From what I've deciphered, Boxee TV is essentially a DTV converter with cloud based DVR, a handful of Boxee popular apps (namely Pandora, Netflix, Vudu, Youtube and Vimeo), and DLNA.
Boxee's vast app libarary is gone (save for the aforementioned five), the ability to connect to network shares is gone (one of the things that drew me to Boxee over it's competitors), and the QWERTY remote is also gone. All being replaced with the ability to DVR network and unencrypted cable channels then stream them to anything running Boxee TV (i.e. Boxee TV, PC, tablet, phone) for $15 a month.
Not being able to connect to locally stored media it the biggest loss for me though. Sure it still has DLNA but I've never liked the way DLNA works. Music, video, and pictures have to on certain shares or else they won't be recognized. Which for the most part my stuff IS organized but I also have catch-all folders that aren't. Plus I'm sure this also means it'll lose the IMDB resolution which pulls the movie art, cast, synopsis, and reviews for all of my DVDs I've ripped and stored.
Having the DVR is nice and the ability to stream it anywhere with an internet connection is cool but I personally never used DVR that much when I had cable. The shows I DID record were all on encrypted channels (HBO, Comedy Central, AMC, etc.) so getting a $15 a month DVR to record network TV seems pointless to me.
But I do see where Boxee is going with this. I am a power user and they want Boxee TV to be more user-friendly to better compete with Apple TV and Roku. Kinda like Toyota focusing on the Prius and doing away with the Supra. They need to dumb the software down so grandma and grandpa won't cower at the sight of it.
*where'd this box of soap come from?*
Links:
Engadget
Huff Post
Boxee Blog
