Boxee Box officially announced: under $200, Flash 10.1 support

The Boxee Box has already been semi-announced once, but it's making a much more grand debut here at CES -- and it's coming with a spec list this time. Just as we'd heard, the asymmetrical streamer will be sold by D-Link for under $200, and it'll support a wide range of formats, including DivX, VC-1, WMV, H.264 MKV, and Flash 10.1. Service support is equally broad, with Pandora, Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, Picasa, and Flickr all integrated -- and there's obviously Boxee's app platform for additional apps, plugins, and games. Unfortunately we don't know what's powering all this under the hood just yet, but we've got a sneaking suspicious there's some NVIDA action going on here -- we'll keep digging. Full PR after the break.

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D-LINK DEBUTS BOXEE BOX AT CES 2010; DIRECTLY LINKS INTERNET ENTERTAINMENT SERVICES TO TVs EVERYWHERE

Networking pioneer and popular entertainment software
create the best way to get the free entertainment the Internet has to offer with no monthly fee

LAS VEGAS, CES Booth 36232, South Hall, LVCC, Jan. 5, 2010 - D-Link made lots of geeks and early adopters happy today by introducing the revolutionary Boxee Box by D-Link, winner of the CES Best of Innovations award in the Home Entertainment category.

The Boxee Box by D-Link reinterprets what TV should be. The Boxee Box delivers movies, TV shows, music, and photos from a user's computer, home network, and the 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.

Internet Entertainment
Boxee is a popular PC, Mac, and Linux software program that lets users watch hundreds of thousands of popular TV shows and movies. Instead of sifting through millions of confusing Web sites, when users search on Boxee, TV shows and movies are delivered to them with the click of a remote control. Nearly a million Internet users around the world have already downloaded Boxee to enjoy their online entertainment.

The Boxee Box by D-Link takes the same popular software and offers it up as a great device -- the perfect companion to a high definition TV. The Boxee Box by D-Link provides access to more than just traditional TV content. It includes a huge library that spans the Internet, such as university courses, panel discussions, academic lectures, presentations, web-only videos and more from TED, Stanford, FORA.tv, Kid Mango, Next New Networks and others. Boxee also makes it easy for users to add their own favorite entertainment sources with simple RSS or XML feeds available for most online video.

In addition to video content, Boxee users can access great music from sites like Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, and We are Hunted as well as stunning photos from sites like flickr, Picasa and Facebook.

Personal Entertainment
For entertainment lovers who have built their own collections of digital media stored on their computer hard drive or home network, Boxee automatically identifies their content and downloads relevant cover art, synopses, reviews, subtitles, lyrics and more. This feature turns boring files and folders into beautiful media libraries that make it simple and appealing to navigate a collection of favorite movies, TV shows, and playlists with a simple remote. Furthermore, the Boxee Box by D-Link has extensive format support (see below) which ensures that when users hit the play button, they get instant gratification, with no need to download codecs or drivers. Also, with built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi support, it can transfer files without delay and from longer distances within a user's home.

Social Features
The Boxee Box by D-Link keeps people connected with social features to help users discover new content from friends, experts, and tastemakers.
The first step to discovery is sharing, and Boxee makes this easy by letting people recommend any playing content to friends. Additionally Boxee automatically uses recommendations from a user's Twitter and Facebook friends so they can find new content and instantly enjoy it on the big screen. Since anyone can build on top of Boxee's open App platform, users can craft their own truly custom experience by creating or downloading plug-ins, add-ons, games, and more.

"We are pleased to partner with Boxee and to be the first with such a ground-breaking device," said Nick Tidd, vice president of sales of D-Link Pan America and vice president of marketing for D-Link North America. "This powerful device with its unique form factor truly leverages Boxee's service and is the best way for consumers to quickly access the growing volume of Internet content, organize it and stream it to their TVs and home entertainment centers."

"D-Link's successful track record in bringing to market, award-winning digital home networking products, and its global marketing, distribution and channel sales capabilities made them a great fit for our first hardware vendor." stated Andrew Kippen, vice president of marketing for Boxee, "The Boxee Box by D-Link gives consumers what they want - an easy way to watch Internet or personal entertainment in their living rooms with a simple set-top box that costs under $200 and has no monthly fees."

The Boxee Box by D-Link is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2010 through the company's vast network of retail and e-tail outlets, and at D-Link's online store, www.dlinkshop.com.
Supported Codecs & Formats
Boxee can be used to play/view practically all common multimedia formats, including:

VIDEO:
Adobe Flash 10.1
H.264 (MKV, MOV)
VC-1
WMV
MPEG-1
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
AVI
Xvid
Divx
PCM/LPCM
VOB

AUDIO:
MP3
WMA
WAV
AIFF
FLAC
AAC
DTS
Dolby Digital
Ogg Vorbis

PHOTO:
JPEG
TIFF
BMP
PNG


About D-Link
D-Link is the global leader in connectivity for small, medium and large enterprise business networking. The company is an award-winning designer, developer and manufacturer of networking, broadband, digital electronics, voice, data and video communications solutions for the digital home, Small Office/Home Office (SOHO), Small to Medium Business (SMB), and Workgroup to Enterprise environments. With millions of networking and connectivity products manufactured and shipped, D-Link is a dominant market participant and price/performance leader in the networking and communications market. D-Link Systems, Inc. headquarters are located at 17595 Mt. Herrmann Street, Fountain Valley, CA, 92708. Phone [phone] or [phone]; FAX [phone]; Internet www.dlink.com.

