Boxee Box Gets Its First Major Firmware Update, Local Media Can Now Be A Priority

The Boxee Box is great, but not perfect. The company just rolled out the first major firmware update that address many of the common complants. Owners can now specify whether local or Internet files take precedent over the other, making for a much more user-centered feel. If you have a bunch of files stored on a NAS that are watched regularly, you’ll probably selecte the  “Mostly my own files.” But if you got the Boxee Box to watch online content, the “Mostly stuff from the Web” option is probably for you.

The update solves a bunch more updates and bugs though. Click through for the complete rundown.

From the Boxee Box blog,

Improvements and additions:

  • Enabling user flavor selection (online/local files inclination) during first login and via Settings
  • Added alphabetical scrollbar for local files
  • Enhanced sorting options in browse screens (A-Z, Z-A, most popular, newest/oldest…)
  • Add Genre filter support for local files
  • Mark movies as watched/unwatched from the Action menu
  • Added option for hourly scan of SMB/UPnP/USB sources
  • Added SMB client defaults to Network Settings
  • When watching side-by-side or over/under video, the subtitles and OSD would not be visible when wearing 3D glasses. The user now has the option, under Settings, to have the user interface properly displayed when watching 3D videos

Bug fixes

  • Do not de-interlace of video when the TV is in interlaced mode (e.g. 1080i)
  • HFS+ volumes display UUID instead of volume name under some conditions
  • Video OSD text background too small for text title when playing video with long titles
  • When connecting to VPN, Boxee didn’t refresh region code
  • Boxee doesn’t change DNS configuration when VPN is set up
  • Can’t connect to hidden wireless networks
  • Can’t connect to network using WPA passcode with special characters
  • When Internet connection is restored, menu doesn’t show online channels
  • DVD .iso playback aspect ratio incorrect
  • DVD playback displayed some artifacts
  • “Resume From” doesn’t work on DVD ISO/Folders
  • Zoom on DVD (.iso and folder) video does not work as expected
  • .vob files playback (standalone files) is stuttering and low FPS
  • DVD .iso playback over Wireless N: excessive buffering, playback speed issues, random exits
  • “Vietnamese” character set is misspelled in System Settings
  • Show “Remove From Favorites” button in episodes list, even if no episodes are available
  • SMB credentials are not saved upon restart
  • Write failure when accessing Box-attached disk over SMB
  • SMB file sharing of external HD size reporting is wrong
  • Become unresponsive and hang during playback of AVC .mkv file from SMB mapped drive
  • Crashes when indexing some videos inside .rar files
  • Crashes indexing mp3 file with corrupt embedded thumbnail
  • Stretch 16:9 and Stretch 14:9 not working properly
  • Shoutcast and Radiotime: Switching stations or Cancel causes interface to freeze and console output to crawl
  • Some .mkv files do not playback properly (some flavors of H.264)
  • Support packed bitstream muxing mode in .avi
  • Some .wtv files do not playback properly
  • Constant buffering on 1080p BD .mkv files accessed wirelessly on Boxee
  • Boxee crash when browsing into unidentified Files
  • Playback choked and crashed during viewing of .mp4 file