Filed under: Software, Apple TV
Boxee secures Series B round, plans for more features and more developers
Just eight-months after closing a Series A round of financing, media center startup Boxee has just closed another round of financing. The Boxee team has secured another $6 million in funding, led by Boston-based General Catalyst. Given the economic climate (especially for start-ups), two financing rounds in the span of a year is pretty impressive.
What's really exciting, for Mac and Apple TV users (assuming they haven't gone all Aron on us) is that this means that Boxee can now focus on bringing users more features. As a company, they can also hire more developers to continue to make the experience as good as it can be.
I talked to Andrew from Boxee last night and pointed out some of the plans that Boxee has in mind that are really exciting for fans of the home media center space.
- Make the Product Better -- the Boxee beta is scheduled tentatively for later this fall. The goal is to bring the Boxee experience to the mainstream. I often forget that Boxee is still in alpha, but more improvements and refinements to the interface and the platform is just a good thing.
- More Content -- The Hulu kerfuffle notwithstanding, more and more streaming media services are seeing the value in the 10-foot viewing experience. What will separate Boxee from the Vudu or Hulu Desktops of the world is what content it can deliver to users.
- Attract Developers -- Despite launching a big API campaign, the Boxee App Store really hasn't taken off the way that some users (and developers) have hoped. I personally think that the variety of different platforms that are based on the same framework (XBMC) is part of the problem. Deciding to write your plugin for Plex or XBMC or Boxee can be difficult, especially since converting amongst the services is possible, but not easy. The team wants to make this easier.
- Get Boxee on more devices -- The Apple TV and Boxee have been a great match (pure technical limitations for stuff like Netflix and full HD *.MKV files aside), but obviously getting onto more and more devices is the key to keeping development fresh and more content available.
I think Boxee has been a tremendous boon to the Mac and the Apple TV communities (we got it first, which I think was recognition that Mac owners are frequently the first to do lots of HTPC stuff) and in the last few months, Boxee as a platform has really improved.
My forthcoming (I swear!) Ultimate Mac mini HTPC series will dive into some more of my favorite Boxee Apps and features. What are some of your favorite Boxee apps and add-ons so I can make sure to try them out and add them to my list?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
EMoShunz said 11:34AM on 8-12-2009
Boxee is cool, but this is what I read:
blah, blah, blah... My forthcoming (I swear!) Ultimate Mac mini HTPC series... WOOHOO!
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Martin said 11:39AM on 8-12-2009
I love the idea behind Boxee, but in my experience it's far too unstable.
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JKT said 11:45AM on 8-12-2009
I've always found Boxee hard to use. The interface is less than intuitive and really never got me anything that VLC couldn't. I guess I never really saw the point.
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Jason said 11:52AM on 8-12-2009
I canceled my cable long ago and have used Hulu or torrents to watch my favorite shows. I used Boxee for a while, but now I've switched to Plex. I'm a pretty lite user, so maybe I'm just missing something. What does Boxee have to offer that Plex, a more polished and stable software (in my opinion), doesn't have?
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Christina Warren said 12:00PM on 8-12-2009
They both have strengths/weaknesses, and that's something I've been trying to really test with my Mac mini HTPC summer experiment. I like how Plex interacts with my media server a bit better (it seems faster), I like that I can open Hulu's Desktop App from within Plex (saves me from using the subpar RSS feature that Plex and Boxee are stuck using), I like the Aeon skin that XBMC is moving to and that you can hack Plex to use to a certain extent.
However, Boxee has the best Netflix experience short of using the Windows Vista (and upcoming Windows 7) Media Center plugin. Netflix is just fine on Plex EXCEPT when you are watching like TV shows. You can't control what episode or disc you want to go to, you have to like cycle through it all as if it is one program. So Netflix is totally better on Boxee.
I like some of their other plugins too, but the Netflix one is the big kicker for me.
And of course, Boxee supports the Apple TV (though not for Netflix b/c of performance variables), which makes it a better option for people not using a full Mac.
But yeah. Plex has a lot to offer too - as does XBMC for Mac.
Tim said 12:01PM on 8-12-2009
The Boxee folks NEED to usability test their product. I set it up on my older parents' computer -- they are computer literate, but only just -- and they hit a lot of obstacles before getting the hang of it. Why did they name the Channels "Applications"? Why is the power button so hidden away? Why do we have to look at a recommendations screen first? We skip it EVERY TIME. If Boxee is going to have mass appeal, the geeks need to step out of the way. (And quite frankly, Plex doesn't cut it either, although it has some nice touches.)
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Christina Warren said 12:06PM on 8-12-2009
I genuinely think that is one of the goals. I think you can send them some feedback through their website and I would suggest doing that. Hopefully Boxee will do a big UI and usability survey for users so they can get some input make improvements/changes.
