by Louie Villalobos The Arizona Republic Mar. 17, 2010 12:00 AM
Photo courtesy of Boxee Inc.
The concept of Internet TV is also the driving force behind Boxee, an internet-based piece of software that serves as an aggregator of publicly available television content.
Technology companies are going after a specific segment of television viewers.
It's a group of consumers that will sacrifice access to some live programming for the ability to view shows from any computer connected to the Internet.
Officials from two of the companies leading the way said it's technology that has been around for years but is just now maturing to the point of mass appeal as users expand on how they consume entertainment.
Joe Chauvin, program manager for Microsoft's Media Center, said consumers have rallied around the idea that Web-based streaming can be a viable alternative to television.
With that idea in mind, he said, Microsoft launched Windows 7, which includes an upgraded version of the Media Center program, with various video-streaming capabilities.
The concept of Internet TV is also the driving force behind Boxee, an Internet-based application that serves as an aggregator of publicly available television content.
Andrew Kippen, vice president of marketing for Boxee, attributed the product's growth in popularity since its public debut in January to a grass-roots movement to change the way entertainment is consumed.
"It's a market that's very heavily guarded," he said. "But we're at a point where consumers are dictating what they want."
Both companies also acknowledged that TV manufacturers, such as Samsung, are releasing Internet-ready televisions that can also stream Netflix offerings. Those could attract consumers who aren't comfortable with Boxee or Media Center.
Media Center and Boxee have similar goals, but each takes a completely different approach.
Through Windows 7, Media Center offers two ways to view television shows. The first is for people with an Internet connection only.
It provides content from partners. CBS, for example, offers shows from a "prime time" lineup and a "classics" lineup. Those shows are displayed via the guide and available for viewing at any time.
Then, Media Center provides a live-TV option that runs through a TV tuner purchased separately. This device, when attached to a computer running Media Center, captures the public transmissions from area stations. Media Center can record and store on the host computer.
Boxee currently works with content already available publicly through the Internet by gathering and displaying TV shows in a centralized place.
Much of its free content comes from Hulu.com, which is widely known as having a large library of both TV shows and movies available for viewing.
When users click on a show in Boxee, they are sent to the source page but within the Boxee browser. The software also features applications that focus on specific content, such as Pandora, YouTube, and MLB.TV.
The applications are currently free, but users will have to subscribe to certain services, such as Netflix, to use the corresponding application.
Both Chauvin and Kippen said their services are meant to at least complement existing cable or satellite packages to which consumers subscribe.
"If you're somebody who is superpassionate about being up to date, then you're probably going to keep that cable connection and use Boxee as a companion," Kippen said.
Windows 7, Chauvin said, improves several aspects of what Microsoft offered in previous versions.
Chief among them is the Internet TV feature and the improvement to the software's digital-recording capabilities.
"Originally, we thought it would be a great service for dorm rooms because it's an all-in-one product," he said.
"But we've found that a lot of retired people were using it because they already had a PC."
Kippen said Boxee is working with D-Link, a computer-networking company, to create hardware for running the Boxee software.
The Boxee Box is expected to debut this year for $199. Kippen said the eventual goal is to have the Boxee software running on as many devices as possible.
"I think it's something that people would really go for," he said. "The balance is slowly shifting."
