BOXEE
Encyclopedia
Boxee is a cross-platform
freeware
HTPC (Home Theater PC)
software application with a 10-foot user interface
and social networking
features designed for the living-room TV. Boxee was originally a fork
of the free and open source
XBMC media center software which Boxee now uses as an application framework
for its GUI
and media player core platform, together with some custom and proprietary
additions. Marketed as the first ever "Social Media Center", Boxee enables its users to view, rate and recommend content to their friends through many social network service
s and interactive media
related features. One notable feature missing in Boxee is the ability to record tv shows with a DVR/PVR
feature. Boxee recently announced the abilitity to watch live tv on the boxee box with the introduction of the live TV stick. This will be released to the market in January, 2012.
Boxee's software application is still considered to be in its early development stages and is currently available as beta release versions for Linux
, Mac OS X
, and Windows
, as well as Apple TV, for computers with x86 architecture processors. The first public alpha of Boxee was made available on 16 June 2008, and the first public beta version was officially released for all previously supported platforms on 7 January 2010.
The developers of Boxee have stated that their goal is to have Boxee media center software run on as many third-party hardware platforms and operating systems as possible, and they have so far co-developed a dedicated set-top box
(hardware) called "Boxee Box
by D-Link" in cooperation with D-Link
which was the first "Powered by Boxee" branded device to be announced and launched, and they have recently also announced a similar media player device called "Iomega TV with Boxee" in cooperation with Iomega
and a 46" high-definition television from ViewSonic
with integrated Boxee software. The company behind Boxee has also more than once said that they are very interested in licensing the Boxee media center software and its social networking service as a third-party software component
to other companies and ODM
/OEM
's for use on their own hardware, such as set-top boxes from cable-TV companies
, game-consoles
, Blu-ray Disc
and DVD player
s, or embedded computers
and SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
built-in to television set
s for web-enabled Smart TV
s, and other entertainment devices for the living room.
Boxee is owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company
, (Boxee, Inc.), which began as a high tech
stealth startup
based in Israel and the United States with seed money
from several angel investor
s. The company is today publicly known to be financially backed by venture capital
firms such as General Catalyst Partners
, Union Square Ventures
, Softbank
, Pitango, Spark Capital and Globis Capital Partners.
reporting, and an expanding array of third-party plugins. As a media center, Boxee can play most audio and video file formats, as well as display images from many sources, including CD/DVD-ROM drive
s, USB flash drive
s, the Internet, and local area network
shares.
Through the processing power of modern PC
hardware, Boxee is able to decode high-definition video
up to 1080p
. Boxee is able to use Nvidia
's VDPAU
on Linux
-based operating-systems, and DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) on Windows Vista
and newer Microsoft
operating-systems to utilize GPU accelerated video decoding to assist with process of video decoding of high-definition videos.
With its Python
-powered plugin system, the Boxee software incorporates features such as Apple movie trailer support and subtitle downloading, access to large on-demand
video streaming services Netflix
, Headweb and VUDU; a range of popular online internet content channels like audio services Pandora Radio, Last.fm
, Jamendo
, NPR
, SHOUTcast
radio streams; video services from ABC
, BBC iPlayer
, Blip.TV
, CNET, CNN
, CBS
, Comedy Central
, Funny or Die
, Joost
, Major League Baseball
, NHL Hockey
, MTV Music
, MySpaceTV, Revision3, MUBI
, OpenFilm
, SnagFilms
, IndieMoviesOnline, EZTakes, United Football League
, VEVO
, Vice Magazine, TED
, The WB Television Network
, YouTube and image services from Flickr
and Picasa
Web picture viewing plugins. All are available as media sources available alongside the local library.
Some of the services are via specialized connections (e.g., YouTube), while the rest are a preselected list of podcast
channels for streaming using generic RSS web feeds (e.g., BBC News
). Boxee also supported NBC Universal
's Hulu
quite early on, but in February 2009 was asked by Hulu to remove the service at the request of Hulu's content partners. Boxee later reinstated the feature using Hulu's RSS feeds, but Hulu once again blocked access.
Even though both the Boxee App and the Boxee Box support Netflix, the Boxee App supports only a limited instant queue, missing more recent TV shows and movies available through the web browser and iPhone apps.
Boxee recently introduced a new plugin architecture based on the XUL
(XULRunner
) framework which technically allows any web-based application to be ported into an application for Boxee integration. Because of this Boxee can now utilise Mozilla corebase architecture for most of its plugins – since this is the same core architecture that Firefox uses, Hulu will see Boxee as "any other Mozilla browser so Hulu doesn't block the app." Hulu's latest attempt to thwart Boxee involves JavaScript
scrambling.
Another interesting aspect is how Boxee manages to play Adobe Flash
content from sites such as YouTube and Hulu, and display HTML5 or Silverlight
content from such web-based services such as HBO Go and Netflix. Boxee seems to be shipping with a closed source, binary-only, program called "bxflplayer", which seems to load Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight proprietary plugins. This program communicates with the main Boxee process via shared memory and it renders the video onto screen. By using this approach, it is possible for Boxee not only to play Flash Video and Silverlight content that is protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management)
but also allows for the user to control the player using a remote control and other input devices that are more suitable to laid back watching. Same as with the above mentioned "libboxee", it is not clear if this way of using "bxflplayer" as closed source libraries with a GPL licensed software passes as GPL linking exception
or not.
Boxee also includes a built-in BitTorrent client, with a frontend
for it integrated into the Boxee interface, and there are also Torrent links to legal BitTorrent tracker
s download sites available incorporated by default. Through Boxee's Python plugin system it is also possible for end-users to add unofficial third-party plugins to enable Torrent downloads from sites such as The Pirate Bay
.
Boxee source code is otherwise in majority based on the XBMC Media Center project's source code which Boxee uses as its software framework
, and the Boxee developers contribute changes to that part back upstream to the XBMC project. So Boxee is partially open source
and those parts are distributed under the GNU General Public License
, however Boxee's social networking layer library, "libboxee" is closed source as it deals with proprietary methods of communication with Boxee's online back-end server which handles the user account information and social network communications between the users in the Boxee userbase, it is not clear if this way of using closed source libraries with a GPL licensed software passes the GPL linking exception
or not.
Boxee requires registered user accounts, which form a social network of fellow Boxee users. Users can follow the activity of other Boxee users who were added as friends, and can publicly rate and recommend content. Users can also control what media appear in the activity feed in order to maintain privacy. If a user recommends something that is freely available from an internet content service then Boxee will let others users stream it directly. If a user recommends something that is not freely available then Boxee will try to show metadata, and movie trailers if it is a movie that the user recommend.
The user's friends' Boxee activity feeds are displayed on the user's home screen, as is the user's own recent activity. Internet content is accessed through a sub-menu of each of the video, audio, and photo menu items, such as Video -> "My videos" and Video -> "Internet videos".
In addition Boxee Beta and later has the option of monitoring your Twitter and Facebook news feeds to automatically discover links to videos, Boxee will then add those videos to your watch queue in Boxee so that you can later watch those video directly in Boxee when you want.
Boxee can also export a user's media activity feed to other social networking services such as FriendFeed
, Twitter, and Tumblr
. The list of connections to such supported third-party social networking services is currently small, and this feature is one-way only, (it is for example not yet possible to monitor Twitter feeds from within Boxee), but this type of third-party integration is different from the way content sources are treated. Through FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr it is then possible from those third-party social networking services for a user to choose to post the Boxee activity feed to social networking sites such as Facebook, (currently through FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr apps for Facebook).
service platform that serves add-on apps and plug-ins that provide online content to Boxee, the "AppBox" allows users to download new apps and addons directly from Boxee's GUI. Many of these sources are in high definition and use streaming sites' native flash and Silverlight players. Boxee has extensibility and integration with online sources for free and premium streaming content. AppBox offers content including commercial video, educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses.
Boxee also encourages users to make and submit their own add-on apps and plug-ins to add additional content accessible from within Boxee.
shares (Windows File-Sharing), or eventually UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
shares (not available in v0.9.14). Boxee is designed to take advantage of the system's network port if a broadband Internet connection is available, using the IMDb
to obtain metadata
information, thumbnails, and reviews on movies, TV.com
for TV show thumbnails and metadata
, Freedb
for Audio-CD track-listings, and album-cover thumbnails via AMG. Boxee can stream Internet-video-streams, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as SHOUTcast
). Boxee also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm
and a weather-forecast (via weather.com
). It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow
functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke
function (not available on the Boxee Box) and many audio-visualizations
and screensaver
s. Boxee can in addition upscale/upconvert all 480p/576p standard-resolution
videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, or 1080p HDTV
-resolutions.
formats (except those with DRM). It can decode these in software and optionally pass-through AC3
/DTS audio from movies directly to S/PDIF
output to an external audio amplifier
or receiver.
