Boxee Box DVR Subscription Tipped

Smart TV company Boxee promised to consider DVR functionality when it launched its Live TV adapter, and it seems a paid add-on service delivering just that might be in the pipeline. A survey fired out to Live TV dongle owners over the weekend questioned whether they would be willing to pay between $5 and $15 per month for the ability to record live TV for later playback, GigaOm reports, or indeed if they were uninterested in the functionality at all.

"How much would you be willing to pay for the ability to record 300hrs of TV?" the Boxee survey asked, offering a choice of $5 per month, $10 per month, $15 per month or "Not interested" as possible responses.

Currently, the $49 Live TV adapter allows Boxee Box owners to tune in to free-to-air TV broadcasts and watch them in real-time. However, while there's an SD card slot and external drive support on the Boxee Box, the tuner dongle doesn't permit recording of content; instead, viewers are expected to use streaming catch-up services, such as Hulu and Netflix, if they missed the show first time round.

The Boxee team said it was evaluating the possibility of DVR features and that, if it proved viable, would have more to announce later in the year. It seems a free upgrade to do that isn't the company's priority, though, which could come as a frustration to owners of the STB.