By: Kent B. - MSTv Contributor
"A box in every home in America!"
This was a semi-quote made by Jim Carry in the movie, "Batman Forever;" as he was eluding to a media box that brought you into your shows.
The box shown left, called MXQ, won't do that. However, with what it can do, don't be too surprised if you find yourself becoming a video zombie from its use. Quite honestly, there is almost nothing you cannot see, or find regarding movies, sports or television shows, when using this box
Its called "the MXQ media box" and its just one of many peripherals available which allow you to stream your favorite TV shows, News, sports, movies and even international shows, right to your television. For those not familiar with it or what it can do, just think of the Amazon Firestick, XBox Playstation 4 and other devices that make your TV "smart." But with this item's usage, think of your television as now being as super-steroid smart.
General usage of the box allows you to stream the standard stuff like Netflix, Hulu, Youtube and even torrent-based streaming apps like Showbox. But, what makes this box so special is that it allows you to access the free, open source media operating system software app, Kodi: a true window to your world.
Kodi itself, allows you to stream free and open-source media; freeing you to play and view most streaming media, such as videos, music, podcasts, and videos from the internet, as well as all common digital media files from local and network stored files. Simply put, if you could pull it up or see it on a computer, you could now see it on your television.
However, Kodi is just the "operating system," in a sense, which mainly streams "open-source" and open-domain content. The MXQ and most media boxes are "jail-broken" or modified to operate third-party applications (or "builds"), making them more powerful and accessible to additional content. There are several different modified applications out there; far many to name here, however, since Kodi allows open-sourcing of their software, the jail-broken apps range from the brilliant to the pathetic in what they offer.
We tested two build versions on the box called, "the Beast" and "Spinz TV." Assuredly, their names were very accurate descriptions of what they could do.
The app accessed several jail-broken options and additional content to include: new and old theatrical movie releases, current and past television shows, music, games and also international news, sports and programming. All this was available to us at startup, plus additional stuff we hadn't even discovered -- yet.
We only managed to play around with these hack build apps, and we found no significant problems with it. (you must have good wi-fi, or plug-in directly via Ethernet) Overall content availability was astounding and the software updates itself constantly. Its sole handicap is that reception of your local television stations, isn't possible. But, a simple, quick-fix with an HD antenna overcomes that issue nicely.
While some would consider this technology a vast open access piracy, others would say a freedom of entertainment information should be absolute; especially, in the form of online content. Much like prior open-sourced photos and music, once its out there, its out there. And probably much like the outcome to stop music piracy played out, not much can be done. Or to state it simply for the times, "looking for that hot song these days? Download it from Youtube!"
And while Kodi's programmers themselves do not condone piracy, but they also state, "We always say we don't care what our users do with the software, and we stand by that position. But we sure do hate it when companies destroy the name of our software in order to make a profit."
Nicely said from game-changing media creators, who respect the hustle to keep information free and available to all. Perhaps we can learn from Napster's folly earlier, this time, and think about cutting the cable -- for a box!"