Boxee video-playback uses a video-player 'core' called "DVDPlayer" that was originally developed by the XBMC developers as a DVD-player for DVD-Video movies and thus includes native support for DVD-menus. This video-player 'core' today supports all the FFmpeg
codecs. One relatively unusual feature of this "DVDPlayer" video-player core is the capability to on the fly
parse and play DVD-Video movies that are stored in ISO and IMG
DVD-images, DVD-Video movies that are stored as DVD-Video (IFO
/VOB
/BUP
) files on a harddrive or network-share, and also ISO and IMG DVD-images directly from RAR and ZIP
archives. In addition to this, the developers of this video-player 'core' also claim that it offers better quality upscaling of all DVD-Video movies when outputing them to a 720p, 1080i or 1080p HDTV resolutions than what most high-definition television set's own native function for upscaling/upconverting video offers.
database
s and another key feature of Boxee. It automatically organizes your music collection by information stored in your music files ID meta tags
, such as title, artist, album, genre
and popularity.
For audio playback, Boxee includes an audio-player called "PAPlayer (Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player)" developed by the XBMC developers. Some of this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly
audio frequency resampling
, gapless playback
, crossfading
, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg
Chapter support. PAPlayer handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports many different tagging standards.
with the options of panning/zooming
and slideshow
with "Ken Burns Effect
", with the use of CxImage open source library code.
s download sites available incorporated by default. Through Boxee's Python plugin system it is also possible for the end-users to make themselves or add unofficial plugins made by third-party persons for other BitTorrent trackers.
of an installed and concurrently-active Boxee session on another computer via the iOS' touchscreen user interface. It was approved for the App Store on 16 March 2010.
Third-party developers have also released Boxee remote control apps for Android and webOS.
s as possible, and they are currently developing a dedicated set-top box
(hardware) called "Boxee Box" in cooperation with D-Link
which is the first "Powered by Boxee" branded device to be announced. The company behind Boxee has also more than once said that they are very interested in licensing the Boxee media center software and its social networking service as a third-party software component
to other companies and ODM
/OEM
's for use on their own hardware, such as game-consoles
, set-top box
es from cable-TV companies
, Blu-ray Disc
and DVD player
s, or embedded computers
built-in to television set
s, and other entertainment devices for the living room.
This is a list of third-party companies who sell hardware bundled with Boxee media center software pre-install, or sell uninstalled systems that specifically claim to be Boxee-compatible ("Boxee Enabled") by the manufacturer. These third-party companies directly or indirectly help submit bug fixes back upstream to Boxee, as well as to the XBMC project which Boxee in turn uses as its framework.
by D-Link
(officially "D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380") is a Linux-based set-top device and media extender that first began shipping in 33 countries worldwide on 10 November 2010. Designed to easily bring internet television and other video to the television via Boxee's software, it comes pre-installed with Boxee media center software and the hardware is based on Intel CE4110 system-on-a-chip
platform (that has a 1.2Ghz Intel Atom
CPU with a PowerVR SGX535
Integrated graphics processor), 1GB of RAM
, and 1GB of NAND Flash Memory. The DSM-380 features output ports for HDMI
(version 1.3), optical digital audio (S/PDIF
) connector, and RCA connector
for analog stereo audio
, two USB ports, an SD card slot, wired 100Mbps
(100BASE-T) ethernet
, and built-in 802.11n WiFi.
The Boxee Box also ships with a small two-sided RF
remote control
with 4-way D-pad
navigation and a full QWERTY
keypad
as standard, and this remote is also being sold separately with an USB-receiver as "D-Link Boxee Box Remote DSM-22" that one can use with Boxee installed on a computer so that one can use this remote without owning D-Link's Boxee Box The look of both the case and remote prototype
s for the Boxee Box was designed by San Francisco based Astro Studios, which is the same designer company that designed the look of Xbox 360
and the Microsoft Zune.
was annnounced by Boxee on 4 January 2011, this was the second Boxee device to be announced, and it was said that it will begin shipping in Q1 of 2011. Just like the Boxee Box by D-Link, the Iomega TV with Boxee is a Linux device that comes pre-installed with Boxee media center software and the hardware is based on Intel CE4110 system-on-a-chip
platform (that has a 1.2Ghz Intel Atom
CPU with a PowerVR SGX535
Integrated graphics processor), 1GB of RAM
, and 1GB of NAND Flash Memory. Iomega TV with Boxee features audio / video output ports for HDMI
(version 1.3), optical and coaxial digital audio (S/PDIF
) connectors, and RCA connector
for analog stereo audio
, two USB ports, wired 1Gbps
ethernet
, and built-in 802.11n WiFi. Like the D-Link's Boxee Box the Iomega TV with Boxee also ships with a similar small two-sided RF
remote control
with 4-way D-pad
navigation and full a QWERTY
keypad
as standard.
However unlike D-Link's Boxee Box the Iomega TV with Boxee device will feature space to internally fit a 3,5" SATA harddrive. That harddrive which will be not only be usable to the Boxee software on the device but you will also be able use the device as a NAS (Network Attached Storage)
unit to share the media data on it over the network, as a DNLA
compliant UPnP AV media server.
based set-top device designed to bring internet television and media stored on the home network to the living-room, it comes pre-installed with Boxee, XBMC, and Hulu Desktop as applications that can be started from the main menu.
based set-top device designed to bring internet television and media stored on the home network to the living-room, it came pre-installed with Boxee, Hulu Desktop, and a WebKit
web-browser as applications that could be started from the main menu with a remote control. It also has Skype
app and Bluetooth
support. Nuu has since discontinued NUU Player development and has removed any mention of it from their web site.
and independent video on demand
providers.
Boxee, like XBMC Media Center (which Boxee is based upon), is a cross-platform software programmed mostly in C++
and uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer
framework with OpenGL renderer
for all versions of Boxee. Some of the libraries that Boxee depends on are also written in the C programming-language
, but are used with a C++ wrapper and loaded via Boxee's own DLL
loader when used inside Boxee.
and WindowXML application framework
(a XML
-based widget toolkit
for creating a GUI
for widgets) in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets
in Windows Sidebar. Python widget scripts allow non-developers to themselves create new add-ons
functionality to Boxee, (using the easier to learn Python programming language
), without knowledge of the complex C/C++ programming language
that the rest of the Boxee software is written in. Current plugin scripts add-ons include functions like Internet-TV
and movie-trailer browsers, cinema guides, Internet-radio-station browsers (example SHOUTcast
), and much more.
Boxee recently also introduced an additional plugin architecture based on the XUL
(XULRunner
) framework which enables any web-based application to be integrated into Boxee as an app add-on. With this new plugin architecture Boxee uses Mozilla
corebase architecture for those plugins. Since this is the same core architecture that Firefox uses, Hulu will see Boxee as any other Mozilla-based web-browser.
and robust framework
for its GUI
, using a standard XML
base, making theme
-skinning
and personal customization
very accessible. Users can create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites dedicated for XBMC skins trading.
so Boxee has many of the same software limitations as XBMC).
's (CEA) i-Stage award, and with it $50,000 prize money to go towards the continued development of Boxee, as well as a free booth at the 2009 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show)
, the world's largest consumer technology trade show. Boxee then in turn donated half of the $50,000 prize money to the developers of XBMC.
On 9 January 2009, G4
announced Boxee as the winner of their "Best of the Best products of CES 2009" award (in the "Maximum Tech" category) among all the products displayed at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2009
trade show.
In January 2010, during the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2010 trade show, Boxee also managed to get five awards; "LAPTOP's Best of CES 2010 – Best Home Entertainment (Boxee Box)", "Last Gadget Standing – CES 2010 Winner", "International CES Best Of Innovations 210 – Home Theater Accessories", "Popular Science – Best of CES 2010 (Products of the Future)".
software libraries, such as LAME
, libmpeg2
, and libavcodec
(from the FFmpeg
project). Since these source code libraries are released under free and open source licenses they are legally redistributable. However, some of these compression methods algorithms, such as the popular MP3 format, are in many countries protected by software patents. Absent a license, this could possibly make it illegal in certain countries to distribute compiled versions of Boxee which includes support for these formats.
to automatically download metadata information and online artwork from sites like IMDb
, Discogs
, freedb
, and Allmusic. There could be some legal issues associated with web scraping in some countries, as it is against the Terms of Use policy of many websites, however the enforceability of these terms is unclear.
to support playback of DVD-Video
movies encrypted using the Content Scramble System
(CSS) encryption. The distribution of executable
versions of Boxee containing this code could possibly violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
in the U.S. and the Copyright Directive
in European Union
member countries which have incorporated it into national law. However, this has never been tested in court for open source projects.
