Hasta La Gadget!

There are a number of set-top boxes on the market today that allow you to stream content from different services such as Netflix or YouTube. One of those devices is the Boxee TV. Boxee Inc has scored a major win with the announcement that Walmart will be selling its latest device, the Boxee TV, in its 3000 US locations starting tomorrow.

The Boxee TV will be in stores at a price of $98 just in time for the holiday shopping season. Walmart plans to put significant weight behind the product with marketing materials being sent out for the device, and displays set up in the stores. The Boxee TV is a black set-top box that comes with a remote control. The Boxee TV can access free HD broadcast channels as well as streaming Internet content.

The idea is to bring free over the air HD programming and basic cable programming that’s not protected to viewers as well as streaming content from Netflix and other sources. The Boxee TV has dual tuners and will allow you to record one program while watching another live. However, the set-top box has no internal storage device.

All programs that are recorded using the DVR feature are recorded to the cloud. Buyers of the device will get unlimited storage space on the cloud and will be able to watch the recordings on a laptop, tablet, or the TV. There is a $14.99 monthly charge for the cloud-based DVR service, which is only available in certain markets.

“It’s going to be a big launch for us,” Avner Ronen, Boxee’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “There’s a big difference between having your product being carried by retailers, where it sits on the shelf, and getting real marketing behind it.”

[via BusinessWeek]

Walmart to sell Boxee TV starting tomorrow is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you like the idea of the Boxee TV, you’ll be glad to hear that Boxee is handing units out like so much Halloween candy… as long as you live in the right areas, that is. Those who’ve signed up for product notifications and live in the cloud DVR coverage areas of Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Washington, DC can get a free Boxee TV just by filling out a survey. They’ll even have the privilege of getting their units ahead of everyone else. Boxee hasn’t said if any new sign-ups will qualify, though it can’t hurt to try the source link and potentially get a welcome treat.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Boxee hands out free Boxee TVs to its most eager cloud DVR fans originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Oct 2012 11:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Synology‘s network-attached storage devices have been turned into quad-tuner DVRs with streaming to computers, tablets, and smartphones thanks to a new DVBLink add-on. The app – when paired with up to four USB TV tuners – can be used to record TV and stream live broadcasts via DLNA, to XBMC devices, or to iOS, Android, and Windows Phone handsets with full remote control.

Satellite and various forms of digital terrestrial TV are supported, with electronic program guides that can be remotely accessed from a mobile device for setting up recordings. Alternatively, they can be navigated via the browser.

Four USB tuners have been tested with the plug-in: the DVB-S2 Stick for satellite TV (model:460e), nanoStick for DVB-T (73e, 73eSE), and nanoStick T2 (290e) for DVB-T/T2 reception. Others may well work, though they’re not necessarily certified.

Your Synology NAS will need to be running DSM 4.1 or above, too, and there’s a full list of compatible models here. Unfortunately, DVBLink isn’t a free update to Synology’s NAS range. After a 20-day trial, the package costs €25.21 ($33).

Synology NAS become quad-tuner DVRs with remote placeshifting is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Boxee’s origins were humble: once a free-to-download media center app for computers and Apple TVs, the software evolved into a full-blown media streaming box for home theaters, and a powerful one at that (if ultimately flawed). But it was still sequestered from the main TV experience. With Boxee TV, we get one step closer to seamlessly merging the media streaming, channel surfing, and TV hoarding experiences. More »

While being able to schedule DVR recordings from your mobile device is nice, an update currently being pushed to some Comcast DVRs is adding the ability for users to check exactly what shows are stored there from an app or web browser. Previously the only remote info users could get from their DVRs was the percentage of storage currently in use and what recordings were scheduled to take place, but now users can see individual recordings, choose to watch any of them now, change their deletion priority, or even delete them remotely. Hopefully that doesn’t lead to any unintentional interhousehold griefing as users manage the often inadequate hard drive space in their cable DVR, but it can certainly put ones mind at rest to know The League (or whatever your show of choice might be) was successfully archived.

The update is quietly being pushed out as a software update for the DVR itself, and should appear automatically for users on the web or in their iOS app’s DVR manager (Android users can access it as well, but via the browser). We noticed the change after our Motorola DVR got an update that also made the name of a channel appear under the number when typed in from the remote. It worked well, although a few much older recordings were not listed online every new one was, which could explain the quiet rollout that Comcast confirmed to us just began yesterday. One other change taking place at the same time is a new Xfinity TV Player app for iOS that is focused solely on streaming VOD, mirroring a similar app already out on Android. While the Xfinity TV app on the platform has handled streaming duties since 2010, the dedicated player has a different menu and even player interface, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the feature excised from the general app eventually.

Continue reading Comcast quietly updates DVRs with ability to list stored programs from the web, mobile apps

Filed under: Tablets, Software, HD, Mobile

Comcast quietly updates DVRs with ability to list stored programs from the web, mobile apps originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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