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The Boxee Box, Lethargy, and Performance Anxiety

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Over the weekend my friend’s Boxee Box arrived in the mail. If you don’t know what a Boxee Box is then the easiest way to catch you up to speed is for you to check out their website, Boxee.tv, and to know that in a large part the Boxee Box is akin to the Apple TV – in as much it allows you to play video on your TV. The cool part about Boxee is that it allows you to play pretty much any type of video file, unlike the Apple TV which limits you to only one type of video file.

I had it in my mind yesterday to record myself opening the Boxee Box and give a little video overview of what the device looks like and how it operates. Ultimately this plan proved semi-fruitful: I managed to set up my camera and record myself opening the box, ramble on about how cool it was, however after reviewing the video I found that for a large portion of the video my head was cut out of frame.

This is the trouble of being your own DP (director of photography).

The ill-framed footage can be easily rectified by re-recording, however by that point my lethargy – which I had been fighting off all day – had reasserted itself and the notion of enjoying more TV watched through the newly opened Boxee Box sounded too appealing to pass on. And so that’s what I did: I quickly hooked up the Boxee Box, propped myself on the couch, and lazily played with the new gizmo from my seated position.

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Writing this now I wish I had perhaps enjoyed a second cup of green tea to get me through recording some usable footage. I may yet re-package the Boxee Box and mime opening it a second time to get some better footage. What surprised me about recording last night was how different it feels to be the person in front of the camera – performing for the camera. It gave me an odd feeling of anxiety that I feel will pass as my level of comfort increases.

Sadly, all I have to share with you today are these written words. Perhaps (and hopefully tonight) I’ll have a vide of the Boxee Box to share as well. I will not make any promises, because if I do make a promise and break it then I’ll feel downright rotten. So instead here’s to hoping.

Digital Library Maintenance

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Digital LibraryDigital Library maintenance is a long boring process. I’m not even sure if it’s a rewarding task. I know I’ll be grateful for my work later but right now I’m feeling the carpel tunnel creep into my left wrist.

What is digital library maintenance? It’s the process or organizing and naming my digital files in a way that I can access and find them easily and quickly. Think to your own collection of books and things – it has a certain order to it that lets you find what you want, when you want. Although maintaining a real physical library is more labor intensive, do not misrepresent the hours of work that is put into organizing a digital library.

Luckily iTunes and other software automatically organizes your files for you. You don’t have to think about where your music is because iTunes organizes it neatly for you. Unfortunately for me I have a perfectionist streak that forces me to do all my organization my self.

For my music I have all my music in one folder aptly named ‘Music.’ In that directory I have four sub-directories: #-d, e-l, m-r, and s-z. This thwarts the onslaught that happens when I’ve tried to view all my music in one directory. With sub-divisions I can load a portion of my music without fear of a hang-up. Essential.

For the rest of my digital media, namely videos, I have them arranged in the folder ‘Video’. Each file is named according to Boxee’s media file name conventions. This lets Boxee scrape my videos accurately so as to pull the accurate information for each video. A pain to perform at first yet the luxury afforded later is so very delightful.

In any case it’s time for me to finish this round of clean-up. It will be so lovely to rest.

Your TV Experience Is Changing

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Everyone seems to be talking about TV nowadays. Everywhere I turn I’m seeing new technologies being created to alter how people currently use and interact with their TV. I can’t say this is bad news – technology tends to improve what already exists.

Let’s take a look at what’s new in TV-land nowadays:

Hulu

If I had told you five years ago that you would be able to watch your favorite television shows for free and when you wanted you would have thought I was nuts. Yet how time has changed things.

Hulu has been around for just over two years (launched March 12, 2008) and it has drastically shifted the way people watch (or don’t watch) TV. Before Hulu you would have to stay in on weekends to see the new Saturday Night Live episode, or wait for it to re-air. Now you can watch the full episode online, when you want, and how you want.

Although Hulu still limits how you can watch its videos expect those limitations to be changed in the future. There have been rumblings of a paid Hulu-subscription being launched that would (hopefully, probably) include entire back-logs of seasons.

Boxee

A Tel Aviv startup that spun off from the XBMC project (Xbox Media Center), Boxee hopes to be the center of your TV experience. Although Boxee doesn’t allow for live TV it does pretty much everything else.

If you’re a fan of podcasts, videocasts, or web-shows then Boxee is for you. Through applications built for Boxee you can enjoy new episodes of Revolution4 podcasts, FunnyOrDie videos, or CollegeHumor.

And, if you already have a large collection of digital content Boxee makes the process ridiculously easy. Point your Boxee software to where your media is and you’ll be streaming it to TV in no time.

Google TV

Announced just last week, Google TV is Google’s take on augmenting the television watching experience.

Through the use of the Quick Search Bar you will be able to search the web while watching TV. By using a smart interface and staying out of the way of live TV, Google TV has the potential to bring about major changes in how we currently watch TV.

What’s Next?

The future is only going to get brighter as current technologies improve and new technologies are invented. Right now the software being made to improve TV seems highly competent and promising. What I’m looking for is a promising hardware solution. My AppleTV only gets me so far and I’m not looking to put a hole in my pocket.