I've tried a couple of these network media boxes. They all fail to one degree or another. For starters, you are at the mercy of whatever deals the manufacturer can make for content. While in theory they can be updated with new services when they are announced, in practice it seldom happens. They are also a poor solution for dealing with web-based media. It's very difficult to take a generic video stream meant for a browser and give the user the best picture with full interactive controls. None of them I've seen will buffer the stream so you can use it like a DVR (again probably because of media rights issues).
This is more a legal issue than a technological one. Once content producers decide they really want to address providing content over the internet, standards will rapidly develop which will give users the same functionality they get with their DVRs. Until then, it will be an unsatisfactory experience.
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