Archive notice: This article was originally published on January 11, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The eagerly awaited Boxee Box, designed as an innovative media centre to bring PC and web content to the television, has now been officially unveiled at the CES electronics show. As the Boxee developers and hardware manufacturer D-Link announced, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform (T20) is used inside the device. It is intended to guarantee smooth playback and streaming of HD content (1080p), as well as an appealing user-interface experience.
For connections to the web, users’ own servers and home computers, the developers rely on the fast Wireless N standard. External storage solutions can also be connected directly to the box via USB. However, internal storage was omitted. “Together with D-Link, we concluded that most people already own storage solutions anyway, and that keeping the Boxee Box’s price as low as possible is more important,” says Boxee co-founder Tom Sella at the presentation. The price for the US launch in the second quarter is stated as around USD 200.
Remote control with keyboard
The accompanying wireless remote control was also presented, surprising with an elegant design and a QWERTY keyboard on the reverse. “Our starting point was the simple Apple Remote with only six buttons. However, given the many additional functions and interaction options in the Boxee software, it quickly became clear to us that this kind of control would not be enough,” adds Andrew Kippen, Vice President Marketing at Boxee. Instead of a virtual keyboard, the company therefore opted for the keyboard version on the remote control.
The Boxee Box offers comprehensive format support for audio and video. In addition to AVI, DivX, Xvid, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV and VOB, it also supports Adobe Flash 10.1 and MKV, which should particularly please fans of digital HD content. The Boxee Box also offers a comprehensive selection in audio. Alongside common formats such as WMA, WAV and AAC, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis also appear on the list. A range of photo formats is supported as well.
Boxee Beta publicly accessible
In addition, the new Boxee Beta went online yesterday, Thursday. The platform is the heart of the media centre and offers a range of social-networking functions. Alongside Facebook and Twitter access, videos can be recommended and shared online. Using a browser plug-in and the new “Bookmarklet” function, online videos can also be added to a user’s Boxee account from any computer, making them easier to find later in front of the television. Connections to YouTube, Dailymotion, Netflix, Pandora, Last.fm and flickr provide the corresponding online content.
The Boxee Box is initially due to launch in the United States. A product launch in Europe is not yet assured. Device manufacturer D-Link first wants to wait and see the sales success and demand in the United States.
