Boxee Box coming Q2 2010, D-Link revealed as hardware partner
By Ross Miller 
posted December 7th 2009 8:41PM
posted December 7th 2009 8:41PM
D-Link/Boxee Partnership Statement
In front of a packed house at their Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn this evening, Boxee revealed that D-Link has been named first choice as the hardware partner to release a Boxee branded device for the living room.
Boxee is the best way to enjoy content from the Internet or a computer on a TV screen. With the Boxee Box™ by D-Link®, the two companies have created the easiest way to bring this experience into the living room, allowing people to watch tens of thousands of movies & TV Shows, organize and play their favorite home movies and photos, and play great music from their home network or from Internet sources like Pandora.
"By pairing Boxee's innovative social entertainment platform with D-Link's technology we're able to create a solution that introduces people to what TV should be. Additionally we're bringing a new level of social interaction to the living room," said Daniel Kelley, senior director of marketing, D-Link Systems, Inc. "We can't wait to bring this product to market and are looking forward to demonstrate the Boxee Box by D-Link at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January."
"We are happy to be working with D-Link as a hardware partner because we share the same vision for creating solutions to help anyone get the most out of technology," said Andrew Kippen, vice president of marketing for Boxee. "D-Link has great reach and together we are able to offer consumers an attractive inexpensive solution to bring the Boxee experience directly onto the TV."
The Boxee Box by D-Link, which has already won a Best of Innovations award from the Computer Electronics Association, reinterprets what TV should be, delivering all the movies, TV shows, music and photos from a user's computer, home network and Internet to their HDTV with no PC needed. Additionally, Boxee's core social features make it easy for friends to discover new content from each other through social networks like Facebook, Twitter and more.
In addition to its many software features, The Boxee Box by D-Link makes it easy for consumers to connect the device via HDMI, SPDIF, RCA Audio. The box has 2 USB for expansion and can quickly connect to a home network using both Wi-Fi (802.11n) and wired ethernet.
The Boxee Box will be available through D-Link's network of etail and retail outlets in the first half of 2010. The manufacturer's suggested retail price is still undetermined.
In front of a packed house at their Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn this evening, Boxee revealed that D-Link has been named first choice as the hardware partner to release a Boxee branded device for the living room.
Boxee is the best way to enjoy content from the Internet or a computer on a TV screen. With the Boxee Box™ by D-Link®, the two companies have created the easiest way to bring this experience into the living room, allowing people to watch tens of thousands of movies & TV Shows, organize and play their favorite home movies and photos, and play great music from their home network or from Internet sources like Pandora.
"By pairing Boxee's innovative social entertainment platform with D-Link's technology we're able to create a solution that introduces people to what TV should be. Additionally we're bringing a new level of social interaction to the living room," said Daniel Kelley, senior director of marketing, D-Link Systems, Inc. "We can't wait to bring this product to market and are looking forward to demonstrate the Boxee Box by D-Link at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show in January."
"We are happy to be working with D-Link as a hardware partner because we share the same vision for creating solutions to help anyone get the most out of technology," said Andrew Kippen, vice president of marketing for Boxee. "D-Link has great reach and together we are able to offer consumers an attractive inexpensive solution to bring the Boxee experience directly onto the TV."
The Boxee Box by D-Link, which has already won a Best of Innovations award from the Computer Electronics Association, reinterprets what TV should be, delivering all the movies, TV shows, music and photos from a user's computer, home network and Internet to their HDTV with no PC needed. Additionally, Boxee's core social features make it easy for friends to discover new content from each other through social networks like Facebook, Twitter and more.
In addition to its many software features, The Boxee Box by D-Link makes it easy for consumers to connect the device via HDMI, SPDIF, RCA Audio. The box has 2 USB for expansion and can quickly connect to a home network using both Wi-Fi (802.11n) and wired ethernet.
The Boxee Box will be available through D-Link's network of etail and retail outlets in the first half of 2010. The manufacturer's suggested retail price is still undetermined.
Spiffy case design, but it's not going to work in my cabinet and it's made by D-Link. I can spend less money on a similar device and know the thing isn't going puke on me within a year.
It's too boxee
Ugh, D-Link. That is all.
Ugh, D-Link. Soon as they walk in, I'm gone.
thats a pretty cool package. except it wont be stackable in a system. which makes it rather dumb.
@j0sh1130 my thoughts exactly. Whats up with the slanted mainboard?
Ion powered? Come on Engadget try thinking a little. For essentially a cheap embedded system no way should anyone go with CISC. If nVIDIA is involved, it's more likely to provided Tegra processors
Throw in atom, ion, and freedom to install an OS, and I'll one.
