Digital Home Thoughts: Betting On Building Your Own Boxee

"I received a Boxee review unit to play around with, and I have to say, I really like it. Quite a bit more than our colleagues at Gizmodo, for sure, because I enjoy a lot of the non-mainstream web content, dig the remote and the box's look, and absolutely adore the "Friends" menu that lines up all the videos my Twitter and Facebook contacts linked for easy watching."

The Boxee Box is one of many streaming solutions in a very crowded market. Still, it stands out as one of the best with a slick interface and support for a lot of stuff you can find online. But why buy when you can build? Earn some Geek cred and make your own HTPC from scratch. Well, it is not always that easy, and at $200, the Boxee Box is hard to compete with. A roll-your-own solution does offer flexibility, but it can also mean spending a few more hours to a few more days setting everything up and dealing with potential, though probably unlikely, hardware conflicts. To be honest, while LifeHacker promotes the do it yourself ethos, I can see the huge temptation that buying an already built solution offers. Without any hassles or problems, you can spend your time watching movies, instead of install wizards.