There’s a new TV box on the market. It’s name is Boxee, and I’m not too sure what to think about it. Boxee is about twice the size of an iPhone, and it’s a media player that records HD broadcast TV (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) via antenna or programing from your cable provider, and it stores the content in an internet lockbox. For a $15 dollar a month fee, that storage lockbox is bottomless.
Curious of what Boxee has done before, I snooped the internet till I found one of their products reviewed back in January. I found this wireless tuner.
http://gigaom.com/video/boxee-live-tv-review/
It’s interface is cool, but the reception seems kinda sketchy. The marriage of television and internet functions seems very promising. Just take a look how much social media has been blowing up during major events such as the Olympics and Presidential debates.
Now, my gripes. Should I really be paying a $15 subscription fee for storage when most of the shows I watch are on Hulu or Netflix anyway? Also, in order to record channels outside of the big 4, you need to have a cable provider. And chances are, you could just buy a DVR from them in the first place. Plus, I haven’t read anywhere that Boxee can pause or rewind live TV — a huge flaw.
Now, Boxee isn’t the only one moving to the cloud. The swashbucklers at Pirate Bay published a blog post the other day stating that they have moved their servers over to virtual servers, thus making them more resilient to police shutdowns.
Pirate Bay states, “If one cloud-provider cuts us off, goes offline or goes bankrupt, we can just buy new virtual servers from the next provider.” The use of these virtual servers also means that Pirate Bay can easily maintain anonymity from hosting services.
Good news for digital pirates, bad news for cable pirates. The FCC ruled that cable companies can now encrypt their signal so many households will not be able to lift programming. This encryption will be useful in preventing cable internet customers from connecting their feed into a TV and reaping extra benefits.
As time goes by, we find new ways to consume, distribute, and steal media. This much is true — the internet will play an integral role.