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
HTPC (Home Theater PC)
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
software application with a 10-foot user interface
10-foot user interface
In computing a 10-foot user interface is a software GUI designed for display on a large television with interaction using a regular television-style remote control."10 foot" refers to the fact that the GUI's...
and social networking
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
features designed for the living-room TV. Boxee was originally a fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of the free and open source
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
XBMC media center software which Boxee now uses as an application framework
Application framework
In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....
for its GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
and media player core platform, together with some custom and proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
additions. Marketed as the first ever "Social Media Center", Boxee enables its users to view, rate and recommend content to their friends through many social network service
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...
s and interactive media
Interactive media
Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user’s actions by presenting content such as text, graphics, animation, video, audio, etc.-Terminology:...
related features. One notable feature missing in Boxee is the ability to record tv shows with a DVR/PVR
Digital video recorder
A digital video recorder , sometimes referred to by the merchandising term personal video recorder , is a consumer electronics device or application software that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card or other local or networked mass storage device...
feature. Boxee recently announced the abilitity to watch live tv on the boxee box with the introduction of the live TV stick. This will be released to the market in January, 2012.
Boxee's software application is still considered to be in its early development stages and is currently available as beta release versions for Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
, and Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, as well as Apple TV, for computers with x86 architecture processors. The first public alpha of Boxee was made available on 16 June 2008, and the first public beta version was officially released for all previously supported platforms on 7 January 2010.
The developers of Boxee have stated that their goal is to have Boxee media center software run on as many third-party hardware platforms and operating systems as possible, and they have so far co-developed a dedicated set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
(hardware) called "Boxee Box
Boxee Box
Boxee Box by D-Link is a Linux-based set-top device and media extender that first began shipping in 33 countries worldwide on the 10th of November 2010...
by D-Link" in cooperation with D-Link
D-Link
D-Link Corporation was founded in June 1986 in Taipei as Datex Systems Inc. It began as a network adapter vendor and has gone on to become a designer, developer, and manufacturer of networking solutions for both the consumer and business markets.In 2007, it was the leading networking company in...
which was the first "Powered by Boxee" branded device to be announced and launched, and they have recently also announced a similar media player device called "Iomega TV with Boxee" in cooperation with Iomega
Iomega
Iomega is an American producer of consumer external, portable and networking storage hardware. Established in the 1980s, Iomega has sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks. On April 8, 2008, EMC Corporation announced its plans to acquire Iomega for a consideration of US $213M...
and a 46" high-definition television from ViewSonic
ViewSonic
ViewSonic Corporation is a manufacturer and provider of visual technology, specifically CRT monitors, liquid crystal displays, projectors, plasma displays, HDTV technology, and mobile products, including Mini and All-in-One PCs and wireless monitors....
with integrated Boxee software. The company behind Boxee has also more than once said that they are very interested in licensing the Boxee media center software and its social networking service as a third-party software component
Third-party software component
In computer programming, a third-party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform...
to other companies and ODM
Original Design Manufacturer
An original design manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which is specified and eventually branded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the brand firm to produce without having to engage in the organization or running of a factory...
/OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
's for use on their own hardware, such as set-top boxes from cable-TV companies
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
, game-consoles
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
, Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
s, or embedded computers
Embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
and SoC (System-on-a-Chip)
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
built-in to television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s for web-enabled Smart TV
Smart TV
Smart TV, which is also sometimes referred to as "Connected TV" or "Hybrid TV", , is the phrase used to describe the current trend of integration of the internet and Web 2.0 features into modern television sets and set-top boxes, as well as the technological convergence between computers and these...
s, and other entertainment devices for the living room.
Boxee is owned and developed by a single for-profit startup company
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
, (Boxee, Inc.), which began as a high tech
High tech
High tech is technology that is at the cutting edge: the most advanced technology currently available. It is often used in reference to micro-electronics, rather than other technologies. The adjective form is hyphenated: high-tech or high-technology...
stealth startup
Stealth startup
A stealth startup is a startup company that avoids public attention. This may be done to hide information from competitors, or — as part of a marketing strategy — to manage public image....
based in Israel and the United States with seed money
Seed money
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, friends and family funding or angel funding , is a securities offering whereby one or more parties that have some connection to a new enterprise invest the funds necessary to start the business so that it has enough funds to sustain itself for a period...
from several angel investor
Angel investor
An angel investor or angel is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity...
s. The company is today publicly known to be financially backed by venture capital
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
firms such as General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners
General Catalyst Partners is a private equity firm focused on venture capital investments in early stage technology-based companies including software, infrastructure software and applied technology businesses. The firm has also includes a growth capital team that focuses on later stage...
, Union Square Ventures
Union Square Ventures
Union Square Ventures is a venture capital firm based in New York City, New York, United States.The firm was founded by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham in 2004...
, Softbank
SoftBank
is a Japanese telecommunications and internet corporation, with operations in broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-Commerce, Internet, broadmedia, technology services, finance, media and marketing, and other businesses....
, Pitango, Spark Capital and Globis Capital Partners.
Overview
Boxee supports a wide range of multimedia formats and includes features such as playlists, audio visualizations, slideshows, weather forecastsWeather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the state of the atmosphere for a given location. Human beings have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia, and formally since the nineteenth century...
reporting, and an expanding array of third-party plugins. As a media center, Boxee can play most audio and video file formats, as well as display images from many sources, including CD/DVD-ROM drive
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, USB flash drive
USB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
s, the Internet, and local area network
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
shares.
Through the processing power of modern PC
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
hardware, Boxee is able to decode high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
up to 1080p
1080p
1080p is the shorthand identification for a set of HDTV high-definition video modes that are characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scan, meaning the image is not interlaced as is the case with the 1080i display standard....
. Boxee is able to use Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
's VDPAU
VDPAU
VDPAU is an open source library and API originally designed by Nvidia for its GeForce 8 series and later GPU hardware, targeted at the X Window System on Unix-based operating systems...
on Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
-based operating-systems, and DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) on Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
and newer Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
operating-systems to utilize GPU accelerated video decoding to assist with process of video decoding of high-definition videos.
With its Python
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
-powered plugin system, the Boxee software incorporates features such as Apple movie trailer support and subtitle downloading, access to large on-demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
video streaming services Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
, Headweb and VUDU; a range of popular online internet content channels like audio services Pandora Radio, Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
, Jamendo
Jamendo
Jamendo is a music website and a community of music authors. It bills itself as "the world's #1 platform for free and legal music downloads under Creative Commons licenses."...
, NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast is cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet. The software, developed by Nullsoft , allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling the creation of Internet radio "stations"...
radio streams; video services from ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer, commonly shortened to iPlayer, is an internet television and radio service, developed by the BBC to extend its former RealPlayer-based and other streamed video clip content to include whole TV shows....
, Blip.TV
Blip.tv
The website Blip.tv is a platform for web series. The company offers a for the "best in original web series" and also offers a dashboard for producers of original web series to distribute and monetize their productions....
, CNET, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
, Funny or Die
Funny or Die
Funny or Die is a comedy video website founded by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions with original and user-generated content. Funny or Die contains exclusive material from a number of famous contributors and also has its own Funny or Die Team, which creates...
, Joost
Joost
Joost is an Internet TV service, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis . During 2007-8 Joost used peer-to-peer TV technology to distribute content to their Mozilla-based desktop player; in late 2008 this was migrated to use a Flash-based Web player instead.Joost began development in 2006...
, Major League Baseball
MLB.com
MLB.com is the official site of Major League Baseball and is overseen by Major League Baseball Advanced Media, L.P. . MLB.com is a source of baseball-related information, including baseball news, statistics, and sports columns...
, NHL Hockey
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, MTV Music
MTV Music
MTV Music is a video/music sharing website launched on October 28, 2008 by MTV. The website offers a large collection of music videos that date back to the early 1980s...
, MySpaceTV, Revision3, MUBI
Mubi
Mubi is a town in Adamawa state, Nigeria. The major tribes are Fulanis from Digil as well as the Fali People from Vimtim. Names like Nuhu Auwalu Wakili are very common in the state. The Nuhu Wakili's family is the ruling family in the town. It is home to the state university, Adamawa State...
, OpenFilm
Openfilm
Openfilm is a website for finding and distributing independent film. Its Advisory Board includes members of the film industry, such as James Caan, Robert Duvall, Scott Caan and Mark Rydell, and independent filmmaker Alan Melikdjanian....
, SnagFilms
SnagFilms
SnagFilms is a website that offers advertising-supported documentary films. Films are streamed on the website, which contains a library of around 2,000 films. Filmmakers can submit documentaries for consideration as well...
, IndieMoviesOnline, EZTakes, United Football League
United Football League
United Football League may refer to:*United Football League , an association football league in the Philippines.*United Football League , an American football league which operated from 1961 to 1964...
