“Best Home Entertainment“, “CEA Best of Innovations“, “G4 Best of the Best“, these are just a few of the awards Boxee Box won at CES 2010 this year. The Boxee Box device is a machine which runs the Boxee program, a service capable of bringing multiple forms of internet content directly into the living room.
My first viewing of the Boxee Box came from this video demonstration. Ever since, I’ve been intrigued by the ideas presented by D-Link, the developers of Boxee Box. I’ve been reading articles, scouring through Boxee forums, and ultimately downloaded the Boxee service to try on my own.
Before going further, I should go into greater detail the difference between Boxee, and the Boxee Box. Boxee itself is a program which is utilized on a computer, which acts as an aggregator for all kinds of content on the internet. Along with internet content, it also provides an option for playing local media files. What makes Boxee stand out from programs of the like is the service is designed for televisions.
The Boxee Box is a device which is specifically designed for the program, providing a different option than connecting a PC or notebook to a television. The Boxee Box is scheduled to release Q2 2010.
Trying to explain Boxee is a monumental task, because it’s capable of so many things. Here’s a list of all the features provided by the Boxee service, and I’ll dive into each one specifically:
Photos
Music
Movies
TV Shows
Apps
Files
Photos and music are handled how you think they would be. The Boxee service searches your system or specific folders, and allows you to view photos and listen to music. What’s great about Boxee, is that video settings can be customized to fit large HDTV’s. So if you have pictures taken with an expensive, suped up camera, you can enjoy these in big screen HD glory.
Movies are handled in the same way photos and music are, only with a few key twists. Your system is searched for movie files, and recognized titles are given cover art which looks great with a large collection.
Along with local files, Boxee will scour the internet looking for free, legal sources of movies. This is where Boxee really starts to shine as an aggregator service. My experience so far has led me to realize how many options there actually are out there on the internet for movie watching.
TV Shows provide a better demonstration of the capabilities Boxee has to find watch-able content online. Let’s say you’re looking for past episodes for your favorite show. Let’s use The Simpsons for an example. Boxee will find all the episodes made available online, from multiple locations where the content is being hosted. It should be noted that Boxee was wrong on some of the content I searched for, with certain episodes being named wrong. This problem occurred multiple times, however it was right more times than not.
During my Boxee experience, Apps is what really sold me on the service. If Boxee takes off and gets a high adoption rate, then I think Apps will be the major reason for it. Think of apps on Boxee as how you view channels through your cable service. Specific internet content is divided into these apps, which are of high variety. They range from news, news aggregators, video content, streamed content. There’s content you’ll recognize: CNN.com, MLB.tv, YouTube, Pandora. There are some other cool, less known apps to keep an eye on as well. The White House even has a Boxee app.
Finally, there’s the all encompassing ‘Files’ option. Here you can browse content on your computer, and perhaps find files that Boxee missed when searching your system. I noticed a few quirks with Boxee, and there were instances of it missing video content.
Boxee is in beta form right now, and being so means there are still a few bugs to work out. As of now, the Boxee browser, which theoretically allows you to browse the internet is broken. There are some apps here and there which have extremely limited functionality, though I place the blame on the app makers more so than Boxee.
A wonderful boon for the Boxee is that it’s completely open source. This means the sky is the limit for potential apps.
“The future of television is about watching anything you want, any time you want, on demand” said Zach Klein, Chief Product Officer of Boxee. I can think of no better way to encapsulate what Boxee is all about. If you’d like to try out the beta, you can find more information here.
