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TELE-audiovision International — The World‘s Largest Digital TV Trade Magazine
— 07-08/2013
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16. The vast library of current
shows
17. Detailed programming
descriptions provide
information on content
18. Sorting the shows by
provider
19. Picture quality is excellent
and leaves nothing to be
desired even on large big-
screen TVs
20. Thanks to AirPlay
compatibility the Boxee can
also be fed with multimedia
content from iPhones and
iPads
to playback content from the
Internet or local content. We
didn‘t quite understand this
since the Boxee will recog-
nize this on its own anyway
after a certain amount of
time and, secondly, before
actually using the box you
won‘t know ahead of time
what you‘re going to be
watching. Besides, you can
also change your preferenc-
es at any time.
From what we can tell, this
is an unnecessary question;
this setting can be changed
anytime and there‘s natu-
rally, in addition to the se-
lection „Content from the
Internet“ also the option „All
Local Multimedia Content“
available.
The Boxee‘s main menu
presents a list of all of
the box‘s main functions
(Friends, Watch Later,
Shows, Movies, Apps, Files
and Web) as well as notifica-
tions of multimedia content
that the box automatically
searched for and recom-
mends to us. At the very top
the box blends in the current
local temperature and time.
Before we occupy our-
selves with all of the capa-
bilities of this box, it pays to
take one more look in the
Settings menu. It‘s divided
into six sections (General,
Media, File Sources, Net-
work, Parents Control, Sys-
tem) and is logically laid out.
In the submenu General
you can adjust settings such
as output resolution, de-
sired OSD language or menu
appearance. The Boxee sup-
ports the resolutions 480p,
576p, 720p, 1080i 50 Hz and
1080i 60 Hz. Unfortunately,
you won‘t find 1080p.
The picture formats 4:3,
16:9, 16:10 and 21:9 are
available as is an Overscan
(an image view that is larger
than originally intended by
the resolution) of up to 6%.
So, why does the Boxee
offer four different picture
formats? Most modern TVs
are 16:9 models and if you
should still have an older TV
it would be in 4:3 format. But
there are some newer 16:10
models out there as well as
21:9 monitors. 21:9 moni-
tors are especially meant for
playing back theatrical mov-
ies in their original format
but with the disadvantage
that 16:9 broadcasts would
now be shown with black
bands. In the end though, it
doesn‘t matter what TV you
have, the Boxee will be able
to adapt to the correct for-
mat.
Thanks to a wide selection
of OSD languages (English,
Spanish, German, French,
Italian, Swedish, Danish,
Dutch, Russian, Turkish,
Farsi, Portuguese, Norwe-
gian, Finnish, Czech and
Polish), it should be pos-
sible for anyone to find an
appropriate choice. We also
appreciated that the Boxee
also provides choices for in-
ternational OSD keyboards,
such as, Thai, Hebrew, Cy-
rillic, Greek or Chinese tra-
ditional.
When the box is used to
receive radio channels or to
play back music, a function-
al screen saver would be a
nice thing to have.
The Boxee has three dif-
ferent variants (Slideshow,
Black and Dim) available. In
Slideshow mode single fold-
ers and the pictures they
