Boxee Beta and Box unveiled
I’m a huge fan of Boxee which is, outside of Windows Media Center, my favourite way to access media on my TV. Boxee, a social networking aware media center, has been in alpha for a long time, and Monday night’s beta announcement marked the next step for the company that wants to be your media portal to the world.
With the announcement of the beta program (chock full of screenshots), Boxee has been given a new look along with new functionality. The menu system appears to have more polish, making accessing various online sources as well as your own local content easier. They’ve also added DirectX support, and have been working with Nvidia to optimize HD playback of Flash based video via the newly GPU accelerated Flash 10.1. The media center comes pre-configured with dozens of ‘apps’, allowing access to content from YouTube, Apple, Netflix and dozens of others. The beta introduces The Escapist, Suicide Girls, and Clicker the “What’s On Online” web TV guide. Of course, you’re not ‘limited’ by Boxee’s choices. Adding your own RSS channels for both audio and video is easy.
Although the Boxee software runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, as the picture clearly illustrates, it’s not just about the software…
One of Boxee’s goals is to become the media interface for everyone, and to help that along, they’ve unveiled the Boxee Box, a dedicated device meant for hooking up to your TV. They’ve partnered with D-Link, better known for their home and small office networking gear than media, but the hardware itself is quite impressive (though internal specs are as of yet unknown). HDMI, SPDIF, RCA, wired and wireless networking, and an RF remote (the only real disappointment), all in a small cube that appears to be sinking into its surroundings.
Initially, there were concerns by some about such a non-flat design, but it’s clear that Boxee wants you to put the Box on top. Given how small it is, it should find a home just about anywhere in your entertainment setup, but if it doesn’t the RF remote lets you hide the Box with ease. If you can’t find a space for something this small though, you might need to clean house a bit…
Beyond the Boxee Box, the company is still looking to getting their software into the TV space, including built directly into televisions. Of course, this presents more of a challenge, as every set manufacturer has their own proprietary media portal. From what I’ve seen of these efforts, I can’t help but think how much more advanced Boxee is.
OH NOES!!! I’M ALL OUTTA HDMI PORTS!!!!
:sad5:
Run Boxee on your Mac then. It’s free. 🙂
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