The guys at D-Link told us this morning that the upcoming Boxee Box will be launching in Australia in November for $349.
Also interesting is that the guys from Boxee are actively talking to local content providers, and while there’s nothing to announce at all yet, the fact that they’re being pro-active about local, Australian content means that the Boxee Box is unlikely to turn into another Apple TV, gimped by a lack of local partnerships and service availability.
Australian pre-orders for the box will start next month. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m super-keen to see how this weird little box works in my home theatre setup…
[DLink]
Chris
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:42 PMrant
Well no suprises there, it goes from $212 (roughly converting the US$199) to $349 despite the fact that the US and Aus are a comparable distance away from China where it’s undoubtably made.
/rant
Regardless, I’m still keen.
SteveB
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:43 PMHA HA HA….no.
Amazon have them listed @ 199… and we have to pay almost double ?
Heck NO !
The current USD to AUD makes this a joke. I could get it bought and forwarded to me for $250. Sorry DLink/Boxee, but thats a FAIL !
Horatio
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 1:23 PMSteveB get me one for $250 then cause $199 is without paying tax which can be up to 16% and then freight, oh and then a power supply adn no warranty – Ive done this before its not worth it when u are buying thing of this vakue from O/S
stopthatcrazygoat
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:43 PMYou’re super-keen?? I’m super-super-keen!!! I’ve been hanging for a worthy HD replacement for my tirelessly working xbox/XBMC setup. $350 is a bit of a sting though, considering its going to go for $US199 in the States. I’ll still buy it though!
Dave
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:50 PM$350! with the current us dollar it would only be $208 to order one from Amazon if they let you. How are they justifying a 75% mark up? Any word on differences between a US and Australia one? (other than power adapter).
Also, Are these going to be able to run XBMC?
dan
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 12:55 PM$349 is a huge premium to the $199 amazon want for the US model… even by the time you pay for mail forwarding it’ll still be about A$100 cheaper. i am assuming these things have a switchable power supply so i see no reason to support the local resellers if they want to be this greedy??
i am super keen on this product tho.. and i look forward to seeing the reviews!
veddermandan
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 1:22 PMWell this is the 3rd story i have seen about this product. And still have no idea what the hell it is or does. How about some more info?
At least the comments give a bit more info.
Cameron
Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7:25 AMhttp://www.boxee.tv/box
Wynn
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 1:35 PMYou can buy a US – Aus socket adapter for a couple of dollars.
It’s ridiculous, I purchase almost no electronics in Aus anymore because the price hikes are completely absurd…… which means no cash flow for Aus distributors, but at those price differences F*#K~em’
blueevo
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 2:40 PMAm I the only one that thinks this is rediculous for that price. I build my custom HTPC for around $400 and I can install the boxee or XBMC software for free.
I dont know who would buy one of these since they are pretty poor featurewise. Go build your own.
Rumble
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 2:52 PMveddermandan, what do you want to know about what it does?
It plays x264 content well with a low CPU usage (obviously being processed by the GPU).
I find that there’s a bit of a problem with overscan on initial setup but can easily be fixed within the menu.
poedgirl
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 2:53 PMSo, at the current exchange rate, US$199 = AU$208.18.
Add GST, that becomes AU$229. We have a $120 Australia tax? Seriously, this is pathetic. Why even bother selling it here if they’re going to do that. Hell, for that price, I could buy a cheap netbook and hook that up to a TV with boxee on it. It’s more versatile too!
Joey
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 3:13 PMInsted of bitching here …
I’m going to send them an email at d-link .. Extra $150 is diugsting…
Andrew
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 3:19 PMHi everyone that is upset at the price disparity- but it comes down to the size of the market- Australia just doesn’t have the same size market as the US- you can complain as much as you like- but this disparity happens with most electronics- if you want to see some bigger differences look at the prices of high quality stereo’s and speakers! these are normally twice the price as that in the US or UK…. I’m not saying it’s fair, it’s just an unfortunate reality. You can argue it should be all the same price- but in corporate land, all they think of is they want to make XXX million by selling to the Australian market- to make them worth doing it- if they sold it at the US price here they wouldn’t make their minimum target… Those that by from the US face warranty issues and cost of returns, etc- but if it works well go for it…..
Anyway at $350 a unit- you might as well look at alternatives the Dvico 6640N does the same, has builtin wireless and is a PVR as well!!! From what I’ve read Boxee doesn’t record- but I stand to be corrected
PhuzZy
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 5:12 PMPrice disparity is nothing new EVERYTHING like that costs more in Australia.. Computers, CARS etc etc etc………
Matt
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 7:50 PMTv with USB movie or iPad with air video. Why pay for another stupid looking box?
Selfish_Meme
Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 1:03 PMA Patriot Box Office costs about $130, with a WiFi adapter takes an internal 2.5″ drive and external USB drives, and plays nearly all 1080p content. Even has a built in Bittorrent client and YouTube, Last.fm etc. Why waste money on this thing. Half the content like Netflix and Hulu won’t be available here anyway and who wants free to air local TV anyway?
Steve
Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 7:00 PMI know how they’re trying to make the physical device be ‘different’ but that doesn’t always mean ‘impractical’ because they settled on this bizarre sunken-pyramid-on-its-side shape, it just can’t sit anywhere near other Hi-Fi devices.
BaltimoreKK
Monday, September 27, 2010 at 3:49 PMLOL@ Aussies, take that!
Matejay
Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 2:53 PMWell I just had it confirmed from D-Link… they will be selling Boxee at $349 a piece which is kind of a rip-off :( Once again, the geeks in the land of Oz are being juiced like no other.
kingkash
Thursday, September 30, 2010 at 10:59 PMhey guys, fear not, when it hits in Nov, give it a month and head down to your local Dicksmith, in Dec expecting huge specials that should see it down below 300.
Matejay
Tuesday, October 5, 2010 at 2:24 PMWell that’s what I’m hoping for. Come Christmas and all those Dick Smiths, JB’s etc will be competing for the customer by cutting prices and we might be able to pick it up below $300. Go competition!
ynotdo
Tuesday, October 12, 2010 at 6:26 AMI cant and wont wait until December for a discount. Boxee just wont get my sale as it just doesnt offer any more than what is already out there for far less money. I dont need pretty pictures to view the media I have, I just need to replace the old Mvix so the WDLive TV will do the job.
Nick
Monday, November 22, 2010 at 1:22 AMI just bought the wd tv live and I’m finding it hard to install the movie sheets and what nit.! Since I like to have a clean organized library I’m going to return it and preorder the boxee box from amazon and use my US address to ship it here.!.!
shibu
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 at 8:13 PMIt’s official Boxee is 299$ aud, Harvey norman & dse is pre-odering it and should arrive by 3rd week of november.