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BoxeeTV is a new home theater type software, but they have gone a different route in the ways they began distributing. They launched with an initial alpha version for Linux, Apple, and AppleTV's, and shunned us Windows users. That didn't bother me as I wanted to get my hands on it, until I remembered how terrible I was with Linux. So I was content on waiting for an alpha version of Windows, and the wonderful folks at Boxee promised to get me one...that was until they kept releasing such cool features and forced my hand--I had to buy an AppleTV solely for the purpose of installing Boxee on it!

The benefits for me of using the AppleTV over the alternatives were obvious. Already having a dedicated Vista Media Center PC, I did not want to kill my electricity bill by powering an entirely new PC strictly to run Linux and Boxee, so with the AppleTV, which is showing a wattage of between 18-22 Watts is a vast improvement over the 100+ Watts a computer would draw. Do I wish AppleTV was lower like an HP Media Center (7 watts), sure, but given that it's essentially a computer and it allows me to run Boxee...I can live with 22.

Sometimes I can't just leave good enough alone.  Let's see...  It's been a month since my last blog post, and a month and a half since my last issue...  So this time I had to be pretty creative in order to break things. 

As some of you know, my HD server/development system died on me a little while ago.  Around the same time, I revived my old frontend, thanks to Autoboy.  This time around I decided to throw in a bunch of hard drives that I had sitting around, throw in my HD tuner from the dead server and rebuild a dual boot system that can be used to play with new hardware as the options arise, as well as run Mythtv under Linux.  On the Linux side of things I am in the process of building a development Mythtv server that is intended to allow me to test out new features without killing the production Mythtv setup.

EDIT 3/6 @ 3:30pm: Well that didn't last long :-( Good thing this update has some cool new features besides Hulu!

By now you have probably heard the news about Boxee releasing an update with a different way of approaching Hulu. While previously Boxee had an amazing integration with Hulu, that service had since been terminated due to unknown reasons by the request of the content providers.

With today's announcement from Boxee, it seems that not all hope is lost. The latest version--which is admittedly unstable--shows a glimpse into what the future can hold for Boxee users clammoring to have their Hulu back. And so far...I'm impressed.

As you can see, the integration is still fun and blends wonderfully into the Boxee interface. In using the RSS feeds, the hope is that this model can last longer and not get axed down as fast as the last model. These images are of the Hulu Feeds app by default, all the shows are there by default and it's just the pipes of Boxee have changed as to how you get them. You still just click on a show to play, and you still get all those wonderful commercials.

I'm sure on a related note, this new version of Boxee also includes an auto-update feature which is really a must have as I imagine the back and forth with Hulu will continue for a bit longer at least. But that's not all...

I'll cover this briefly, but Boxee is not resting on their laurels with the content they have. They've clearly listened to the community and have added their "App Box" which allows you to add other video feeds. I'll cover this more in depth in the future, but for now here's a taste of what's already available and how seamless the integration continues to be.

App Box offerings	Funny or Die (from Will Ferrell)

This is all much more than just the beginning and I think will continue to add to the popularity and relevance of Boxee in your home theater environment. Kudos to the Boxee team for such quick development on all of the above and I'm sure more that's coming!

News broke last week from both Boxee and Hulu camps that effective immediately, Boxee was no longer allowed to utilize Hulu's offerings--arguably a large reason a lot of folks began using Boxee. Hulu integration on Boxee was way ahead of anyone else and allowed you to watch any and all Hulu TV shows streamed from your remote control. Some have argued that this announcement could mean the demise of Boxee as a whole. I would argue, they are wrong. :-)

After tearing down the HTPC, I started putting things back together with my brand new parts. This is actually going to be retrospective look at building my HTPC since it's been up and running with minimum required functionality for the last couple months or so.

This build was designed to be the main HTPC in the family room. I planned to leverage my existing HTPC case, the Accent HT-400. The HTPC is used for tv recording, archiving and playing back DVDs, Blu-ray playback from disc, photos, and music playback. I've stopped gaming on the pc and instead am using the XBox 360 for that. In the future, I plan on turning this HTPC into a thick client and moving the hard drives and tuners to a PC based on WHS. This thick client HTPC will then continue to serve as the main box in the family room/home theater. To this extenders will be added in other rooms for music, tv, and video distribution. Home Automation will be added eventually to the WHS box after it is up and running next year. 

