Boxee has put a lot of emphasis on offering free TV channels - both broadcast and basic cable - through the device, but the number of free TV channels that are available will depend on which markets users are in.In terms of design, Boxee has grown out of its gangly phase and is now a lightweight rectangular box that should fit easily on console shelves.Users who have been getting free basic TV through antennae can buy and connect the Boxee to coaxial cable and opt into its $15 a month DVR service.Cord-shavers who want to keep their cable subscriptions for premium content, like Showtime’s “Homeland” or ESPN, now have another inexpensive option for a supplemental or second-TV Web video box.Cord-cutters or cord-never-getters can now put Boxee in the same price category as a Roku or Apple TV, and still get a few basic TV channels to boot, plus the DVR, plus Web apps (provided they have monthly Internet service).No more deleting never-watched shows because you’ve run out of space and can’t record new episodes. Boxee offers unlimited DVR storage - for a fee, of course.The hybrid device is a bit of a head-scratcher, so here are some basic pros and cons of it, based on an hour-long hands-on with it: In fact, Ronen said in an interview with AllThingsD, he’d like to do more work with cable operators, especially smaller ones, to perhaps offer an alternative option to the clunky, subsidized cable boxes consumers normally get with their basic or premium cable packages. The start-up, lead by Avner Ronen, has come a long way from its early days, when it first offered a Web app for video viewing on a laptop, then put out a designated set top box, followed by a live TV plug-in “dongle” that combined Web video apps with basic TV channels, to its Cloudee cloud service, all of which has culminated in the full-fledged system it’s unveiling now.Īlong the way, Boxee has managed to piss off everyone from cable operators to Hulu to Mark Cuban, but now insists the box is a good thing for cable operators. The company will no longer produce the original Boxee Box. Boxee’s DVR service, which uses Amazon’s cloud servers, will cost $15 a month for unlimited cloud storage.īoxee also said it would no longer make, but will continue to offer maintenance for, the original Boxee Box and its short-lived Live TV dongle.īoxee’s earlier device options. The new Boxee TV costs $99, nearly half the price of the original $179 Boxee Box, and ships November 1. There’s no internal storage on Boxee TV the content is stored in the user’s cloud account. What sets this device apart from other set top boxes, Boxee says, is that the DVR is entirely cloud based. So if you have a cable TV subscription, you’ll be able to plug Boxee TV into the wall and watch those channels. It’s also supposed to transmit unencrypted cable. It’s still made by D-Link, Boxee’s manufacturing partner on the first box.īut Boxee TV also includes a DVR service that records TV content from free, over-the-air channels patched through the box’s dual tuner - provided that users are in one of eight markets where the TV can be recorded through Boxee. The company’s new device - simply called Boxee TV, not Boxee Box 2 - still works like the previous Boxee Box in that it connects to your Internet router at home and streams Web apps, like Pandora or Netflix, to your TV. If you're a heavy Boxee user on your PC or Mac, it might be worth the money, but it's a lot to spend on a remote to control one gadget.Boxee, the New York-based start-up that introduced the irregular-shaped Boxee Box for streaming Web video to TV sets, is betting with its new box that users are going to want to DVR a lot of basic TV - that’s right, real TV. (The similar remote on the Samsung UND8000 series deactivates whichever side isn't facing up.) Not only is it not backlit, but the lettering on the buttons is a dark shade of gray that is difficult to read.Īnd although we liked the idea of the double-sided remote, in practice we occasionally found ourselves accidentally hitting some of the keyboard buttons when using the standard directional pad. While the Boxee remote is definitely more home theater-friendly than a full-size keyboard, we weren't totally thrilled with it in our review of the Boxee Box last year. Its $50 price tag is definitely high, though, especially with fully featured home theater remotes like Logitech Harmony 650 available for around $70. Connect the USB RF dongle to your computer and the remote works seamlessly with the Boxee software. D-Link has been selling the remote as a standalone product for PCs and Macs since November 2010, but the company just got around to formally announcing it today. The buzz surrounding the Boxee Box is at least partially because of its unique double-sided QWERTY remote.
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