Boxee Archives - Simple Help

How to Use Your Boxee Box Without a Remote

Ross McKillop — Sat, 15 Aug 2015 05:24:26 +0000

Even if your Boxee Box isn’t online (which would allow you to use one of the iOS/Android Remote Apps) – you can still connect to (and use) your Boxee Box.

Plug in a regular old USB Keyboard. Yep, it’s that simple. Use one of the two USB ports on the back of your Boxee Box and plug in a USB keyboard. Use the Enter key, the “arrow” keys and the ESC key to navigate through the various menus. Once you’ve used the keyboard to get your Boxee Box back online, you can download one of the many Android or iOS Apps to use as a Remote.

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How to Stream Spotify from Your iPhone to Your AppleTV or Boxee

Ross McKillop — Wed, 22 May 2013 11:45:58 +0000

This very brief tutorial will show you how to stream from the Spotify App on your iPhone or iPad to your AppleTV or Boxee Box/PC.

The ability to stream audio from Spotify on your iPhone or iPad to your AppleTV or Boxee device is actually built into the Spotify App – it’s just very buried. Here’s how to find it –

Launch Spotify and start playing a song. Tap the ‘box’ with the Artist/Song information located at the bottom of the Spotify App.

Now tap anywhere on the Album cover/art.

Here you’ll finally find the Apple “Send To” button (as illustrated in the screenshot below). Tap it…

… and select Apple TV …

… or the name of your Boxee device.

Now you can listen to Spotify on your home media center.

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How to Watch Netflix on Your Boxee Box

Ross McKillop — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 20:37:39 +0000

The wait is over. You can finally watch Netflix on your Boxee Box. This tutorial will guide you through the steps to do just that.

Please note: Boxee is no longer in development, which means if you don’t have the correct version of the software already installed, this guide will not work. Even with the correct version, you may still have issues. I no longer own my Boxee Box so I can’t confirm for certain, please proceed accordingly.

Start out by updating your Boxee Box to the latest software version. To do this, click the Menu button on your remote until the “Boxee Toolbar” appears. Use the arrow buttons on your remote to navigate to the Settings on-screen button. It’s in the upper-left corner of the screen, as illustrated in the image below.

Select the Settings on-screen button.

Select System from the Settings menu.

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Navigate down the list on the left side and select Update. Boxee may start to check for an update right away. If it doesn’t, select Check for new version of Boxee…

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Boxee will now download and verify the update. Once that process has completed, select New version available. Click here.

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In the ‘update’ window, select Update now.

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Boxee will begin the updating process. Your Boxee Box will reboot during the setup, so don’t be surprised :)

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Once it has rebooted and the latest version has been installed, select Apps from the “Boxee Toolbar”
Depending on how you have your Apps preferences, you may be presented with a list of every available App, or just your Favorites. If you only see a list of installed and/or favourited Apps, select Apps from the Boxee Toolbar again, and this time select All from the sub-menu.
Use the navigation/layout buttons in the upper-right corner of your screen to sort the full list of Apps by Recently Added.

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Netflix will (at the time of writing) be one of the top entries. Select it, then click the Launch button. The Netflix App for Boxee will install!

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Once the installation has completed, the Netflix App will launch on its own. If it doesn’t, manually select it from your list of Apps. You’ll be prompted with a Are you a Netflix member? introduction screen – and you can take it from there.

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That’s it – we can finally enjoy Netflix via our Boxee Box’s!!

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How to Control Boxee From Your Android Device

Ross McKillop — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 08:19:22 +0000

This tutorial will guide you through the steps required to control your Boxee Box via your Android phone/device.

Enable WiFi on your Android phone and connect to the same network that your Boxee Box is on. Controlling Boxee via Android requires that both be on the same network.
Start out by downloading the free Boxee Remote App. Launch it from your Apps list once the installation has completed.

Initially it will attempt to find your Boxee box – and probably fail.

Press the ‘menu’ button and select Settings from the pop-up menu.

Tap Boxee Server to select the Boxee box you want to control with your Android device.

Select the Boxee box you want to control.

At this point you may need to tap the ‘arrow’ on the bottom left corner of the App.

