TV Library 0.1: Miss Hulu On Boxee? Here’s your fix!

Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009, 12:00 am | In General, TV Library

tjm_blogpost_header_babycomeback1

Where this a will, there's a way:

So with the recent news and events about Hulu content being taken off of Boxee because Hulu's content partners can't get their heads out of their butts and realize we don't live in 1993 anymore, I've decided to release an ALPHA, repeat, ALPHA version of a plugin/feed for Boxee that I've been working on in my spare time.

My plugin is not a replacement for Hulu per say, but rather an additional way to watch all your favorite TV Shows online. It contains a large enough selection of content that it will hopefully hold you over until Hulu returns to Boxee. The videos play from many different sources all over the web.

Some of the sources are: Veoh, YouTube, Google Video, Tudou, 56.com, Guba, Hulu, MegaVideo, YouKu, Tu.tv

NOTE 1: Not all of the videos inside this plugin will play, the sites listed above work just fine, but most others just aren't finished yet.

NOTE 2: A lot of the vids will play automatically, if they don't for some reason, press play a few times and the vid should start up.

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Continue reading by clicking this link for the installation/usage instructions:



TV Library 0.1: Install How-To Instructions/Options

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- OR -

NOTE: These steps apply to people using Boxee on Mac OS X only

Download this zip file: tvlibrary.zip

Extract it into a folder called "tvlibrary"

Move this new "tvlibrary" folder into this folder: /Username/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/apps/

Find the "sources.xml" file and open it in a text editor. It can be found here: /Username/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/username/sources.xml

Look for the "<video>SOURCES</video>" block and add this into it:

[sourcecode language="xml"] TV Library app://tvlibrary/ false [/sourcecode]

Save the file, quit Boxee, re-open Boxee.

Go To Video > Internet and run your new option.

The main view of shows inside the TV Library plugin. (NOTE: A LOT of the interface is UNFINISHED, INCOMPLETE and plain 'ol DOES NOT work. This is because TV Library is a hobby project so far for me and I haven't had time to put everything I want into the plugin just yet. It WILL be very polished and full-featured once I'm done. I'm only releasing it early (now) because of the recent Hulu/Boxee developments.)

A show's view in TV Library, again like I said, working but obviously unfinished.

An episode's view in TV Library, again, unfinished.

Final Design Screenshots

But so you don't lose faith in my l33t hack3r skills, here's some screen shots of what the app/plugin WILL look like once its finished:

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Show Page

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Episode Page

Open Boxee and go into Settings > Media Sources & Applications

Click "Add Source Manually"

Give the source a name, i.e. "TV Library"

For the source's url, put this exactly: "rss://thejakemarsh.com/boxee"

Check the "Video" option.

Click Done, you should see a "Media Source Successfully Added" notification.

Open up Video > Internet and click on your new option.

The "Big List" Of Shows (NOTE: The list can hang for a few seconds upon the first load because of the sheer volume of shows in the list. The plugin/app version of TV Library does NOT have this performance problem.)

The view inside of show, the list of episodes.

The view of a single episodes and its list of ways to watch it.

Please let me know your thoughts, love, suggestions, hate, support requests (which I'll do my best to answer), etc. in the comments of this post or just @reply me on twitter, I'm @jakemarsh. Thanks for supporting television over the internet, and thanks for trying out my plugin.




This Post Has 133 Comments:

  1. Absolute bravo, sir. I can’t wait to get home and check it out!

    Comment by Derek — February 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm #

  2. Sure would be nice to be able to get the network feeds outside the USA. Seems an IP check is made and if not within the US (such as Canada) the network feeds are unavailable.

    Thanks for your effort.

    Comment by Hankers — February 19th, 2009 at 2:40 pm #

  3. Scratch my second comment about it not starting, I placed it in the wrong apps folder.

    Sweet stuff!

    Comment by Jake Good — February 19th, 2009 at 5:04 pm #

  4. this. is. eipc.

    Comment by cole — February 19th, 2009 at 11:15 pm #

  5. epic i tell you. epic.

    Comment by cole — February 19th, 2009 at 11:16 pm #

  6. Good work! Please port the app this to Linux and Windows as well… you should also contact the guys at boxeehq.com to submit the app :-)

    Keep up the good work! Oh and a very nice site btw…

    Peace

    Comment by tv — February 20th, 2009 at 1:35 am #

  7. this is great. thanks for the great service.

