Vudu has already been available to users who use Boxee on a Mac, Windows or Linux PC via the Vudu app. The service, which Walmart purchased last year, is unique in that it offers lots of new-release content (generally same day as DVD) but its HD streams, particularly in HDX mode, are incredibly good. I wouldn't go as far as to say that HDX is the equivalent of Blu-ray, but for my eyes, only Blu-ray offers better picture quality.
Vudu support is a big win for the Boxee Box, a device — which despite its promise — has had a harder time gaining some traction, in part because of some early software bugs and the lack of support for commercial services like Vudu.
In its blog post, Boxee points out some of the new enhancements and bug fixes in the new firmware, including:
Support for language selection in subtitle/audio
Forced subtitle automatic selection during MKV file playback
An option to ignore the prefix in the sort order for movies/albums/artists that start with "The" and "A"
Enhancements to Browser performance
Browser opens in lower resolution to allow easier reading of text
Browser is zoomed into Video by default for non-auto fullscreen websites
Direct launch of website when defining full URL in the search bar
Preselecting the current chapter when opening chapter selector for MKV/BluRay
Seriously, check out the bug fix list — it's pretty massive. Boxee is also on-track to bring Netflix to the box in the next few weeks.
We'll be testing the new Boxee Box firmware and its Vudu support, and reporting on our thoughts in a future post.