For the core of my new HTPC I selected the Asus P5Q-EM based on the Intel G45 chipset running a Intel E8500.

Let's take a closer look at how things worked out.

The discussion, here, about larger storage setups caught my attention this week. Large storage setups for many simultaneous users have considerations beyond your standard small home server. Some of the major considerations are hard drive choice, disk configuration, sufficient throughput for your application, backup, fault tolerance.

- Hard Drives: If you are planning a large 10TB+ array of discs, you may want to consider enterprise class drives from leading hard drive manufacturers. These drives are certified for 24/7 operation, and warrantied for 5 years. However, there is a price for the higher reliability drives. Western Digital Enterprise Class Green Power drives cost about 80% more than their equivalent consumer version.

- Disk Configurations (from Wikipedia):

RAID

• RAID 0 (striped disks) distributes data across several disks in a way that gives improved speed and full capacity, but all data on all disks will be lost if any one disk fails.

• RAID 1 (mirrored settings/disks) could be described as a real-time backup solution. Two (or more) disks each store exactly the same data, at the same time, and at all times. Data is not lost as long as one disk survives. Total capacity of the array is simply the capacity of one disk. At any given instant, each disk in the array is simply identical to every other disk in the array. - IS BACKUP

• RAID 5 (striped disks with parity) combines three or more disks in a way that protects data against loss of any one disk; the storage capacity of the array is reduced by one disk. - NOT BACKUP

• RAID 6 (striped disks with dual parity) (less common) can recover from the loss of two disks. - NOT BACKUP

• Multi-disk redundancy so that if any given disk fails, data is not lost - NOT BACKUP
• Folder Duplication - allowing the selective backup of any of your shared folders, keeps duplicate copies of specified folders on seperate drives, must manually enable - IS BACKUP
• Arbitrary storage expansion by supporting any type of hard disk drive (Serial ATA, USB, FireWire etc.) in any mixture and capacity — similar in concept to JBOD
• A single folder namespace (no drive letters)

- Transfer Rates

The throughput of the system may or may not be important to you. You'll want to check on the specific card you plan on purchasing. Real world transfer rates can be very different from what is advertised on the box. The hardware raid cards will be faster and are capable of supporting many users. The hardware solutions can easily handle throughput from many drives simultaneously without degradation of performance. If the files accessed are on different drives, the total throughput can be quite high. WHS Drive Extender is a software solution and much more appropriate for a small number of users/simultaneous file transfers.

- Backup / Fault Tolerance

All of the above mentioned solutions for creating large storage arrays are really not good backup solution for critical data (except RAID 1). Many of them do have fault tolerance, allowing them to rebuild the array by replacing a broken drive. In the case of hardware RAID, the RAID card is also a fault point and would likely need to be replaced with the same model card to get the array back up and running. For critical backup you will need a separate solution. I have been considering this for my family photos. Movies and music are replaceable, while family photos aren't.

Recently I posted a blog about how my development/HD server system died on my after my UPS beeped briefly.  Well, I decided that it was worth a quick look to see if it was the power supply or not.  I knew it would be a quick test, so I came up with the following test rig.

PSU Test Rig

Believe it or not, it did actually work (the test that is).  I plugged in the main motherboard power and the CPU AUX power connectors and flipped the switch.  Sure enough, the system started to work again.  All in all I think this took me about 10 minutes to test out.  After hooking up a couple of molex connectors for the hard drives and the graphics card, I was able to get the system up and running again.  Now I just need to dig through my closet and see if any of my old power supplies are powerful enough (and new enough) to run in this system.  I don't want to strip the one that I used for the test.  I have other plans for that...

And so the saga continues.  Now I know what the problem is.  What, if anything, do I want to do about it?  Hmm..  As always, feel free to share your opinions in the forums!

