Emerging Media in Sports
 
My Apple TV arrived, and I connected it and went through the motions of installing Boxee. The reviews are mixed.

As far as streaming content I already have on a hard drive, this works fantastically. My music and movies play flawlessly, and the interface is very easy to use.

Streaming, which I was very excited about before, is a different story. Anything I stream through a hard-wired ethernet connection is slow and clunky, and the Boxee browser, which is supposed to load streaming video from virtually any site, barely seems to work. In addition, most streaming webs sites are flash-based, and flash functionality in Boxee's browser seems to be missing or limited.

Part of the problem could be due to the old Apple TV's limited hardware, but it's still disappointing. Since the unit still does strem my local files well, I'll be setting it up as a bedroom media center. As far as sports streaming 
 
Internet television is rapidly growing, and the number of players in the field are as well.


Apple's new $99 latest-generation Apple TV, a box that fits in the palm of your hand, offers easy, full high definition access to Netflix movies, as well as streaming content on your computer's hard drive and rented or purchased content from the iTunes store. Roku, which pioneered the streaming Netflix concept, now offers television boxes as low as $59 that can stream a variety of content. Media Center developer Boxee, partnering with D-Link, is releasing the Boxee Box next month, which will deliver a wealth of Full-HD content through Boxee's widely successful front end. All three major video game consoles now stream various content, including Netflix, in high definition, and recent contracts between Sony and Major League Baseball and Microsoft and ESPN will deliver sports content through these forums. Even Google has thrown their hat into the ring, with Google TV, to be released in the coming months.


In all of this, Boxee intrigues me the most. The slick, easy-to-navigate front end actually spawned from an open source media center application that was first created for the original XBox. Free to download, the Boxee front-end can be run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and original-generation Apple TVs. The Boxee Box will give users a piece of hardware specifically designed and optimized for Boxee, offering a full 1080p high definition picture.


More importantly, Boxee appears to be tailor made for the sports fan. Account holders for the MLB.tv baseball package and NHL GameCenter hockey package can use these online streaming services to access live games through their television, in full high definition glory. In addition, users can view archived games on demand through both of these services. Having all the games in HD and access to archived games are features that one can't get from subscribing to the MLB and NHL's respective TV packages. Furthermore, the TV versions of the packages are far more expensive (I paid over $150 last season for MLB Extra Innings, which only offered 2-3 games a night in HD). As of right now, NBA's GameTime application is not yet available on Boxee, however this app only delivers score updates and highlights, rather than live games. As for the NFL, access to live games through Boxee, or any other Internet TV platform for that matter, is a pipe dream, given the exclusivity the league has with DirecTV.


As far as other sports content, Boxee sets itself apart from the pack with a built in browser designed to find, pull out, and play video from any site it visits. This feature, along with other free apps the connect to popular video streaming services, ensures that if it can be played online, it can be played through Boxee (a big plus for someone who finds themselves streaming EPL soccer games on Saturday mornings).


So does all of this actually work? Does the browser reliably stream web video, and does the MLB.tv app consistently deliver live HD content? I'll get back to you on that. This week, I found a deal on a previous-generation Apple TV on eBay, that is due to arrive any day now. I'll be installing Boxee on it, and attempting to stream various sports content.


Between the wealth of available content on Boxee, and ESPN3 access coming to my XBox next month, I'll have access to virtually any sporting event imaginable, in glorious HD, on my 40" flat screen. Now that's paradise.