, VEVO
Vevo
Vevo is a music video website. It is a joint venture among Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Abu Dhabi Media with EMI licensing its content to the group without taking an ownership stake. The service was launched officially on December 8, 2009...
, Vice Magazine, TED
TED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
, The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network
The WB Television Network is a former television network in the United States that was launched on January 11, 1995 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and Tribune Broadcasting. On January 24, 2006, CBS Corporation and Warner Bros...
, YouTube and image services from Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
and Picasa
Picasa
Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...
Web picture viewing plugins. All are available as media sources available alongside the local library.
Some of the services are via specialized connections (e.g., YouTube), while the rest are a preselected list of podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
channels for streaming using generic RSS web feeds (e.g., BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
). Boxee also supported NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
's Hulu
Hulu
Hulu is a website and over-the-top subscription service offering ad-supported on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes and other new media, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, and Obstacle on October 20th 2011 Nickelodeon and CBS and many other...
quite early on, but in February 2009 was asked by Hulu to remove the service at the request of Hulu's content partners. Boxee later reinstated the feature using Hulu's RSS feeds, but Hulu once again blocked access.
Even though both the Boxee App and the Boxee Box support Netflix, the Boxee App supports only a limited instant queue, missing more recent TV shows and movies available through the web browser and iPhone apps.
Boxee recently introduced a new plugin architecture based on the XUL
XUL
In computer programming, XUL , the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project. XUL operates in Mozilla cross-platform applications such as Firefox...
(XULRunner
XULRunner
XULRunner is a runtime environment developed by the Mozilla Foundation to provide a common back-end for XUL-based applications. It replaced the Gecko Runtime Environment, a stalled project with a similar purpose....
) framework which technically allows any web-based application to be ported into an application for Boxee integration. Because of this Boxee can now utilise Mozilla corebase architecture for most of its plugins – since this is the same core architecture that Firefox uses, Hulu will see Boxee as "any other Mozilla browser so Hulu doesn't block the app." Hulu's latest attempt to thwart Boxee involves JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
scrambling.
Another interesting aspect is how Boxee manages to play Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
content from sites such as YouTube and Hulu, and display HTML5 or Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is an application framework for writing and running rich Internet applications, with features and purposes similar to those of Adobe Flash. The run-time environment for Silverlight is available as a plug-in for web browsers running under Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...
content from such web-based services such as HBO Go and Netflix. Boxee seems to be shipping with a closed source, binary-only, program called "bxflplayer", which seems to load Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight proprietary plugins. This program communicates with the main Boxee process via shared memory and it renders the video onto screen. By using this approach, it is possible for Boxee not only to play Flash Video and Silverlight content that is protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management)
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
but also allows for the user to control the player using a remote control and other input devices that are more suitable to laid back watching. Same as with the above mentioned "libboxee", it is not clear if this way of using "bxflplayer" as closed source libraries with a GPL licensed software passes as GPL linking exception
GPL linking exception
A GPL linking exception modifies the GNU General Public License to create a new, modified license. Such modified licenses enable software projects which provide library code, to be "linked to" the programs that use them, without applying the full terms of the GPL to the using program...
or not.
Boxee also includes a built-in BitTorrent client, with a frontend
Front-end and back-end
Front end and back end are generalized terms that refer to the initial and the end stages of a process. The front end is responsible for collecting input in various forms from the user and processing it to conform to a specification the back end can use...
for it integrated into the Boxee interface, and there are also Torrent links to legal BitTorrent tracker
BitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
s download sites available incorporated by default. Through Boxee's Python plugin system it is also possible for end-users to add unofficial third-party plugins to enable Torrent downloads from sites such as The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
.
Boxee source code is otherwise in majority based on the XBMC Media Center project's source code which Boxee uses as its software framework
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
, and the Boxee developers contribute changes to that part back upstream to the XBMC project. So Boxee is partially open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
and those parts are distributed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, however Boxee's social networking layer library, "libboxee" is closed source as it deals with proprietary methods of communication with Boxee's online back-end server which handles the user account information and social network communications between the users in the Boxee userbase, it is not clear if this way of using closed source libraries with a GPL licensed software passes the GPL linking exception
GPL linking exception
A GPL linking exception modifies the GNU General Public License to create a new, modified license. Such modified licenses enable software projects which provide library code, to be "linked to" the programs that use them, without applying the full terms of the GPL to the using program...
or not.
Social Networking Layers
The social networking component of Boxee is its major differentiator from other media center software, in several ways, as follows.Boxee requires registered user accounts, which form a social network of fellow Boxee users. Users can follow the activity of other Boxee users who were added as friends, and can publicly rate and recommend content. Users can also control what media appear in the activity feed in order to maintain privacy. If a user recommends something that is freely available from an internet content service then Boxee will let others users stream it directly. If a user recommends something that is not freely available then Boxee will try to show metadata, and movie trailers if it is a movie that the user recommend.
The user's friends' Boxee activity feeds are displayed on the user's home screen, as is the user's own recent activity. Internet content is accessed through a sub-menu of each of the video, audio, and photo menu items, such as Video -> "My videos" and Video -> "Internet videos".
In addition Boxee Beta and later has the option of monitoring your Twitter and Facebook news feeds to automatically discover links to videos, Boxee will then add those videos to your watch queue in Boxee so that you can later watch those video directly in Boxee when you want.
Boxee can also export a user's media activity feed to other social networking services such as FriendFeed
FriendFeed
FriendFeed is a real-time feed aggregator that consolidates the updates from social media and social networking websites, social bookmarking websites, blogs and micro-blogging updates, as well as any other type of RSS/ Atom feed...
, Twitter, and Tumblr
Tumblr
Tumblr is a website and microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use. The site ranks as the 10th...
. The list of connections to such supported third-party social networking services is currently small, and this feature is one-way only, (it is for example not yet possible to monitor Twitter feeds from within Boxee), but this type of third-party integration is different from the way content sources are treated. Through FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr it is then possible from those third-party social networking services for a user to choose to post the Boxee activity feed to social networking sites such as Facebook, (currently through FriendFeed, Twitter, and Tumblr apps for Facebook).
Boxee AppBox Add-on Store and plugin Apps (widgets/gadgets)
Boxee's "AppBox" app store "App Store" which is a digital distributionDigital distribution
Online distribution, digital distribution, or electronic software distribution is the practice of delivering content without the use of physical media, typically by downloading via the internet directly to a consumer's device. Online distribution bypasses conventional physical distribution media,...
service platform that serves add-on apps and plug-ins that provide online content to Boxee, the "AppBox" allows users to download new apps and addons directly from Boxee's GUI. Many of these sources are in high definition and use streaming sites' native flash and Silverlight players. Boxee has extensibility and integration with online sources for free and premium streaming content. AppBox offers content including commercial video, educational programming, and media from individuals and small businesses.
Boxee also encourages users to make and submit their own add-on apps and plug-ins to add additional content accessible from within Boxee.
Audio/video playback and handling
Boxee can play multimedia files from CD/DVD media using the system's DVD-ROM drive, local hard disk drive, or stream them over SMB/SAMBA/CIFSServer Message Block
In computer networking, Server Message Block , also known as Common Internet File System operates as an application-layer network protocol mainly used to provide shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. It also provides an...
shares (Windows File-Sharing), or eventually UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
Universal Plug and Play
Universal Plug and Play is a set of networking protocols for primarily residential networks without enterprise class devices that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence...
shares (not available in v0.9.14). Boxee is designed to take advantage of the system's network port if a broadband Internet connection is available, using the IMDb
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
to obtain metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
information, thumbnails, and reviews on movies, TV.com
TV.com
TV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
for TV show thumbnails and metadata
Metadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
, Freedb
Freedb
freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on the now-proprietary CDDB . As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs...
for Audio-CD track-listings, and album-cover thumbnails via AMG. Boxee can stream Internet-video-streams, and play Internet-radio-stations (such as SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast is cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet. The software, developed by Nullsoft , allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling the creation of Internet radio "stations"...
). Boxee also includes the option to submit music usage statistics to Last.fm
Last.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
and a weather-forecast (via weather.com
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel is a US cable and satellite television network since May 2, 1982, that broadcasts weather forecasts and weather-related news, along with entertainment programming related to weather 24 hours a day...
). It also has music/video-playlist features, picture/image-slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
functions, an MP3+CDG karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
function (not available on the Boxee Box) and many audio-visualizations
Music visualization
Music visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
and screensaver
Screensaver
A screensaver is a type of computer program initially designed to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT and plasma computer monitors by blanking the screen or filling it with moving images or patterns when the computer is not in use...
s. Boxee can in addition upscale/upconvert all 480p/576p standard-resolution
Standard-definition television
Sorete-definition television is a television system that uses a resolution that is not considered to be either enhanced-definition television or high-definition television . The term is usually used in reference to digital television, in particular when broadcasting at the same resolution as...
videos and output them to 720p, 1080i, or 1080p HDTV
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
-resolutions.
