Things I want to know before I commit to the Boxee Box...

[B1gJ4k3]

I loved the idea of the Boxee Box, I really did. I almost bought one sight-unseen. But then I thought to myself, "maybe I should download the latest version for my Mac and see how it's changed." Honestly, I've never been too impressed with the interface and how everything works. Now that I'm trying to get serious about this whole set-top box kinda thing, there's a few things I'd like to know.

Some pretext about me: I really don't care about resolution (gasp!). Yeah, I have an HDTV, but let's face it, the content is the same, whether it comes in HD or not. I'd rather have 50 episodes of an SD show that 10 episodes of an HD show that takes up the same space on a hard drive (I know that's a gross over-simplification, but bare with me) I'll primarily be using the Boxee Box to stream TV episodes and movies ripped from Handbrake to an NAS and Netflix (and possibly Hulu if the the rumors of only Hulu Plus are true AND Hulu Plus drops its price to the rumored $/month)

Here we go:

1. First and foremost: Is there any way to turn off the kind of automatic tagging/titling that Boxee feels the need to force on me? All of my media has been meticulously tagged, described and rated already. I don't need Boxee trying to determine (often wrongly) what the title and description is for an episode of Seinfeld. It's already done. Sorry Boxee, but the episode "The Beard" is not a movie directed by Andy Warhol released 1966.
2. Along those same lines, is it possible to tell Boxee what kind of media a video is? Is there any way that I can manually add TV Shows to the TV Episodes tab? Again, I don't need Boxee trying to figure out what kind of media is in my library. I already know.
3. How does Boxee organize TV episodes? Is it by show>season>episode (like I hope it is) or by show>episode-alphabetical (which is fairly useless for me)? Again, I can't really tell because Boxee tries to figure out what kind of videos my media is.
4. No Netflix right now? Really?
5. Only Hulu Plus? Really?

I think that's all for now, but when I think of more, I might post them. These are definitely the kind of dealbreakers at this point, though.

Obviously, these are just a few things that I've found with the desktop version of Boxee, but I'm assuming that the Box is fairly similar. But, if someone could enlighten me a bit, I would appreciate it.

[stevo81989]

I love boxee and all things boxee. i bought the boxee box once it became available...I will say this. Despite my fanboyism, I caution you to wait

It seems there are many bugs that may turn you off to boxee immediately. I suggest holding off for maybe one or two weeks. Monitor the forums and monitor their blog on updates pertaining to the issues they are facing. Probably once netflix gets added, it should be safe to buy. Hope this helps and dont give up on boxee!!!

[Ph8]

1) Boxee as of yet does not do local scrapping (as far as I know). The Devs are aware and I believe are working on a solution. So for know it will not use your cover art.

2)Not sure what you mean here...The way I ahve seen it, when you select a show it gives you options to play the show (Local, Fancast, ect) it doesnt differentiate between file types (that I know of).

3) The way I have seen it shown it is show>season>episode

4) THis was well known and even discussed at the launch event. NetFlix is coming, but they are creating a new app and or integration for NetFlix so that you can get the NetFlix HD streams. Avner has said before the end of the year which is only about 6 or so weeks away.

50 Boxee has NO control over the content. It is a Hulu stipluation that Hulu Free is only available via a desktop\laptop and Hulu Plus is for devices. If you want someone to be upset at be upset at Hulu and the networks that control it. Also, consider it good news that we are even getting Hulu Plus with the past history Boxee and hulu have had