Adam Jackson

6 comments

Boxee’s home page touts their device as, “The one box your TV needs” but, so far I haven’t seen that. In fact, I just added a 6 port HDMI hub to my television because I ran out of HDMI ports. Yes, I had 6 of them and I ran out.

• XBox 360 – $299
• AppleTV – $99 (previously $250)
• Blu-Ray Player – $250
• Boxee Box – $299
• Apple iPad 2 (hdmi adapter) $829+$49
• Comcast DVR – Free w/ $70 a month service
• Roku XDS – $99
• Playstation 3 – $299

I actually just ordered the Roku so it’s not here yet. I’ll be cancelling Comcast and removing the DVR once the Roku arrives. Why did I buy the XBox? Well, I wanted to use it for Netflix back in the day. Okay, so why the PS3? Because the PS3 offered Hulu Plus and music services. Cool, so what about the Boxee Box? Well, that was for easy movie watching of films that I already have on the RAID drives connected to my iMac..I know Connect 360 does this but I found the Boxee to be better. Plus, Boxee has VUDU on demand and some cool widgets and I find their flash-enabled browser REALLY good. So why the Roku? Well, I’m a Prime member of Amazon and they’re the only player on here that offers Amazon video on demand. Why the Blu-Ray player? Well, cause Netflix Instant is still limited and most of my Netflix content still comes on Blu-Ray disks. Looks like you have everything covered but why the AppleTV? Well, a lot of movies and TV shows I have are DRMed via iTunes and sometimes I like renting movies through AppleTV even when they cost a dollar or two more than Amazon or Vudu. Makes sense, why still have Comcast then? Honestly, for live sports. I’m cancelling that now that MLB and NBA games are coming to AppleTV. I already pay to watch those games on my iPad & computer so I don’t need cable anymore.

This is the landscape of today’s consumer trying to “ditch” cable or at least own their own TV watching experience. I added the price tag to these devices to paint a picture. Currently, a single man in New Hampshire, I have a bit of disposable income and yes, I’m still saving money (shout out out to Mom who reads every blog post). I decided last year to experiment with ditching cable and it’s freaking hard and nearly impossible for every working family out there. I’m a tech geek who gets this stuff. There’s no learning curve for me so, even if you have the skills, do you have the cash to afford such a setup and would you be surprised to hear that I’m STILL unhappy with this setup.

I hate having more than one box. Boxee’s marketing is bull and they know it. Any “box” maker that tells you theirs is ultimate is lying to you. Once I find one, I’ll update this post but I doubt that will happen. If you’re reading this and have a family of a few teenagers, I doubt your age group will ever ditch cable fully. Internet & Cable will merge into your Comcast DVR and you’re going to use that until you die. I really feel that we’re that far off. 20 somethings will ditch cable across the board in the next 40 years. Sounds like too far off?  If you think so, it means you’re a geek who “gets it” but remember how big of a deal it was during the digital TV switch of 2009 and how many millions of people freaked out and ran to Radio Shack when their over the air TV stopped working? These people aren’t even on cable and we’re already talking about ditching that.

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I want Boxee to be the only box I need. Their MLB app is crap or I wouldn’t have bought the new AppleTV to watch games there. Boxee also FINALLY added Netflix eliminating my need for a few of the boxes. If they add Hulu and Amazon Video on Demand, I can get rid of the Xbox, PS3 and Roku but their interface needs a lot of work. Boxee is setup in the best spot here. They have a large community, huge support, good funding and they’re making money. I want them to succeed but they need to add every single video content system out there and also their box needs to stop crashing every 3 days (although, it always happens when watching online video via the web browser – mostly Adobe Flash).

The Sony PS3 and Xbox have games that are too expensive. These aren’t really gaming machines for me. Until Boxee came along, they were my only media hubs. If these two players had innovated like crazy and offered more premium services for Live / PS3 home subscribers, they’d have a home run. Unfortunately, they both support Netflix, a single video service and that’s it.

Roku is just too limited but it offers Hulu so I stick with it.

The Sony Blu-Ray player and PS3 could also be eliminated if a 3rd party made a Blu-Ray disk that pluged into the USB port on my Boxee. Please get on this.

The Comcast DVR will finally be going away now that I have Hulu, Netflix, Amazon video and MLB.TV (on an interface that doesn’t suck). Cancelling cable is a dream of mine and I’m finally going to be able to do it. However, when you compare 2 years of Comcast with the pricing of the devices I own above and figure in that most people DON’T understand networking, computers, formats or other technical things, my ability to cancel cable came at a high price and high research. Hell, I spent every weekend for months converting tons of video so it could be played on an AppleTV then Boxee comes out and solves that (albeit with a far worse interface).

I guess the point of this post is that everyone should stop researching and trying to get a box to replace their cable. It simply won’t happen this year or next. We need to get a box with a beautiful interface (like AppleTV or PS3) that has every single service (which no one currently offers) paired with an intuitive setup procedure (scans local computers for video and audio files, reads tags and organizes and adds album artwork)  and a decent remote (needs keyboard, needs screen, needs to be RF not IR) and finally, you’ll need to understand how to use Bit torrent because sometimes, there is a once a year event that is not available for download and not streamed online. They are rare but sometimes Cable really is the only option. Even MLB.TV doesn’t play every single game because some are owned by TBS or other partners.

It’s sad the state of the boxes but cable really is your only option. However, you could just forget this entire post, throw out your TV and start reading more books. I hear that’s a far better way to expand your mind.