Review of the Boxee Multimedia Software

As time goes by more and more consumers are enjoying the entertainment they love in new and innvovative ways. We have seen products that have greatly helped them accomplish this such as the Apple TV, Hulu, iTunes, mp3 players, and a myriad of others. Major networks have gotten involved with the likes of CBS, NBC, and Fox offering full episodes of their current shows and classic shows right inside the users web browser with full screen options. Now a new product is coming onto the horizon that will take home entertainment and content viewing a huge step forward. The new product is free software called Boxee. Boxee is currently in alpha testing so one must sign up for a free invite in order to use Boxee in its current iteration. Receiving the invitation takes about a week after sign-up. Boxee allows users to watch their own videos and listen to their own music (a la iTunes) however users can also watch online content from Comedy Central, Hulu, CBS, YouTube, and others from right inside the slick Boxee interface.

Signing-up for, Downloading, and Using Boxee

Boxee.tv is the place to sign-up for and learn more about Boxee. The Boxee website offeres a great video outlining the major features and theory behind Boxee. Click the sign-up button to sign-up for the Boxee alpha. As mentioned above it takes about a week to receive the invite. Once the invite lands in your inbox you can start your Boxee profile as well as download the software to your Mac, PC, or Linux machine. There are also instructions that are readily available online for installing Boxee on your Apple TV. However this article is related only to desktop and laptop use of Boxee.

What's So Great About Boxee?

There are a few features of Boxee that set it apart from iTunes, Front Row, or other media center products. First of all, the price is right: free! Second, Boxee allows you to view your local content in the same way that Apple's Front Row does. The same goes for all of your local music. However Boxee really shines when you access online content. Start by launching the Boxee software on your computer. If this is the first time you have run Boxee then you may need to enter your new Boxee username and password. Otherwise you will be taken to the root menu of Boxee.

At this point I need to mention the navigation of Boxee. You can of course use your mouse or trackpad (for a laptop). But for Mac users there is an added bonus. The Apple Remote, included with Apple laptops and consumer-level desktops (i.e. iMac and Mac Mini), can be used to control Boxee. No set-up or configuration is required to do this. The Apple remote works with Boxee right off the bat. So use your mouse or your Apple remote to select the "Boxee" tab on the left side of the screen. You will see a list of content types like Video and Music. To watch video content select "Video". The menu list will then change and give you video-related options such as Movies, TV Shows, and Internet content. Selecting Movies or TV Shows will show the content stored locally on your hard drive. If you select Internet then you will see that the main center window shows icons for Boxee's online content partners. There is YouTube, CNN, Comedy Central, Hulu, CBS, etc. Upon selecting a provider you will be given choices of shows or movies that you would like to view. And simply select the item that you would like to view to begin. It is that easy.

As of right now the viewing of some content is subject to some streaming problems at times the play and pause controls will not respond. Other times they will respond. This is a bug that the good people at Boxee will have to address going forward. Another problem involves YouTube in that you can view "Top Rated", "Most Viewd" and "Featured" videos on YouTube however there is not capability for searching for videos on YouTube. In my opinion this defeats the purpose of the YouTube service and I hope that Boxee will gain this capability in future versions.

Boxee Friends

In addition to simply viewing content on Boxee, you can become "Friends" with other Boxee users. This allows you to share what you are watching with your friends, recommend content to your friends, and receive recommendations from your friends. As a user you will have complete control over what extent your viewed content is shared with the Boxee community. So if you would rather not share that information you have the capability to turn that feature off.

One downfall is that in the current version you must visit your profile via a browser in order to make changes to your personal information or update your profile picture. It would be great if user profiles could be updated from the software interface itself. Perhaps in future iterations we will see an improvement in profile updating.

Alpha Testing Issues

Please take note that Boxee is in alpha testing which means that the version that you sign up for and download during this time is not the final version. Therefore you may find some bugs and issues while using Boxee and information will be sent to the Boxee folks so that they can make improvements. The next phase will be Beta and then sometime after that the final version will be released. The great thing about being an alpha tester is that you play a direct part in helping to finalize this great software. So sign up, invite your friends, and begin building the Boxee community now.

I hope you enjoy Boxee and that this review has been helpful to you.