AAVR Magazine

Boxee – The new way to watch TV

Media Centers have been around for a while now. The original Xbox could be made into a media center, and the savy tech might turn their PC into a media center to play all of their videos (many of them acquired via the Internet) on their TV in the living room. Now, in 2008, there are more choices for Media Centers, and you don’t need to be a tech guru to set them up anymore. Both Xbox 360 and PS3 will be streaming your Netflix movies right from their servers to your HDTV. You can stream your music and video files over your home network to your TV using one of these systems. Apple TV (currently not available from Apple) allowed to access your media files, and for you to be able to rent them over the internet, similar to your On Demand service you may have with your cable company. Windows even makes a media center version if you wanted to build a media center PC for your home entertainment system. However, none of these can be replacement for your Cable or Satellite TV. All of them draw from Media you already own, or media you have to rent. In any case, you are dishing out money.

This is where Boxee comes in. Still in it’s Alpha testing phase (that is before beta testing), Boxee is a replacement for the Front Row software found on most new Macintosh Computers. It allows you to do many of the same things, browse your content, stream it over the network, watch it on your computer, etc… They even have a version to install onto Apple TV, which will add itself as a menu item on your Apple TV menu. What sets Boxee apart from Front Row aside from its GUI, is that its latest update has added the ability to stream from the internet many popular streaming sources, such as CBS, Comedy Central, CNN, NBC, YouTube, Flickr, and my favorite, HULU. You could go to all of these sites on your own, and watch the various shows, but now they have been gathered together in one convenient program that will currently allow you to watch them on your Mac or Apple TV. Not a fan of Apple? Don’t worry, they are coming out with a PC version very soon.

The real question is, could you ditch your cable company for an internet streaming medium? Well, it depends on what you are watching. If you like to watch live news and sports, or some of the things you watch aren’t streamed on these sites, than chances are you aren’t there. However, if you are a person who barely watches TV, or only watches a handfull of shows, and you rather watch them when you have the time, then this could be the move for you. Your major cost will be your media box, whether it be an Apple TV (purchased from eBay), or a Mac Mini, and in the future, a mini PC. You can load this software on, and be up and running in no time (as long as you have a good connection to the Internet).

The current downside I see with this technology is that you are going to plug in this box that is streaming Internet Flash video into your nice big HDTV. The quality may not be what you are looking for. Then again, it is still in Alpha stage, they could be adding the option so that you are able to stream the High Quality version of the video. On the other hand, if you are in college, or only have a small TV, or may just want to watch TV in your bed room on your Lappy, while laying in bed, this could be the answer for you, and save you a bundle on cable costs every month.

Please note: because this is still in the Alpha test phase, it is not available for wide spread download just yet. You have to sign up and they may or may not send you a download link and allow to create an account.

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