Just a quick thanks Fred. Your post about Boxee piqued my interest and I managed to get an invite without bothering you. The app and UI are very unique and show a lot of promise. Once Hulu content searching is implemented, I could definitely see Boxee seeing heavy use from me.
Costa Walcott
· 1 year ago
I'm loving Boxee so far, but I'm wondering why not make it an open beta if all the invite requests are being filled?
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Good question. I've been asking the same thing. The software is not yet where we want it and where we can get it soon. So the company wants to keep the user base small and sophiticated right now
But I am starting to think that's not the right call
Thoughts?
Costa Walcott
· 1 year ago
I understand the need to keep the user base controlled at the beginning, and a closed alpha/beta lets the company have more control over scaling. I think creating a Boxee signup page for AVC readers was a great solution, since it lets Boxee know which of the users are the early adopters that come from your blog.
I also get the sense that a big part of closed betas is the scarcity creating a marketing tool, which I find interesting. I remember with Seesmic, there was a time when it was still nominally "closed", but Loic would give an account to anyone who asked for one, and would even post invite codes in blog comments and Twitter. As a user it doesn't bother me, but I don't know if other people find it annoying.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Great feedback
We are going to talk about this with the company in 15 minutes!
I love the web
Justin
· 1 year ago
I really wish i could use Boxee. I got an invite a few weeks ago and I didnt realize you needed OSX, Ubuntu or AppleTV. I really cant wait for windows version to drop. I tried it with Ubuntu and have been unsuccessful so far.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
It's coming soon. I'll blog about it when its ready
Dan Kantor
· 1 year ago
That was easy. Now to play around...
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Please let me know what you think dan
The music and photos is taking a back seat to video right now and could be better
But I think you'll at least get a sense of the power of this model
I tried the standard signup first (without an invite) and got a message saying it may take some time. After seeing this post I applied at http://www.boxee.tv/fredwilson. Hope to get it soon. Will give feedback after trying it out for some time.
Thanks, Vasudev
P.S. I love the web too :-)
Mike
· 1 year ago
I tried this last night. It looked quite promising, but I went straight back to Plex (http://www.plexapp.com/) for a few reasons.
1) Usability annoyances. How many times have you pressed TAB in Boxee expecting to move to the next input field and the whole thing switches out of full screen mode. That's one of the most annoying bad usability decisions I've ever seen before. 2) Menu navigation. I found sometimes it just didn't go back to where I wanted it to go to. I think this is just bugs. For example I navigated to Downloads and back again to Settings and settings refused to come back again - although then I noticed at the top of the screen was almost like some sort of breadcrumb and I could access settings there. 3) The main problem. I tried to add media sources, none of the menu items worked at all. As I can't access either Pandora or Hulu here in the UK, I wanted to give it a test drive with my own media, and couldn't.
Take a look at Plex, it's quite awesome, if not still a bit too geeky, but it's come a long long way.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the feedback Mike
Mike
· 1 year ago
No problem Fred. I only played with it for about 20 minutes. I can give a more thorough go at it this weekend and some well constructed feedback - what's the best way to submit this? The forums or is there an email address I can send something to?
I've always been very excited about home media systems, having run XBMC many moons ago on the first Xbox.
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
mike
best place for suggestions, feedback, complaints, etc is
i agree re the Tab it's annoying as hell! we should get rid of it.
we need to fix some navigation issues. specifically there is a bug in both the downloads and settings screens... good catch.
re media sources. it should automatically scan your local folders. so things should start appearing under Movies, TV Shows and Music. you can email me avner [ at ] boxee d0t tv and i'll be happy to help you troubleshoot.
plex is great. elan is doing a great job on it.
avner
Mike
· 1 year ago
Hey Avner. I don't keep very much of my media on my local folders - it's all kept on a 1T Lacie network drive. So I'd love to be able to map these folders over to folders on the Lacie.
avneron
· 1 year ago
you can access it by sharing the folders from your LaCie using SMB, and then going into Settings->Media Sources and choose to add a Network Source
Michel
· 1 year ago
Thanks for the invite, Fred. This software is awesome and I'd pay between 30-70$ for a well supported, finished version, any day, without thinking about it.
