The important difference you'll note is the absence of Netflix from the list of applications. The Clicker application lists it as a source, but you can't view Netflix content without logging into your Netflix account via the Netflix application, which is nowhere to be found on the Apple TV. Some members of the Boxee forums have suggested that Netflix and Silverlight's demands are too much for the paltry 256MB of RAM in the Apple TV.

Boxee's performance was regrettably not as good on the Apple TV as it is on my Mac Pro. Once I got the atv-usbcreator hack installed I had problems off and on with Boxee. Like some on their Apple TVs, I've run into situations where, after launching it, I hear sound but see nothing but a black screen. The only way out is to restart the Apple TV--either by unplugging it or holding down Minus and Menu for six seconds to switch it into troubleshooting mode, where you can choose a Restart command.

Some content played back nicely--shows from , for example--while others were problematic. Just about every show I streamed via Hulu was choppy. When I paused shows and waited a couple of minutes in an attempt to load more of the show into the buffer, Boxee became very slow to react to my commands. Once I finally got the show to start playing again, it would sometimes play the audio without advancing the video or return to choppy playback.

Audio wasn't a problem. I fired up the BBC and NPR applications and I could play and pause the programs easily.

To ensure that this wasn't a bandwidth issue (my DSL connection runs at approximately 5Mbps down) I played a few movie trailers within the Apple's TV's movies area. They all streamed perfectly.