Sabtu, 31 Agustus 2013

Boxee TV Offers A Decent Alternate To Cable

By Cornelius Nunev


Cable, in a lot of ways, is a royal pain in a specific part of the body. Hence the rise of streaming boxes, which permit people to stream programming via Wi-Fi. One such forthcoming product is Boxee Television, a streaming set-top container that also does DVR services and can get simple channels via an HD antenna.

Box connects to Wi-Fi for streaming

A number of companies make and sell web-based television boxes that offer a severe challenge to cable and satellite businesses. The idea is pretty simple; the box links to Wi-Fi and streams Netflix, Hulu and so forth, and also usually has a DVR function where they can record it.

There's a new one coming out called Boxee Television, according to Time magazine, which takes a slightly different approach. Boxee TV has existed before. The company launched a streaming Television box a couple years back that failed miserably. However, the new one works a bit different, in that it uses cloud storage for DVR recordings.

The new Boxee TV also isn't terribly costly, beginning at $99 for the box. Adding DVR services is $14.99 per month, which is more than some competing models but much less than it would cost with satellite or cable.

An antenna on it currently

The Boxee Television comes with apps on it for VUDU, YouTube, Pandora, Vimeo and Netflix, making it really easy on customers. It also can plug in to the cable port to be used as a DVR box. The other nice thing about it is that it has an antenna, meaning you can pick up ABC, CBS, NBC and other public broadcast stations through it.

The very best part of the Boxee TV is that you do not need any external hard drive for storage since all storage is done by uploading content onto the cloud that can be accessed at any time. It can record two programs at once as a dual-code DVR recorder, though live programs cannot be stopped while you are watching them. It is more costly than the Roku or Netgear boxes that are similar, but having the infinite amount of storage is very tempting, according to CNET.

That said, unlike DVR systems that are affected by the memory, cloud storage is unlimited. However, getting the DVR service does cost the $14.99 monthly fee, though that's hardly enough to send an individual out for short term loans to cover.

Limited in the beginning

Unfortunately, the hitch is that the DVR services for the Boxee TV, according to TG Daily, are limited to just a couple towns to begin with. Only residents of New York, LA, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., will be able to get the DVR services. The company plans on expanding the network over the next year, though.

Everyone else can only use it as a streaming device, until DVR services are available everywhere. At that it fails, since other set-top boxes for those who want to cut the cord are much cheaper and have more or the same streaming native apps.




About the Author:



Tidak ada komentar:

Posting Komentar