As the (DVR) world turns… “Given the flux at Microsoft,” Ceton has thrown in the towel on their 6 tuner CableCARD DVR – at least as originally conceived, running on Windows Embedded with Media Center. And we’ll have to wait until 2013 to learn if the Ceton Q will reemerge. Meanwhile, The Verge has received intel on the D-Link Boxee Box successor (that I’ve been searching for). Gone is the radical form factor (along with the QWERTY remote and optical audio), but in its place is potentially more desirable DVR capabilities – and at least one ATSC tuner as far I can tell. No word yet on storage capacities or if they’ll go the Simple.TV route in which you bring your own drive.
I would love for this thing to be awesome, but I really want cablecard support, and judging by the lack of a cablecard slot on the back, I won’t get one. I just need TiVO to step up their game with their next device. I hope their next device includes the ability to play media stored on a NAS over the network, but I doubt it – I’m sure it will have more streaming “apps” though.
There’s been some allusions to network TiVo playback like DLNA also that TiVo Stream placeshifting capabilities would be built in future products… whether or not they deliver, who knows.
“I hope their next device includes the ability to play media stored on a NAS over the network, but I doubt it”
Plex, Plex, Plex.
I think Microsoft will be releasing DVR capabilities for the new xbox next year. Would love to see network tuner support or USB tuner support.
I had really high hopes for the Ceton Q to replace my media center PC, but with the state of Media Center in Windows 8, I’m not at all surprised this happened. Sadly, I think the direct-to-consumer DVR market is all but dead.
I agree with Kevin. If it had cablecard support, I’d be interested.
Actually, if the new Boxee doesn’t have a CableCard slot, but does have an ATSC tuner (plus other online sources for video) this might be a good box for finally dumping cable…
Yeah, it’s an interesting box. Based on noise, you’d think there’s a market for an OTA DVR (with benefits)… but it’s yet to be proven. Also, with that ATSC tuner would we be able to receive unencrypted digital cable (as long as it may exist) or use this with whatever thing Comcast and Boxee are working on together?
Price?
You can get a lifetime TivoHD off ebay (2 tuners) for as low as $250.
That and a Roku are what I would recommend for OTA viewers.
If the Q is dead, I also wonder what this means for the Ceton Echo, their media center extender. MSRP on the Echo is $179, which is just below the cheapest Xbox 360. While some people may not want a game console in every room, $179 is a lot to spend on a technology that looks like it’s on it’s last leg.
Bill, that sounds like a good deal! But many (most?) folks shop at places like Amazon and Best Buy, rather than looking for deals on second hand stuff. I’m assuming TiVo didn’t see much upstake on that $9.99 OTA only promotion about a year ago… otherwise it’d still be in play.
Chris, I know I wouldn’t drop any money on anything MCE-related unless I was planning on keeping an existing W7 system going as is for the foreseeable future. And you’re right that a 360 would be a safer purchase and quite capable with or without extension duties (for those OK with a Live subscription).
An XBox with DVR capabilities and cablecard tuner support? Dream on. I don’t think you’re taking the right hint from Microsoft’s abandonment of MCE. I mean seriously, TiVo is barely surviving (without their patent income they’d probably be out of business honestly). Moxi gave up. Sage is gone. Cable-card based TVs are no longer sold. Seriously–there aren’t enough people willing to buy and use these things. Most people just take the crappy DVR their cable company gives them and while they might bitch about it, they aren’t willing to do anything else. The cable companies make it difficult enough for most people that they’d never consider cable cards and DTAs to get around their SDV issues and …. Sorry, but that’s the truth. And of course the FCC is sitting on their asses doing nothing. Don’t hold your breath.
They’re going down the wrong path. DVRs are dying.
The market doesn’t really want a DVR for the 3-4 channels available OTA– new TiVos won’t even work with OTA signals.
They need to focus their efforts on supporting every major streaming source. They absolutely MUST support hulu+, netflix, HBO GO, youtube, vimeo, and amazon video. That’s the baseline required to be truly successful.
They also need to get their act together and deliver a quality product. The Boxee Box had major problems with hardware failures in their initial hardware revision. That kind of thing kills consumer confidence.
Similarly, their software has has major problems throughout the lifecycle of the box. The promise of the boxee box was never delivered upon, because everybody blocked them and they refused to join the arms race against content providers by changing the flash signature.
I don’t blame them for that, certainly, but they could have nudge nudge wink wink allowed some way for end-users to do it on their own. They didn’t.
Agree with Radolpho. In theory Boxee had their niche, handling local media streaming of all types while also doing all the internet streaming you’d want it to. But as the months stretched out with no Hulu Plus deal announced. Where’s Amazon? ESPN3? NBA? HBO Go? YouTube fer f*cks sake.
Its been well over a year since they added a major streaming partner. I appreciate the battle they’re fighting for access to unencrypted QAM channels, but even if they win they won’t really win. Comcast will deploy five gateways in one market and declare a truce. It’ll be years before there’s anything real there. They need to keep their focus on a game that is under their own control.
