The Boxee Box Cometh

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Boxee-Box-DSM-380-front

Earlier this evening Boxee unveiled a beta software update with refreshed UI (screengrab below) and, more impressively, their first hardware partner. D-Link will be taking the Boxee Box (DSM-380) into production during the second quarter of 2010, for about $200. And those of us attending CES will get to see the device in action. While the Boxee box may not sit as nicely in your entertainment space, the unique form sure has more personality than Roku‘s off-the-shelf enclosure. Specs as follows:

  • Item (WxDxH): 120mm x 120mm x 120mm
  • 1 HDMI Connector
  • 1 Optical Digital Audio (S/PDIF) Connector
  • Composite Audio Connectors
  • Power Button
  • AC Power Connector
  • Ethernet Connector and Wi-Fi (802.11n)
  • 2 USB 2.0 Connectors
  • SD Card Slot

Click to enlarge:

9 thoughts on “The Boxee Box Cometh”

  3. Updated, thanks! I was going off D-Link’s press release and web page which beat the Boxee presentation by 90 minutes. Ha. If I was more with it, I’d have had a nice scoop. But I don’t do much blogging in the evenings – family time. And Call of Duty.

  4. While I give Boxee credit for an eye-catching design, where/how will most people place this amongst the other audio/video boxes? And more importantly, I don’t think the $200 price tag and lack of support for Hulu is going to win over a lot of people. Ultimately, the first box (Roku, AppleTV, Boxee, PopcornHour, etc.) that can strike a deal(s) with major content providers (ABC, NBC, Disney, Showtime, etc.) and combine that with access to the likes of Netflix and Amazon; and web-based broadcasters such as Revision3, will the ‘the box’.

  5. Someone got ahold of some spare NeXT cubes on eBay… and mangled them.

    I don’t dislike it, but that shape makes it really difficult to place in a home theater setup.

  6. It also resembles some crazy but compelling designs we looked at while at Sling Media. Not sure which company produced them and who knows if they’ll ever see the light of day under the new regime (doubtful).

    It’s been quite the journey for XBMC… Which I used on the original Xbox (unsanctioned) and now appears to be making it’s way back onto consumer electronic hardware in a sanctioned manner. But we’re still 6 months away from launch, so I’ll save the deeper reflection until the hardware lands. And hopefully D-Link is a better shepherd for Boxee than they were for DivX.

  7. I watch the entire live preview on Livestream.

    Boxee box is looks pretty cool, especially the “10 foot GUI” with physical remote control, but…

    I didn’t see enough utility to get me to stop using the VLC player.

    If only I could have the Boxee box interface on top of VLC!

    P.S. Already have the Android remote control for the VLC player!

    http://code.google.com/p/android-vlc-remote/

    ;)

  8. Another reason why NOT to let the artsy fartsy guys have too much say in final product design.. it’s basically unusable in that form. That’s too bad.

  9. The only reason I look at this is because it might support Hulu, and since it apparently doesn’t that’s the last thought I’ll give them really.

    I guess I’m just going to have to get a little nettop like the Dell Zino HD (starts around $229 but ends up at $324 once you bump the CPU to a dual core and add Windows 7 Home Premium. Pair it up with something like the EFO Wireless Keyboard/Trackpad for around $40 and you’ve got something that will play Hulu and pretty much anything else you need it to. Yet is small and will sit silent next to your TV until you need it.

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