D-Link Boxee Box user reviews

Pros Easy to setup. The repositories and Boxee forums. Great remote and function. Fantastic idea to get away from your PC/Laptop or gaming system tapping into your TV

Cons Not enough broadcaster support. Loss of HULU. Wireless streaming can be glichy. Needs to lean towards a wider market, this is mostly for 'techies'

Summary As with all technology you have to determine what you're trying to accomplish to find the product you want. I was looking to 'beat the man' after being tired of dealing with the cable and satellite companies. I wanted streaming; or IPTV; service with access to College and NFL games. Boxee is close to providing this, but lacks the support of broadcasters. In a disappointing turn, they lost access to Hulu. They have TV shows and movies through Vudu, but the shows cost per episode and the movies are disappointingly expensive. Some shows are 'free' if you agree to watch commericals, but this loads in a web page. There is a 'full screen' option that's cool, but when the stream stopped, I had to drag the navigation bar to the point closest to where the stream died, it was a bit clunky. The only way to watch College and NFL games is through Justin.tv; which worked great, but I was taken back by the flashing red banner stating the game I was watching was about to be taken off line by the NFL due to copyright violations. There aren't really any parental controls either. The only control is to prohibit adult titles from being displayed, which is a very NICE parental control; but I'd like to have more flexibility in determining what is before my families eyes. Using NAVI-X opens many more doors into the rhelm of movies, TV shows and the like, but again I'm pretty sure this content isn't supposed to be online and there is no way to filter what's coming through once you make a selection.
I'm not trying to come across like Ned Flanders or anything; just trying to inform you if you're looking for an alternative to cable and satellite TV with similar filtering of what's coming into your house AND you want your football; I'm afraid Boxee isn't for you.
What Boxee does best is what it's intended for; which is to free up your PC/Laptop or gaming system and allow you to 'sling' your ripped DVD/Music collection to your TV.
Boxee is so close to being a great product with a huge market, if they could just get to the broadcasting companies and get more sports packages, even if you had to pay for those services - I think D-Link and Boxee would be vaulted way ahead of Appletv and Ruku.
Let's face it, we're all tired of the cable and satellite TV companies raising our rates, charging us for 'HD' services and not giving us the flexibility to watch what we want to watch. Would someone please come up with an affordable ala-carte IP based service?
Boxee is a great product, just be sure you understand the intent of the developers.

Pros -sleek design,unique all around,awesome double sided remote,it plays almost everything.
-cool interface,compact,tons of content,half decent web browser,constantly improving content.
-the future of how media is watched and your friends will love it.

Cons -lots of issues when browsing the web can be found every,remote needs back light,
-needs actual apps,the mouse pointer plain sucks.some flv videos wont have sound.
-fast but not fast enough,needs playlist and shuffle,list take log to load thumbnails.

Summary I spent $250 for this. its worth about $150.it looks very cool it operates very cool,its some what fast but its not fast enough to make you want to cut your cable,third party sources can control what content you view wich sucks but theres still tons of it and a fun and easy way to view it.to many issues with the web browser to make it an replacement for a p.c.its still best media center by a long shot and an amazing way to play your local files of a hard disk but theres just a lot of little fustrations that work against the experience.

what it needs
-a better web browser,even though it improves.
-the mouse pointer for browsing the web is ridiculously clunky its a must fix.
-a back light in the remote.
-an easy way to make playlists with a shuffle function.
-something different than huge lists with long load times on thumbnails.
-actual apps instead of web page adaptations,
-an rca, and composite out . because your stupid friends have'nt bought a flat screen with hdmi.
-its practicaly a web book, let me use it like one.i want games and programs to install and files to save.
-more customizeation.
-it wont play sound on a lot of streaming content,and micosoft silverlight content wont play at all.
-you could get an xbox 360 for just a little more.except no web browsing and alot of files wont play.

ALL IN ALL ITS VERY VERY COOL, AND ITS WHATS GOING TO REPLACE CABLE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. IF YOU'VE GOT MONEY TO BURN AND NEED A TOY, GET IT.BUT FOR THE REGULAR JOE ID ADVISE TO WAIT UNTILL IT DROPS ANOTHER 100 BUCKS.

Pros Plays all formats!!
Lot's of apps
Netflix, Vudu, Vevo, Youtube Leanback and more
Facebook integration (optional)
Live TV Adapter for FTA HD shows provided by Boxee Box.
Connect Hard Disks for local content
"watch later" plugin for browsers

Cons Occasionally needs rebooting
Many TV shows streamed from Network sites need to be full screened manually

Summary I have tried a lot of media streaming devices, from Apple TV to Playstation 3, etc. The Boxee Box is the ONLY device that at the end of the day does what I want it to do.. stream content from my TV, play my netflix and youtube content, and do it well! My experience with competing solutions has left me wishing I had a Boxee in every case. If your entire world consists of Apple products, I am sure that Apple TV might work for you better, but if like me you are not, I would recommend Boxee Box anyday.

Pros 1. Runs (iso,avi, mkv etc)
2. Windows network detection. So, Is not streaming but Is reading the network drive as a file less, if ,stuttering.
3 Great feature: searching on internet the srt file.
4. Apps and repositories
5. great remote. qwerty.

Cons 1. The change in the flash player to 10.3 is not yet implemented
2. giving the complexity (is not a 1 button mp3 player) the settings are more difficult. (that means not plug&play)
3. some apps not working well

Summary Best thing up to now.
I recommend it. I've tried the 100$ first. Not sattisfied.
The web is working ok and remote is great.
I can watch my snooker on BBC tv - live, or Iplayer.
Boxee can "see" all the drives from my network and run movies, photos, music.
Till now is the best. Time will say if it will stay the first