I had been planing on dropping Comcast for a little while and this is the missing piece. Let's face it, Hulu is a pain-in-the-butt to browse with a computer plugged to your TV. With Boxee, its tons better.
Re: opening the alpha to anyone. Personally, I think you should rely on the development team to make that call and not rush it.
As a start-up product development guy myself, I think the support I find the most useful from an investor / board member is to bring an external perspective on the scope of the features that should be polished before opening up the product to anyone.
That being said, when the scope is established (and limited), I think it's really important for engineers and designers to feel like they're putting out their best work or, at least, work that they wouldn't feel ashamed of if they were sitting next to their friends using the product.
So if you're focusing on internet videos at the moment (seems like the right idea to me), then grey out the other options!!! Put up a nice "coming soon" blurb there and ask the team to knock internet videos out of the park in the next n weeks (where n is whatever time frame realistic for it). If you're unhappy with n because you still feel like it's too big, then narrow the scope down further to something like "internet videos from Hulu".
Anyways, that's just my perspective! You've clearly dealt with way more start-up than I ever have (or ever will).
In my opinion, there's too many rough edges to open up this product to any internet user. The amount of time spent on filtering bug reports for problems the team is already aware of will be humongous.
I look forward to updates but will already be using Boxee as is everyday. Thank you.
Found you on a Google Search, it would be really sweet if you could send me an invite, I'm really interested in checking this Boxee media center out......Do you know if it will work on any linux distro? Or just ubuntu (which wouldn't make much sense :P)
I just sent you one @ 5:25 eastern........Thanks!
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Only ubuntu is officially supported
Let me know if you still want an invite
Zak
· 1 year ago
I do, but I just received the email...It looks like were good to go...Thanks Fred.
Isaak
· 1 year ago
Fred can you get me a boxy ID please.
Isaak Karaev
Matt
· 1 year ago
Thanks for everything!
datechman
· 1 year ago
Thanks Fred, but I have to wait till friday to install it on my linux box for testing. Hope it works on intrepid ibex.
Vicente
· 1 year ago
Hi Fred,
I like your blog, keep it up. I'm in the internet security/identity space in California. Also I'm itching to try out boxee on my Apple TV. I've tried the links to get the invite but only got an e-mail reply and still waiting since Nov 24.
Any chance you can grease the digital wheel for me ?
tks,
Vicente
Ron
· 1 year ago
Hi Fred-
I've been itching to try out Boxee when I found your site... Being a Mac guy in a PC world with respect to home media technology is tough, but Boxee looks like it will have great success given the rapid adoption of some other platforms. Also, as someone who has spent over 10 years around the VC world as an investor and various CXO roles, I love companies like this.
I've submitted for an invite from the regular form in addition to your form, but it seems like other recent submissions have been waiting a while. I know you're slammed with your regular duties running your funds and being with family, but any chance you can help expedite my invite? Otherwise, I'll wait my turn like a good boy... I'll definitely look for Boxee when I'm at CES...
I miss being involved with consumer-focused ventures! It can be so much more fun than B2B enterprises.
-Ron
fuadar
· 9 months ago
looking forn invite for boxee for windows .already have an account but no mac ;(
All Comments
But I am starting to think that's not the right call
Thoughts?
I also get the sense that a big part of closed betas is the scarcity creating a marketing tool, which I find interesting. I remember with Seesmic, there was a time when it was still nominally "closed", but Loic would give an account to anyone who asked for one, and would even post invite codes in blog comments and Twitter. As a user it doesn't bother me, but I don't know if other people find it annoying.
We are going to talk about this with the company in 15 minutes!
