Five reasons Iomega TV beats Boxee Box

January 7, 2011 By Nick Mokey

A handful of small refinements make Iomega TV a better bet for Boxee fans than D-Link's Boxee Box.

A box with Boxee is a box with Boxee, right? Not really. Despite the identical software running on D-Link’s Boxee Box and the brand new Iomega TV with Boxee, a handful of seemingly small but collectively significant features divide the two. We went hands on with the Iomega TV at CES 2011, and we’re convinced it’s the superior box. Here’s why.

It’s not trying to be furniture.

The Boxee Box whole chrome cube design with certainly caught eyes at CES last year, and earns some deserved points for originality, but it’s just not practical. Unless you live in a college dorm, it doesn’t fit in with any home decor, and when you go to stuff it in a AV cabinet, the awkward shape takes up way more room than it needs to. Iomega TV adopts a much lower key design that looks modest situation below a TV, or stuffs cleanly away in a shallow drawer – it’s even thin enough to put on top of other equipment, depending on your situation.

It comes with storage.

We’ve already established that buying an Iomega TV with built-in storage isn’t a particularly good deal on price-per-GB level, but at least Iomega gives you the option. We would rather string up a portable USB drive (which is still possible), but for someone who wants one tidy package, adding 1TB or 2TB or storage inside just makes sense.

Iomega is waiting out Boxee’s awkward adolescence.

D-Link delivered the Boxee Box later than expected and missing a critical feature – Netflix – then promised it by the end of the year and failed to deliver. Iomega TV will arrive in February when Netflix will already be available, giving consumers the experience they expect out of the box rather than putting them through upgrade after upgrade fix a half-baked product.

It’s a versatile media server.

Iomega TV ships with Iomega’s new Personal Cloud software, which basically means you can access it easily from anywhere. Shooting off an e-mail invite to family and friends gives them access to whatever you decide to share on the device, seamlessly. After they install a small client, it just appears as another drive letter. But forget about family and friends, we just want access to our treasure trove of movies from anywhere.

It has a trackpad.

Navigating the Web with D-Link’s Boxee Box is hell on earth thanks to the four directional keys, which make placing a cursor harder than snagging a teddy bear with a claw machine at the arcade. Iomega made the same directional keys double as a capacitive touchpad when the browser is open, for a much smoother, more natural mousing experience. The demo we tried lagged significantly, but Iomega claims it will improve by the time it ships, and even in its current state, it’s miles better than D-Link’s.

Showing 8 comments

Tim Borka at 7:08am 4th August 2011 I like the track pad. The rest of the points are either opinion or negatives. I don't like the looks, want an internal drive, or iomega's bloatware.
Anthony at 6:58pm 4th April 2011 "We’ve already established that buying an Iomega TV with built-in storage isn’t a particularly good deal on price-per-GB level" Um, no you haven't. TFA doesn't even mention what the the costs. Was there a paragraph that got edited out?
1. Anthony at 6:59pm 4th April 2011 ^the the^the thing
James M S at 2:25pm 8th January 2011 The more the merrier I say. I love my D-Link Boxee Box and agree with Richard Rudol's comments, that when it comes to Iomega and NAS, It's best to let the customer decide an alternative if they want. Too many friends have had woes with Iomega NAS and support. As for the design, I guess it all depends on taste. I prefer something different and enjoy the sinking box design. If you like the designer Philippe Starck, then the Boxee box will be pleasing to the eye. If you like IKEA and the organized look, then the Iomega box is right up your alley. Kudos to Iomega for the Track Pad, but I guess there will eventually be a third party that will roll out a Boxee remote that has voice recognition. Who knows? The industry is on it's head about the Internet Set Top Box and it will only get better for all. I hope.
Glenn at 10:46pm 7th January 2011 Huh? It's not called Iomega "TV!"? or "Boxee!"? ...strange.
prd at 6:47pm 7th January 2011 1) I LIKE the Boxee Box design... what I don't need is another "router" box setting on my rack. 2) This option (which undoubtedly will cost you) is neither here nor there. All my files are on a server anyway so that any device in my home can access it. But you can plug a drive into the BBox if needed... 3) The BBox is not vaporware. You can buy it now, and it works great. I have yet to find a file it won't play. There will always be an update upcoming... 4) Big deal... this will probably cost you extra after some trial period anyway. Remember #2 up there? Can already be done if wanted... which its not... I either take media with me or can stream from several sources already. 5) I like the track pad option - that is a great addition. But does it still have the qwerty keyboard? That is also very useful... I Like iOmega (can't tell you how many Zip!, Jazz! and Clik! disks I still have), and it's always good to have options... but it hardly beats the BBox...
1. Dain Binder at 9:52pm 7th January 2011 Agreed.
Richard Rudol at 5:04pm 7th January 2011 It sounds very nice; however, the biggest minus is fact this box is made by iOmega. I have recently dumped my iOmega NAS and replaced it with Boxee Box and Synology NAS and finally everything works just as suppose to. Do not waste your money with iOmega. It is simply junk.