Boxee

Boxee is a media hub and social network in one pack. It can play pretty much every format circulating on the Net.

It can be configured to look for video and audio files in your system and automatically download information for them from the Web. If the folders containing video files in your system are correctly named, Boxee can even download box art, backgrounds, and several bits of information.

You can add friends to your Boxee account. It is mandatory that you create one before you start using the application. Your friends can then see what you are watching and you can see what they are watching too. The privacy settings allow you to block this default behavior, though.

Boxee was designed as a sort of operating system for your living room PC (HTPC), so the keyboard plays a big role here. The complete application can be used only with the keyboard. Although it does support a mouse or remote control as well.

The full-screen mode is really smooth and playback of all files is very good, even HD content. There are several video and audio playback options for more advanced users. What is important is that any user can grab a copy of Boxee and start watching movies out of the box.

Boxee has recently come out of the alpha state and now it is a beta. A new graphical interface has been unveiled and it looks awesome. I can't wait for the Boxee box to come out.