Ok, Let me start off with saying that with all new projects/products (iphone, various operating systems, etc) they can't be expected to work 100% perfectly the ways everyone wants them on the first day. Good products take a bit of time to grow into their skin and I admire boxee and dlink for getting the product out so the makers could really hear the problems and things people want, then updates can be made to take care of these things. Boxee Box v1 is an amazing start.
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My experience:
I've owned two hacked western digital live plus (WDTVLIVE+) for a while now and I had them both hacked to run wdlxtv (amazing software from brad that really made the device truely remarkable and customizable). I enjoyed being able to telnet into them over my local network and make changes as well as providing high quality msheets and artwork when selecting the movies or tv shows. This process was VERY time consuming. With hundreds of mkv movies in a collection, making all the msheets became a pain that I didn't have time for. The wdtvlive+ is great device and I'm glad so much additional development has gone into it.
I owned an apple tv before that which I had boxee installed on. Great software then.
The Boxee Box:
Its bigger that the wdtvlive+ but its cool looking and its a welcome addition to my entrainment center, it looks good. I have no problems with sound or overheating yet so I'm happy about that. Setup was quick and easy. It connected to the network on the first try and updated itself and rebooted. No problems here. I'm quite happy with the boxee GUI, it looks very impressive on my massive tv. OOOO AHHHH, especially with hundreds of my HD movies to select from. The remote is the perfect size and keyboard is plenty big for me. I like it more than wdtvlive+ remote for sure. Once the webserver was activated in the settings, I was easily able to drag and drop files from my mac onto the locally attached hard drives connected to the boxee box (yes read/write over the network which seemed to a be a problem for some other people, I have no idea what they are talking about, I have full read/write from snow leopard as well as windows 7, it worked for me without any addtional steps). The box easy connected to all the shares on my network (both osx and win7 computers, all shares are there and work fine). As far as playback, I have yet to find a movie in my collection that hasn't played, they all have worked.
My problems/things dlink/boxee need to work on:
1) The artwork process is very slow, wish there was a faster automated process for collection movie/tv show artwork. Come on people, its 2010, I should be able to load artwork for hundred of movies and tv shows in under 10 minutes. Get this fixed, I will be happier.
2) I have a very reliable internet connection at home and haven't had any problems for months. The couple days I've had the boxee box installed on my network...my internet seems to be dropping a couple times a day for some reason. I cannot tell if its the boxee box causes internet problems or its my isp and just a coincident. who knows but if anyone else has this problem let me know. Maybe we can put our heads together and figure this out.
As for the wdtvlive, I plan on putting a wdtvlive+ in one bedroom and the other wdtvlive+ in another bedroom. The boxee will stay in my living room/entertainment center where I watch a majority of my movies and tv shows.
To sum up: for all those people having problems, you cannot expect everything to work out of the box (which it did for me for some reason) because everyone has different types of network and setups that may cause various problems, its not as easy as you think. If you have problems, then work as a group to get it resolved or hacked to your liking or make it known to boxee. Don't just rant and be an idiot, the boxee box is a good VERSION 1 product that I'm happy with even though it needs a few tweeks...(quickly please dlink/boxee, people are threatening to return their box).
KEEP IN MIND: I only use the boxee box for LOCAL PLAYBACK OF FILES. I don't care about netflix or any of that online streaming crap. LOCAL ONLY USER!
Don't worry, I'm not returning the box, I like it, but here are my comments thus far:
1) I like the boxee box more than my two WDTVLIVE+'s. So well done on that.
2) MY MAIN PROBLEM: I need the boxee box to monitor local folders constantly. If I add a movie to a folder, I would like the artwork to appear in movies or shows within 5/10 minutes on the HOME SCREEN.
3) One reason I wanted the boxee box was to install the ESPN3 app for football, I cannot get this app to load games, its just black.
4) It has played every video file I've thrown at it which is amazing because I have a lot.
5) No read/write networking problems YET, everything is accessible. I'm happy I'm not having the same issues other people seem to be having with network sharing.
