Boxee is a free cross platform HTPC application that plays media locally and via the Internet. Today we’ll take a look at how to manage your local movie collection in Boxee.
Note: We are using the most recent version of Boxee running on Windows 7. Your experience on an earlier version or a Mac or Linux build may vary slightly. If you are using an earlier version of Boxee, we recommend you update to the current version (0.9.21.11487). The latest update features significant improvements in file and media identification.
Naming your Movie Files
Proper file naming is important for Boxee to correctly identify your movie files. Before you get started you may want to take some time to name your files properly. Boxee supports the following naming conventions:
- Lawrence of Arabia.avi
- Lawrence.of.Arabia.avi
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962).avi
- Lawrence.of.Arabia(1962).avi
For multi-part movies, you can use .part or .cd to identify first and second parts of the movie.
- Gettysburg.part1.avi
- Gettysburg.part2.avi
If you are unsure of the correct title of the movie, check with IMDB.com.
Supported File Types
Boxee supports the following video file types and codecs:
- AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, FLV, MKV, MOV, MP4, M4A, AAC, NUT, Ogg, OGM, RealMedia RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB, 3gp, VIVO, PVA, NUV, NSV, NSA, FLI, FLC, and DVR-MS (beta support)
- CDs, DVDs, VCD/SVCD
- MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (SP and ASP, including DivX, XviD, 3ivx, DV, H.263), MPEG-4 AVC (aka H.264), HuffYUV, Indeo, MJPEG, RealVideo, QuickTime, Sorenson, WMV, Cinepak
Adding Movie Files to Boxee
Boxee will automatically scan your default media folders and add any movie files to My Movies. Boxee will attempt to identify the media and check sources on the web to get data like cover art and other metadata.
You can add as many sources to Boxee as you like from your local hard drive, external hard drives or from your network. You will need to make sure you have access to shared folders on the networked computer hosting the media you want to share.
You can browse for other folders to scan by selecting Scan Media Folders.
You can also add media files by selecting Settings from the Home screen…
Then select Media…
and then selecting Add Sources.
Browse for your directory and select Add source.
Next, you’ll need to select the media type and the type of scanning. You can also change the share name if you’d like.
When finished, select Add.
You should see a quick notification at the top of the screen that the source was added.
Select Scan source to have Boxee to begin scanning your media files and attempt to properly identify them.
Your movies may not show up instantly in My Movies. It will take Boxee some time to fully scan your sources, especially if you have a large collection. Eventually you should see My Movies begin to populate with cover art and metadata.
You can see the progress and find unidentified files by clicking on the yellow arrow to the left, or navigating to the left with your keyboard or remote and selecting Manage Sources.
Here you can see how many files (if any) Boxee failed to identify. To see which titles are unresolved, select Unidentified Files.
Here you’ll find your unresolved files. Select one of the unidentified files to search for the proper movie information.
Next, select the Indentify Video icon.
Boxee will fill in the title of the file or you edit the title yourself in the text box. Click Search.
The results of your search will be displayed. Scroll through and select the title that fits your movie.
Check the details of the film to make sure you have the correct title and select Done.
Fixing Incorrectly Indentified Files
If you find a movie has been incorrectly identified you can correct it manually. Select the movie.
Then search for the correct movie title from the list and select it.
When you’re sure you found the correct movie, click Done.
Filtering your Movies
You can filter your movie collection by genre, or by whether it has been marked as watched or unwatched. When you’ve finished watching a movie, Boxee will mark it as watched.
You can also manually mark a title as watched.
Boxee also features a wide variety of genres by which you can filter the titles in your library.
Playing your Movie
When you’re ready to start watching a movie, simply select your title.
From here, you can select the “i” icon to read more information about the movie, add it to your queue, or add a shortcut. Click Local File to begin playing.
Now you’re ready to enjoy your movie.
If you don’t have a large movie collection or just need more selection, you may want to check out the Netflix App for Boxee. Looking for a Boxee remote? Check out the iPhone App for Boxee.
Links
Download Boxee
IMDB.com