Boxee Sold To Samsung

New submitter TheRecklessWanderer writes "Boxee, manufacturer of The Boxee Box and Boxee DVR as well as developer of the Boxee software, has been sold to Samsung. Boxee has had a hard time adapting to the quickly changing environment where appliances have converged with televisions (morphing into Smart TVs), and I'm sure Samsung is looking to integrate the software in some form or another into their smart TVs."

Comments

Let me tell you about my Boxee Box...

[RobinH]

I know this reflects more on DLink, but I got a Boxee Box when they first came out, and while the idea is really great, the implementation sucked. The Boxee Box frequently freezes or crashes and it's underpowered. The remote control is great that it has a keyboard on the back, but the cursor control for the mouse leaves a lot to be desired. A new version did help a bit, but it's still annoying. Add to that the fact that lots of apps just seem to stop working after a while (not updating their feeds, etc.). Some content just stops working (like CityTV?) apparently because Boxee won't update their version of flash player. Overall, neat idea but sucky experience. Next time I'd just build my own media PC, not buy an appliance.

Re:Smart TV? Help me understand...

[laffer1]

As someone who owns a smart tv, an apple tv and a ps3, you're not confused. Smart TV features suck in TVs. They do update them periodically regardless if you want them to or not and the menus are awful to navigate. A few times, I've had to reboot my TV due to a flaky update. Buying a new $100 set top box is no big deal... I upgraded the original apple tv to a v2 some years back painlessly. I get a few years out of one and buy a new one when they actually add features I care about. With the TV, I don't want it to do much.. in reality i just want a monitor with a remote to turn it on and off. I don't use the tuner. I don't change the input source. It's all through my receiver and cable box. If anything, I want a dumb tv.

Re:Oh, by the way...

[hairyfeet]

This is why I have been pointing my customers to stand alone boxes like Nbox and WD devices, its too damned easy for these "streaming" boxes to get the plug pulled and then you are left with a brick. Logitech Google TV anyone?

This is also why I prefer low power X86 units like the AMD mini-Bobcat boards, if somebody pulls support? Well screw you too, I can slap something like Open ELEC on there and turn pretty much ANY X86 unit into an XBMC "media in a box" with 10 foot UI, just look at how MSFT fucked their customers with Internet TV, but with X86 you can either use a third party hack or completely toss the OS, you DO always have options. With these little ARM suckers I have found too damned many that end up being "DRM in a box" that when the company abandons them if you are VERY lucky you might find one guy in his basement putting out a build that if you jump through enough hoops MIGHT work for a while, but as soon as Chuck gets another box that support is gone and you are again left with a useless hunk of plastic.

So call me crazy, call me unhip, but i will continue to stick with either a stand alone that will continue working if the company goes tits up or if they have to have streaming support go with an X86 based device so that at least i can put on another OS or update it myself if the company decides to no longer support the users.