Boxee Box -dLink

TV + Internet: Thinking Inside The Boxee Box

This digital receiver provides a dead easy way to stream FREE Internet content—in glorious HD—on your big screen TV.

Boxee Box -dLinkSHOPPING AROUND | When Apple TV relaunched last fall, I rushed out and got one and hooked it up to my television with an HDMI cable so I could gain easy, seamless access to Netflix and whatever other premium—a.k.a. paid for—audio/video content ITunes can persuade me to purchase from their online emporium. Now I’m wondering whether a Boxee Box would have been the smarter buy.

What Is Boxee Box?

Boxee Box is a device that runs Boxee software (an open-source product anyone can download for free) that allows you to view Internet content on your television without physically connecting your TV to your computer. With Apple TV you can buy iTunes content and Netflix, but you can’t go to the Internet and pick up any of the free content that is available legally and play that.

Where Does Boxee Content Come From?

Boxee content is user-sourced and its contributors have combed the web for free movies (and great pay-per-view sites like Mubi), TV shows (Boxee’s growing library contains more than 40,000 episodes) and Internet clips. Users have also created apps for video sharing websites like YouTube, reddit.tv and real-time NHL. Boxee Box developers have added another layer of content by partnering with premium providers like Netflix.

Another cool thing about Boxee Box is that it allows you to take the personal video, picture and music files from your hard drive and home network and play them on your TV. “I have more than 200 movies downloaded from perfectly legitimate sources that we can now watch on our television,” a friend with a Boxee Box told me.

Try Before You Buy

At $199, Boxee Box is almost twice the cost of Apple TV, so you might want to start by downloading the free software to your computer to give Boxee a try before you invest in the hardware. —Ruth Rainey

You can find the Boxee Box at London Drugs and Future Shop. For more on the product  visit www.dlink.ca/boxee.

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