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Boxee Sold To Samsung

Posted by timothy on from the korean-volvo dept.

New submitter TheRecklessWanderer writes "Boxee, manufacturer of The Boxee Box and Boxee DVR as well as developer of the Boxee software, has been sold to Samsung. Boxee has had a hard time adapting to the quickly changing environment where appliances have converged with televisions (morphing into Smart TVs), and I'm sure Samsung is looking to integrate the software in some form or another into their smart TVs."

27 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Microsoft Media Center by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Come back when it runs in a 3x3 cube, runs silently, and has full codec support out of the box.

  2. Oh, by the way... by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 4, Insightful

    However, the beta Cloud DVR functionality we provided to certain Boxee TV users will be discontinued on July 10th. You will not have access to your existing recordings after that date. We realize many of you loved the service, and we're sorry it won't be available moving forward.

    Cloud, shmoud. I wonder how many times we see variations of this over the next few years?

    1. Re:Oh, by the way... by somersault · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You say that as if it's a bad thing. If you are stupid enough to put something highly monetisable into a cloud service without at least encrypting it, you deserve what you get.. otherwise, yeah, who gives a shit?

      Anyway, those types of services are for convenient synchronisation and data access - not for backup of essential data (unless you have a machine somewhere that you only activate every so often and synch as a backup).

      --
      which is totally what she said
    2. Re:Oh, by the way... by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This is why I have been pointing my customers to stand alone boxes like Nbox and WD devices, its too damned easy for these "streaming" boxes to get the plug pulled and then you are left with a brick. Logitech Google TV anyone?

      This is also why I prefer low power X86 units like the AMD mini-Bobcat boards, if somebody pulls support? Well screw you too, I can slap something like Open ELEC on there and turn pretty much ANY X86 unit into an XBMC "media in a box" with 10 foot UI, just look at how MSFT fucked their customers with Internet TV, but with X86 you can either use a third party hack or completely toss the OS, you DO always have options. With these little ARM suckers I have found too damned many that end up being "DRM in a box" that when the company abandons them if you are VERY lucky you might find one guy in his basement putting out a build that if you jump through enough hoops MIGHT work for a while, but as soon as Chuck gets another box that support is gone and you are again left with a useless hunk of plastic.

      So call me crazy, call me unhip, but i will continue to stick with either a stand alone that will continue working if the company goes tits up or if they have to have streaming support go with an X86 based device so that at least i can put on another OS or update it myself if the company decides to no longer support the users.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    3. Re:Oh, by the way... by hairyfeet · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wow, its nice to know that elitism and being an arrogant asshole is alive and well on the Internet.

      The reason Mr Arrogant that users want this is because THEY DON'T KNOW BETTER and are fricking bombarded with all these "the cloud is magical" ads constantly and they have ZERO clue as to how any of this shit works, but for you to expect that Joe and Jane average is gonna understand the nature of the cloud, encryption, and the value of data control is elitism at its most douchebaggy.

      So how about instead of saying "Fuck them noobs LULZ" your ass put some of your time where your mouth is and try educating people? I try to spend at least an hour or two of my extremely limited free time online going to sites where there are plenty of noobs so i can point out the risks with this or that technology and showing them how they DO have alternatives. Its nice to get all these emails saying things like "Hey thanks for pointing me to several alternatives, i bought the one you suggested and its been working great, thanks again" and at least I'm doing my little part to share knowledge and experience and to point people away from these DRM "cloud in a box" solutions that just hand control to the corps.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    4. Re:Oh, by the way... by spire3661 · · Score: 2

      I too prefer an x86 box as a media player. After I gave up on Tivo for being WAY overpriced for its functions, i built 3 x86 MCE boxes for my TVs. Still came out WAY cheaper then 3 Tivos, and no monthly fee. Antec ISK 90 case with a Asus P8H61 mobo and a Celeron 1610 (Ivy Bridge). Works AWESOME. I have an i5 in the 'main' box for video conversion.

      --
      Good-bye
    5. Re:Oh, by the way... by ImdatS · · Score: 2

      I throw all my movies, tv shows, and songs into directories on a NAS.

      Then I point plex mediaserver to the directory - running on a Mac (currently an iMac or MacMini) and use Plex client to access it.

      If Plex stops any support and kills the app, I can switch to XBMC or any other solution - heck I can even switch to iTunes (all my movies/TV shows are in mp4-format anyway) or just use something like VLC to watch them.

      I *do* have a copy of my music on Google Music Services (20k songs) and on iTunes Match, for the convenience - and it is also good to have to additional backup places on top of my other backups, but apart from that, I don't rely solely on these cloud services. I.e., cloud is a nice to have, but not my sole source of media/document access - merely a secondary or tertiary or so backup solution... (for non-sensitive, non-private data; e.g. my photos are NOT on cloud, except the ones I actively make public).

  3. Re:Microsoft Media Center by NFN_NLN · · Score: 3, Funny

    Microsoft Media Center. That is all.

    If Samsung started building Microsoft Media Center into their smart TVs, I would stop viewing them as an option.

