Last night the folks at Boxee announced the release of a new Boxee alpha.  The top additions to this new alpha are the support for Pandora music streaming, PBS streams, RadioTime, a new API and the video playback is built on the XUL framework.  The XUL framework is the same that Firefox is built on.  Yes, HULU does work.  Good Luck blocking it now.  I just downloaded the alpha release from Boxee.tv and must say it delivers.  Go get it.

http://boxee.tv

Here is a short how to in order to use the new plugins:

Start Boxee and in the left navigation pane scroll down to “Apps Box”.  Along the top of your screen there are four selections, choose the repositories tab and add a new repository.  Type the following in the text field minus the quotes ” dir.boxeehq.com” and select done.  You will now be able to back out and select “New Applications”.  This is where you can add all sorts of new feeds to your Media Player.  Have Fun!

The Debian package was a quick one click install with no hassle. Set-up of the software was the same.  Simply enter the name of your HAVA box, enter your password, and click on the connect button and away it goes. Be careful as the IT wants to make the first character a capital by default. Video on the LAN is superb. It’s leaps and bounds better than the equivalent slingbox mobile and desktop players.  The best part of this is that it’s portable. You can take your IT (Internet Tablet) wherever you want to go, you can even watch an episode of House in the bathroom if you want.

The video and audio on the LAN is very good and remote viewing over the Internet isn’t to shabby either. This will obviously depend on the quality of your Internet connection. I have a pretty poor connection at home (Stay away from housing developments that use Hcontrol) and I can still view a show with decent quality. The video does have a tendency to get out of sync with the audio from time to time but, this is a slight offset and should be improved before the final release to the general public. The HAVA unit is also capable of streaming HD content from an external HD Tuner. I played with this a little yesterday and it does work but, there’s nothing to exciting about it. The quality was the same as standard definition content but, I guess if you want to see your local broadcasters HD2 weather channel, then it’s a plus.

The user interface is simple to navigate and provides quite a bit of control. The software includes four generic remote control surfaces that include a standard number pad with channel up/down, a favorites pad with 12 programmable favorite buttons, an STS remote with standard sat receiver controls, and a generic PVR control for playing recorded shows. The last function is not implemented yet. The only way to view recorded shows at this time is to record and then transfer them to your Nokia N800/810.

Overall, I have to take my hat off to the folks at Monsoon, good work.  This is an application that a lot of people have been wanting for a long time and the people at Sling refused to provide. Thank You.

I received the Hava Platinum HD in the mail a couple weeks ago and quickly ripped it out of the package (Christmas Morning Style).  The contents included the Hava Platinum HD, Ethernet cable, 2 Component HD cables, 2 AV cables, powers supply and CD.  The Component and AV cables are standard RCA connectors on one end and 1/8th inch 4 contact phono connectors to interface with the Hava box.  The Hava Box is capable of streaming HD channels across your network and has HD pass through so you can place your Hava Box in-between your cable box and TV, hence the two HD cables.  Audio is only standard stereo unfortunately and is handled by the AV cables minus the video plug.  Hell, if you wanted 5.1 surround, go sit in front of your 72 inch plasma with your 3000 dollar surround system with your 18 speakers.  That’s what you bought it for.

Heres the rundown:

Hava Platinum HD- HD and Standard Definition, IR blasters for cable or Sat box control,wired Ethernet only, recording or time shift capabilty to a PC and NO built in tuner.

Hava Wireless HD – HD and standard Definition, Standard Definition tuner built in, IR blasters for cable or Sat box control, wireless bridge built in, recording or time shift capability to a PC.

Hava Titanium HD – HD and  standard definition, IR blasters for cable or sat box control, wireless USB dongle with future support for N networks, recording or time shift capability to a PC.  This unit also has an internal hard drive or 2 USB ports to plug in an external drive for recording.  This function is in beta now. No built in tuner.

As of today, Hava only supports Windows based software for the player.  The software has a nice interface and is easy to set-up and use but the real advantage these units have over the Slingbox is that they are developing the client for the N800 and Linux support.  Thanks for showing the penguin a little respect.  More on this later when I get my copy of the Internet Tablet software.

1. If you have cable TV or satellite your probably just fine. The cable companies will still be broadcasting their content in standard definition. They do have digital content on their systems but you wont be able to see it.

2. Buy a new TV

3. Purchase a digital to analog converter box. This is a unit that will accept the digital broadcast and down convert it to a standard definitions analog signal that your 1970’s console TV will accept.

If you fall into the group that never purchased cable or satellite TV and are still watching Opie and Aunt Bee crunk it up in Mayberry, you will need a set-top box. This is more than likely, partly, due to the fact that many people cannot afford to pay for cable or sat TV. There is help out there though. Congress created the set-top converter box coupon program to help lower income families continue to use their analog televisions after the transition deadline of February 17th 2009. The program allows households to acquire up to 2 coupons worth 40 dollars each that can be applied to the purchase of qualified converter boxes. You can then take these coupons to any participating store which include Wal-Mart, BestBuy, Circuit City, and Radio Shack to purchase a converter box. To apply for this coupon, go to www.dtv2009.gov .

Remember February 17th 2009

Of course, like the title says, this media drive comes with a HDMI port as well as composite connections. Furthermore, the unit upconverts SD content to 720p / 1080i and even comes with a remote.

Not bad for a reported $289.00 street price.

Hauppauge debuted their HD PVR, which can take a HD signal from its component inputs and transcode it to H.264 in real time for storage on your computer, at CES this year. What this will really allow you to do is bypass any restrictions on recording HDTV programs to your selected device. For me that finally means my full digital cable lineup will be available to my MythTV DVR. Granted this device will sit in the analog hole between your cable / direct tv receiver and your HDTV so, there will be a slight loss of quality due to that and the compression to H.264 but, this should still provide a quality picture. Even with this slightly loss of quality, the promise of opening up all HDTV channels on cable or satellite to any type higher quality recording, has been the holy grail for HTPC for a long time.

Hauppauge had planned to release this unit in Q1 of this year but, like all good things, it will come to those who wait.

That wait may be coming to an end according to one of the moderators over at the Sage TV forums. They even got a few pictures of the device.

Granted, it is not much to look at but, the promised real-time H.264 compression of 1080i video from a component video source should be more enough to make up for any design issues. Too top it off, that same SageTV moderator is reporting that Hauppauge should be starting to take pre-orders for the device relatively soon and may already be doing so by the time you read this post. The unit is still expected to set you back about $250.

Update

It appears that you can pre-order the HD-PVR now. Shipping will start May 1st.

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