    Comment by mike — February 20th, 2009 at 11:48 am #

  8. Is this app going to be made available for the Apple TV version of Boxee?

    Comment by bobmax48 — February 20th, 2009 at 1:58 pm #

  9. @bobmax48: the app/plugin and the feed versions of TV Library will both work just fine on the AppleTV right now :)

    Comment by Jake Marsh — February 20th, 2009 at 2:02 pm #

  10. XBMC plugin devs are going the direct route and decrypting the PID

    http://xbmc.org/forum/showpost.php?p=286346&postcount=583

    Comment by Matt — February 20th, 2009 at 3:03 pm #

  11. Ok I must be lost because I do not see a xml file in the folder TVLibrary. :-\ Help!!! :-D

    Comment by ryan w. — February 20th, 2009 at 5:43 pm #

  12. @ryan w.: the sources.xml file is in this folder /Username/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/username/sources.xml

    Comment by Jake Marsh — February 20th, 2009 at 5:47 pm #

  13. well then I must be an idiot. Im still having trouble editing the xml file. I put the code where it should be. (i think) but it wont come up in Boxee. I did try the RSS route and it worked, albeit a bit slow. I know this is going to be awesome once I fugre out how to set it up. :-D

    Comment by ryan w. — February 20th, 2009 at 9:18 pm #

  14. OK for one you have a bunch of strong tags in the code that seem to break it. You don’t have those tags in the screen shot so I assume its a typo on this website. This will fix the issue that ryan w is having.

    And i do have a few problems with this app so far. I am trying this on Apple TV so my problems might be limited to me, I dont know.

    1. The letters that let you filter the list more doesn’t seem to do anything at all. So the only list avalible is a list ordered by number of episodes. At least you can go to wikipedia or hulu and look up the number of episodes for a guess. Still is annoying.

    2. I dont see any hulu content. There are shows that were also on hulu, but the only sources available on those shows are the video upload sites. I couldn’t seem to find Exosquad anywhere on that list which I have only found on the web under Hulu. Checked around both the 52 episodes the series has overall and the 39 episodes hulu has on the list and didnt see anything. Do you maybe only have some hulu content not all?

    3. Seems to glitch out when you go to your menu while still playing a video. Its easy to avoid so not that big of a problem but still thought I should let you know.

    4. It takes a little while to load after selecting anything, but it is bearable.

    Now instead of complaining the whole post, I do commend you for actually fitting descriptions of everything in a easy to read way and that is something the other hulu app never did well. As long as I can get the videos I want and watch them I am happy. You just need to get hulu working.

    Comment by Ryan V — February 21st, 2009 at 12:12 pm #

  15. Nice work! The plugin is quite useful now. Much appreciated that you made it available to us in its alpha state (it would have been easier for you to have not released it and been spared comments that it is somehow less than perfect).

    Question: How do we keep up with you re plugin updates?

    Again, thanks! ES

    Comment by eshapin — February 21st, 2009 at 8:25 pm #

  16. Great Stuff! I managed to get TV library operating as an app on my TV by following the instructions for OS X except using an FTP to my TV and all the folders there.

    One Question: Do you have a png of your logo? I would love to replace the default folder image with a png that looks like the TV Library logo… the image quality is too poor to make a go of it.

    Comment by Vincent — February 22nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm #

  17. @Vincent: How about this logo: :)

    Comment by Jake Marsh — February 22nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm #

  18. dude…this is amazing…better than hulu ever was!
    I don’t care if that crappy hulu ever comes back now!!

    Comment by brandonjp — February 22nd, 2009 at 5:38 pm #

  19. Had to install folder in Applications/Boxee/Contents/Resources/Boxee/Plugins/Video other than that instructions worked great. Sources.xml changes are the same as the post and came up right away

    Comment by Michael — February 22nd, 2009 at 11:11 pm #

  20. Vincent, any chance you have time to post a little more about how to get it onto the AppleTV?

    Thanks!

    Comment by Jerome — February 23rd, 2009 at 12:25 pm #

  21. Yes – more AppleTV love please! :) Boxee made it “easy” to install on the AppleTV using a flash drive. Any plans to make your plugin for AppleTV friendly for those of us who need it simple?…. Thanks.

    Comment by YodaMac — February 23rd, 2009 at 9:10 pm #

  22. So am I really the only one that sees absolutely no hulu content in this app?

    Comment by Ryan V — February 24th, 2009 at 6:30 pm #

  23. Very cool and works right off. When your finished it should be very nice. My AppleTVs are again happy!

    Comment by Jason Belec — February 26th, 2009 at 2:14 pm #

  24. Well it runs beautifully on my laptop (OS X). The RSS feed works on Apple TV. However I can not get the plugin/app to work. Have gotten to the point where it complains it can’t get data! WIll look through it again step by step and compare with laptop.

