Boxee Box by D-Link DSM 380

Boxee Box by D-Link DSM 380
My new favorite toy! Incredibly simple to hook up and use. Watching online media has never been so fun! 

Let me preface this by saying that I do not have cable or satellite TV, but I DO have a cable modem for internet access. Download speeds depend on a lot of different factors, but the Boxee has excellent buffering. I've never had a video choke while playing. And from a content standpoint, I get access to so many shows in one place that I don't NEED cable TV. Simply put, this device is amazing and the software that drives it is brilliant! 

The remote with the qwerty keyboard is the best part of this hardware, although the buttons are a bit rigid and depress deeply. You can't type especially fast, and it takes some getting used to, but it's still very handy. 

The box itself works great with a CAT5 cable or wireless. Since I connect it to my home router, it can see other computers on my network, and their shared folders. This means I can use Boxee to look at photo albums and watch videos that are stored on my workstation or laptop! 

The Boxee software is really fun and easy to use! I originally bought the Boxee to use with Netflix, and that works great. (Really, Netflix on Boxee is no different than on Wii or PS3.) However, all of the other apps and features on Boxee make it incredibly easy to watch videos from websites, podcasts, and RSS feeds. One of the best features is the "Friends" app, which displays all of the current videos your friends have posted in all of your different social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, etc... all in one list, complete with thumbnails. There's so much to watch, I could never get bored! 

The Boxee software is still in development, so you have to make some allowances for a few bugs here and there. Many content providers already have tons of channels you can watch for free. Others (such as Hulu) are not available just yet, but they're working on it. I only have 2 minor complaints with the software: 

1. Occasionally when I exit a video clip, the image freezes for a moment. Then I navigate to another video clip, play it, and all I see is the frozen image from the previous video clip. However, the audio from the current video is playing normally. This happens very rarely, and I'm sure this bug will be worked out soon. In the meantime, the simple workaround is to reboot the Boxee, which takes about 60 seconds. 

2. A few of the third-party apps on Boxee are also in development and not really ready for public use. Certain website apps, for example, have broken navigation, or apps without any content yet. This has nothing to do with Boxee itself... just a few of the content providers. 

All in all, I cannot say enough good things about Boxee. In fact, I use it almost exclusively... It's rare that I even watch broadcast television anymore, since all of my favorite shows are available online, and with Boxee I can watch them whenever I choose to. 

5 stars, 2 thumbs up, LOVE IT!