Smythe posted:

Boxee has suited my needs for the most part. Plays all sorts of hosed up file formats, has a pleasing (to me) form factor, and has a competent web browser. Suffer no delusions, this poo poo aint no computer, but it works decently enough. I watch a grip of and web content in the form of streaming twitch.tv and its ilk and it does that poo poo fine.

Hanging out with the bros usually devolves into "hey man i got this cool poo poo on my youtubes" and that works pretty OK as long as your pals are OK with doing battle with the lovely mouse substitute.

The one big problem is it doesn't do Hulu+, as as previously stated Boxee is a fork of XBMC so it suffers the same shortfall. I bought a cheap roku to serve as a replacement.

Remote thinger is girlfriend friendly and some of the native apps are appealing to her. There's like some sort of fitness or yoga channel idk and she likes it, along with the netflix and web poo poo.

Smartphone remote is decent albeit lovely in the grand scheme of things.

For super serious nerd poo poo that requires super computer power you have the option of either building a full power mediaPC, buying incredibly expensive (for now) wireless HDMI, or doing like I did and running a long rear end HDMI cable through the walls/under the carpet.

IN GENERAL I suggest building a mediaPC or a zotac zbox or something like that already suggested in the thread. Seeing as how they are full-blown computers, they can do anything a computer can do, which alleviates all of the platform-specific issues that plague pre-made media delivery systems. A zotac or a mediaPC can do everything a boxee, roku, or appletv can do along with being a full-blown computer. Put XBMC on it for a slick looking frontend when you want to impress your friends, and you can also read the forums or watch newgrounds (excuse the example of a weird website nothing would support because why?) or whatever the gently caress you want because it's a computer.

While I read you're computer-parts phobic please understand that assembling computers in the yool2012 is far easier than it was back in the day. Parts are literally legos, fit way fuckin easier, and OS installs are cake. There are linux distos that come pre-installed and optimized with XBMC+codecs and poo poo for your sperging pleasure.

Personally, I have a Boxee+Roku+Leaf antenna in the living room for general purpose. There is an HDMI cable to the TV for nerd business but I use my phone as a keyboard+mouse which blows dogshit, but is OK for navigating just a little bit.

Bedroom TV is just a roku which is cool for the lady who likes to have TV on the background while she reads.

e: Getting a decent DVR for an antenna is seriously troublesome. It appears the best option is MythTV and that's getting a little into the mega-sperg territory.