    Comment by Jason Belec — February 26th, 2009 at 4:18 pm #

  25. Jake
    Just wanted to say thanks. Hope you have some time to enjoy and bask in your efforts. I say we give you a break for at least a week or two prior to asking tech support questions. We are all Boxee lovers and amongst ourselves we can solve some things. So take it easy (at least this weekend) and enjoy the kudos and leave the rest to us!!!

    Comment by Eddie Basilico — February 26th, 2009 at 6:07 pm #

  26. OK got it working on AppleTV, very confusing as they have duplicate directories. Wonderful!

    Comment by Jason Belec — February 26th, 2009 at 7:28 pm #

  27. For those interested, on the AppleTV, you need to put the folder into /mnt/Scratch/Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/yourboxeeusername/apps/

    and one directory above should be the source.xml yo have to edit as per above instructions.

    Runs a little slow on things, be nice to tag stuff or group, but I’m sure that’s coming. Some of the shows have subtitles burnt in, couldn’t get them to turn off, so that is not so good. Also noticed quite a bit of audio/video sync issues.

    Still, impressive work. ;)

    Comment by Jason Belec — February 26th, 2009 at 9:08 pm #

  28. I’m using TV Library through RSS on Apple TV. I get to the point where I choose the episode/Play and then nothing ever happens. Just the spinning wheel. Any suggestions?

    I really think this will be great if I can get it to work.

    Comment by Craig — February 27th, 2009 at 6:30 pm #

  29. Hey Craig, did you check the source.xml file after setting it up so see if it is correct? I notice quite often that Boxee messes this up. But it is much slower with RSS, can take quite a few minutes to load all those links, in the future an alteration may be made to archive these and just check if they are new….

    I had the RSS working first, but it was dadnabit slow, so I worked hard on getting the app running. Much better and will really rock when optimized and finished as soon as our man Jake can catch his breath! ;)

    Comment by Jason Belec — February 28th, 2009 at 9:47 am #

  30. Jason,

    Thanks for your response. To be honest, I’m not sure where in Apple TV/Boxee to check the source.xml file. Can you help?

    Craig

    Comment by Craig — March 1st, 2009 at 4:38 pm #

  31. install URL doesn’t work. returns: “Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/.asteroid/brasonmyguitar/http/thejakemarsh.com/slimstat/i18n/en-us/index.php:273) in /home/.asteroid/brasonmyguitar/http/thejakemarsh.com/boxee/download/index.php on line 2″

    RSS feed just returns “No results found…” after the spinny progress icon appears for a few seconds.

    bummer!

    Comment by ginswizzle — March 2nd, 2009 at 8:47 am #

  32. I got the rss but after i had it for 2 days it does not work then i tried the app but i couldn’t find the line of code in the sources.xml. can u help me Jake?

    Comment by Nick — March 2nd, 2009 at 2:00 pm #

  33. The current app download does not seem to contain the sources.xml file. Am I missing something?

    Comment by Tom — March 3rd, 2009 at 9:35 am #

  34. @Tom – that screenshot was a bit of a mix up- you do not need to have the sources.xml inside the bundle of the app, that was just me being a goof and screenshotting the folder in a development state. To install correctly, simply Find the “sources.xml” file and open it in a text editor. It can be found here: /Username/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/username/sources.xml – Look for the “” block and add this into it:

    <source>
    <name>TV Library</name>
    <path>app://tvlibrary/</path>
    <private>false</private>
    </source>

    Comment by Jake Marsh — March 3rd, 2009 at 11:14 am #

  35. Ahh THE sources.XML lol thank you so much. It is all clear now…

    Comment by Tom — March 3rd, 2009 at 12:04 pm #

  36. Well Mr. Marsh this is something. Just installed the plug-in and inserted the additional code into the source file and BOOM! It looks like every tv show from the past 30 years is now available through Boxee! This is sweet. Time to catch up on “hit shows” that I’ve never seen before (like the Sopranos and OZ and several seasons of Stargate/Atlantis”.

    For myself and I’m sure for many others, THANK YOU!

