Boxee TV record to the cloud

[rdy2go]

Interesting idea, 2 tuners (clear QAM/NTSC) that record to the cloud. $14.99 a month for unlimited storage. I don't suspect this will take off especially with non-encrypted cable going away (right?).

http://boxee.tumblr.com/post/3368749277 ... g-boxee-tv

[foxwood]

Hmm - it sounds like the tuners themselves will be "in the cloud" - are they expecting people to upload high-definition ATSC streams (15-20GB per hour if you're recording from both tuners). The fact that the release will be on a city by city basis suggests that they're going to have one set of recordings, and give the end user access to them.

I thought the courts said that that business model wasn't legal when one of the cable companies tried it?

[RyC]

From what I hear, it's the opposite. The boxee box has two tuners which records from an antenna or clear qam at the house. Every user uploads their own recordings to the cloud, but I'm pretty sure there's some compression done by the boxee box, or else as you say, the file sizes would be huge.

[foxwood]

They could save about 30% by just skipping the commercials before uploading the show to the cloud

[crawfish]

$15/mo, then it would seem to at least double the Internet usage because it has to upload. Presumably it compresses the MPEG2, and I wonder how real-time that is. I guess if you're always on the go and want to watch on mobile devices, it could be worth it.

[rdy2go]

This is only better than remote potato in that you'd assume Boxee would have a decent pipe. I can watch all my 7mc recordings remotely but am limited by my upload. That being said I need more than two tuners, want encrypted content and don't want another monthly fee. It's 7mc for me.

[richard1980]

Interesting idea, 2 tuners (clear QAM/NTSC) that record to the cloud. $14.99 a month for unlimited storage. I don't suspect this will take off especially with non-encrypted cable going away (right?).

http://boxee.tumblr.com/post/3368749277 ... g-boxee-tv

Boxee fought for (and got) a stipulation in the FCC ruling that requires the 6 largest cable companies to make the basic tier channels available via IP before they are allowed to encrypt. I'm assuming this box will be able to access the basic tier via IP.

I don't expect this to take off in the US (well, as much as it can considering the very small market this is designed for) due to the significant impact this has on bandwidth caps. Plus $15/month is likely to be a deal breaker for many people. That's $180 per year. You can buy a lot of local storage for $180 per year.

[barnabas1969]

If they use data de-duplication, and/or something like torrent software (where everybody only uploads a chunk of the same show), it might not take up very much bandwidth on your Internet service... and Boxee could significantly limit the amount of storage space on their servers.

It's an interesting idea, but their sales pitch falls on deaf ears for me. Since I moved to WMC, I no longer worry about what I should or should not record. I just schedule EVERYTHING that looks interesting. With 10 tuners and 4TB of recorder storage, that's not a problem.

[RyC]

I'm pretty sure every user uploads their own copy into the cloud to get around copyright. It's going to take up a huge amount of space though, even with compression. They're advertising it as unlimited storage too.

[foxwood]

I'm pretty sure every user uploads their own copy into the cloud to get around copyright. It's going to take up a huge amount of space though, even with compression. They're advertising it as unlimited storage too.

Storage space is cheap, and they're charging $15/month. Most users aren't going to archive vast amounts of stuff from the broadcast channels - 99% will be record, watch, delete. Any user who doesn't delete will probaby find the user interface will make it harder to find what what they're looking for once they get beyond a hundred reordings.