Review - Boxee Box

I'll keep this one short and sweet - the reason I purchased a Boxee and Boxee Live TV was to help free us of the shackles of a $150+ Comcast (aholes - will save this for another post) bill. One my ask - Gabe, what in the hell is a Boxee? To which I would reply - an Apple TV that isn't crippled...and for the reading impaired:

While it may not have the 'hockey puck' aesthetic panache of the Apple TV, or the "simple" remote (read for idiots), or walled garden content limitations...the Boxee has it's charms and has won over my cold shriveled heart of cynicism.

One might argue - Gabe, you're just pimping this product because you're out $160 plus the $50 for the Boxee Live TV dongle and you're trying to justify the cost to your pathetically limited number of blog followers (do I have your attention now?)

To which I would reply - That certainly may be the case (I'm looking at you, my lovely wife), but I would then point you, my dear reader to following review (finally, the jerk is done blabbering):

Executive summary (all you supine folks out there can read this and then skip to the summary):  The Boxee Box and Boxee Live TV is a robust, feature complete, easy to use media device that has enough content offerings/access to satisfy all the cord cutters (and potential ones) out there who want to free themselves from the bondage of Cable TV without the walled garden approach taken by Apple. It offers access to a wide variety of pay-for-play as well as subscription based content sources and presents them in a friendly and intuitive user interface that is controlled by an nimble yet simple remote.

The Good:

- The user interface is simple, clean and responsive

- The remote is simple, yet flexible enough for more demanding users. It has one touch navigation on the front and a full(ish) keyboard on the back.
- It has a web browser with flash...'nuff said
- It allows access to local media sources (even items purchased in iTunes - Gasp!)
- It has a wide variety of apps that you can download and install
- If you are technically inclined there are a ton of mods to suit any geek's need
- It has access to basic cable via the Boxee Live TV (this is a game changer) - pair this with a SimpleTV (DVR for the Boxee) and it's even better

The Bad

- The audio (if not connected to an amp/sound system) can be very soft and then obnoxiously loud without warning
- The Boxee can become unresponsive if it's been asleep for too long, or is trying to chug through a very large local media file (read blu-ray rip)
- Software updates - I have owned it for several months and have yet to see a software update...this could cause concern about the future of the device
- Remote can be confusing for some and has a moderate learning curve

Why should I buy a Boxee?

- If you are a casual TV watcher - Ditch the cable tv and get the Boxee + Boxee Live TV  and you'll probably save yourself $20-50 a month (depending on cable package)
- If you have a ton of local content on say a NAS, SAN or home theater PC.
- It offers more content access than an Apple TV, Roku, et al... - this is of course unscientific but I am right
- It has a damn web browser with Flash (the web is going HTML 5 so this is moot in a year...but I digress)
- Because I said so

To wrap up - The Boxee Box and Boxee Live TV combine to make a great media device that is flexible (looking at you Apple), nimble and offers a small fighting chance of making cable tv providers think long and hard about lowering their prices and offering better content  as the threat of cable cutters looms large on the horizon with the emergence of a tech savvy, cost conscious, impatient and increasingly mobile oriented generation.

One last thing - Bleep you Comcast, and that's from the heart.