Now the main control window will appear. From here you can see a thumbnail/screenshot of the currently playing video (if one is) – pause/stop, fast forward or rewind the video.

If you leave the App and then return, just tap the yellow Now Playing section, and you’ll be taken back to the controls screen.

That’s it! You can revisit the settings and adjust them to your needs, though I’ve found all the defaults work just fine.

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How to connect your Facebook account to your Boxee Box

Ross McKillop — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:33:20 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to tie your Facebook account to your Boxee Box by D-Link so that you can watch all of your friends videos (wall post videos etc) on your TV.

Please note: Boxee is no longer in development and their site went down – rendering this tutorial useless. As such, we have asked Google to remove this article from search results, though it will remain online for archival purposes.

To get started, head over to the Services section of the Boxee site Update: doesn’t exist anymore. Select the Facebook entry from the left navigation box. Then click the Connect button.

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Note: some browsers will ‘block’ the Facebook “pop-up” window – make sure that you allow pop-ups from boxee.tv.

The Facebook Request for Permission window will appear. Click the Allow button.

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By default, Boxee will have placed a check in the box labeled Import videos my friends share on Facebook to my Boxee. If you’d like the videos you share to appear on your Facebook wall, place a check in the box labeled Publish videos I share on Boxee to my Facebook wall.

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You should also now notice a Facebook icon in your Boxee profile picture.

Head over to your Boxee Box. Select Friends from the main dashboard.

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Note: it may take up to 30 minutes for the videos to start appearing in your Friends list.

You’ll see a list of all the videos your Facebook friends have recently posted to their respective walls. Use the remote to select one.

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You’ll be prompted to confirm that you do in fact want to watch this video. Click the on-screen Play button with your remote.

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Depending on the speed of your Internet connection, it may take a moment to buffer the video.

If a browser window briefly pops up, have no fear.

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Now the video you selected will start playing in full-screen.

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That’s it – your Facebook account is now connected to your Boxee Box – you’re done!

The post How to connect your Facebook account to your Boxee Box appeared first on Simple Help.

How to View Pictures from your SD Card on your Boxee Box

Ross McKillop — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 20:20:11 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to view all the pictures on your cameras SD Card via your Boxee Box.

Start out by inserting your SD Card into your Boxee Box. The slot is located on the side of the box itself.

Navigate to the Files section of your Boxee Box. Select the entry for your SD Card. As illustrated in the image below, my SD card is titled “Unnamed”.

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Depending on the type of camera you have, you may need to dig a bit deeper to find those photos. Typically they’re stored inside of a folder called dcim.

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Again, you may have to drill down even further to find your photos.

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Finally! The list of your pictures will be displayed on the left side of the screen, and as you navigate up and down the list, a thumbnail/preview of the picture will be displayed on the right side of the screen.

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Use the remote to select and ‘click’ on a photo to view it in full-screen.

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Press the Menu button on your Boxee remote and a controller will appear at the bottom of the screen. From here you can start a slide-show of all your photos, rotate them, or switch to full-screen. If you want to just navigate through the photos at your own pace, you can use the left and right buttons on the remote to move back and forth.

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That’s it! It’s that simple. When you’re done, just pop out the SD card.

The post How to View Pictures from your SD Card on your Boxee Box appeared first on Simple Help.

How to Add an External Hard Drive to Your Boxee Box

Ross McKillop — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:19:23 +0000

This guide will take you step by step through the process of adding an external USB hard drive to your Boxee Box. It will also show you how to index the contents of that drive so that you can easily play it all on your Boxee Box.

Start out by powering off your Boxee Box. Plug your external USB hard drive (or thumb drive) into one of the two available USB ports on your Boxee box. If your USB hard drive is a ‘powered’ one, plug it in as well.

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Power on your Boxee Box. Once you get to the dashboard, select the Files option from the upper-right corner.

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Scroll down to the section titled Local folders and network shares. From here, you’ll see your USB hard drive listed. As illustrated in the image below, there can often be more than one “entry” for a single hard drive. Select the first one (in my case, the ‘drive’ is titled EFI).

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Again, as illustrated in the image below, this ‘drive’ contains no files. Navigate back to the main Files section.

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This time, select the other ‘drive’ listed in the Local folders and network shares section (if you had more than one).

