When the Boxee Box finally ships sometime in November, it's going to burst out the tunnel and onto a very crowded playing field. Not only will it have to contend with dozens of televisions and Blu-ray players loaded with internet apps, streaming movies services such as Netflix and Vudu, but also set-top boxes from the likes of Apple, Roku, and the almighty Google. One might even argue at this point that D-Link is getting into the game rather late.
Well, better late than never. What makes the Boxee Box so intriguing is that it offers so much choice for so little. The number of television programs, movies, and internet applications available is in the tens of thousands (supposedly), basically making the the little black box a one-stop shop for media hounds at the low price of $199.
At 4.5" x 4.5" x 4.6", the Boxee Box is not going to take up too much room in your equipment rack; it does not come with any internal hard drive storage, but you can attach your own to one of the 2 USB 2.0 ports on the rear panel. One clever touch is the SD memory card reader on the side (great for importing music and picture files). There is one HDMI 1.3 output port on the rear panel for hooking it up to your HDTV or projector. One fantastic feature of the Boxee Box is that it does support 1080p; something the upcoming Apple TV does not as it is limited to 720p. The Boxee was originally designed around the NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipsets, but the final version of the unit is going to house Intel's Atom processors instead, which should be a step-up in performance.
You can also hardwire the Boxee using the Ethernet port or run it wirelessly as it supports 802.11n/g/b. The rear panel also contains an optical digital output and a pair of analog audio outputs. Users of iTunes can breath easier as the Boxee Box will support Apple Lossless, AIFF, AAC, and even DTS, Dolby Digital/Dolby TrueHD.
One of the coolest features of the Boxee Box is the two-sided RF remote, with 4-way navigation and a full QWERTY keypad.
The proof with the Boxee Box will be in the pudding; or put another way how well it allows one to search, view, and organize all various forms of media. Of course, it is tied into Facebook and Twitter; which may or may not matter to those of you who don't spend your life posting updates about what you had for breakfast. The Boxee Box is going to have to be price competitive with Apple, Netflix and Hulu Plus in order to survive long term; on the hardware front it seems to be one of the best options around.
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