    Comment by RB — March 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm #

  37. Great job! I am a noob I must admit but found this to be very straight forward. I do have one question, I want to replace the folder png with the one you have above…. Just do not know where to find it… Thank you for your program and your help…

    Comment by Docboda — March 3rd, 2009 at 11:58 pm #

  38. I downloaded the TVLibrary.zip file.
    It did not contain the sources.xml file.
    How do I get that file or a correct zip file?
    Love the thought of a return to HULU on my Apple TV
    Mahalo from the Big Island of Hawaii
    Earl

    Comment by Earl Stokes — March 4th, 2009 at 4:11 pm #

  39. Hello to all :) I can

    Comment by Kevin — March 4th, 2009 at 10:55 pm #

  40. I installed using the RSS feed since I am a windows Boxee user. For megavideo files, it opens to just a play button and the video never loads. I noticed when I go to the megavideo site that you need to press play in order to start the video. Is there something else I need to do to get this working in boxee?

    Comment by BJ Marks — March 9th, 2009 at 9:11 am #

  41. @BJ Marks: Press play twice (on windows press enter, then enter again) and the video should start up – megavideo’s player isn’t the best, but i’m doing the best i can with it. – If you have a chance to install the plugin megavideo files will just play without any work on your part :)

    Comment by Jake Marsh — March 9th, 2009 at 9:19 am #

  42. Whoa! Great plugin and the easiest instructions for installing – especially for non-geeks like me. Keep up the good work.

    btw – thanks for introducing me to Stonergurl :)

    Comment by Jack Nicholas — March 9th, 2009 at 9:59 am #

  43. @Jake
    Thanks for the quick response. I tried the plugin and here is what I noticed:

    - Clicking on the letters to sort alphabetically does not seem to work for me
    - Megavideo opens, however I still need to hit enter twice. After which, I get an ad with a green start button. I keep hitting enter but it never changes.
    - Tudeo video errors each time I open and I need to close boxee. Didn’t catch the error message, but it seems to be an exception in the player.

    The look is amazing, and I can tell you put a ton of work into it. I am sure I speak for everyone when I say thank you for your great effort on this.

    Comment by BJ Marks — March 9th, 2009 at 9:10 pm #

  44. I still cannot figure out how to add this app on my AppleTV. I can add it easily on my laptop, but have no idea how to add on AppeTV.

    Can you further explain? Do I need to install on a flashdisk? Similar to installing Boxee?

    Comment by Bill N — March 9th, 2009 at 11:38 pm #

  45. Great Stuff! Just added Boxee Alpha for Windows a couple of days ago and using your TV Library feed I am already watching Hulu (my main reason for loading Boxee). My system is a little sluggish but it works fine none the less.

    Bravo.

    Comment by brygr2k9 — March 14th, 2009 at 3:55 pm #

  46. I have never been able to get megavideo to play no matter how many times I hit play/pause. I am using Windows XP.

    Comment by SheridanZhoy — April 6th, 2009 at 11:05 pm #

  47. I have the same issues with installing on Apple TV. Do I install on my supporting mac, or directly from the apple tv?

    Also I noticed using the RSS feed on Apple TV would only play some of the content. With things like megavideo I see a play button, but no way to click it. Would installing the app circumvent this?

    Also, new to this hacking stuff, so be gentle.

    Comment by bejcunni — April 15th, 2009 at 8:50 am #

  48. ok so i installed, it shows up in my video, internet, but when i click on it i get the boxee thinking star then it just goes back to the internet select menu. I never see that app.

    I am new to boxee so not sure if it’s oe or not.

    Comment by mark — April 19th, 2009 at 10:44 pm #

  49. Mr. Marsh, I basically never post comments, or communicate with people I don’t know for that matter, but I had to reach out and tell you that this app is awesome. You fucking rock.

    Thanks man

    Comment by mark — April 28th, 2009 at 9:59 pm #

  50. What a great friggin’ app you’ve created!! When I heard about the Hulu knuckleheads and Boxee shenanigans. I started rethinking my Apple TV purchase, but boy, I sure am glad I found your site.

    Question for all on the board, here. Why would one go the plug in route vs the RSS feed?Advantages, disadvantages? Also, I’m on a G5 PPC. does this matter?

    Please feel free to email directly at: todd.crone@gmail.com

    Thanks for your help in advance!

    Comment by Todd — May 17th, 2009 at 3:45 pm #

  51. This is going to be really great.

    One problem for me, many sites show a ‘play icon’ which needs to be pressed for the video to start … on an AppleTV I can not do this. :(

    The boxee team somehow have a workaround for this to make the BBC iPlayer work, so it can be done.

