If you’re thinking of throwing away your cable subscription and moving over to streaming TV, Boxee’s latest set-top box might be the perfect solution because you get the best of both worlds. Boxee is known best for internet TV–streaming but with their latest released you’ll also get live TV and DVR capabilities. What is even more interesting is that when you use it as a DVR for recording live TV your content is uploaded to the cloud AND you get unlimited storage.
You’ll still get all the usual suspects, internet TV and music streaming capabilities, with Netflix, VUDU, YouTube, Vimeo and Pandora apps which are preinstalled. What makes Boxee TV a more viable replacement because it comes with two tuners that allow you to grab broadcast HD channels such as ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS and Univision, along with support for unencrypted basic cable. Users will also have the ability to watch one channel while recording another. Boxee will even throw in a free digital antenna for those in good reception areas.
This will not be a free replacement for your cable provider, but it will likely be a lot less,, DVR subscribers will have to US$14.99 a month which isn’t bad considering you get unlimited storage. The initial launch will be limited to: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Additional markets will be added later in 2013.
The Boxee TV unit itself will cost $99 and will be available next month in the U.S. No word on whether it will venture beyond U.S. shores.