D-Link Boxee Box Tech Review

The Boxee from D-Link can do more than just wirelessly stream HD media to any television, thanks to its remote and full QWERTY keyboard. Kevin Pereira and Candace Bailey review the device that allows users to search and stream as much Internet content as they want for only $200.

Find the full review from Gadget Pron on Attack of the Show after the cut.

What You Need to Know

• The Boxee Box has a ton of inputs and outputs, like HDMI out, optical audio out, wired and wireless internet connections, 2 USB ports, and an SD card slot.
• At first glance, the interface is self-explanatory, so you know where to find TV shows, movies, and apps.
• There's really no way to tell which content costs money, so you may run into a lot of stuff that isn't free before you find what you're looking for.
• It doesn?t have a dedicated back button, so sometimes the menu button will go back, and other times it won't.
• We also liked that they put a full keyboard on the back side of the remote.
• It's pretty easy to type on since the keys are spaced out and they click down easily.
• All you do is start typing and it will give you a drop-down list of content available.
• Sometimes it would take awhile for the box to catch up to fast typing.
• It needs a backlight.
• The Boxee Box might just have a little more media content than everyone else.
• You'll get apps like Netflix, VUDU, Pandora, and a ton of others, but sometimes they're just shortcuts to web pages.
• You can also buy movies and TV shows through VUDU, or you might even get lucky and find some of that stuff for free on the web.
• They have a little more content than Google TV since almost every television network is blocking Google right now.
• The browser is underpowered, so the shortcuts to web pages are bad.
• Even though it supports Flash, it's super slow and not at all easy to use.
• The remote only has a directional pad, so you'll have to scroll your mouse cursor around the page at an incredibly slow rate to click on anything.
• It's also crashed on us numerous times while running Flash-heavy pages, which are usually the ones with the content we want.
• Another thing unique to the Boxee Box is how you can see what your friends are watching; you can scroll through your friends' choices and watch whatever they've shared.
• You can also share whatever you like, and it will drop into your friend's list.
• It's a good idea, but it's hard to find friends on Boxee.

Price

• It?s $200 on Best Buy?s site

Overall Rating

• 3 Seals of Approval Out of 5 (How do we rate gadgets?)
• They've got some cool concepts here, like the social aspect and keyboard remote, but for $80 more, you can get the Logitech Revue, which has cable pass-through, a universal remote, and a better interface

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