This morning I read a Twitter update from Mashable that was pushing out the story that Slashdot did about using Boxee (wow, four social sites in a single sentence might be too much). The article was showing Linux and Windows PCs users how to build a BoxeeBox that could allow them to ditch their cable company. Too bad it was over $600!
Well, lucky for me Boxee originally came out for Macs and the Apple TV quite a few months ago. I am now able to watch streaming shows from Hulu, Comedy Central, ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX all from the comfort of my couch. And the best part there is no monthly bill! There is even a new option to stream Netflix watch now programs but, I have not added that since I have it on the Xbox (which is also amazing).
In my case there was no “build” required. Just loaded Boxee from a flash-drive onto the Apple TV (40GB version) and I was up and running. There is a great network of developers working on this project. So new features and updates are frequent. The Mac version is in beta and the PC version is in alpha. Now one limiting factor is your internet connection speed. Since you are watching streaming content on a large TV screen it really helps to have the ability to stream at the highest video quality possible. Also, the shows are not available until 24 hours or so after the original airing. But who still follows the stations’ programming schedule? We all DVR shows and watch at our convenience.
So please take a few minutes to check out this little gem. Once you start using it you will wonder why in the world you have been paying the cable/sat bill all these years.