Format support
Boxee can be used to play/view practically all common multimediaMultimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
formats (except those with DRM). It can decode these in software and optionally pass-through AC3
Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
/DTS audio from movies directly to S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
output to an external audio amplifier
Audio amplifier
An audio amplifier is an electronic amplifier that amplifies low-power audio signals to a level suitable for driving loudspeakers and is the final stage in a typical audio playback chain.The preceding stages in such a chain are low power audio amplifiers which perform tasks like pre-amplification,...
or receiver.
- Supported formats:
- Physical media: CDs, DVDs, Video CDVideo CDBefore the advent of DVD and Blu-ray, the Video CD became the first format for distributing films on standard 120 mm optical discs. The format is a standard digital format for storing video on a Compact Disc...
s (including DVD-VideoDVD-VideoDVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
, VCD/SVCD and Audio-CD/CDDA) - Container formats: AVIAudio Video InterleaveAudio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback...
, MPEG PS, MPEG TS, ASFAdvanced Systems FormatAdvanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media...
, FLV, MatroskaMatroskaThe Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free container format, a file format that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks in one file. It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows...
, QuickTimeQuickTime File FormatQuickTime File Format is a computer file format used natively by the QuickTime framework.- Design :The format specifies a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text...
, MP4MPEG-4 Part 14MPEG-4 Part 14 or MP4 is a multimedia container format standard specified as a part of MPEG-4. It is most commonly used to store digital video and digital audio streams, especially those defined by MPEG, but can also be used to store other data such as subtitles and still images...
, M4A, AACAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, NUT, OggOggOgg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
, OGM, RealMediaRealMediaRealMedia is a proprietary multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. Its extension is ".rm". It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio and is used for streaming content over the Internet....
RAM/RM/RV/RA/RMVB, 3GP3GP3GP is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones....
, VIVO, PVA, NUVMythTVMythTV is a free and open source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living-room TV, and turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater...
, NSVNullsoft Streaming VideoNullsoft Streaming Video is a media container designed for streaming video content over the internet. NSV was developed by Nullsoft, the makers of Winamp....
, NSANullsoft Streaming VideoNullsoft Streaming Video is a media container designed for streaming video content over the internet. NSV was developed by Nullsoft, the makers of Winamp....
, FLIAutodeskAutodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, FLCAutodeskAutodesk, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that focuses on 3D design software for use in the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries. The company was founded in 1982 by John Walker, a coauthor of the first versions of the company's...
, and DVR-MSDVR-MSDVR-MS is a proprietary video and audio file container format, developed by Microsoft used for storing TV content recorded by Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista and Windows 7.... - Video formats: MPEG-1MPEG-1MPEG-1 is a standard for lossy compression of video and audio. It is designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s without excessive quality loss, making video CDs, digital cable/satellite TV and digital audio broadcasting possible.Today, MPEG-1 has become...
, MPEG-2MPEG-2MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission...
, MPEG-4 (SP and ASP), MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
(H.264H.264/MPEG-4 AVCH.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC is a standard for video compression, and is currently one of the most commonly used formats for the recording, compression, and distribution of high definition video...
), HuffyuvHuffyuvHuffyuv is a lossless video codec created by Ben Rudiak-Gould which is meant to replace uncompressed YCbCr as a video capture format.Despite the "YUV" in the name, it does not compress the YUV color space, but YCbCr...
, IndeoIndeoIndeo Video is a video codec developed by Intel in 1992. It was sold to Ligos Corporation in 2000. While its original version was related to Intel's DVI video stream format, a hardware-only codec for the compression of television-quality video onto compact disks, Indeo was distinguished by being...
, MJPEG, RealVideoRealVideoRealVideo is a suite of proprietary video compression formats developed by RealNetworks – the specific format changes with the version. It was first released in 1997 and is at version 10. RealVideo is supported on many platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and several mobile...
, SorensonSorenson codecSorenson codec may refer to either of three proprietary video codecs: Sorenson Video, Sorenson Video 3 or Sorenson Spark. Sorenson Video is also known as Sorenson Video Codec, Sorenson Video Quantizer or SVQ...
, WMVWindows Media Video'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater...
, CinepakCinepakCinepak is a video codec developed by Peter Barrett at SuperMac Technologies, and released in 1991 with the Video Spigot, and then in 1992 as part of Apple Computer's QuickTime video suite. It was designed to encode 320x240 resolution video at 1x CD-ROM transfer rates. The codec was ported to the...
, - Audio formats: AIFF, WAV/WAVEWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, MP2MPEG-1 Audio Layer IIMPEG-1 Audio Layer II or MPEG-2 Audio Layer II is a lossy audio compression format defined by ISO/IEC 11172-3 alongside MPEG-1 Audio Layer I and MPEG-1 Audio Layer III...
, MP3, AACAdvanced Audio CodingAdvanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, AACplus, AC3Dolby DigitalDolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints...
, DTS, ALACApple LosslessApple Lossless Apple Lossless Apple Lossless (also known as ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec), or ALE (Apple Lossless Encoder) is an audio codec developed by Apple Inc. for lossless data compression of digital music. After initially being proprietary for many years, in late 2011 Apple open sourced...
, AMR, FLAC, Monkey's AudioMonkey's AudioMonkey's Audio is a file format for audio data compression. Being a lossless format, Monkey's Audio does not discard data during the process of encoding, unlike lossy compression methods such as AAC, MP3, Vorbis and Musepack....
(APE), RealAudioRealAudioRealAudio is a proprietary audio format developed by RealNetworks and first released in April 1995. It uses a variety of audio codecs, ranging from low-bitrate formats that can be used over dialup modems, to high-fidelity formats for music. It can also be used as a streaming audio format, that is...
, SHNShortenShorten is a file format used for compressing audio data. It is a form of data compression of files and is used to losslessly compress CD-quality audio files . Shorten is no longer developed and more recent lossless audio codecs such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio , TTA, and WavPack have become more...
, WavPackWavPackWavPack is a free, open source lossless audio compression format developed by David Bryant.-Features:WavPack compression can compress 8-, 16-, 24-, and 32-bit fixed-point, and 32-bit floating point audio files in the .WAV file format. It also supports surround sound streams and high frequency...
, MPC/Musepack/Mpeg+MusepackMusepack or MPC is an open source lossy audio codec, specifically optimized for transparent compression of stereo audio at bitrates of 160–180 kbit/s...
, SpeexSpeexSpeex is a patent-free audio compression format designed for speech and also a free software speech codec that may be used on VoIP applications and podcasts. It is based on the CELP speech coding algorithm. Speex claims to be free of any patent restrictions and is licensed under the revised BSD...
, VorbisVorbisVorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
and WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
. - Digital picture/image formatsDigital cameraA digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
: BMP, JPEGJPEGIn computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
, GIF, PNG, TIFFTagged Image File FormatTIFF is a file format for storing images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and both amateur and professional photographers in general. As of 2009, it is under the control of Adobe Systems...
, MNG, ICO, PCXPCXPCX is an image file format developed by the now-defunct ZSoft Corporation of Marietta, Georgia. It was the native file format for PC Paintbrush and became one of the first widely accepted DOS imaging standards, although it has since been succeeded by more sophisticated image formats, such as GIF,...
and Targa/TGATruevision TGATruevision TGA, often referred to as TARGA, is a raster graphics file format created by Truevision Inc. . It was the native format of TARGA and VISTA boards, which were the first graphic cards for IBM-compatible PCs to support Highcolor/truecolor display... - Subtitle formatsSubtitle (captioning)Subtitles are textual versions of the dialog in films and television programs, usually displayed at the bottom of the screen. They can either be a form of written translation of a dialog in a foreign language, or a written rendering of the dialog in the same language, with or without added...
: AQTitle, ASS/SSASubStation AlphaSubStation Alpha , abbreviated SSA, is a subtitle file format created by CS Low that allows for more advanced subtitles than the conventional SRT and similar formats. This format can be rendered with VSFilter in conjunction with a DirectShow-aware video player , or MPlayer with the SSA/ASS library...
, CCClosed captioningClosed captioning is the process of displaying text on a television, video screen or other visual display to provide additional or interpretive information to individuals who wish to access it...
, JACOsub, MicroDVDMicroDVDMicroDVD is a subtitle file format for digital video. Its name is derived from a media player application designed to play DVD videos along with subtitles, originally developed by Tiamat Software. The application was first released in 2000 but development ended in 2001...
, MPsub, OGM, PJS, RT, SMISAMISAMI is a Microsoft accessibility initiative released in 1998. The structured markup language is designed to simplify creating captions for media playback on a PC, i.e. not for broadcast purposes....
