Love letter to Boxee
I'd like to share with you guys something I wrote in draft email form at the end of November 2010 that I never got a chance to send to the Boxee team :
Simply, I'd like to receive beta firmware that Boxee is currently testing because I want to be apart of making Boxee better faster. I want to see this company succeed and I want them to be rewarded for their work. Though I like other companies, I have never been as passionate about the success of one company's product as I am now about you guys.
Here's my background :
I've loved the Boxee software since I discovered it. Funny story is that I was building an HTPC before I knew what I was doing had a name. Before that my main computer (also built by me) did HTPC double duty with gaming. In my machine, I had a GTX 295 connected to a Asus Xonar HDAV1.3 Slim connected to a Pioneer receiver and then from that to an LG TV. I bought a MCE compatible dongle and a Logitech Harmony 900 remote to control it all. THAT's how I experienced Boxee and before it XBMC. I later built a 2nd machine, a Zotac HTPC ION 2 build, so I could have a dedicated streamer and leave my main machine to do gaming alone.
And you know why I put up with that? Because I wanted to watch my Bluray rips on my TV not my computer screen at a moment's notice. Because I wanted to play any file type under the sun and just be able to hit play and not worry. Because I wanted a more elegant way of viewing video content from websites like Gametrailers and Crunchyroll e.g without the usual hassles and repeated steps.
Sure I have a working PS3 Slim that I could have put the original Blurays in and I could have run TVersity for video file transcoding for those MANY file types the PS3 can't read. And I have done just that in the past and to its credit the PS3 has gotten Netflix without a disc, Hulu Plus AND Vudu and they all work beautifully but you know what? I want Boxee to eclipse it. I don't want to have to turn the PS3 on unless I'm playing a game.
Later, in an email I actually sent to them, I wrote :
I bought the Boxee box even though I have a Zotac HTPC cause I wanted a
dedicated device with partnered support for Netflix, Vudu and to a lesser
extent Hulu Plus (Had expected to use normal Hulu). This thing has got
SERIOUS POTENTIAL. It's almost there.
All I want is :
1. Crunchyroll app playing flawlessly in 720P video
2. Gametrailer videos go automatically to full screen with a provision for
the ones that request your age.
3. TrueHD audio and DTS Master audio working flawlessly
4. Vudu and Netflix support with the latter having the 5.1 sound the PS3
does.
Do all that and I'd be a happy camper. Thanks in advance guys and keep up
the great work.
Now I wrote all that to say to Boxee that I still believe in you and you deserve a great deal of credit for your ambitions and your hard work. I'll continue to support you and I'm still interested in that beta tester position.
And for all those people who may troll this post, I beg you to realize how far we've come from launch day. Sure not everything is fixed, not even everything from my own list, but there has been solid work put into this product and I've faith it's only going to get better.
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