Compared to some cheaper players that take only a second or two to begin decoding, this is a little irritating. The other side of the Boxee Box's offering is web video, and this is a much more mixed experience. On the plus side, it's a great way to find video on the web, with a constantly updated menu of movie and TV show choices.
It's just that most of them aren't available in Australia. By default, the Boxee software shouldn't show sources blocked from your location, but we found plenty of videos that Boxee felt should be viewable that certainly weren't.
Again, those keen enough to sort out proxy details may be able to overcome this limitation, but they're probably more customers for a self-installed Boxee system rather than the ease of use approach of the Boxee Box.
If you're after a slick media-streaming box with a great user interface, it's easy to recommend the Boxee Box, but this does come with a few caveats. You're paying a premium for software that's free in and of itself, and if all you want is basic local network playback, there's no shortage of cheaper boxes out there.
It's a great product, but it is priced at a premium level against its market competition. Alex Kidman. The Good Near universal video codec support. Supports p. Unique design. Well-built remote control. Aggressive in hunting down local content. Wide variety of web content.
Good UI. Constantly updated. You could always build a Boxee system yourself. Not all international content is actually available. Notable pause before playing back any file. Unusual shape won't fit in many AV cabinets. Premium price for media streaming ease of use. The Boxee Box is a premium-priced proposition best suited for those who want an easy out-of-the-box Boxee experience.
A man tries to commit suicide for the love of his goldfish, but finds it surprisingly difficult to accomplish. Then we bought a Roku , which seemed like a pretty good solution--until the Boxee came in. Want to watch last night's episode of Fringe or Glee?
The Boxee has it waiting for you. You can scroll through a list of recently updated shows, watch clips, or choose from shows you've starred as favorites. For my own viewing habits, watching current TV this way rather than via cable or satellite has had only one major problem: CBS shows read: The Big Bang Theory , which aren't available now but are supposed to be available for purchase through Boxee later this year.
That will give Boxee a content edge over CBS-free devices, at least for fans of that channel's shows.
Just because it hasn't been on the air in two five, ten years, doesn't mean it's not still a good show. Plus you get the benefit of not having to wait until next week--we watched seven seasons of Lost in three months. There are also for-rent movies through VUDU, and well over apps in the app library to connect you to sites like Flickr, Facebook, and Pandora.
If none of those appeal, find your favorites in the app list. And if your preferred method of entertainment is torturing visitors with videos of your kids being cute or your latest personal keytar composition, the Boxee Box has 2 USB ports and an SD slot so you can plug in whatever files you like.
But at least for now, there is one area where the Roku has an advantage--you can watch Hulu Plus with it, but not with the Boxee. Hulu Plus was promised when the Boxee Box launched, but so far, even after questions from Congress , no indication of it actually becoming available. This type of TV experience is supposed to be more social, and the aforementioned recent upgrade added to that by letting you specify whether you'd like to share something on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr with a character counter reminding you just how verbose you are.
It also added a little polish to what was already working pretty well:. But now that I've extolled how great it is to use, I have to also point out the Boxee Box's open source troubles. In the Boxee blog on April 19, Tom Sella posted:. Without it, we would not have been inspired to build Boxee in the first place.
That's the spirit I like to hear, but the reason for the post was over the Boxee Box being locked up hardware. The problem from Boxee's point of view is that in order to deliver premium content, there had to be some compromises on their original mission.
On the other side, customers point out that Boxee CEO Avner Ronen said the goal was to make the Boxee Box "hacker friendly," which it definitely is not.
You'll have a lot more flexibility if you download the Boxee software or any HTPC software and put it on your own hardware. With a Boxee Box, what it ships with is what you get. The basic issue outside of the possible GPL violation is a promise-and-delivery problem.
A hackable box was promised. A hackable box was not delivered. Beyond the community that has the capability and interest to hack such a device, this little box is a nearly perfect example of open source software making its way into a piece of hardware that even the most non-technical home user can plug in and get started using.
Some of the Boxee critics are throwing stones at the profit involved. There's nothing wrong with making profit when open source is involved.
But I'm OK with that. My compliments to the engineering team for creating such a surprisingly small form factor, without sacrifice functionality or features. No performance related issues were experienced during my evaluation, even while playing p video. Speaking of which, this would be an opportune time to mention that Boxee Box is more than double the resolution of the Apple TV, offering full HD p. On the front is a plastic panel through which the Boxee logo glows.
Not only does this tell you that your box is powered on, but also indicates network status, green for online or yellow for offline. Boxee Box has built in wireless Ventilation holes are present on the back for the cooling fan and when powered on Boxee Box is nearly silent. Bottom of the housing is covered with a lime green rubber to prevent the box from skidding. But one other important component to consider is interfacing.
Choosing the right remote or wireless keyboard is critical to operation, user experience and budget. This brings us to yet another great thing about Boxee Box. It includes a tiny, two sided RF remote that won't interfere with your IR devices.
It features a double sided design. Though the Boxee Box remote is near perfect functionally, it does bear some design flaws. My primary gripe is that it's powered by a button cell battery. Granted this allows for a slim design, but I'd rather have a thicker remote using AAA batteries as the obvious advantage to this would be availability. When the juice runs out you're more likely to have some AAA's laying around then a button cell.
Also, with the addition of AAA power, perhaps then D-Link can incorporate some back-lighting into the keys. The current keypad proves to be rather difficult to use in low light environments. I'm sure it will be quite some time before we see any hardware revisions.
So in the mean time, you have the option to use a Bluetooth keyboard like the Logitech diNovo Mini. Simply plug it into one of the USB ports and you'll be good to go Yes I've verified and used it during my evaluation.
After physically hooking up your Boxee Box and powering on the unit there isn't much else to do besides run though a few configuration screens. Start-up time is a tardy 45 seconds, but once booted, simply follow the on-screen instructions. The whole setup experience is simplistic and friendly for beginners. One thing I strongly disagree with during configuration is that Boxee forces you to use an online account.
This requires a connection to the Internet and has me questioning my privacy when Boxee Box is connected. From what I saw, there is no way around this. Boxee Box can not even be used until you either create a new account or login with existing credentials for the first time.
Accounts store information for user profiles, settings, favorite applications and social features, but this isn't something that couldn't be localized or skipped all together based on features being used. Home Screen Home screen is the first area you see once Boxee has booted. This simplistic interface with an intuitive menu layout takes a minimalist approach by separating system configuration from featured content and functions like friends, watch later, shows, movies, applications and files.
Navigation is quick and simple, but there is room for improvement. Once you navigate away from the home screen you'll notice the interface switch into a sub-screen. Some more work could go into consolidating these. Even better, Boxee should scrap the Home screen and just use the sub-screen layout as default. As most of my interest lay within media I've downloaded locally files , I found myself quite often ignoring the featured content. It would be nice to have an option to completely remove the featured content area, replacing it with an application or information of my choice.
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