WDTV/ Roku Streamers

1) Network setup for the Popcorn Hour (PCH) with my Synology NAS was a bit of a pain, but eventually I got it set up and I'd theoretically never need to touch it again. However, in order to use the "wall of movies" option (like PLEX, Boxee, etc. have) the network share HAS to be the root of a particular drive. In other words, I can't just assign it "S:\Movies" like I did with the Boxee, I have to assign "S:\" and then put some text files manually into every top-level folder on S: that I don't want the jukebox (that's what they call the PLEX-like system) to scan (like porn). I CAN assign the movies subfolder as a network share, but then it is impossible to ever use the jukebox, I can only navigate to it directly. Which also means it is never going to list out which episodes of which shows I have either. Boxee generates the cover pics, descriptions, episode listings, etc. no matter where the share is. On top of that, PCH stores all that shit manually on my hard drive, whereas Boxee, with less memory and stats, apparently is just fine storing all of that shit on itself. Or at least, I've never seen it store anything on my PC. PCH immediately started shitting up every directory on my drive with that stuff.

2) When generating the jukebox info (i.e. determining which movie/show it is), the Boxee conveniently tells you which files it had no clue what to do with. You can go see a list of them and easily tell it what they are. One of the best features is telling it that every file in that folder belongs to the same series, so it will attempt to figure them out all at once given that info. A good example is The Ultimate Fighter show. Sometimes the torrents are labeled the.ultimate.fighter.s17e13.scenegroup.mkv, while others are simply labeled tuf.1713.scene.mkv. Boxee will find that 1713 and realize it probably means the same thing as the first file, whereas PCH MUST be renamed to the s17e13 format. Furthermore, many torrented movies have samples included. Boxee most of the time puts them in the "no clue" area and you can just leave them. PCH labels them as the movie most of the time, or even another movie altogether. I had a sample of Shutter Island that it decided was some movie called Semen Sample I believe. So I navigated to it and deleted it from the jukebox...which then deleted it from my hard drive. Which is a big problem if you're still seeding the file.

3) I rarely use the jukebox feature on the Boxee though, so I might be able to live with it if that were the only issue. But I noticed that a good chunk of my movies didn't show up on the jukebox OR simply navigating to them via the network share. I finally figured it out, and it was because they were .rar files. I commented earlier in this thread that Boxee being able to stream straight from the rar files was awesome, and realizing that I'd have to unrar way too much shit was pretty disheartening. PCH apparently has never had rar support, nor does it look like it is likely to ever get it because that is a "pirate" thing. No one ripping their own collection rars their movies, so they see no reason to support it because only pirates do that. Not an official statement from PCH mind you, but that was the defense always used by the defenders.

4) The Boxee remote is a bit sparse, but it does what you need it to do honestly. However, I was pretty excited to get a full-featured remote with the PCH. Who doesn't want better control over what they watch? One thing that has always bugged me about the Boxee is the inability to watch it in search mode like a real DVR. Particularly for shit like UFC events that are 3 hours long, but only like an hour of actual content. With the Boxee you just sort of have to guess, whereas the PCH had true fast-forward viewing capability. However, if I sped it up too much (8x or more) hitting play would jump the time forward 30 seconds from what I could see. Still, it is a huge step up from what the Boxee offers.

That being said, the layout of most of the buttons is fairly fucking dumb. The fast forward, reverse, play, pause, stop...all over the place. VHS remotes had that shit mastered 20 years ago, how hard could it be? One of the most used buttons in setting up the thing, the "Home" button, is located in an unintuitive spot two rows below the 7 on the number pad.

Not to mention, the Boxee remote is blu-tooth, so it works from anywhere in my apartment. PCH isn't. It was like my fucking big toe would block half my button presses or something. It was really annoying, as if it had to be directly pointed at it and not more than 30 degrees off-center. My TV has far better range on the remote, this was by far the narrowest I've seen in years.

5) No matter which way you navigate to a file, the Boxee treats it as the same file, updating the cover art if you want, remembering your last watched spot, checking it off if you've already watched it, etc. The PCH treats them as completely separate entities from what I could tell, and only randomly decided that it would remember the last spot I watched from. It also didn't give you an option to restart from the beginning until after the clip started from your last spot, whereas the Boxee lets you choose before it starts.

6) I mainly use them for streaming local content that I've downloaded, but it is nice to have things like Netflix available because the Boxee interface for Netflix is light years better than the one that came with my TV. PCH will NEVER have Netflix it seems, and that's pretty much a fact. So if Netflix is a deal-breaker for you, PCH is not the solution for you.

To be completely honest the PCH is much snappier in most of the menus, and looks cooler, and the jukebox thing is pretty slick when it is set up properly and works the way it is supposed to. But for costing more, it does fewer of the things that the Boxee does, and seems to force you into doing things a very specific way if it actually does them. That's really disappointing to me because even the new BoxeeTV (the newer version of Boxee Box) is more focused on cloud-DVR and streaming crap, and less on streaming from my computer, which is what I use it for 99% of the time. So it seems like my only real solution is to buy another Boxee or build myself an HTPC for substantially more. Kind of a pisser that there isn't anything better after a couple of years (granted, I have not used Roku or WD but from all my reading they won't be anything I want over the Boxee).