Until then, buy something else. All of XBox, Apple TV and Roku do a better job at streaming services than Boxee, and with Plex you can handle any local video you’ve got as well. And most of these are less expensive than Boxee as well…
So will PLEX work with my 1500 BD ISOs(Full rips)?
Plex will play BD ISOs, but it won’t stream them to mobile clients. If you don’t need that functionality you’re golden.
I haven’t used it myself, but the googletv plex client is supposedly excellent. Just keep in mind that you will need to run the plex media server on a computer somewhere on your network.
If you want a more complete solution, XBMC is coming out for all those cheap $99 android set top boxes. It’s not quite ready for prime-time yet, though, and XBMC lacks the ability to transcode and stream that Plex has.
“Plex will play BD ISOs, but it won’t stream them to mobile clients. If you don’t need that functionality you’re golden.”
Of course, if you do need that particular edge case of functionality, you can probably handle using Handbrake to achieve it.
“Just keep in mind that you will need to run the plex media server on a computer somewhere on your network.”
Quite true. But if you’re already into NAS territory, you can probably accomplish that with equipment you already have on hand. And if you don’t already have a CPU sitting somewhere on your LAN, a cheap used Windows box will get you there. Older equipment can handle the requirements quite nicely. (I’m using a 4 year old CPU box to smoothly run my Plex Media Server.)
—–
XBMC is making promises, but Plex is already there, and is quite mature and usable for almost any conceivable purpose at this point in time. If you’re interested in playback of NAS media in anything more than a very occasional manner, Plex really is a no-brainer. It’s the rug that ties the whole room together.
As a cord cutter with a high speed connection, this is looking like my best option at the moment for my theater room – home theater projectors don’t have tuners….
Actually, a stand alone htpc or Mac mini would be my best option, but assuming this is around $200, the new boxee box will be more in line with my budget.
Does boxee work with HBO GO and MAX Go?
Formally announced:
http://boxee.tumblr.com/
Pertinent bit:
“If you choose to become a DVR subscriber you will be able to record as much as you like and watch it on any screen for just $14.99 a month.”
I think I’m justified in stating definitively that the proper and measured response to this is “LOL”.
On the non-LOL side, it will only cost $99. So that’s pretty cool, if it has all the features of the current boxee box for local (NAS/SMB) streaming.
But they don’t mention amazon, HBO GO, or hulu+ streaming. That’s right smack-dab back in LOL territory.
And finally (I promise no more posts on this) the device doesn’t seem to have any significant local storage– the DVR is in the “cloud”.
It looks like they only allow you to subscribe to their $15/month DVR service if you’re in certain specific markets (New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and D.C.) and then they allow you to “record” OTA broadcasts, somehow verifying that you receive them, then just FLAG you to be able to watch them from their cloud.
I imagine the various networks will have something to say about this and expect to hear about their overwhelming litigation shortly.
So much LOL, so little time.
But Avner stated that Boxee TV doesn’t have all the features of the Boxee Box. It’s supposed to support some file playback. (only time will tell exactly what) But it also won’t do artwork and identification like the Boxee Box does. And that pretty much seals it for me.
The Boxee Box does a great job aggregating content from multiple shares and was one of the things I liked best about it. Plus the bulk of my content is in BD ISOs. So I have no idea if Boxee Tv will even play BD ISOs.
I’m glad now that I pre-ordered a Popcorn Hour A400.
I can’t see getting the Boxee TV now unless I get a nice discount for owning several Boxee Boxes. Then I would consider picking up a BoxeeTv just to play around with it.
Yeah, I just read the Verge piece, which goes into more depth– it will not support local file (SMB) playback like the boxee box. That makes the boxee TV much less interesting.
Yeah, some interesting choices here. Been trying to get Boxee on the phone for a few hours to help me understand some things. Will probably blog later, with or without that clarification. Hm.
It is reportedly not built on XBMC– they rebuilt the entire thing from the ground up. So they lost XBMC’s amazing codec support and with it any interest I had in buying the device.
So I finally got Boxee on the phone… and I’m very intrigued. You’re right that it’s both a new codebase and chipset. BUT it will feature both DLNA and USB drive support from the get go. While the codec support is not as broad, it may be sufficient for many. I’m getting ready to post, but the weather is so nice I may sit and read my iPad outside for awhile first. :)
Yes, but you see, DLNA is an abomination.
If it only supports DLNA it’s no better as a local media player than an Xbox360 or PS3. You’ll need to run a transcoding server on your desktop to play your media. That is unacceptable.
I wish them the best, but I have no interest in buying the device. From the Verge article, etc, it seems like they don’t really want me as a customer anyway.
They view the boxee box as a failure (with some justification, admittedly) and have decided to not only go a different way, but that they are willing to drop significant functionality and thus don’t want to retain those customers. Which is crazy.
You wouldn’t necessarily need to transcode on a desktop or server… and while it means maybe it’s on par with a PS3, it’s better than a TiVo in that regard. But, yeah, they are definitely changing their approach. Who knows if it’ll fare better.