How to Build a Boxee PC

Attaching a Boxee PC to your television gives you access to rich media content found on the internet from the comfort of your couch.

Building a Boxee PC allows you to enjoy Internet content on the best display in your home all from the comfort of your couch. Video podcasts, YouTube, and more all become easily accessible through the Boxee media center interface. The Boxee software is available for multiple platforms, making it versatile when it comes to choosing a hardware platform to base it on.

Things You'll Need

• Boxee capable computer
• Boxee software

Instructions

The PC

1. Follow the recommended minimum guidelines when purchasing a low end PC to use with the Boxee software. A PC with this hardware will not be able to handle HD content, but will be able to load and run the Boxee software.

   Minimum recommendations:

   Intel/AMD 1.0GHz processor

   512MB RAM

   Video Card capable of:

   OpenGL 1.4 (+ GLSL)

   Direct X 9.0 (if on Windows)

   32-bit color

   Windows XP

   Mac OS X 10.4 (Intel only)

   Ubuntu Linux (32-bit & 64-bit)

   AppleTV firmware 2.x

2. Follow the recommended hardware guidelines when purchasing a PC to use with the Boxee software. A PC with this hardware will be able to handle HD content:

   Intel/AMD dual core 2GHz Processor

   2Gb RAM

   Video card that supports accelerated flash on Windows or VDPAU on Linux.

3. Pick additional hardware that will allow you to enjoy Boxee content from the comfort of your couch. In nearly all cases this means wireless. You will need a wireless mouse and keyboard to interact with all the features Boxee has to offer.

   While much of the interface can be controlled by a simple media canter remote (like the Windows Media Center remote); it is important to recognize the limitations of the remote and realize that a keyboard offers better input opportunities (particularly on the Internet) than a typical media center remote does.

Load Boxee on your PC

1. Download a version of the Boxee software appropriate for your computer. Downloads for Windows, Mac, Linux and more can be found at www.boxee.tv

2. Transfer (if it is not already there) the Boxee launch application onto your computer that will become the Boxee PC. Launch the Boxee setup application by double clicking on the install file.

3. Follow all onscreen prompts including those regarding instillation location as well as account creation.

Bridge the gap

1. Connect your Boxee PC to your television using whatever means you can. Computers and televisions encompass a wide range of connectivity options, so there is no single best way to connect your Boxee PC to your television.

2. Connect the video. Depending on the graphics card used in your Boxee PC, you should have either an S-Video, DVI, HDMI or component video out connection.

   Make note of what "video out" options you have. Look at your television and evaluate what video input options you have. Older televisions will likely only have component input. Newer televisions, however, typically have HDMI and DVI inputs.

   Select the appropriate cable that works with both your television and computer then plug the computer into the television.

3. Connect your computers' audio to your television either through your computers' RCA audio out port or through the computers' headphone out port by using a headphone jack to RCA audio converter cable.

References

• What are the minimum system requirements to run Boxee?
• Suggested Hardware
• Connect to your TV