I love the web
The music and photos is taking a back seat to video right now and could be better
But I think you'll at least get a sense of the power of this model
Thanks,
Vasudev
P.S. I love the web too :-)
1) Usability annoyances. How many times have you pressed TAB in Boxee expecting to move to the next input field and the whole thing switches out of full screen mode. That's one of the most annoying bad usability decisions I've ever seen before.
2) Menu navigation. I found sometimes it just didn't go back to where I wanted it to go to. I think this is just bugs. For example I navigated to Downloads and back again to Settings and settings refused to come back again - although then I noticed at the top of the screen was almost like some sort of breadcrumb and I could access settings there.
3) The main problem. I tried to add media sources, none of the menu items worked at all. As I can't access either Pandora or Hulu here in the UK, I wanted to give it a test drive with my own media, and couldn't.
Take a look at Plex, it's quite awesome, if not still a bit too geeky, but it's come a long long way.
I've always been very excited about home media systems, having run XBMC many moons ago on the first Xbox.
best place for suggestions, feedback, complaints, etc is
http://forum.boxee.tv
thanks for being so interested in this
i agree re the Tab it's annoying as hell! we should get rid of it.
we need to fix some navigation issues. specifically there is a bug in both the downloads and settings screens... good catch.
re media sources. it should automatically scan your local folders.
so things should start appearing under Movies, TV Shows and Music.
you can email me avner [ at ] boxee d0t tv and i'll be happy to help you troubleshoot.
plex is great. elan is doing a great job on it.
avner
I had been planing on dropping Comcast for a little while and this is the missing piece. Let's face it, Hulu is a pain-in-the-butt to browse with a computer plugged to your TV. With Boxee, its tons better.
Re: opening the alpha to anyone. Personally, I think you should rely on the development team to make that call and not rush it.
As a start-up product development guy myself, I think the support I find the most useful from an investor / board member is to bring an external perspective on the scope of the features that should be polished before opening up the product to anyone.
That being said, when the scope is established (and limited), I think it's really important for engineers and designers to feel like they're putting out their best work or, at least, work that they wouldn't feel ashamed of if they were sitting next to their friends using the product.
So if you're focusing on internet videos at the moment (seems like the right idea to me), then grey out the other options!!! Put up a nice "coming soon" blurb there and ask the team to knock internet videos out of the park in the next n weeks (where n is whatever time frame realistic for it). If you're unhappy with n because you still feel like it's too big, then narrow the scope down further to something like "internet videos from Hulu".
Anyways, that's just my perspective! You've clearly dealt with way more start-up than I ever have (or ever will).
In my opinion, there's too many rough edges to open up this product to any internet user. The amount of time spent on filtering bug reports for problems the team is already aware of will be humongous.
I look forward to updates but will already be using Boxee as is everyday. Thank you.
Email: purosinaloa8@gmail.com
I just sent you one @ 5:25 eastern........Thanks!
Let me know if you still want an invite
Isaak Karaev
I like your blog, keep it up. I'm in the internet security/identity space in California. Also I'm itching to try out boxee on my Apple TV. I've tried the links to get the invite but only got an e-mail reply and still waiting since Nov 24.
Any chance you can grease the digital wheel for me ?
tks,
Vicente
I've been itching to try out Boxee when I found your site... Being a Mac guy in a PC world with respect to home media technology is tough, but Boxee looks like it will have great success given the rapid adoption of some other platforms. Also, as someone who has spent over 10 years around the VC world as an investor and various CXO roles, I love companies like this.
I've submitted for an invite from the regular form in addition to your form, but it seems like other recent submissions have been waiting a while. I know you're slammed with your regular duties running your funds and being with family, but any chance you can help expedite my invite? Otherwise, I'll wait my turn like a good boy... I'll definitely look for Boxee when I'm at CES...
I miss being involved with consumer-focused ventures! It can be so much more fun than B2B enterprises.
-Ron