Boxee Enters Beta, Teams With D-Link To Give Us A Set Top Uh Box?

Online video management software Boxee has officially entered Beta and thanks to a teaming with D-Link plans to become a set-top box (well kinda) in 2010.

For the most part Boxee has hidden away in a bit of obscurity, until now that is.

Boxee is a free media center software that allows you to navigate your way through all your stored movies, TV shows, music and photos, as well as allowing you to stream content from websites like ABC, NBC, MLB, Netflix, Hulu, Joost, YouTube and many more with a remote.

In addition to video content, Boxee users can access music from sites like Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, and We are Hunted as well as finding and viewing photos from sites like flickr, Picasa and the Facebook. There is also and interface to connect to Bittorrent sites for one way sharing of legal torrents.

Today the company announced they have entered their first official beta which includes several improvements to its interface that Boxee says will make finding, organizing, storing and sharing web video content much faster and easier. The company also announced a few more content partners, including Clicker, The Escapist, and Suicide Girls.






In addition to the beta announcement Boxee also announced the Boxee Box by D-Link. The new oddly shaped Boxee Box, which apparently is supposed to look like a black square that has sunk halfway into the surface it's sitting on, will work as a standalone device and connects to your home network using Wi-Fi (802.11n) and/or wired ethernet. The device connects to your TV via HDMI, SPDIF, RCA Audio, and has 2 USB expansion ports.

According to a D-Link company rep the new box will be available in shops in the first half of 2010. As of yet there is now word on pricing other than the price "has yet to be determined."