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From here you should see a list of the files and folders on the USB hard drive. In some cases, a list of ‘hidden’ folders may be revealed. The hidden folders typically start with a period (.) – but can vary depending on how your USB hard drive is formatted.

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Select one of the folders on your USB hard drive. In my example, I selected the TV Shows folder on my drive. From here, a list of all my sub-folders is displayed.

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To index all of the files in a folder (in my example, the TV Shows folder), select the “action” button from the upper-left corner of your screen. It appears as a “plus sign” ( + ) inside of a box (see image below).

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From here you select all the options for indexing this folder (and all of its sub-folders). In the Share Name field, enter a name. Ideally one that’s fairly descriptive.

Select the Media Type. Since I’m indexing a series of video files, I’ve selected Video from the list.

Because I’ll be adding to this folder fairly frequently, I’ve set the Type of Scanning to daily. If you don’t plan on making changes to a specific folder, you can select Once so that it gets indexed, and then doesn’t need to be every day going forward.

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When you’re done, click the Add on-screen button.

A small “windshield wiper” icon will appear in the upper-right corner of your screen. This means the folder is currently being indexed by the Boxee software.

After a few minutes, you should be able to return to the main menu and select the Shows option (assuming like me, you indexed a series of TV shows). If you opted to index a different type of media (Movies, Music etc) – select that entry from the main menu.

Don’t be surprised if all of the contents of the drive/folder haven’t been added yet. It can take quite a while to index a drive with lots of files.

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If you’re adding audio files (music, podcasts etc) – repeat the above process, but when asked for the Media Type, select Music.

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Again, Boxee will notify you that the folder is being indexed.

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That’s it! Just keep repeating this process to add all of the files on your drive so that you can play them via your Boxee Box.

The post How to Add an External Hard Drive to Your Boxee Box appeared first on Simple Help.

The Complete Guide to Setting up Your Boxee Box

Ross McKillop — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 19:31:54 +0000

This step by step guide will help you setup and configure your new Boxee Box by D-Link so you’ll be watching your digital videos in no time.

Please note: Even though Boxee is no longer in development, most of the features on your Boxee box should still work. With that said, if you run into trouble you’re mostly on your own.

Now that you’ve unboxed your Boxee Box, it’s time to set it up. Here goes –

After you’ve plugged in the power and HDMI (or other audio/video) cables, switch the input on your TV to the appropriate setting and power on your Boxee Box. The initial Loading… “boot screen” will appear.

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Boxee itself will load.

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Grab your Boxee remote. The Welcome screen will be displayed – use the remote to “click” the Start button.

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The first thing your Boxee Box will do is search for a wireless network. We’re going to assume that’s how you’re connecting your Boxee Box to the Internet for the sake of this walkthrough. If you are using Ethernet, select it from the list displayed on the screen. Otherwise, wait for Boxee to finish its scan.

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You’ll be presented with the list of available wireless networks.

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Use the remote to scroll down to the wireless network you’ll be using.

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If the Boxee Box is connecting to a wifi network that requires a password/key, you’ll be prompted to enter it once you select that network. Flip that Boxee Box remote over and use the QWERTY keyboard to enter your password. Press the Enter button on your remote, or use the arrow to highlight the Confirm on-screen button and select it.

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Your Boxee Box will connect to the network.

Depending on when you purchased your Boxee Box, the first thing that may happen after you’re connected to the Internet is that Boxee will notify you of an available software update. If you aren’t presented with this screen, skip down to step #14 below.

Otherwise, select the Begin button.

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The Boxee software update will begin to download.

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After the download has completed successfully, you’ll be prompted to reboot your Boxee Box. Select the Reboot button to restart it.

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After it starts up again, the upgrade process will begin immediately. Don’t power off your Boxee Box during this update.

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Once the update has finished, your Boxee Box will reboot yet again.

Now it’s time to calibrate your screen. This is an important step in the setup process because you’ll get the most out of your viewing experience by making sure it’s done correctly.

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The “1” triangle in the upper left corner of your TV screen can be ‘moved’ around the screen by using the arrow controls on your remote. Use the down arrow to move the triangle down, the right arrow to move it right etc.