Most people that are aware of Boxee think it's primarily used for television watching--mainly all the internet TV portals for watching full episodes on demand, which I covered a bit during my first impressions look. The Photos area of Boxee however is equally powerful.

Again, if you have seen Boxee on AppleTV or other previous device, you will notice very little difference between the experience--which is a good thing. The interface is similar to the Videos section in that you configure your local and network libraries, but then also have the power of internet picture portals--FlickR, Picasa and The Big Picture.

The interface is easy to follow and the experience is nice. It's still a bit odd adjusting to the limited button support (which I've heard will be changed to better support the Microsoft remotes) but if you are familiar with the AppleTV it's an easy adjustment to make.

The story of my mission for getting video resume in Media Center is a long one, but I will condense it for your sanity. Ever since the original Portable Media Centers were released--remember, those brick sized devices before IPods ever existed--the one and only feature I clammored for and missed from those devices were Video Resume. By video resume, I mean the ability to play a video file (non-DVR-MS or WTV), press stop, and then be able to come back to the video file the next night and be able to pick up right where you left off.

This simple and often overlooked feature (found in every portable video player in recent memory and some software as well) has been painfully missing from Media Center for all these years. Every MVP Summit I have reminded the eHome team of this ommission, and every year I've seen no change--always "good suggestion, just didn't make the cut."

So it's with great pride I can report that my prayers (and clearly not just my own) have been answered, as I can report that as of the public beta of Windows7, VIDEO RESUME EXISTS! Add some videos (divx, avi, wmv, whatever!) into your Video Library, click on a file and it will begin playing automatically. Click Stop, do anything else, play another track, heck even close Media Center, and when you go back to play that same video, you will be greeted with a screen like the above. 

Again, probably a feature some of you could care less, but I can't imagine I'm alone in my excitement--not just that this feature has finally made it's way into Media Center, but that it shows that Microsoft has been listening (albeit slow to implement). No complaints though...thank you Microsoft! No more will I have to stay up late to finish watching a movie for fear of having to skip 5000 times to get back to that point! No more will I have to convert my movies just to have this!

I find myself spending much too much time on airplanes. This past year I earned status on one airline, and almost on a second. My fiancee is travelling so much that she is going platinum on multiple airlines. With all this time spent in the air and on the road we've gone through quite a few of the many options for taking media in the air. Technology continues to evolve and provide a never ending supply of ways to entertain yourself on the plane. I find myself carrying far too many of them, with a laptop (or 2), an iPod Video, a Nintendo DS, and my phone. Today, I thought I'd just try and capture a few of the many options out there for consumption while flying the friendly skies.

Laptop - Something almost every business traveler drags along, as do many others. Good screen size. Plenty of storage space for media. Plays DVDs/Blu-ray. Heavy option, if media playback on the plane is the only point in bringing it. Crappy battery life for long trips. I feel like if I get to watch the whole movie than it's a good day.

Portable DVD Player - Take your DVD collection with you...literally. This option offers a nice screen size depending on model you choose, and potentially decent battery life. Smaller than a laptop. But you have to actually bring physical discs with you, so decide what you want to watch before you leave the house. There are a few ways to work around bringing your own.

Buy DVDs / CDs at the airport - Seems every airport now has a stand or store where you can select from a horrible selection of overpriced DVDs and CDs. Personally, I'm not a big fan of this option.

Rent DVD & return at destination - Never actually participated in this. I am always slightly concerned there won't be an easy place to drop the disc off on the other end, and/or I won't have time to go hunt it down.

The new disposable rental - I've noticed this popping up all over the last few months. The disposable DVD rental. For something like $5.99 you can rent the movie, and watch it as much as you want inside a 24-hour period. Then throw the disc out. The green side of me thinks this is wasteful. However, for busy travellers definitely more convienent than the rent and return option.

Watch whatever Netflix just showed up - Often times this is the route I go. It just doesn't require any thinking, planning, or cash.

 

The Portable MP3 Player - Pretty good choice for music consumption. Battery life should be plenty for any day of travel. Most players today have enough storage for huge music collections, so you never have to worry about leaving your ABBA Gold behind. 