  4. Boxxy?! Oh nevermind... by erroneus · · Score: 2

    For a second there, my brain read "Boxxy" instead of Boxee. I thought "OMG! What a awesome spokesmodel?!"

  5. Smart TV? Help me understand... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm in the market for a new TV. Since I'm very, very old, I'm upgrading from a 25-year-old CRT TV, and I don't think I care much about 4K. I'm prone to VR sickness, so I don't want 3D, either.

    I realize that I probably can't count on my next TV lasting 25 years. But why on Earth would I want my media box built into my television, so that following the curve of technological advancement means pitching the entire huge TV into the waste stream? A media box has a single, well-defined interface to the TV -- one cord, a few if you want to get fancy -- and occupies not very many cubic inches of space. What's the advantage of integrating it into the TV, other than increasing the TV manufacturer's profit margin?

    Someone upthread issued flamebait about MS Media Center, and I'm surprised the flamebait for Apple TV didn't appear even sooner. To me, buying a "Smart TV" is buying into another ecosystem just like them, only with a much tinier R&D budget, probably a less-polished UI, and much dimmer prospects for long-term support.

    1. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I could get Google TV integrated into my TV for little money, I'd take it. It's relatively open, etc. I wouldn't pay a lot. But I would actively avoid a TV with a highly proprietary software stack, and I certainly wouldn't pay very much for any integrated system.

      It seems like they ought to be able to add in the functionality we're talking about for twenty or thirty bucks, though, given the price of a Raspberry Pi. I would certainly pay thirty dollars to get Google TV added to a decent-sized TV.

      It also seems to me that if we had a standard involving a power jack, an HDMI connection, and CEC, that we could have upgradable media player modules. It's not rocket surgery. But of course, it would require cooperation, which is why it won't happen.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Informative

      But why on Earth would I want my media box built into my television, so that following the curve of technological advancement means pitching the entire huge TV into the waste stream?

      You don't pitch it - you use the built-in media box until it becomes obsolete, and then you hook up an external box and use it like a dumb TV. At the end of the day, you've spent money on one less media box.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    3. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by laffer1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As someone who owns a smart tv, an apple tv and a ps3, you're not confused. Smart TV features suck in TVs. They do update them periodically regardless if you want them to or not and the menus are awful to navigate. A few times, I've had to reboot my TV due to a flaky update. Buying a new $100 set top box is no big deal... I upgraded the original apple tv to a v2 some years back painlessly. I get a few years out of one and buy a new one when they actually add features I care about. With the TV, I don't want it to do much.. in reality i just want a monitor with a remote to turn it on and off. I don't use the tuner. I don't change the input source. It's all through my receiver and cable box. If anything, I want a dumb tv.

      --
      MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
    4. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by ArcadeMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You want a computer monitor.

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    5. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      What's the advantage of integrating it into the TV, other than increasing the TV manufacturer's profit margin?

      Exactly. TVs are a commodity - there's very little that differentiates one TV from another, and most consumers will go for the cheapest. There's very little money to be made in TVs (which is why Apple's rumored TV is most peculiar).

      It comes about because the processors used in TVs are getting very powerful for what they're used for - these days you're talking about single or dual core ARM processors with 256+MB or more of RAM and a decent amount of ROM. The pace of technological development has pretty much meant that there's no point using a lower-powered processor (like an ARM9), less memory or Flash - it costs just as much anyways. So you just stick in a Cortex A8 or A9 based chip, some RAM that's supported and cheap and NAND flash, and the chip works just fine. Of course, the whole TV part is pretty low-resource since most people don't go fiddling with the menus often, and the scaling is handled by a bog-standard video processor core you'd probably recognize.

      So you have a powerful chip with a powerful GPU and you're barely using 10% of it. What do you do? You start adding easy software features - a NIC chip or WiFi chip is fairly cheap. Linux is easy to get on (yes, a lot of these TVs run Linux), and now you have a wide open platform for adding stuff to make the TV "smart". The power's there, so why not use it?

      I realize that I probably can't count on my next TV lasting 25 years

      Given how cheap TVs are these days, you're paying far less for a TV of equivalent size to your old CRT one than your CRT one ever costed, not counting inflation. Add in inflation and you'll find your CRT TV probably cost many times more. Enough so that over 25 years of buying replacements, you probably would still spend less than on that CRT TV you bought in the late 80s.

    6. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by MightyYar · · Score: 2

      It's still going to be lower priced than a stand-alone box.

      They may be willing to swallow the development costs to have a competitive advantage against a wall full of identical-looking TVs at Walmart.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    7. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by SeaFox · · Score: 2

      You don't pitch it - you use the built-in media box until it becomes obsolete, and then you hook up an external box and use it like a dumb TV. At the end of the day, you've spent money on one less media box.

      If you take a look at TV set feature/pricing levels, you'll notice that the smart-TV features add an excess to the TV set price that is far higher than the separate media boxes run for. Also, if you buy the first media box built into your TV you can't eBay it when you get the successor.

      It's really smarter to just buy dumb HDTV/Monitors and then purchase the media box separately to start with.

