Boxee Box

Boxee Box

Boxee Box and remote
Developer Boxee
Manufacturer D-Link
Type set top box
Release date November 10, 2010 (2010-11-10)
Introductory price US$ 199
Discontinued October 16, 2012 (2012-10-16)
Operating system Linux
CPU Intel CE4100 SoC
Memory 1 GB RAM
Storage 1 GB NAND flash memory
Display 1080p
Graphics PowerVR SGX535
Sound Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS
Controller input D-Link Boxee Box Remote DSM-22
Connectivity
Online services Boxee
Website www.dlink.com/us/en/home-solutions/entertain/media-players/dsm-380-boxee-box

Boxee Box by D-Link (officially "D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380") is a Linux-based set-top device and media extender that first began shipping in 33 countries worldwide on 10 November 2010.[1][2] Designed to easily bring Internet television and other video to the television via Boxee's software, it comes pre-installed with Boxee media center software. The hardware is based on the Intel CE4110 system-on-a-chip platform (that has a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom CPU with a PowerVR SGX535 integrated graphics processor), 1 GB of RAM, and 1 GB of NAND Flash Memory.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The DM-380 features an HDMI port (version 1.3), optical digital audio (S/PDIF) out, an RCA connector for analog stereo audio, two USB ports, an SD card slot, wired 100 Mbit/s (100BASE-T) ethernet, and built-in 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi. The Live TV dongle, which started shipping in February 2012, enables users to watch digital OTA or Clear QAM cable television channels with EPG.

The Boxee Box also ships with a small two-sided RF remote control with four-way D-pad navigation and a full QWERTY keypad as standard. This remote is also being sold separately with a USB receiver as "D-Link Boxee Box Remote DSM-22" that can be used with Boxee installed on a computer (so that one can use this remote without owning D-Link's Boxee Box).[10][11][12][13] The look of both the case and remote prototypes for the Boxee Box was designed by San Francisco-based Astro Studios, the designer of the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Zune.[14][15]

As of 16th October 2012, the Boxee team have announced that they intend to discontinue distribution, and will not be releasing any additional major updates.[16]

Reception

There have been complaints regarding the Boxee Box by D-Link in several aspects. [17] As of the current version it does not provide support for Hulu or Hulu Plus subscription.

Another issue is the Boxee Box's software/firmware is not production-ready, but, rather behaves like an alpha or beta version.

This issue is more apparent when compared to the older desktop version of Boxee, which can be freely downloaded and installed on commodity PCs.

This viewpoint is furthered by the user interface development changes which took place between the beta version and the version 1.0 software shipped with the Boxee Box, with very little public user testing or input.

These interface changes place greater emphasis on streaming content versus local downloaded content. Coupled with the removal of the BitTorrent client that was present in the beta version, these changes have led users to believe there is an active shift towards subscription/pay content.[18] As well, there are allegations from the open source community that D-Link has gone the way of tivoization on the Boxee Box on purpose, implementing hardware restrictions to prevent users from running modified versions of the software on the D-Link hardware, and these restrictions raise questions about whether they are allowed under the licenses of dependent software used by the Boxee Box, including Boxee, XBMC, and the Linux operating system.[19][20][21][22][23][24]

On October 31, 2012, Boxee posted a statement on their website that they had to make a decision between releasing a box that was hackable and one that was commercially viable with premium content.

As it stated, Boxee would have loved for the Boxee Box to be open to other software, but in the end they were bound by agreements with their content providers to ensure the security of the content. This started postings of very negative comments from Boxee Box users on the Boxee blog as the previous Boxee promises had been totally different.

After less than a day, the entire Boxee page (along with the statement, the blog and its comments) was removed and replaced with a new Boxee TV website. The old Boxee blog was not deleted but moved.[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ This Morning’s 4 Biggest Stories in Tech and Mobile
  2. ↑ Live from the Boxee Box launch event!
  3. ↑ Boxee Box: The Inside Story, Swapping Tegra 2 for Intel CE4100
  4. ↑ Boxee Box gets the requisite teardown; would you look at that heat sink!
  5. ↑ Foresman, Chris (2010-09-13). "Boxee Box goes Intel, gets priced for preorder". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  6. ↑ Boxee Box ditches NVIDIA's Tegra 2 for Intel CE4100, pre-orders start today at $199
  7. ↑ Pre-Order the Boxee Box Today, Now With Intel Atom Guts
  8. ↑ The Boxee Box by D-Link
  9. ↑ Pre-order a Boxee Box Now, Australia & Europe We’re Coming, and Intel Goes Inside
  10. ↑ The Boxee Box by D-Link
  11. ↑ Boxee Remote Control Pricing Leak: $39.99, Coming Soon
  12. ↑ Boxee Box Remote by D-Link
  13. ↑ D-Link Boxee Box Remote - DSM-22
  14. ↑ Fast Co. interviews Astro Studios on the design of the Boxee
  15. ↑ Boxee Designers Explain Out-of-the-Box Thinking (Exclusive)
  16. ↑ http://blog.boxee.tv/2012/10/16/boxee-box-past-present-and-future/#idc-cover
  17. ↑ Clark, Shaylin (22 March 2012). "Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee, Roku: Which Is Best For Consumers?".
  18. ↑ @boxee says. "Boxee Blog: Boxee Box by D-Link launches". Blog.boxee.tv. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  19. ↑ Shein, Esther (12 November 2010). "Boxee Box Launches Without Netflix, Hulu Plus". Informationweek.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  20. ↑ Foresman, Chris (11 November 2010). "Boxee Box now shipping, Netflix and Hulu Plus coming soon". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  21. ↑ "Hacking the Boxee Box to run XBMC? (XBMC Community Forum)". Forum.xbmc.org. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  22. ↑ @boxee says (13 September 2010). "Comments on Pre-order a Boxee Box Now, Australia & Europe We’re Coming, and Intel Goes Inside". Blog.boxee.tv. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  23. ↑ "Boxee Box Anticipation Thread". avsforum.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  24. ↑ Boxee Box (16 November 2010). "Boxee Box review by Nilay Patel at". Engadget.com. Retrieved 19 October 2011.
  25. ↑ "Boxee Blog: To our Community of Boxee Box Owners".
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