Wednesday, September 28, 2011

BOXEE BOX by D-Link Video Review

Welcome, to my video review of D-Link's BOXEE BOX.  BOXEE BOX is a content and media streaming solution that leverages the Internet and your local network to find and play video, music, photos, and apps.  The intent is to unleash the vast array of content available on the Internet and make it usable on your TV.    I use BOXEE BOX to support my cordcutting strategy.  If you want to read more about cordcutting, take a look at my post titled "Introduction to Cordcutting."

BOXEE is the type of product that is hard to describe to people with words.  I believe the best way to understand what BOXEE can do is to show you.  For this blog post I produced a number of videos that demonstrate some (not all) of the key functions of BOXEE BOX.

Video:  Friends, Watch Later, Shows



As you can see from this first video the BOXEE software interface if very user and TV friendly.  It is a simple and clean design with clear navigation.  There are some ways to alter this configuration but I have mostly left BOXEE in the default mode.

Video:  Local Movies


BOXEE does movies very well.  This video is showing how local movie files are handled. The video doesn't really do justice to what BOXEE does behind the scenes to provide all the great pictures and data associated with the movie files you may have.  BOXEE takes a single movie file and goes out to the Internet and gathers all the additional info that you see on the screen.  The result feels so professional and modern.  Streaming videos or movies from the Internet is covered in another video.  

Video:  Apps and Pandora 


Apps on BOXEE are very powerful and can add a lot of useful functions.  Apps like Hulu are still be working on and will be a welcome addition to the Apps offering.  Netflix is probably the most popular app on the BOXEE.  The next video will take us through the Netflix app on BOXEE.

Video:  Netflix on BOXEE


The Netflix app on BOXEE is well done and is similar to what you would find on the XBOX 360 and other devices.  Netflix has always been a great way to consume video content over the Internet.  Netflix keeps adding quality content so this will continue to be a key app on BOXEE.  

Video:  The D-Link BOXEE BOX Remote


The last video above features the remote that comes with BOXEE BOX.  As you can see, it if very small, 2 sided, and has an actual keyboard on the back.  Having a keyboard is critical for being able to navigate all the vast content available through BOXEE.  

That's it for now

I hope you enjoyed the videos and the information provided here in this post. I am a big fan of BOXEE and it is working well for me and my family.  There is still so much I could show you but I need to stop somewhere.  Please use the comment system below to ask any questions you may have that was not covered in this post.  If you have a request please let me know in the comments.  

If you are interesting buying a BOXEE BOX for yourself, please consider using this link over on Amazon.com:  BUY BOXEE ON AMAZON  It helps support the operation of this blog.