The Windows version of boxee, a media center program based on the open source XBMC media player, has entered public alpha. Boxee has been available for Linux, OS X, and Apple TV for some time, but the Windows version has been in closed testing.
Boxee is unique among media center applications because it's primarily oriented toward viewing online content. In fact it doesn't even support ... [ read the full article ]
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It has never been beta for Windows. Though a Windows version has been privately shared since the beginning of the year, it has not been public. You only could have used the Windows version if you were accepted in the trial alpha group, or if you grabbed a torrent for it.
This is great news! Personally I love Boxee and have a Boxee setup of my own in my living room. With regular use, I don't really see any crashes or glitches. If I am navigating around a lot and messing with settings I do see a crash here and there. I'm glad that a public version is now out there for everyone to enjoy!
I liked the look of Boxee, but it seemed to not run well on my older PC that I use for such things.
Does anyone know if this version has been optimized any better or should I stick with my "Media Portal" which has VERY buggy "Picture" viewing.
If I had my wish for a program I'd love a "Media Center" program that just launched external programs but used its own file browser. I've yet to see a media center program that worked as well as a dedicated PC program, if you know what I mean.
For example, VNC works better, Firestone works better, but neither has an on-screen browser.
It is a media center program (sans the recording live tv part). However, it comes with two powerful features not easily found.
a) It aggregates many web video streaming sites (Hulu, ABC, etc) and puts them in one interface and indexes videos nicely.
b) It provides a social media arm that shows you what your friends are watching and what they recommend. It's actually a decent feature if you friends use the program as well.
Aside from that it scans your selected folders and categorizes your movies and tv shows with background information like synopsis, video length, and ratings a la imdb.com and a few other video database sites. The end result is very polished looking though it is a bit of a resource hog.
That being said, I run this on my eee 1000HE and I have to say I am pleased with it's performance streaming videos from my desktop. Poor little netbook stutters here and there, but only when I am surfing the interface with cat like reflexes. Most the time it runs pretty well.