, SRTSubRipSubRip is a software program for Windows which "rips" subtitles and their timings from video. It is free software, released under the GNU GPL...
, SUBSubViewerSubViewer is a utility for adding and synchronizing subtitles to video content. It was created by David Dolinski in 1999, and offered for download on his personal website, . A friend of David Dolinski created, at the same time, software to extract subtitles from DVD named SubRip.SubViewer became...
, VOBsubVSFilterDirectVobSub formerly known as VSFilter is a software add-on for Microsoft Windows that is able to read external subtitle files and superimposes them on a playing video file....
, VPlayer
- Physical media: CDs, DVDs, Video CD
Video playback in detail
The Video Library, one of the Boxee metadata databases, is a key feature of Boxee. It allows for the automatic organization of your video content by information associated with the video files (movies and recorded TV Shows) themselves. The Library Mode view in Boxee allows you to browse your video content by categories such as Genre, Title, Year, Actors and Director.Boxee video-playback uses a video-player 'core' called "DVDPlayer" that was originally developed by the XBMC developers as a DVD-player for DVD-Video movies and thus includes native support for DVD-menus. This video-player 'core' today supports all the FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
codecs. One relatively unusual feature of this "DVDPlayer" video-player core is the capability to on the fly
On the fly
-Colloquial usage:In colloquial use, on the fly means something created when needed. The phrase is used to mean:# something that was not planned ahead# changes that are made during the execution of same activity: ex tempore, impromptu.-Automotive usage:...
parse and play DVD-Video movies that are stored in ISO and IMG
ISO image
An ISO image is an archive file of an optical disc, composed of the data contents of every written sector of an optical disc, including the optical disc file system...
DVD-images, DVD-Video movies that are stored as DVD-Video (IFO
IFO
IFO is a type of DVD-Video file that stores information about chapters, subtitles and audio tracks.An IFO file is one of three types of files that are used on DVDs. It contains important navigational information, such as where a video chapter begins, and where audio and subtitle streams exist...
/VOB
VOB
A VOB file is a container format in DVD-Video media. VOB can contain video, audio, subtitle, menu and navigation contents multiplexed together into a stream form. VOB is based on the MPEG program stream format, but with additional limitations and specifications in the private streams...
/BUP
BUP
A BUP file is a backup of the IFO file on a DVD, which contains the information about the organization of tracks, menus, chapters, subtitles on the disc. BUP files are used in the event that the corresponding IFO file is unreadable, perhaps due to a scratch on the surface of the disc.Other DVD...
) files on a harddrive or network-share, and also ISO and IMG DVD-images directly from RAR and ZIP
ZIP (file format)
Zip is a file format used for data compression and archiving. A zip file contains one or more files that have been compressed, to reduce file size, or stored as is...
archives. In addition to this, the developers of this video-player 'core' also claim that it offers better quality upscaling of all DVD-Video movies when outputing them to a 720p, 1080i or 1080p HDTV resolutions than what most high-definition television set's own native function for upscaling/upconverting video offers.
Audio playback in detail
The Music Library is one of the Boxee metadataMetadata
The term metadata is an ambiguous term which is used for two fundamentally different concepts . Although the expression "data about data" is often used, it does not apply to both in the same way. Structural metadata, the design and specification of data structures, cannot be about data, because at...
database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
s and another key feature of Boxee. It automatically organizes your music collection by information stored in your music files ID meta tags
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
, such as title, artist, album, genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
and popularity.
For audio playback, Boxee includes an audio-player called "PAPlayer (Psycho-Acoustic Audio Player)" developed by the XBMC developers. Some of this audio-player core's most notable features are on-the-fly
On the fly
-Colloquial usage:In colloquial use, on the fly means something created when needed. The phrase is used to mean:# something that was not planned ahead# changes that are made during the execution of same activity: ex tempore, impromptu.-Automotive usage:...
audio frequency resampling
Resampling
Resampling may refer to:* Resampling , several related audio processes* Resampling , resampling methods in statistics* Resampling , scaling of bitmap images* Sample rate conversion-See also:* Downsampling* Upsampling...
, gapless playback
Gapless playback
Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks without intervening silence or clicks at the point of the track change. Gapless playback is common with compact discs, gramophone records, or tapes, but is not always available with other formats that employ compressed...
, crossfading
Fade (audio engineering)
In audio engineering, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease in the level of an audio signal. The term can also be used for film cinematography or theater lighting, in much the same way ....
, ReplayGain, cue sheet and Ogg
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
Chapter support. PAPlayer handles a very large variety of audio file-formats, and it also supports many different tagging standards.
Digital picture/image display in detail
Boxee handles all common digital picture/image formatsDigital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
with the options of panning/zooming
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
and slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
with "Ken Burns Effect
Ken Burns Effect
The Ken Burns effect is a popular name for a type of panning and zooming effect used in video production from still imagery.The name derives from extensive use of the technique by American documentarian Ken Burns...
", with the use of CxImage open source library code.
BitTorrent client, interface, and torrent trackers
Boxee also includes a built-in BitTorrent client (not in the Windows version), with a frontend for it integrated into the Boxee interface, and there are also Torrent links to legal BitTorrent trackerBitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
s download sites available incorporated by default. Through Boxee's Python plugin system it is also possible for the end-users to make themselves or add unofficial plugins made by third-party persons for other BitTorrent trackers.
Mobile software associated with Boxee
The Boxee Remote (spelled "boxee remote") is an application released by Boxee Inc. for the Apple Inc. iOS which allows for remote controllingTouchscreen remote control
A touchscreen remote control is a handheld remote control device which uses a touchscreen user interface to replace most of the hard, built-in physical buttons used in normal remote control devices...
of an installed and concurrently-active Boxee session on another computer via the iOS' touchscreen user interface. It was approved for the App Store on 16 March 2010.
Third-party developers have also released Boxee remote control apps for Android and webOS.
Hardware with Boxee software integrated
The developers of Boxee have stated that their goal is to have Boxee media center software run on as many third-party hardware platforms and operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s as possible, and they are currently developing a dedicated set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
(hardware) called "Boxee Box" in cooperation with D-Link
D-Link
D-Link Corporation was founded in June 1986 in Taipei as Datex Systems Inc. It began as a network adapter vendor and has gone on to become a designer, developer, and manufacturer of networking solutions for both the consumer and business markets.In 2007, it was the leading networking company in...
which is the first "Powered by Boxee" branded device to be announced. The company behind Boxee has also more than once said that they are very interested in licensing the Boxee media center software and its social networking service as a third-party software component
Third-party software component
In computer programming, a third-party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform...
to other companies and ODM
Original Design Manufacturer
An original design manufacturer is a company which designs and manufactures a product which is specified and eventually branded by another firm for sale. Such companies allow the brand firm to produce without having to engage in the organization or running of a factory...
/OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer
An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under that purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product. When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a...
's for use on their own hardware, such as game-consoles
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
, set-top box
Set-top box
A set-top box or set-top unit is an information appliance device that generally contains a tuner and connects to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the signal into content which is then displayed on the television screen or other display device.-History:Before the...
es from cable-TV companies
Television station
A television station is a business, organisation or other such as an amateur television operator that transmits content over terrestrial television. A television transmission can be by analog television signals or, more recently, by digital television. Broadcast television systems standards are...
, Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
s, or embedded computers
Embedded system
An embedded system is a computer system designed for specific control functions within a larger system. often with real-time computing constraints. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. By contrast, a general-purpose computer, such as a personal...
built-in to television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s, and other entertainment devices for the living room.
This is a list of third-party companies who sell hardware bundled with Boxee media center software pre-install, or sell uninstalled systems that specifically claim to be Boxee-compatible ("Boxee Enabled") by the manufacturer. These third-party companies directly or indirectly help submit bug fixes back upstream to Boxee, as well as to the XBMC project which Boxee in turn uses as its framework.
Boxee Box by D-Link
Boxee BoxBoxee Box
Boxee Box by D-Link is a Linux-based set-top device and media extender that first began shipping in 33 countries worldwide on the 10th of November 2010...
by D-Link
D-Link
D-Link Corporation was founded in June 1986 in Taipei as Datex Systems Inc. It began as a network adapter vendor and has gone on to become a designer, developer, and manufacturer of networking solutions for both the consumer and business markets.In 2007, it was the leading networking company in...
(officially "D-Link Boxee Box DSM-380") is a Linux-based set-top device and media extender that first began shipping in 33 countries worldwide on 10 November 2010. Designed to easily bring internet television and other video to the television via Boxee's software, it comes pre-installed with Boxee media center software and the hardware is based on Intel CE4110 system-on-a-chip
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
platform (that has a 1.2Ghz Intel Atom
Intel Atom
Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...
CPU with a PowerVR SGX535
PowerVR
PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and Direct X, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL acceleration....
