design

D-Link's $200 Boxee Box is an impressive bit of engineering, bringing remarkable simplicity to the complex task of moving video and music from the Web or a home computer network to the TV screen. But for the time being, it suffers from the same limitations that afflict all the entrants in the online-TV derby: It's at best an alternative to cable TV, not a substitute for it.

That's not Boxee's or D-Link's fault as much as it is the reality of this moment in time, when many TV programmers are doing their best to protect cable and satellite operators from being undermined by the Net. Major TV titles either aren't available online or, if they're made available through Hulu, they're blocked from being displayed on a TV screen. (Not that it's always possible.)

The situation is gradually changing as Hollywood figures out how to make money from online distribution without sacrificing too much revenue from pay-TV services. Boxee has announced plansto add Hulu Plus, a $8-a-month service that includes much of what's currently on the broadcast TV networks and a handful of major cable outlets. And more cable TV content may become available (for a fee) as a byproduct of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger.

In the meantime, Boxee offers an overwhelming amount of made-for-the-Internet programming, plus the limited number of titles the networks have made available through their websites. And by overwhelming, I mean overwhelming.