 · Score: 2, Informative

Depending on you ISP. ESPN360 pretty much has all ESPN live sports content except ESPNU (bastards want you to buy a premium sports tier) between this and my antenna, I can see 95% of my Kansas Jayhawk Basketball.
Useless unless you live in a Hulu country... by MaXMC · 2009-02-11 04:51 · Score: 2, Informative

So boxee is pretty much useless if you don't live in the United States (or have a proxy there)...
A Xbox360 would be nice too but Netflix doesn't exist here... neither does the Video store on my PS3... WTF! Even Sony produced movies aren't rented out in the PSN Store because of f-ing licensing issues
Lucky for us Swedes we still have Piratebay ;)
An easier solution by stickyc · 2009-02-11 06:23 · Score: 3, Insightful

For those who don't wish to spend as much time assembling and tweaking, but still want to enjoy Boxee goodness; You can buy a refurbished Mac Mini, DVIHDMI dongle, and 1tb external disk for roughly the same price as the author spent on his Ubuntu rig. Boxee is available (and started) as a native OS-X application. Plus, with OS-X, you can get streaming HD Netflix.
As someone who's done this (for a few years now).. by msimm · 2009-02-11 07:50 · Score: 3, Interesting

A few quick points:

Disclaimer: your mileage, needs and interests may vary.

1) I liked MythTV on Ubuntu which I most recently installed using Mythbuntu. The Xbmc derivatives look nice, but never so compelling I actually used one (because I was already using something I liked).
2) If you plan to use it, consider not fscking with it. Having a TV on the fritz because you tweak the software constantly can sometimes be pretty annoying (maybe mostly to the *other* people).
3) Consider 2 disks. Maybe it's just me, but after a few reinstals/etc I occasionally get sloppy and screw up my partitioning.
4) Keep a hobby PC to play around (if you like to) with and let the HTPC just work TM.
5) If you have a (non-geek) wife, consider not going the home-build route and using a Xbox or something like (which, after 4 or so years is what I use, exclusively) the D-Link DSM-750 (along with a DNLA server like the cross-platform Twonky) this way you end up with a slim, attractive, wireless (803.11n), fanless, HD streaming media device that will allow you to plug your previously computer-bound content (Ogg and MKV included) directly into your HDTV (without having hassle with it).

Of all the solutions I've used this has worked the best for me. But like I said, your ymmv (and I'd be curious to hear about it).

--
Quack, quack.