    8. Re:Smart TV? Help me understand... by maccodemonkey · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm in the market for a new TV. Since I'm very, very old, I'm upgrading from a 25-year-old CRT TV, and I don't think I care much about 4K. I'm prone to VR sickness, so I don't want 3D, either.

      I realize that I probably can't count on my next TV lasting 25 years. But why on Earth would I want my media box built into my television, so that following the curve of technological advancement means pitching the entire huge TV into the waste stream?

      Samsung TV's have upgradable motherboards so you can upgrade the hardware that drives the smart tv functions independently of the rest of the box.
      http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/accessories/SEK-1000/XY?subsubtype=accessories

      I'm not a big Samsung fan, but that's your answer.

  6. Let me tell you about my Boxee Box... by RobinH · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know this reflects more on DLink, but I got a Boxee Box when they first came out, and while the idea is really great, the implementation sucked. The Boxee Box frequently freezes or crashes and it's underpowered. The remote control is great that it has a keyboard on the back, but the cursor control for the mouse leaves a lot to be desired. A new version did help a bit, but it's still annoying. Add to that the fact that lots of apps just seem to stop working after a while (not updating their feeds, etc.). Some content just stops working (like CityTV?) apparently because Boxee won't update their version of flash player. Overall, neat idea but sucky experience. Next time I'd just build my own media PC, not buy an appliance.

    --
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
    1. Re:Let me tell you about my Boxee Box... by chromas · · Score: 2

      A new version did help a bit, but it's still annoying.

      Probably thought you meant hardware instead of software.

  7. Smart TV = Dumb Idea ... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm of the opinion that a smart TV is a really stupid idea.

    Starting with the fact that I don't trust the vendors (not to spy on me, not to be incompetent at security, not to be douchebags), moving on to the fact that my expected lifespan for the display is longer than the software is going to be useful, and moving on to the fact that they'll eventually try to dictate how I can watch TV and feed that information back to someone else ... I just don't see this as being a good thing for me, the consumer.

    My current TV (a nice 55" LCD) is used as a monitor only -- my amplifier feeds it a video signal, which it gets from one of several devices. It doesn't participate in channel selection, volume, or anything other than knowing which video signal it needs.

    The way manufacturers are going, any device which isn't a full-on computer is never going to be connected to a network, and won't be bought if it requires that. Not my DVD player, not my video game, not my TV. At least not without a firewall rule which prevents it from getting to the internet.

    Because they keep demonstrating they're not trustworthy.

    I'm not prepared to have some asshole corporation sneak updates onto my TV, or randomly update the EULA saying they're allowed to do whatever bullshit they've come up with this week, or generally act like they own the device when I paid for it.

    These smart devices mostly just seem to give the corporations more control over stuff we paid for. Which I'm sure they think is awesome, but I'll pass.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:Smart TV = Dumb Idea ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is it wife and grandparent-babysitter user friendly?

      Logitech Harmony (and similar) remotes make everything but the most horribly configured A/V setups wife/kid/grandparent/babysitter friendly

  8. Re:Plex on Roku by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It seems to work well enough for the purposes, and avoids the XBMC issue of needing a general purpose computing device in the living room.

    Unfortunately, it swaps it for having to run your desktop PC and your media player at the same time. That's fine for people whose storage is connected directly to their PC anyway, but for those with NAS it's wasteful.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  9. No by yoink! · · Score: 5, Informative

    FTA: "Boxee has had a hard time adapting to the quickly changing environment where appliances have converged with televisions (morphing into Smart TVs), and I'm sure Samsung is looking to integrate the software in some form or another into their smart TVs."

    No. Boxee shunned the very people who championed their product, locking down their previously open software, based on already-open software, and mating it to poor hardware. Boxee abandoned all that made them Boxee to begin with. (I can't seem to find the multi-page comment thread from Boxee's blog when they announced EOL for the still-buggy Boxee-box - maybe someone can get it [FIXED].)

    For those who aren't in the loop, a simple (and not yet fully exploited) "hack" was found: http://boxeeplus.com/

    1. Re:No by Flammon · · Score: 2

      I couldn't believe the Boxee guys had the audacity and stupidity to turn on the people who supported them. I sold my Boxee Box about 1 month after I bought it and got 2 ATV2's for about the same price! The ATV2 was $99 and the Boxee Box was $180 IIRC. I prefer XMBC over Firecore but at least I have the freedom to chose on my jailbroken ATV2.

      --
      ayottesoftware.com
  10. Re:Microsoft Media Center by GNious · · Score: 2

    Serious? How can Microsoft Media Center be worse than the thing they put into them now?

    * Extremely poor UI
    * Minimal DLNA support
    * Crappy "remote-control" software on handheld devices
    * Not compatible with video recorded on SAMSUNG devices

    Disclaimer: I have a 2011 BD player that features the same software as Samsung SmartTVs from the same time.

  11. Re: Microsoft Media Center by F.Ultra · · Score: 2

    Alot has changed since your 2011 model. I used to have a D model Smart TV and just replaced it with this years F model and for example the DLNA now supports everything that I throw at it (even flac and ogg) without the need for transcoding.