Today Boxee CEO Avner Ronen announced that the Boxee Box by D-Link will cost $199 when it releases this November. But what is the Boxee Box, you ask? Let me tell you.
The Internet is packed with tons of video. There’s YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and so on. All of these portals host all kinds of video ranging from movies, TV shows, and user-generated content. Some of these sites feature video in high definition (up to 1080p) and they look great on our desktop monitors and laptop displays. Boxee’s aim is to bring the abundance of video found all over the Internet from your small computer screen to your large HDTV. For years the Boxee software has been available to download for free on the PC, Mac, and Linux and for those who own Boxee-compatible hardware (ie. Apple TV). After years of development, Boxee is almost ready to release the Boxee Box into the wild. The hardware is collabortively made by Boxee and D-Link and the software is developed in-house by the Boxee team. With the Boxee Box, the company is going to bring the ultimate Boxee experience to the living room–they are going to tailor the Internet for the TV 1080p, 5.1 surround sound style (where available).
In essence, the Boxee software aggregates video content from all over the Internet into one place, making it extremely simple to find a TV show, movie, or really any kind of streaming video that is available on the web. The Boxee Box will feature a streamlined user interface to make accessing any streaming video on the ‘Net a snap. For example, let’s say you want to watch an episode of ABC’s Modern Family. You can search the keyboard “Modern Family” and Boxee will scour the Internet for all legal outlets that are streaming episodes from that show. Thanks to the Boxee Box’s built-in Mozilla-based Webkit browser with Flash & HTML5 support, you will have access to so much content you won’t know where to start. And the best part is that the Boxee service is f-r-e-e free! Once you pay for the hardware, there are no additional costs, no subscription fees, no nothing. Stream free video content from the Internet to your TV. That’s it. (Keep in mind that you can also stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB.tv, and other paid content as long as you are a paying subscriber.)
Besides streaming video content from the Internet to your TV, the Boxee Box will also support social networking and all kinds of apps. You can attach your Facebook and Twitter accounts to the Box to keep a tab on what your friends are watching and give recommendations. (Boxee calls this the “first “social” media center”, get it?) In the app center, you can download Internet-streaming applications like Pandora and MLB.tv and run them straight from Boxee. You can take things one step further by wirelessly connecting the Boxee Box to your home network, enabling you to access “virtually any file type” from your computer (think pictures, music, video) to view on your HDTV. If you can view it on your computer, chances are you can view it on your TV if you have the Boxee Box–get it?
Let’s talk products specs. Continue reading Boxee Box: Internet video on your TV coming this November for $199