About Boxee
Boxee is the first "social" media center, whose free, downloadable software and enabled devices are changing the way consumers experience home entertainment. On a computer or on a dedicated device connected to an HDTV, boxee gives users a simple way to bring all their entertainment into one place including personal movies, TV shows, music and photos, as well as streaming content from websites like Netflix, MLB.TV, Pandora, Last.fm, and flickr. Users can also share information about what they're watching so friends can enjoy it too through legal sources online. Nearly a million people use Boxee to get their entertainment. Learn how you can join them at www.boxee.tv.


D-Link, Boxee Box by D-Link and the D-Link logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of D-Link Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other third party marks mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright © 2009. D-Link. All Rights Reserved.

[KingCoop Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:27AM]

Great looking device and nice specs... I want!

[AlexNC Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:28AM]

@KingCoop
Will we be able to open a browser with it? ... for opening Hulu.com.

[7egend Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:34AM]

@AlexNC

If it's anything like the Boxee Application itself then there is...heh...

An App for that. (snap!)

[AlexNC Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:42AM]

@7egend
I thought Hulu had been stripped from Boxee? Can you point me to a link if it is possible. Thanks.

[Alan Strangis Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:48AM]

@AlexNC Just sign up. You'll see it. :)

You're right that it was stripped from Boxee, then Boxee brought it back, and it was removed again. Boxee's final solution was to open Hulu content as if it's reporting from a browser, and AFAIK, there's really no way that Hulu can work around that.

When I've loaded Hulu content, I've actually seen the full web page of Hulu for a couple of seconds before the video goes full screen.

[Mailia Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:02PM]

@Alan Strangis

Yeah, Boxee is emulating a browser to use Hulu, which is not a great choice for quality/speed/etc. but it's the best that they have, as Hulu can break it otherwise.

[tlogank Posted Jan 5th 2010 3:01PM]

@Mailia I don't understand why no one ever talks about or tries Zinc. It does everything Boxee does really...but has a lot more content (Hulu, Netflix).
http://www.zeevee.com/zinc

[bioadam Posted Jan 5th 2010 3:10PM]

@AlexNC I have the same question. If Hulu is in, so am I. If not, well, then this a box that could use Hulu support.

[statelypenguin Posted Jan 5th 2010 3:19PM]

@KingCoop Its nice looking, but where the hell am I going to put this? Having some ridiculous shaped device guarantees I can't stack anything on top of it, which is really sweet. One thing I've always wanted in my entertainment system is a bunch of unstackable boxes that look sweet.

[KingCoop Posted Jan 5th 2010 4:53PM]

@statelypenguin

You could just stack the Boxee on top of everything else and make it king of the hill...

[jamesrdorn Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:31AM]

This is like buying square water bottles from Fiji and expecting it to fit in round cup holders. Where the hell am I going to put this damn thing?

[idrumgood Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:07PM]

@jamesrdorn Because all your other entertainment center devices aren't box shaped? A receiver, dvd player, ps3, xbox 360, wii... I'm pretty sure the Boxee box will fit right where all those things fit: on a shelf.

[jamesrdorn Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:25PM]

@idrumgood Though it's a "box", it's certainly not square. You will have a hard time getting this to fit on standard shelves, or at least that's what it looks like.

[diamondsw Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:34PM]

@jamesrdorn Actually, it's very, very, VERY small. Should fit with no problem, despite its unique shape.

[Mailia Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:16PM]

@jamesrdorn

You can hide it, I think, because the remote won't be IR based.

[flux73 Posted Jan 7th 2010 12:42PM]

@jamesrdorn Why so many complaints about the form factor? Isn't this the same "problem" that the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii have?

[jcrash Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:32AM]

Needs some netflix and amazon. The popbox is $130 and does all this thing does plus netflix.

[Justin Glow Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:35AM]

@jcrash It does Netflix. Check the PR! I'm definitely going to pick one of these up!

[jcrash Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:43PM]

@Justin Glow
Read closer, it doesn't say the Box supports it. If you read elsewhere on the net, they are evidently working to get NetFlix on the Box by the release date, but it doesn't appear to be there yet.

[Pipp Posted Jan 5th 2010 2:12PM]

@jcrash

Popbox doesn't do Last.fm as far as I know, and that is a huge deal breaker for me. Also Flash support? Count me in!