6) I was worried about reliability, so I attached a 2TB hdd to the boxee box and started a 1TB transfer over the network to that local bb hdd. It transferred all 1TB without restarting or crashing.Well done.
7) I use this device MAINLY for local playback of files WITH the hope of ESPN3 support. I really don't care about all the online streaming crap. SO I was hoping for options allowing the device more orientated toward users that use it for local. FOR EXAMPLE, the main screen linking to local files not online content. Online content should be AN ADDON accessible within other menu's. LOCAL USERS WANT THE BOXEE centered around local files. I don't like having to go search the menus for my list of local content
8) subtitles should be OFF by default, I hate having to switch them off every time I start a movie.
9) Filtering by Movie Genre.
10) PROBLEM: Playlists for music!!!!!!!! DUH!!!
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Best 200 bucks I've ever spent. Best network media player on the market. Hands down.
First off, I'm not a Boxee fanboy like many people who are grilling Boxee over the coals for not offering free Hulu or Netflix on release date, or for not using the same interface on the box as in their traditional software. (I don't know what that interface looked like originally and I honestly don't care). And even thou Hulu Plus and Netflix have already been announced to be implemented before the end of the year for the Boxee Box, I don't really care either since I get free Hulu access through PlayOn and I watch Netflix on my PS3.The only reason I decided to purchase the Boxee Box was streaming of video files over my network, specially high bitrate 1080p MKV files with DTS sound, which seem to be the weak point of most media streamers on the market (even Google TV can't handle DTS on MKVs). And in that department the Boxee Box totally blew my mind. The interface is beautiful and snappy and it plays my MKV files without breaking a sweat. Fast forwarding is a breeze (also a weak point on most network media players out there) and not only does the box automatically fetch the cover art and description of the Movies and TV shows stored on my network but It can even read the inside contents of RAR files which is awesome.The remote is delightful to use and for the first time EVER I was able to enjoy YouTube on my 52 inch screen and browse it comfortably from my couch. Searching and playing YouTube files is a breeze thanks to the polished YouTube app. There is LOT of free video content in the TV shows and movies section to keep you entertained for ages. Have in mind those videos are ad supported since you're basically playing them off TV websites like comedy central or Spike TV to name a few.But all of the above is basically a bonus for me. Like I said, the real reason I purchased this device was network playback of video files and in that department it totally blows any machine on the market out of the water.As a side note, I have the feeling that once Netflix is implemented before the end of the year on the Boxee Box along with Hulu plus, many people will be tempted to cut off their cable companies because basically for the 20 bucks a month that they would pay for both Netflix and Hulu plus, they're be able to instantly watch more movies and TV shows than they can possibly consume over the course of a month. (I won't go as far as cutting off my cable company thou. I can't live without HBO and my wife watches international soap operas not available anywhere else)Is this box worth the asking price? I'd say it all depends on what do you want the box for. If you're looking for a Netflix or Hulu machine, there are way cheaper alternatives on the market (but they won't stream your local media as superbly as the Boxee Box, or they won't stream it at all). If you're looking for the familiar Boxee interface, you won't find it here either. For that purpose, buy yourself a nettop and hook it up to your TV. But if you're looking for the best Network streamer on the planet, able to play any video format you throw at it at any bitrate or resolution without even flinching, while automatically fetching your Movie and TV show covers and descriptions of the web and displaying them in a beautiful, organized, snappy and convenient interface capable of taming the vastest media collection and putting it at the tip of your fingers, your search (like mine) is finally over. The Boxee Box is the network media player to end all network media players.Finally, a company that "gets it" releases a product that performs the way it was advertised to perform. Boxee understands users want freedom to enjoy their media libraries as they please, without having to deal with restrictive platforms like the apple TV, and now they have put their money where their mouth is by releasing this gorgeous piece of technology. (I'll post a picture above in the product details section - This thing is indeed sexy).I started this review by saying I wasn't a boxee fanboy. Well, I guess after spending a day with the boxee box, they just converted me into one.
