Play Ball!!! Boxee Box and MLB.tv Deliver Huge Helpings of Opening Day Baseball
Major League Baseball’s “Opening Day” is currently in progress on the Boxee Box by D-Link with MLB.tv and MLB.tv Premium.
These are the subscription services that allow you to watch thousands of baseball games, all season long on any device you choose (iPad, iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry, Palm, laptop, desktop and Boxee Box, of course). You catch the games live or on-demand (in HD where available – e.g. the local broadcast has to be recording with HD equipment).
The service also includes:
- In-game highlights and stats
- Full game archives
- Alternate audio options (click to use home or away announcers, or get the stadium’s PA system piped right into your Boxee Box)
- Pitch by pitch widget (overlays on video to show pitch location)
- Clickable line scores (e.g. click a player and his last at bat)
- Built-in fantasy player tracker
The premium service adds DVR functionality to pause and rewind a live game, see home and away games, and view multiple games at once (Picure-in-Picture, split-screen and quad).
There are some new features coming to the service, as well. I just gleaned this from the always-on-it Boxee Blog (thank you Andrew Kippen and Shawn Rieger). Here’s the word: they’re working on new Boxee version features that resume video from from the last position you were at and allow you to jump to any specific inning available (live or archived). They’re not commenting about release dates. Intriguing nonetheless.
They’re also talking about adding condensed game video highlights. Boxee has to collaborate with MLB to make it all possible. We’ll keep you posted.
Fun Fact: On April 16, 1940, Cleveland Indian Bob Feller threw the only Opening Day no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox.
