Apple TV vs Roku vs Boxee?

[My Opinion Matters]

Anyone have any experience with any of these? Recommendations?

[Wishboned]

No.

I just bought a WD TV Live Plus and I like it a lot. And Amazon has it for $99.

[SoonerTG83]

I have a Roku and it's great for streaming Netflix. Easy set up with wireless or wired router, then log into your Netflix account, enter the Roku code and you're set.

[stoops the eternal pimp]

No.

I just bought a WD TV Live Plus and I like it a lot. And Amazon has it for $99.

I was thinking about scoring one of these...glad you like it

[yermom]

the Apple TV is pretty cool, but you seem to be locked into iTunes if you want to stream your own content to it. Boxee seems like a better idea, but i'm not sure on reality yet

[My Opinion Matters]

I have a Roku and it's great for streaming Netflix. Easy set up with wireless or wired router, then log into your Netflix account, enter the Roku code and you're set.

Have you used it with Amazon On Demand at all? Curious about download times, transfer quality, etc.

[SoonerTG83]

Have you used it with Amazon On Demand at all? Curious about download times, transfer quality, etc.

No, just with Netflix. I have a 6 Mbps DSL connection and Netflix streams without any problem. IMHO the quality is great on both HD and SD televisions. Once you have the Roku box linked to your Netflix account, you see whatever you've put in your streaming queue and can search for items to add to your queue. Just select what you want to watch and it loads in a matter of seconds. You can pause/FF/Rewind. You can stop watching at any point, come back to the same selection later and pick up where you left off. I've used my Roku with both wireless and wired routers and the quality/transfer speed is the same.

I don't know anything about Amazon On Demand, so can't comment on their service.

[SteelCitySooner]

I have the old version of apple tv and I love it. But I do most everything through iTunes anyway.. If you are a iTunes user, this is the box for you.. If not, look elsewhere cuz it won't easily integrate with other non-itunes type stuff. It will, but not easily..

[Norm In Norman]

Boarder is a big AppleTV fan. It's pretty neat, but a bit limited on what it can play (only itunes stuff). If you like XBMC, you can buy the old version of appletv, hack it and run XBMC in it. The biggest problem is it can't handle HD video without buying an add on card and even then there are problems.

I'm pretty sure roku can play HD but I know little about it other than some people on the appletv forums buy a roku box too so they can play HD stuff.

Boxee is based on XBMC, so it can't be all bad. The Boxee Box looks ... cool ... and has an AWESOME remote with a keyboard on the back. It's about $200 though (amazon has the best deal). If you are streaming videos from your own network, it's probably the way to go over apple tv. I don't really understand why they need all that social media crap on it though.

Personally, I just bought a Shuttle XS35 with 2 GB of ram and a 320 gig hard drive. It was closer to $300. It has an atom processor and an ion video card. I threw linux (ubuntu) on there and have it booting directly into XBMC. It plays 1080p x.264 mkv files flawlessly. I am right now in the process of ripping all my DVDs into mkv files so I can throw the DVDs into a box in my garage (I can't wait until that day). Another cool thing about it is it's a normal computer. I can run pretty much whatever I want to run on it.

I will warn you though - once you go XBMC, you never go back.

[NormanPride]

Does it have solitaire?

[RacerX]

Does it have solitaire?

Minesweeper!