The iPhone/iTouch - Music, Movies & Games all in one. There is certainly something to be said for that. Most people can handle adding movies/music via iTunes. You can add your own with just a little bit of effort. I've heard that by reducing brightness and disabling the phone portion 6+ hours of video can be enjoyed. That's not too shabby. Should do for most flights, especially since you can't watch during takeoff and landing. Gaming leaves a little to be desired. iGames tend to be OK, but lack in depth what you might get for a real portable gaming system.

The Blackberry - I have one. I put a couple songs on it. For some reason I haven't really done any more than that. I love my phone, but I've never really had the urge to load it full of stuff. Maybe I'll try that for my next flight. The phone's battery life is exceptional, so I guess I'll give this a go next time and load up my microSD card. There's an issue...limited by microSD for storage.

The Nintendo DS - Great selection of games. Can buy game cartridges that allow microSD cards for video/audio playback extending the capabilities of console. Smaller screen than most phones for video viewing. Battery life is amazing. I can charge the DS, game a little every day and not have battery issues for a week. Not sure about battery life during video, have not personally tried it.

The Sony PSP - Bigger screen than the DS. Easier to load media on than the DS. UMD is stupid. IMO, gaming not as good as DS. (Worldwide sales numbers would probably support that conclusion)

DirectTV - This is nice, a full lineup of 40 or 50 stations that you can tune in anytime during your flight. The only thing is, when you're on those mid-day flights you are reminded of how bad daytime television is and find yourself praying you'll stumble upon a rerun of any of the crime dramas. Or maybe just indulge that guilty pleasure reality show you can't even set to record on your DVR, but hey, if it's the only thing on... Free on JetBlue, $5 on Frontier.

On Demand Movies - I had this once, flying first class. A large selection of recent releases, hot food, silverware and free cocktails. I strongly recommend this avenue.

Don't forget the headphones!!!

Noise Cancelling Headphones - These can make flying much more pleasant by filtering/drowning out ambient sounds. There are tradeoffs in size and quality of noise cancelling between the two pairs we own.

Sennheiser PXC250 - Smaller, foldable, easy to travel with. Smaller ear pieces and less effective noise cancelling. Enabling it does seem to bump audio volume a couple db. $100ish.

Bose QuietComfort 3 On Ear - Good noise cancelling, I prefer over ear but my fiancee likes the on ear fit of these. Larger, and when packed in travel case occupy a bit of space in the bag. $300ish.

I'd really love to find a great pair of tiny buds with noise cancelling. Or maybe try the custom fit buds.

So what do you bring on the road when you travel?

I admit it, when I first started thinking about home automation I did not have the environment in mind. Instead I was focused on convenience, wife acceptance factor and of course another fun geeky pursuit. The more I am drawn into the home automation world, it isn't hard to see that convenience and being green are often intertwined. As I documented my plans, I began to realize each HA task I planed on implementing had a positive effect on my utility bills and ultimately the environment.

Where I live, I know the capital cost to implement a home automation system will never be paid out by lowering my bills, however it is satisfying to know that part of my project will be and I will be a little more green in the process. A good example of this is simply having remote access, that most home automation systems have, and being able to shut off a light I inadvertently left on. 

Beyond simple remote access, you can expand a home automation system to respond according to external simuli. An irrigation system can respond to a rain sensor or lights will turn on and off according to a level of activity in the room. Ultimately, you can connect every object that may have an impact on your utility bills such as blinds, lights and your HVAC system

Here is a summary of a few home automation scenarios that I had in mind.

• Lights - Remote access to shut off a light I inadvertently left on or turn on a light before I get home
  
  • Motion sensor - Lights will shut-off after a set period of time with no inactivity
  • Dimming - Dimming lights will save on electrical and increase bulb life
• Irrigation - No plans here. I manually water my lawn but if I change my mind (get off my lawn you whipper snappers), I would implement a time control and a rain sensor
• Security - No green plans here
• HVAC - Remote access to turn control the temperature when I get closer to home
  • Programmed based on times
• Demand logging - I am not sure of the practacility of this, but I would like to see an instantaneous review of my power use to get a better handle on where it goes.