As illustrated in the image below, there will be a long “blue line” that runs horizontally across the “top” of the triangle. Use the Up arrow key to align this line with the top of your TV screen.

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Using the left and right arrow keys, repeat the above process – this time for the vertical “blue line” that runs down the triangle.

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Press the Select button on your remote when both the horizontal and vertical lines for the “1” triangle have been set. Repeat the same thing you did with the “1” triangle, with the “2” triangle in the bottom right corner of your screen.

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Once you’re done, press the Select button again. If everything looks good, press it yet again (with the on-screen Done button selected).

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Now it’s time to sign in to your Boxee account. If you don’t have one already, it’s probably faster to create one online than it is using the QWERTY remote on the Boxee Box remote – so head over to the strike>>Boxee home page and create an account. It’s a painless procedure.

Once you have your login credentials (username and password) – enter them in their respective fields. Place a check in the Remember my password box if you don’t want to enter this info each time you start up your Boxee Box. Then select the Login button.

You’ll get a little “quick tip” regarding the use of the Menu button on your Boxee Box remote. Give it a read – the Menu button is very useful – and is used a lot – while navigating the Boxee interface.

And now – the Boxee interface! At this point you could jump right in and start watching stuff – but lets finish the setup first.

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Remember that Menu button on your Boxee Box remote? Click it now. This will bring up the “Boxee Toolbar” (for lack of a better name). Use the arrow buttons on your remote to navigate to the Settings on-screen button. It’s in the upper-left corner of the screen, as illustrated in the image below.

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Select the Settings on-screen button.

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From here you can adjust the various Settings and options for your Boxee Box. Use the arrow keys to navigate to the General on-screen button, and select it.

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One of the first things you may need/want to switch is the location. My default Weather Location was set to Chicago. Since I don’t live there, I decided to change it. Use the arrow keys on the remote to highlight the city name, and then select it.

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Using either the on-screen keyboard, or the QWERTY keyboard on the back of your Boxee Box remote, enter the city you live in. You don’t need type out the city, state and zip – just the city name will do. Select Done when you’re done.

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Now you can select the proper city, state, zip (province, territory, area code etc) from the list Boxee will display.

With the correct Weather City now set, you may want to set the correct Timezone Country and Timezone City as well.

Feel free to peruse and set any of the additional General settings (eg. Screensaver, Language etc. None are particularly critical, and you may in fact want to wait to set some of them until after you’ve added media to your device.

Return to the main Settings window, and this time select System. Select Audio from the list on the left side of the window.

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From here you’ll want to make sure that you have the correct Audio output selected. For example, if you have a Dolby Digital Plus capable receiver, make sure to select it. If you’re unsure of the type of connection(s) your receiver is capable of, check with its manual or the online help section of that manufacturers web site.

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At this point you have made all the important changes needed. Of course you can check out and adjust any of the additional Settings – there are lots. But if you’re anxious to get going, you’re certainly ready!

If you’d like to continue setting up your Boxee Box and exploring some of the features, here are a few tutorials that will help –

How to Add an External Hard Drive to your Boxee Box
How to View Pictures from your SD Card on your Boxee Box
How to Connect your Facebook Account to your Boxee Box

The post The Complete Guide to Setting up Your Boxee Box appeared first on Simple Help.

Unboxing The Boxee Box by D-Link

Ross McKillop — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 01:51:16 +0000

Say that 10 times fast. This photo gallery/unboxing reveals all that’s included when you order a Boxee Box by D-Link.

2021 Update: Even though Boxee is no longer in development, most (certainly not all) of the features on your Boxee box should still work. With that said, if you run into trouble you’re mostly on your own.

In a nutshell, the Boxee Box by D-Link is the first hardware device to include the wonderful Boxee Media Center software pre-installed.

Here’s a picture tour – or “unboxing” – of the Boxee Box.

Unopened Boxee Box

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“Overview”

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The Contents

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The Back

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Powered On

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Power Adapter and HDMI Cable

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Remote – Front Side

guitar pick used to show scale

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Remote – Front Side – Battery Exposed

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Remote – Back Side – QWERTY Keyboard

guitar pick used to show scale

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Input/Output (HDMI, Ethernet, 2x USB 2.0, Optical & Analog Audio)

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