Integrated graphics processor), 1GB of RAM
Random-access memory
Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
, and 1GB of NAND Flash Memory. The DSM-380 features output ports for HDMI
HDMI
HDMI is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. It is a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA...
(version 1.3), optical digital audio (S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
) connector, and RCA connector
RCA connector
An RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...
for analog stereo audio
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
, two USB ports, an SD card slot, wired 100Mbps
Megabit
The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix mega is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 106 , and therefore...
(100BASE-T) ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, and built-in 802.11n WiFi.
The Boxee Box also ships with a small two-sided RF
Radio frequency
Radio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...
remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
with 4-way D-pad
D-pad
A D-pad is a flat, usually thumb-operated directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones...
navigation and a full QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
keypad
Keypad
A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which usually bear digits, symbols and usually a complete set of alphabetical letters. If it mostly contains numbers then it can also be called a numeric keypad...
as standard, and this remote is also being sold separately with an USB-receiver as "D-Link Boxee Box Remote DSM-22" that one can use with Boxee installed on a computer so that one can use this remote without owning D-Link's Boxee Box The look of both the case and remote prototype
Prototype
A prototype is an early sample or model built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from.The word prototype derives from the Greek πρωτότυπον , "primitive form", neutral of πρωτότυπος , "original, primitive", from πρῶτος , "first" and τύπος ,...
s for the Boxee Box was designed by San Francisco based Astro Studios, which is the same designer company that designed the look of Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
and the Microsoft Zune.
Iomega TV with Boxee by Iomega
Iomega TV with Boxee by IomegaIomega
Iomega is an American producer of consumer external, portable and networking storage hardware. Established in the 1980s, Iomega has sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks. On April 8, 2008, EMC Corporation announced its plans to acquire Iomega for a consideration of US $213M...
was annnounced by Boxee on 4 January 2011, this was the second Boxee device to be announced, and it was said that it will begin shipping in Q1 of 2011. Just like the Boxee Box by D-Link, the Iomega TV with Boxee is a Linux device that comes pre-installed with Boxee media center software and the hardware is based on Intel CE4110 system-on-a-chip
System-on-a-chip
A system on a chip or system on chip is an integrated circuit that integrates all components of a computer or other electronic system into a single chip. It may contain digital, analog, mixed-signal, and often radio-frequency functions—all on a single chip substrate...
platform (that has a 1.2Ghz Intel Atom
Intel Atom
Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...
CPU with a PowerVR SGX535
PowerVR
PowerVR is a division of Imagination Technologies that develops hardware and software for 2D and 3D rendering, and for video encoding, decoding, associated image processing and Direct X, OpenGL ES, OpenVG, and OpenCL acceleration....
Integrated graphics processor), 1GB of RAM
Random-access memory
Random access memory is a form of computer data storage. Today, it takes the form of integrated circuits that allow stored data to be accessed in any order with a worst case performance of constant time. Strictly speaking, modern types of DRAM are therefore not random access, as data is read in...
, and 1GB of NAND Flash Memory. Iomega TV with Boxee features audio / video output ports for HDMI
HDMI
HDMI is a compact audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed digital data. It is a digital alternative to consumer analog standards, such as radio frequency coaxial cable, composite video, S-Video, SCART, component video, D-Terminal, or VGA...
(version 1.3), optical and coaxial digital audio (S/PDIF
S/PDIF
S/PDIF is a digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment over relatively short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a coaxial cable with RCA connectors or a fiber optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theaters and other digital high...
) connectors, and RCA connector
RCA connector
An RCA connector, sometimes called a phono connector or cinch connector, is a type of electrical connector commonly used to carry audio and video signals...
for analog stereo audio
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
, two USB ports, wired 1Gbps
Gigabit
The gigabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix giga is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 109 , and therefore...
ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
, and built-in 802.11n WiFi. Like the D-Link's Boxee Box the Iomega TV with Boxee also ships with a similar small two-sided RF
Radio frequency
Radio frequency is a rate of oscillation in the range of about 3 kHz to 300 GHz, which corresponds to the frequency of radio waves, and the alternating currents which carry radio signals...
remote control
Remote control
A remote control is a component of an electronics device, most commonly a television set, used for operating the television device wirelessly from a short line-of-sight distance.The remote control is usually contracted to remote...
with 4-way D-pad
D-pad
A D-pad is a flat, usually thumb-operated directional control with one button on each point, found on nearly all modern video game console gamepads, game controllers, on the remote control units of some television and DVD players, and smart phones...
navigation and full a QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
keypad
Keypad
A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which usually bear digits, symbols and usually a complete set of alphabetical letters. If it mostly contains numbers then it can also be called a numeric keypad...
as standard.
However unlike D-Link's Boxee Box the Iomega TV with Boxee device will feature space to internally fit a 3,5" SATA harddrive. That harddrive which will be not only be usable to the Boxee software on the device but you will also be able use the device as a NAS (Network Attached Storage)
Network-attached storage
Network-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...
unit to share the media data on it over the network, as a DNLA
Digital Living Network Alliance
The Digital Living Network Alliance is a non-profit collaborative trade organization established by Sony in June 2003, and has more than 250 member companies in the mobile, consumer electronics, PC, and service provider industries...
compliant UPnP AV media server.
Myka ION
Myka ION is an Nvidia IonNVIDIA Ion
Nvidia Ion is a product line of Nvidia corporation intended for motherboards of low-cost portable computers. It uses graphics processing units and chipsets intended for small products.-Description:...
based set-top device designed to bring internet television and media stored on the home network to the living-room, it comes pre-installed with Boxee, XBMC, and Hulu Desktop as applications that can be started from the main menu.
NUU Player
NUU Player by NUU Media (NUU Ltd.) was an Nvidia IonNVIDIA Ion
Nvidia Ion is a product line of Nvidia corporation intended for motherboards of low-cost portable computers. It uses graphics processing units and chipsets intended for small products.-Description:...
based set-top device designed to bring internet television and media stored on the home network to the living-room, it came pre-installed with Boxee, Hulu Desktop, and a WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
web-browser as applications that could be started from the main menu with a remote control. It also has Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
app and Bluetooth
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...
support. Nuu has since discontinued NUU Player development and has removed any mention of it from their web site.
Programming and developing
As a partially open source application and freeware software program, Boxee is developed by a commercial start-up company with the goal of someday profiting from Boxee and their social networking service, working as a distribution application framework for both major pay-per-viewPay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
and independent video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
providers.
Boxee, like XBMC Media Center (which Boxee is based upon), is a cross-platform software programmed mostly in C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
and uses the Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer
Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform, free and open source multimedia library written in C that presents a simple interface to various platforms' graphics, sound, and input devices....
framework with OpenGL renderer
OpenGL
OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
for all versions of Boxee. Some of the libraries that Boxee depends on are also written in the C programming-language
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, but are used with a C++ wrapper and loaded via Boxee's own DLL
Dynamic-link library
Dynamic-link library , or DLL, is Microsoft's implementation of the shared library concept in the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 operating systems...
loader when used inside Boxee.
Add-on apps (widgets/gadgets) and Python scripts as plugins
Boxee features a Python Scripts EnginePython (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
and WindowXML application framework
Application framework
In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific development environment ....
(a XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based widget toolkit
Widget toolkit
In computing, a widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of widgets for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces...
for creating a GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
for widgets) in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets
Microsoft Gadgets are lightweight single-purpose applications, or software widgets, that can sit on a Microsoft Windows user's computer desktop, or are hosted on a web page...
in Windows Sidebar. Python widget scripts allow non-developers to themselves create new add-ons
Browser extension
A browser extension is a computer program that extends the functionality of a web browser in some way. Depending on the browser and the version, the term may be distinct from similar terms such as plug-in or add-on. Mozilla Firefox was designed with the idea of being a small and simple web browser,...
functionality to Boxee, (using the easier to learn Python programming language
Python (programming language)
Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...
), without knowledge of the complex C/C++ programming language
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
that the rest of the Boxee software is written in. Current plugin scripts add-ons include functions like Internet-TV
Internet television
Internet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
and movie-trailer browsers, cinema guides, Internet-radio-station browsers (example SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast
SHOUTcast is cross-platform proprietary software for streaming media over the Internet. The software, developed by Nullsoft , allows digital audio content, primarily in MP3 or HE-AAC format, to be broadcast to and from media player software, enabling the creation of Internet radio "stations"...
), and much more.
Boxee recently also introduced an additional plugin architecture based on the XUL
XUL
In computer programming, XUL , the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project. XUL operates in Mozilla cross-platform applications such as Firefox...
(XULRunner
XULRunner
XULRunner is a runtime environment developed by the Mozilla Foundation to provide a common back-end for XUL-based applications. It replaced the Gecko Runtime Environment, a stalled project with a similar purpose....