[bill cant fart Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:32AM]

YEAH! I love Boxee! I would buy 2 or 3 of these if it had cable watching powers.. Guess I'm stuck with WMC...

[thejsn Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:34AM]

Dang, just got a seagate fat+...oh well, craigslist, here i come!

[BigBlue10989 Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:35AM]

No MKV? No thanks.

[Sweet Dude Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:40AM]

@BigBlue10989

It does...

[druelle Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:46AM]

@BigBlue10989

H.264 (MKV, MOV)

Does this mean it supports x.264 as well?

[Mycroft Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:55AM]

@BigBlue10989

Read the press release

[m6 Posted Jan 5th 2010 6:16PM]

As someone who's been strongly tempted by the WD TV Live, I'd like to know if this plays nicely with .m4v files from Handbrake (fast forward, chapters, etc.), and without the need for renaming them all as mp4.

[Ed T Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:35AM]

What's with the chunk-o-rock physical design? I'm sick of these weird shapes that accomplish nothing and make it difficult to place the unit in with other gear. Oh, I get it, we're supposed to put their piece of crap on top of everything else, right next to all the other odd-shaped crapgadgets.

[Jamus Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:38AM]

@Ed T I would be interested to see some company PR on why they went with that particular design. Just to make it stand out? vs making it fit in with other living room components? It seems an odd design choice for sure.

[kmparker Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:37AM]

When I can watch Hulu on my TV without hacking of any kind, I will be a happy girl. Until that time comes, I don't see myself buying any of these media boxes (especially given that I already have an Apple TV).

[mlapida Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:04PM]

@kmparker You can put boxee on you Apple TV right now, without having to disrupt the Apple TV OS. Then you could use it for Hulu with little to no hacking.

I almost got a Apple TV just to do this.

[7egend Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:13PM]

@kmparker

Yea just go to the "Applications" tab on Boxee and load Hulu right up, easy to scroll through, and easy to play.

[chinster Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:38AM]

Very compelling. Good price, awesome specs...too bad for the awkward design...

[trinitymlk Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:53AM]

IF you like Boxee, check out http://rippol.com - all web based video discovery engine with no software to download or extra set-top boxes to buy.

[Xero2 Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:57AM]

XBMC have hinted that they would be very surprised if XBMC did not run on the Boxee box so those looking for a XBMC player should be keeping an eye on this.

[killplay Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:59AM]

@(Unverified)
Boxee is XBMC based.
So you're statement about boxee running xbmc, makes me want to hurt you

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:39PM]

@killplay Yes, Boxee is based upon xbmc, but some like the sleekness of xbmc. Seeing as this is solely a boxee device, inquiry about xbmc compatibility is valid and should not bring about such violence.
Anger management?

[Matthews Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:49PM]

@(Unverified) Indeed, I hope there will be a simple way to have them both installed and be able to choose which to open.

[NineT9 Posted Jan 5th 2010 5:13PM]

@Killplay

That doesn't mean you can install XBMC on it...

Id take XBMC over Boxee anyday, tried Boxee, hated it :(

[killplay Posted Jan 5th 2010 11:58AM]

no hulu/netflix? no deal

[donv69 Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:01PM]

I noticed that Boxee only has the left and right output for audio. Do any of the video formats support surround sound?

[trippisme Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:11PM]

@donv69

It should have HDMI and/or TOSLink Optical and/or Coaxial both of which support surround sound.

[trippisme Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:16PM]

@donv69

# HDMI – one inexpensive HDMI cable to connect The Boxee Box to your TV
# SPDIF – hi-definition digital audio that will pass through Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and DTS to your A/V Receiver
# Stereo Audio (RCA) – red & white cables from the 80’s, 90’s and today
# 2 x USB ports – add devices like external hard drives and more
# Wireless 802.11n & Wired Ethernet – Cords if you got ‘em, wireless if you don’t
# RF Remote Control – control playback from anywhere

From one of the Boxee Sites

[donv69 Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:24PM]

@trippisme

Nice, thanks for the info. Not too much up-to-date with HDMI and SPDIF, etc.

Thanks

[smackrabbit Posted Jan 5th 2010 1:36PM]

@donv69 S/PDIF has been a standard since 1995, that's not really "up to date" by any means

[donv69 Posted Jan 5th 2010 2:23PM]

@smackrabbit Well shows you how behind the times I am. LOL!!!

[brianzbl Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:01PM]

The Boxee beta has Hulu, its just not an application. You do a search for content and then it will come up on Boxee and it will play the stream directly from Hulu. There is also a Netflix app already so it does that too.

[platinumbraces Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:03PM]

But how is this box asymmetrical? If you cut it in half, you get two equal pieces.

[trippisme Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:12PM]

@platinumbraces
Take a horizontal slice and the bottom doesn't mirror the top

[platinumbraces Posted Jan 5th 2010 12:18PM]

@trippisme do you cut your bread horizontally?