The Boxee Box Review

Final Words

We’re on the cusp of the internet TV revolution. Networks are putting the majority of their content online in an ad supported form. If you just don’t mind visiting sites like Hulu and Comedy Central you really can get by without paying for cable TV these days. What we’re missing is a simple way to view all of the content on your TV.

Boxee is tackling an admittedly very difficult problem. Make it too easy and the content owners will crack down on you. Make it too difficult, and you end up with a platform that’s unsellable. At a high level, I believe Boxee has come very close to the perfect balance between the two extremes.

Content aggregation and organization is done very well. You don’t have to worry about where the shows come from, just pick what you want to watch. Boxee does compromise on the display aspect which is disappointing (but understandable). I wish everything worked like South Park and you were always dropped into a full screen view of the video.

My complaints on the web video side are mainly about performance and bugs. The box clearly needs work in the optimization and stability departments. In recording the demo video for this review I encountered three system-resetting crashes, not to mention countless others over the past week+ of testing. I don’t believe these are hardware issues, just the type of software bugs you encounter when dealing with a project of this complexity. At least Boxee has the excuse that it isn’t a multibillion dollar company (which is more than I can say for most others who ship buggy hardware). At $99 I'd live with the bugs until they got fixed. At $149 it's debatable. But parting with $199 for a product with bugs, even knowing they'll get fixed, is a tough sell.

As a network/local streaming box, Boxee is easily an entry level HTPC. You get the sort of features from a higher end HTPC, without having to deal with any of the software configuration on your own. The Boxee interface is sensible and quick to navigate.

You can’t build a similarly capable HTPC with better power characteristics than the Boxee Box (simply because Intel won’t sell you a CE4100).

The biggest drawback to the Boxee Box as a HTPC ultimately comes down to bugs once again. Boxee is at least responsive to the bugs that have been reported thus far, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re buying into a platform that needs work.

I’d also like to see improvements in the auxiliary features. The photos browser needs a performance improvement and I’d like to see the web browser’s performance improved to the point where it could be a real alternative to Google TV. Doing the latter would require a reworked remote however as you’d need a better way to move the mouse cursor.

The list below summarizes much of what we’ve said in this review:

Pros:

1. Great UI & simple setup
2. Convenient remote control, small hardware
3. Can easily replace a entry level HTPC with respect to local media streaming features
4. Things can only get better
5. Proactiveness in bug fixing by Boxee. Engineers are on the lookout in various forums (not only Boxee's but also AVSForum). A bug regarding AAC multichannel decode was immediately acknowledged and a quick fix was committed for availability in the next release
6. $199 is cheaper than Google TV

Cons:

1. Green firmware at launch - multiple stability/compatibility issues and many bugs
2. Non-availability of premium content partners at launch
3. Standby power of 10W is laughable
4. Priced too high compared to other media streamers
5. Boxee is reliant too much on the file extension to determine the container, while other streamers tend to look at the header for this purpose
6. Inferior web browsing experience to Google TV

Luckily for Boxee, some points in the cons list can be fixed with firmware updates. Unless Boxee improves the firmware and fully supports formats which can be hardware accelerated by the CE4100, we wouldn't recommend purchasing the unit. Meanwhile, various online services such as Netflix should also be enabled. We will take another short look at the unit before Christmas once the bug fixes are made. The positive thing for Boxee right now is that the CEO and developers are listening and responding to our feedback. We are hopeful of a better experience with the Boxee Box later this year. Potential buyers should just wait and watch till things settle down.