Last week we announced that Live TV was coming to Boxee in January. Today, the SlingPlayer app that was teased earlier this year arrives, bringing live and recorded content from your SlingBox to any TV with a Boxee Box connected. For those who aren’t ready to cut the cord, we still want to help you shave your cable bill by never having to pay for the same content over and over. Whether you’re 3 rooms from your main cable box at home, 3 states away at college, or 3 continents away from your home working, a Slingbox will let you watch your home tv from anywhere with an Internet connection. Hook up a Boxee Box in one of those locations, and not only will you get all of the top original and on demand programming from the web, but a defacto second cable box with no monthly fees.
With the SlingPlayer app, Sling Solo or Pro-HD owners will be able to use the Boxee Box to:
Control their cable box, satellite receiver, DVR, or DVD player from anywhere in the world
Program their DVR and access DVR content
Stream programming in 1080i to Boxee.
We think it’s a pretty killer combination. Whether you’re a parent looking for a present for your college student (free cable from home), or just looking to equip a second room or vacation house with more entertainment, then Boxee + Sling are a great way to go.
If you want to know more about Sling and how the SlingBox works, head on over to their site.
We are working on a new add-on to the Boxee Box that will come out in January. It is a Live TV dongle that lets you connect an antenna to your Box to watch channels like ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in HD with no monthly fee. You can pre-order the Live TV stick for $49.
If you are like us then the way you watch TV has changed. The stuff on Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Vudu, Vimeo keeps getting better and you can watch it everywhere. You end up watching less traditional TV, but continually pay more for it, which doesn’t make much sense.
The problem with canceling your cable subscription and relying just on the Internet has been the lack of live sports, local news, special events and live TV shows (think Dancing with the Stars). But these things are all available on broadcast TV channels like ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC for free, over the air in HD. With Boxee Live TV you can watch them all on your Boxee Box (and still get all the regular Boxee stuff you love to watch too).
Last year, 89 of the top 100 shows were on broadcast networks – they remain the most popular channels on cable. The Superbowl, the World Series, the Oscars, the Grammys, presidential debates and addresses, the Olympics… they’re all on broadcast. Yes, there are hundreds of cable channels, but make a list of the stuff you actually watch. You will probably find that most are on broadcast and the rest are available on Vudu/Netflix/Network sites.
What is left on your list? Is it really worth $85 a month?
We believe the combination of Netflix/Vudu/Vimeo/TED/etc. with over-the-air channels delivers a much better experience for less money.
Cable companies keep telling the press and investors that “cord cutting” is not real, and that if it exists then it’s limited to people who can no longer afford cable. We are sure they are conducting objective and unbiased research, but we are meeting more and more “cord never getters” and “cord cutters” every day. They are more than just people tightening their belts in tough economic times, these are people who have left cable TV behind because it does not fit their lifestyle. They are part of a changing culture, with a changing expectation of how they watch the shows they love.
The cord cutters we talk to have changed the way they watch “TV”. They don’t sit in front of it and channel surf hoping to land on something to watch, they don’t know when shows air, they sometimes don’t even know what channel shows are on. They love “TV”, but not necessarily on an actual TV. The only time they tune into a channel is to watch something live.
The cable companies’ efforts to adapt are more focused on protecting a decades-old business model than delivering a great experience to their customers. The cable companies think you should have no choice but to accept:
-high (and constantly rising) prices,
-a bad user experience on old set-top boxes,
-signing up for a $79 package but getting billed $104.26,
-taking off work to wait for hours for an installation guy who shows up late,
-pushing you to get triple-play including phone service (you don’t want) to get a lower price, only to see your bill double after 6 months,
-letting you sign up on their website, but making you call them to cancel,
-making you physically return the set-top box during working hours in a remote part of town.
There is a better way for you to get TV… and we think Boxee with Live TV can deliver that promise. We want Boxee to be your alternative to Cable TV.
It will start shipping in January, but you can pre-order it today. Here are a few screenshots of the experience.
Will Boxee Live TV be available outside the US? To begin with, Boxee Live TV will be available in US & Canada only. We will update once we have more information for international users.
Does Boxee Live TV have a DVR? No. The focus of Boxee Live TV is well… Live TV… having said that if we get enough users asking for DVR then we could take advantage of that other USB input on the back of the box and let a user connect a drive for recordings. Plus we still have all the shows the web has to offer.
Will it work with Boxee’s on PC/Mac? No. It will only work with the Boxee Box. An updated Mac/PC version of Boxee is in the works, but it will not include support for Boxee Live TV.
Will the Boxee Box support other TV tuners? Not at this time.
Will it connect to my cable box? It will support unencrypted cable channels (clearQAM), so if you get basic cable channels from your cable provider you will be able to connect the coax cable coming out from the wall to Boxee Live TV.
How can I know what channels I’ll get? We will update our website once the product launches to include an easy way for you to see which channels are available in your area. In the meantime, visit AntennaWeb.org. Click “Choose an Antenna”, input your zip code, hit continue, and you’ll see channel listings in your area.
How is this different from Google TV’s support for TV? Google TV’s set top box requires you to connect it to a cable/satellite set-top box.
It does not have a TV tuner built in.
No reception? No problem! If you don’t have reception in your area you may not be ready to cut the cord, but you may be able to give it a serious shave. Call your cable company and ask for Basic Cable. That would be a service level that includes the local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC stations (and some others) and should cost you between $10-$20 depending on who is your cable provider. You will not need a set-top box. You just take the coaxial cable and connect it to the Boxee Live TV dongle and you should get the basic channels with no reception issues.
Been listening to this track while writing the post. Thought it was appropriate…
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