) framework which enables any web-based application to be integrated into Boxee as an app add-on. With this new plugin architecture Boxee uses Mozilla
Mozilla
Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software....
corebase architecture for those plugins. Since this is the same core architecture that Firefox uses, Hulu will see Boxee as any other Mozilla-based web-browser.
Skins, skinning, and the skinning-engine
Boxee GUI source code is based on XBMC Media Center which is noted for having a very flexible GUI toolkitWidget toolkit
In computing, a widget toolkit, widget library, or GUI toolkit is a set of widgets for use in designing applications with graphical user interfaces...
and robust framework
Software framework
In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...
for its GUI
Graphical user interface
In computing, a graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices with images rather than text commands. GUIs can be used in computers, hand-held devices such as MP3 players, portable media players or gaming devices, household appliances and...
, using a standard XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
base, making theme
Theme (computing)
In computing, a theme is a preset package containing graphical appearance details, used to customize the look and feel of an operating system, widget set or window manager....
-skinning
Skinning
Skinning, a gerund from the verb to skin, commonly refers to the act of skin removal.The process is usually done with animals, mainly as preparation of the meat beneath and/or use for the fur...
and personal customization
Personalization
Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals. Once confined mainly to the Web, it is increasingly becoming a factor in education, health care Personalization involves using technology to accommodate the differences between individuals. Once confined...
very accessible. Users can create their own skin (or simply modify an existing skin) and share it with others via public websites dedicated for XBMC skins trading.
Limitations and known issues
This is a list of current software limitations in the Boxee code, (Boxee's base source code is based on XBMC Media Center software source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
so Boxee has many of the same software limitations as XBMC).
- Boxee currently cannot play any audio/music files protected/encryptedEncryptionIn cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information...
with Digital rights managementDigital rights managementDigital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
(DRM), such as music purchased from the iTunes StoreITunes StoreThe iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
, MSN MusicMSN MusicMSN Music was a part of the MSN web services. It delivered music news, music videos, spotlights on new music, artist information, and live performances of artists. In 2004, Microsoft created an MSN Music download store to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, though its sales in comparison were...
or Audible.comAudible.comAudible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers....
before DRM restrictions are lifted. - Boxee cannot receive TV signals from a TV tuner device attached to the computer. It is therefore not possible to watch and record live TV programs.
- Boxee is currently available for x86-based platforms, and a x86-64X86-64x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
version is available for Linux and Windows. Boxee is not yet available for ARMARM architectureARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
, PowerPCPowerPCPowerPC is a RISC architecture created by the 1991 Apple–IBM–Motorola alliance, known as AIM...
, or MIPSMIPS architectureMIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
processor architectures. - Boxee requires a DirectXDirectXMicrosoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
9.0 or OpenGLOpenGLOpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...
1.4 with GLSLGLSLOpenGL Shading Language , is a high-level shading language based on the syntax of the C programming language...
(or newer) hardware accelerated graphics GPUGraphics processing unitA graphics processing unit or GPU is a specialized circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory in such a way so as to accelerate the building of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display...
and matching device drivers. - Boxee provides online sources for TV shows missing from the user's local storage. However, online sources may use different season & episode numbering schemes (i.e. anime), resulting in Boxee providing incorrect TV episode enumeration. Boxee does not allow its users to disable online sources and presently does not plan to offer a solution for this issue.
Reception
In October 2008, Boxee won Consumer Electronics AssociationConsumer Electronics Association
The Consumer Electronics Association is a standards and trade organization for the consumer electronics industry in the United States. The Consumer Electronics Association is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the $173 billion U.S...
's (CEA) i-Stage award, and with it $50,000 prize money to go towards the continued development of Boxee, as well as a free booth at the 2009 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show)
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
, the world's largest consumer technology trade show. Boxee then in turn donated half of the $50,000 prize money to the developers of XBMC.
On 9 January 2009, G4
G4 (TV channel)
G4, also known as G4 TV, is an American cable- and satellite-television channel originally geared primarily toward young adult viewers, originally based on the world of video games...
announced Boxee as the winner of their "Best of the Best products of CES 2009" award (in the "Maximum Tech" category) among all the products displayed at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2009
Consumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
trade show.
In January 2010, during the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2010 trade show, Boxee also managed to get five awards; "LAPTOP's Best of CES 2010 – Best Home Entertainment (Boxee Box)", "Last Gadget Standing – CES 2010 Winner", "International CES Best Of Innovations 210 – Home Theater Accessories", "Popular Science – Best of CES 2010 (Products of the Future)".
Patents
For most popular video and audio codecs, Boxee includes native support through free and open sourceFree and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
software libraries, such as LAME
LAME
LAME is a free software codec used to encode/compress audio into the lossy MP3 file format.-History:The name LAME is a recursive acronym for "LAME Ain't an MP3 Encoder". Around mid-1998, Mike Cheng created LAME 1.0 as a set of modifications against the "8Hz-MP3" encoder source code...
, libmpeg2
Libmpeg2
libmpeg2 is a free and open source software library for decoding MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video streams. libmpeg2 is released under the terms of the GNU GPL license.-Legality and software patents:...
, and libavcodec
Libavcodec
libavcodec is a free software/open source LGPL-licensed library of codecs for encoding and decoding video and audio data. Same name but incompatible libraries are provided from both FFmpeg project and Libav project....
(from the FFmpeg
FFmpeg
FFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
project). Since these source code libraries are released under free and open source licenses they are legally redistributable. However, some of these compression methods algorithms, such as the popular MP3 format, are in many countries protected by software patents. Absent a license, this could possibly make it illegal in certain countries to distribute compiled versions of Boxee which includes support for these formats.
Web scraping
Boxee has built-in web scrapingWeb scraping
Web scraping is a computer software technique of extracting information from websites...
to automatically download metadata information and online artwork from sites like IMDb
Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
, Discogs
Discogs
Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...
, freedb
Freedb
freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. It was originally based on the now-proprietary CDDB . As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs...
, and Allmusic. There could be some legal issues associated with web scraping in some countries, as it is against the Terms of Use policy of many websites, however the enforceability of these terms is unclear.
Privacy
As part of the social networking functionality, information about what content users watch is transmitted to Boxee.tv Inc's servers. Concerns have arisen over the use of this information, as Boxee is being created by a for-profit company and possible revenue-generation models for media center applications include the sale of user activity data to advertisers and other interested parties. Boxee's privacy policy does not directly address this issue.Other
Boxee uses libdvdcssLibdvdcss
libdvdcss is a free software library for accessing and unscrambling DVDs encrypted with the Content Scramble System...
to support playback of DVD-Video
DVD-Video
DVD-Video is a consumer video format used to store digital video on DVD discs, and is currently the dominant consumer video format in Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Discs using the DVD-Video specification require a DVD drive and a MPEG-2 decoder...
movies encrypted using the Content Scramble System
Content Scramble System
Content Scramble System is a Digital Rights Management and encryption system employed on almost all commercially produced DVD-Video discs. CSS utilizes a proprietary 40-bit stream cipher algorithm...
(CSS) encryption. The distribution of executable
Executable
In computing, an executable file causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions," as opposed to a data file that must be parsed by a program to be meaningful. These instructions are traditionally machine code instructions for a physical CPU...
versions of Boxee containing this code could possibly violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
in the U.S. and the Copyright Directive
Copyright Directive
The Copyright Directive , is a directive of the European Union enacted to implement the WIPO...
in European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
member countries which have incorporated it into national law. However, this has never been tested in court for open source projects.
See also
- XBMC Media Center, the cross-platform open source media player software that Boxee is based on.
- Comparison of media playersComparison of media playersThe following comparison of video players compares general and technical information for notable software media player programs.For the purpose of this comparison, "video players" are defined as any media player which can play video, even if it can also play audio files.-General:-Operating system...
- FFmpegFFmpegFFmpeg is a free software project that produces libraries and programs for handling multimedia data. The most notable parts of FFmpeg are libavcodec, an audio/video codec library used by several other projects, libavformat, an audio/video container mux and demux library, and the ffmpeg command line...
, the audio and video codec suiteCodecA codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
that Boxee uses for all of its audio and video decoders. - Interactive televisionInteractive televisionInteractive television describes a number of techniques that allow viewers to interact with television content as they view it.- Definitions :...
- Internet televisionInternet televisionInternet television is the digital distribution of television content via the Internet...
- Smart TVSmart TVSmart TV, which is also sometimes referred to as "Connected TV" or "Hybrid TV", , is the phrase used to describe the current trend of integration of the internet and Web 2.0 features into modern television sets and set-top boxes, as well as the technological convergence between computers and these...
- Web televisionWeb televisionWeb television, also commonly referred to as web TV, not to be confused with WebTV, Internet television or catch up TV, is an emerging genre of digital entertainment that is distinct from traditional broadcast television...