Fountain Valley, Calif.
– D-Link plans second-quarter shipments of a cube-shaped digital media adapter
(DMA) that accesses many more online audio- and video-streaming sites than
previous models.
The $199-suggested Boxee Box by
D-Link streams music, HD video, and photos directly from the Internet, from
networked PCs and network-attached storage devices, and directly from connected
USB-equipped devices. It supports
1080p video and connects to a TV via HDMI 1.3 cables.
A company called Boxee is
providing the Boxee Box’s online content partnerships and on-screen user
interface, which integrates content from all sources into a single menu user
interface and lets consumers select the content by category, genre and other
parameters “to take the hassle out of a search,” a spokesman said.
The Boxee Box features embedded
Wi-Fi 802.11n, Ethernet port, RF remote, dedicated graphics processor,
surround-sound passthrough, and Flash 10.1 video compatibility. It connects
directly to dozens of audio- and video-streaming sites and photo-sharing sites,
a spokesman said. Video sites include Netflix and the Web sites of CBS,
Showtime and Comedy Central. Music can be streamed from such sites as Pandora,
Last.fm, Shoutcastand and Jamendo. Pictures can be streamed from Flickr, Picasa
and Big Picture. Sites are prioritized in an onscreen menu by quality and cost.
The names of additional sites were unavailable at press time.
The Boxee is also D-Link’s first
DMA that shares information on what users are watching with Twitter and
Facebook friends, and the device gets content recommendations from Twitter and
Facebook friends.
