Cloud based video storage takes an interesting twist with the introduction of the Boxee TV. Adding to the Boxee Box’s media playback abilities the new Boxee TV is able to record HD free to air TV channels using its dual tuners. Recording to a virtual and unlimited drive in the clouds.
Challenging the need to constantly buy new hard drives Boxee will offer an unlimited account for $14.99 a month, while the Boxee TV will retail for $99 USD.
The new Boxee is a slimline compact box that will blend in with other components in the living room. Unlike the radical rubix cube design of its older brother the Boxee TV is a simpler black rectangular design.
Boxee TV and the unlimited Cloud service are currently being rolled out in a limited number of US markets; the rest of the world will see the new Boxee in 2013. If you’re lucky enough to live in LA, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York or D.C. you can sign up starting in November for Boxee’s $14.99 Unlimited DVR account. Those not wanting the unlimited account will have a limited but free account, Boxee is yet to announce the space available to the free account, 50GB seems to be the typical free account size on the clouds at the moment.
Boxee wisely points out that all traditional hard drive based DVR’s run out of space eventually. Completely negating this issue Boxee has declared the hard drive dead and taken the storage issue out of hands completely. Stress and costs are reduced without the need to keep a storage systems running, as long as the Internet and Boxee keep the Cloud running, no cloud no recordings and plenty of stress.
Once in the Cloud of electronic ether (via WiF orEthernet) your recordings can be viewed on any browser enabled device. Even without the unlimited account this is an incredibly interesting twist for media players.
The dual tuners bring free to air programming to the Boxee while a cable box A/V input will allow the Boxee to record the current cable channel. The original Boxee Box quickly built a good stable of applications while evolving into a solid platform. All of this hard work is leveraged into the Boxee TV with pre-installed apps include Netflix, VODU, YouTube and Vimeo.
Another step in the evolution of living room media players, the Boxee TV brings the benefits of the original Boxee with an interface update and cloud recording functions at half the price. It looks like the steady increase in bandwidth demand will continue for some time to come. The Cloud storage revolution is coming to a TV near you.
Reference: Boxee TV
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