    Also, if I select ‘U’ to jump to then find ‘Uggly Betty’, I get some strange error message.

    Keep up the excellent work.

    Comment by pzboyz — July 9th, 2009 at 2:27 am #

  52. Seems your software has a few bugs. A lot of the “mega videos” and “toduo” don’t work at all. The MegaVideo requires a red play button to be pressed, and the toduo don’t even load. I love what you are doing with this, keep it up.

    Comment by edge — July 19th, 2009 at 4:19 pm #

  53. I’ve been having a similar problem to ‘edge’. No matter how many times I press the button/hit enter the video doesn’t load. I’m told by boxee that ‘Pause is not available’. The app is otherwise awesome! Many thanks for this…

    Comment by Beach Boy — July 22nd, 2009 at 8:52 pm #

  54. I am using Vista, I am using the latest beta Boxee for windows 9-14-6992, I have tried the feed and well it loads but when want to play video, there is the problem, all videos are 00.00 minutes and none will play, just the spinning wheel many people get and then Boxee crashes??? Any hope Marsh?

    Comment by John — August 28th, 2009 at 9:59 pm #

  55. Television (TV) is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic (“black and white”) or color, usually accompanied by sound. “Television” may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission. The word is derived from mixed Latin and Greek roots, meaning “far sight”: Greek tele (τῆλε), far, and Latin visio, sight (from video, vis- to see, or to view in the first person).

    Commercially available since the late 1930s, the television set has become a common communications receiver in homes, businesses and institutions, particularly as a source of entertainment and news. Since the 1970s the availability of video cassettes, laserdiscs, DVDs and now Blu-ray discs, have resulted in the television set frequently being used for viewing recorded as well as broadcast material.

    Although other forms such as closed-circuit television are in use, the most common usage of the medium is for broadcast television, which was modeled on the existing radio broadcasting systems developed in the 1920s, and uses high-powered radio-frequency transmitters to broadcast the television signal to individual TV receivers.

    Broadcast TV is typically disseminated via radio transmissions on designated channels in the 54-890 megahertz frequency band[1]. Signals are now often transmitted with stereo and/or surround sound in many countries. Until the 2000s broadcast TV programs were generally recorded and transmitted as an analog signal, but in recent years public and commercial broadcasters have been progressively introducing digital television broadcasting technology.

    A standard television set comprises multiple internal electronic circuits, including those for receiving and decoding broadcast signals. A visual display device which lacks a tuner is properly called a monitor, rather than a television. A television system may use different technical standards such as digital television (DTV) and high-definition television (HDTV). Television systems are also used for surveillance, industrial process control, and guiding of weapons, in places where direct observation is difficult or dangerous.

    Amateur television (ham TV or ATV) is also used for experimentation, pleasure and public service events by amateur radio operators. Ham TV stations were on the air in many cities before commercial TV stations came on the air.

    But i have to do ccnp, so later on i will watch the TV.

    Thanks

    Comment by Matt John — October 3rd, 2009 at 3:13 am #

  56. Hey, can you rss the TVshack.net or Ninjavideo feeds… that would be… um awesome… thanks!

    Comment by Bill — October 22nd, 2009 at 11:56 am #

  57. installed last night on my ATV with no problems, very easy. Read through all the comments to see some of the pitfalls.
    But after install nothing quite worked, hulu links didnt seem to work and many tudou links just show the preview of what is about to play but never play.
    Its a great beginning and I look forward to your development on this project.

    Comment by death — October 28th, 2009 at 7:05 am #

  58. i guess this would be a great app, if any of the links worked. certainly the need to click on play buttons is a major issue….

    Comment by olchemist — October 30th, 2009 at 4:55 pm #

  59. Youku videos load up but, the is no way to click the play button on the screen.

    XP – boxee 6993 – enter twice does not work, mouse or remote. Seems like a load of great content, if it would play.

    Comment by lazman — November 1st, 2009 at 12:19 pm #

  60. I live in Spain, and although the local TV with bad acting but hot women is okay, the chance of easy access to a WORLD of TV is fantastico!

    THANK YOU!

    Comment by Pablo — November 20th, 2009 at 2:14 am #

  61. Hi,

    just to let you know: GREAT JOB!!!

    Do you think it’s possible to do a workaround on that IP check? I’m from Portugal and I cannot watch most of the content.

    Many thanks!!!
    Cheers,
    Daniel

    Comment by Daniel — January 25th, 2010 at 10:28 am #

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