My 2nd Boxee arrived, with a Netflix button instead of play/pause

[lateralex]

This is a massive disappointment that apparently the new Boxee's have replaced the play/pause button with a big red Netflix button. There was no update to the product description, so this is news to me. If you click it while watching a show - it immediately shuts the show down and launches the Netflix app. http://imgur.com/1bgHI

Sending this straight back to Amazon as we speak, hoping this is someones bad idea that will be short lived...

[aaronwt]

The button was talked about earlier this year so i guess it's in the wild now.
That button used to be the play/pause button wasn't it? They should have just added a separate button for Netfix and kept the play pause button. A dedicated Netflix button is nice, but I use the play/ pause button alot.

[Ronald]

The button was talked about earlier this year so i guess it's in the wild now.
That button used to be the play/pause button wasn't it? They should have just added a separate button for Netfix and kept the play pause button. A dedicated Netflix button is nice, but I use the play/ pause button alot.

They must have gone completely insane, if they think NetFlix is universally available, and also more important than a generic pause function...

It is also obvious to all who have used Boxee that what it really needs is either more dedicated buttons for generic functionality (Home, BackBrowse, etc), or at least more use of the keyboard buttons for other purposes than text entry. But we certainly do NOT need dedicated buttons for any specific network service.

It is idiotic to have provider-specific buttons as this is a rapidly evolving field, with NO service provider being of equal interest to every user in every region. And the latter will NEVER change, as regions differ in what they will even allow...

Personally I would never buy a Boxee without a pause button, nor would I ever recommend it to anyone. Having that functionality (without having to go through a menu) is crucial. No media player should be without it...!!!

So from now on I'll be warning people to stay away from wasting money on a Boxee, unless they can find one with the non-NetFlix remote.

Edit:
The least they could do is to redefine the playback pause function to accept not only the Pause/Break keyboard key (which is how our old pause button works), but to also accept the space key, just like most PC media players do. That way we'd still have access to a large easy-to-reach pause button even with the new remote. And this only requires a firmware update, so no design changes of the remote are needed for it.

Best regards: Ronald

[Gunserotti]

Agreed 100 percent. Can't even count the number of times in the dark that I have accidentally started Netflix by accident. Even worse....I don't have a Netflix account. This button should have the option to be remapped to play/ pause, so much for Boxee being simple/ intuitive.

[Sneckster]

Surely this is a joke, right?

[M1ster_Happy]

You're right it must be joke... especially when holding upside down (which happens).. You've suddenly got netflix kicking off instead of the menu. I'll rather stick with my grey letters than have that button.

I assume this isn't world wide as it would be pointless in a lot of countries.

[consumedsoul]

This is a massive disappointment that apparently the new Boxee's have replaced the play/pause button with a big red Netflix button. There was no update to the product description, so this is news to me. If you click it while watching a show - it immediately shuts the show down and launches the Netflix app. http://imgur.com/1bgHI

Sending this straight back to Amazon as we speak, hoping this is someones bad idea that will be short lived...

So what's in place of pause/play now? Maybe it can be reprogrammed?

[gynetix]

It could probably be reprogrammed, somehow.

Do think that's a bad move though. There needs to be both a play pause, and a Netflix button. I see how they were trying to simplify Netflix launching though, but I don't think this is the right move.

[gmd024]

So what's in place of pause/play now? Maybe it can be reprogrammed?

It's not the same as a dedictaed button - but you can still pause/play by clicking the 'enter' button while content is playing and then clicking the onscreen pause/play icon

[lateralex]

Was this implemented in the name of usability? If so, it is a total failure. I am guessing they are getting a kick-back from Netflix for the co-branding.