Boxee - internet TV and Network Media Player

I recently installed and started playing with Boxee.  This is a free (as in beer) media player intended for use on your tv.  I think the most exciting use case is pairing this up with an AppleTV box instead of loading a dedicated PC.  Since Boxee does not have an ability to rip DVDs, you will want to use a seperate program (or in my case..PC) to do this.  So you can either...

1. Load a dedicated PC up with Ubuntu Linux or use a Mac Mini, then switch programs when wanting to Rip a DVD
2. or Load on to an AppleTV and copy over your files to the AppleTV or a NAS (Net work storage device).  Using a NAS will increase your storage space substancially.

What is really cool about boxee is that it allows your PC or AppleTV unit to not only play Videos, Music, Photos, etc... but it also allows you to recomend content to friends.  It also can give you access to web content from Hulu, Netflix (article from Wired.com), CNN, Comedy Central, and others.

If you want to add Boxee to your AppleTV, you will need software from this site.  You will also need an intel based mac to run the software and a USB memory stick.  here  and here are youtube videos covering the process.

Some more photos of Boxee on Flickr.


NINJAVIDEO
Based on this forum post you can also build ninjavideo into Boxee on the AppleTV:
for the apple tv folks, below should work.



1) install veohproxy in /Applications folder



2) configure apple tv to start veohproxy on bootup

Code:

cd /Library/StartupItems/<br />sudo mkdir /Library/StartupItems/veohproxy<br />cd /Library/StartupItems/veohproxy/</pre>
</div>3) create veohproxy startup script using the command below:<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 5px 20px 20px;">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom: 2px;">Code:</div>
	<pre class="alt2" dir="ltr" style="border: 1px inset ; margin: 0px; padding: 6px; overflow: auto; width: 640px; height: 34px; text-align: left;">sudo nano veohproxy</pre>
</div>contents of veohproxy<br />
<div style="margin: 5px 20px 20px;">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom: 2px;">Code:</div>
	<pre class="alt2" dir="ltr" style="border: 1px inset ; margin: 0px; padding: 6px; overflow: auto; width: 640px; height: 50px; text-align: left;">#!/bin/bash<br />python /Applications/veohproxy/default.py &</pre>
</div>4) create  StartupParameters.plist file<br />
<div style="margin: 5px 20px 20px;">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom: 2px;">Code:</div>
	<pre class="alt2" dir="ltr" style="border: 1px inset ; margin: 0px; padding: 6px; overflow: auto; width: 640px; height: 34px; text-align: left;">sudo nano StartupParameters.plist</pre>
</div>contents of StartupParameters.plist<br />
<div style="margin: 5px 20px 20px;">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom: 2px;">Code:</div>
	<pre class="alt2" dir="ltr" style="border: 1px inset ; margin: 0px; padding: 6px; overflow: auto; width: 640px; height: 130px; text-align: left;">{<br />  Description = "Veohproxy";<br />  Provides = ("Access to ninjavideo");<br />  Uses = ("Network");<br />  Requires = ("Network");<br />  OrderPreference = "Late";<br />}</pre>
</div>5) set permissions<br />
<div style="margin: 5px 20px 20px;">
	<div class="smallfont" style="margin-bottom: 2px;">Code:</div>
	<pre class="alt2" dir="ltr" style="border: 1px inset ; margin: 0px; padding: 6px; overflow: auto; width: 640px; height: 98px; text-align: left;">cd ..<br />sudo chown -R root:wheel veohproxy/<br />sudo chmod -R 755 veohproxy/<br />sudo chmod 744 veohproxy/StartupParameters.plist <br />sudo reboot

veohproxy will start up automatically after you have rebooted the apple tv. enjoy watching ninjavideo.