24/7 Newsgroup Box and 720p video player for $200? They'd move a million units by Thursday. $300? They'd move hundreds of thousands.
Alas, if this is just a video player I'm not interested. If it can't decode a raw blu-ray rip it has to at least have the aforementioned features.
i'd like a inbuilt hard drive so i dont have to carry around extra external usb hard drives, i hate those things.
"Don't you just want to see that cozy little box sit down on your flatscreen?"
No? Too obscure? Too much of a stretch? Nevermind....
fugly. I would rather have the rest of the boxee so it can fit with the rest of my set-top rectangular objects. (I'll never get one, though)
Call me crazy, but how is this in any way superior to an Xbox360? I'm serious. What does this do that that doesn't, and does it do enough to justify the price (bearing in mind that for $199 the Xbox360 also plays games, streams music, videos and pictures, has netflix, facebook, and lastfm integration, and... well you get the idea)?
@politicalslug i'm not really in the market for this either, but I see the draw. The Roku box is very popular, and started as a little box that didi nothing but stream Netflix.
People like simple things. Some people don't want to learn the ins-and-outs of an XBOX or PS3 with a complicated remote or using a game controller to watch TV. The one-box-one-cable solution Roku and now, Boxee, are offering to get IPTV in your house for a couple hundred bucks can be enticing.
@politicalslug The only advantage is that it runs Boxee, meaning it can play Hulu videos on your TV, which the 360 can't do. At least not without PlayOn or something running on your desktop PC which you have to leave running all the time. And of course it'll be quieter than the 360 and save you money on your energy bill. But the 360 will do a lot more, and be upgradable when this thing won't be.
@politicalslug probably just codecs. The only websites still using wmv are porn sites...
@(Unverified)
The 360 plays a lot more than just WMV. Pretty much plays everything but MKV
@Fanfoot
Wow. Thanks for introducing me to PlayON. I don't know how I hadn't noticed that up until now, but I am presently streaming an episode of House MD to my xbox360 from Hulu. I had long ago given up on Hulu on the 360, but now I've got it. Thanks!
@politicalslug I'm betting this is quieter than the 360. ;)
I still still game on my 360, but I gave up on media. Dealing with annoying PC add ons like Orb, then PlayOn got irritating. I went out and bought the ASRock ION 330 and haven't turned back....
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1652
The best thing is that the ION based PC handles 1080p with no problem, has SPDIF and HDMI audio support, and with a simple hook to launch Boxee from Windows Media Center, makes for a media experience that can handle anything.
super fugly.
as for the beta.. way way way too much fanfare for a closed beta announcement. shoulda done the closed beta then made all the hoopla whith open beta and announced the hardware then.
It looks awesome
I like it. I'll probably get it. i had tv for a long time and only used it for Boxee. I have all of my media stored on a remote ubuntu server that i play through Boxee on any of my computers, etc. It will be nice to have a dedicated boxee box in the living room. The design is not good, but it is not bad either. Kind of reminds me of the gamecube. I won't be an early adopter though. I'll wait a few weeks. If only the software would be ported to N900...
Thank god someone finally had the balls to use a little creativity in designing the form factor. You don't have to like this design to appreciate someone taking a risk to try something different. Plain ole boxes are fine, but they're totally boring.
I think they are playing the irony bit here a bit much. I think a rectangle is still a box and my AV closet has no room for irony.
it would be hard to stack that shit unless its on top but I digg it. Can It handle Hulu? Can I you the browser? Can I hook up a keyboard? Can I play Quake.
They might as well write ShitBox on it coming from D-Link. FU! if you think I'm going down that road again.
I got 5 fingers guess which one I'm holding up D-link?
Plus on the function, minus on the form
I just picked up a WDTV Live that streams 1080p over LAN for $120 with YouTube HD capabilities. Sure it's lacking HULU but I can't see how adding Hulu and a slightly more polished GUI would justify a $200 price tag. I'm guessing there is more...?
"ethernet for old school internet connectivity"
I'll take my old school 10/100/1000 to wireless any day. Perhaps you meant Ethernet for those fortunate enough to have the line run to their entertainment centers.
Love it.
If it doesn't have local media streaming it will never be more than a niche product. I am tired of boxes that do special services, or local media streaming, but not both.
(I have a PS3 which does local media streaming via PS3 Media Server, Netflix [via the disc], Hulu [via playon])
(I also have WDTV Live which does excellent local media streaming, Netflix and Hulu via PlayOn)
While all of these are working solutions, they all in some way require some third party service, or server...
This looks interesting, but I'm really looking for something much more awkwardly shaped. Do they have something more like a giant basketball with 6 inch spikes coming out of it?
This is a lovely piece of kit, there's no denying that!