I think part of the challenge is making something that is very much designed first and foremost for a 10-foot experience (so you are using it from your TV with a remote) also work as 2 foot experience when you use it on a desktop or laptop.
Travis Bell said 12:17PM on 8-12-2009
Same as most of you guys. Boxee in principal is rad, but I found their UI confusing and hard to use. Plus a lot more unstable than any experience I've had with XBMC.
I've opted for a much sexier theme for XBMC called Aeon, which you guys should check out if you haven't. It's pretty amazing and works very well.
It's hard for me to think I will ever use Boxee since the XBMC guys have been really pushing the limits on features and bug fixes. It's quickly becoming the only media center that matters.
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Christina Warren said 12:22PM on 8-12-2009
I love the Aeon skin. Freaking amazing. I just wish I could integrate Netflix and some other apps into it. The thing I like about Boxee is that Avner and the team have been part of the XBMC community from basically the beginning. There's a good relationship there. I hope they can do more collaboration (like with the USB installer for the Apple TV).
Travis Bell said 12:57PM on 8-12-2009
Agreed, 100%. I know the Boxee guys have given some cash to the XBMC crew, which is a great thing and like you said the relationship is certainly there it's just whether/what Boxee decides to do with it.
If I was Boxee I'd go after introducing an embedded set top (they teased us earlier this year), which could be exactly what they're doing with their millions of dollars. They just need to make their UI better... it kills it right now (imo).
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Tim said 1:31PM on 8-12-2009
Actually, I think someone should come out with an HDTV-friendly browser -- i.e. something with large type, clear buttons and so on that can occupy a 50" screen and be surfable from 15 feet away.
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Christina Warren said 1:37PM on 8-12-2009
I completely agree. Getting the browser to look halfway decent has been the biggest issue with my HTPC setup.
Extra said 1:50PM on 8-12-2009
I'm personally waiting for this media center to come to the Mac. It has the easiest UI I have seen and has more than passed that 'wife test'. Simple & beautiful. (They just need Hulu): [url]http://www.moovida.com/screenshots/[/url]
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Brian said 1:52PM on 8-12-2009
I'd like to see Boxee focus more on media management and less on content.
Content is locked to particular regions so let third-party developers create this support. Boxee should focus on the core of media management and playback.
The biggest draw for me is how Boxee manages my media library. When I browse my local content it shows information like titles, cast, an plot. It does not feel like I'm browsing folders and files.
Boxee still doesn't recognize the meta tags on my video files. This means I cannot use Boxee to manage or browse family videos of my trip to Egypt.
I've been waiting too long for Apple to announce HW updates for the Apple TV. I'm right on the edge of Apple TV's limits. I can't wait to see additional device support.
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Justin D said 3:39PM on 8-12-2009
Realized not too long ago just how much better Plex is, at least with Boxee in its current state. Boxee's been focusing on the *ahem* clouuuud stuff, neglecting local media.
http://www.plexapp.com
Absolutely loving it.
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BOK said 4:51PM on 8-12-2009
dumb question, maybe, but...
how does boxee plan to make all that capital back? surely not the social networking aspect?
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Christina Warren said 4:59PM on 8-12-2009
I don't think the social networking features factor in at all. I think the goal is to get Boxee on set-top boxes (like Netflix has done with Roku and LG and Samsung Blu-ray players and the X-Box 360) and other devices. That's a pretty hot market right now (as it has become pretty trivial for stuff to be built into a TV or a Blu-ray player or a set-top box of another sort (cable, satellite) and then touted as a feature/advantage for that item) and could be a real revenue source. That's always been Boxee's big picture goal, which is what I thinks separates them from so many of the other players in this space. They were thinking big picture and how to get serious from the beginning.
Extra said 6:19PM on 8-12-2009
If getting Boxee on set top boxes is their end goal...then I have a question: How exactly are they going to get over the illegal use of FFMPEG as their playback engine?
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Cristiana said 6:42PM on 8-12-2009
I tried Boxee, and Plex on my Mac Mini HTPC, and I liked boxee, but, I stuck with plex (for now). The reason I chose it was that I couldn't get Boxee to play nice with iTunes libraries, it could only read the files from the filesystem, whereas Plex was able to read my library.
I did a bunch of searching on this issue, and all I could find about Boxee, and iTunes, was that it was 'Coming Soon'
Did I miss something in my searches? if so I would really like to know.
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Zach said 7:12PM on 8-12-2009
How did you forget Boxee is an alpha? I remember it every time I use it. I had to delete it altogether from my Apple TV as the latest update made it slow at best and unresponsive at first.
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