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GoogleTV and Boxee look like good solutions for what I need to do but I see a growing trend where Networks are purposely blocking their content from these media devices, i.e. Hulu, ABC, ect.. Are there other alternatives that they can't block or would the best thing to do here is to just spend the extra money and build a HTPC?
WDTV-Live with b-rad firmware. there was recently another thread about this here bud
I'd recommend Acer Aspire Revo or Zotac Zbox and XBMC Live as the OS. Both those use the Nvidia ION which supports hardware decoding. This means you can have a weak atom CPU, but still play 1080i HD since all the video decoding is offloaded to the GPU (supported on Windows + Linux [not sure about Apple]).
The boxee box is closed and you can't load any other OS on it. Boxxee apps are also closed so you can't install custom non-boxxee apps. Boxee is planning on dropping free Hulu in favor of Hulu Plus (subscription based), so don't expect to get free hulu on the boxee box.
Acer Aspire Revo is over $200 as per a quick google when the WDTV Live is about half that. You can do all sorts of customizations to it and it plays pretty much everything you throw at it. Also there isn't much to set up like on a mini pc.
You can make a Boxee yourself if you want but WDTV Live is preferred with b-rad firmware as pointed by Detale
I would also suggest going for a media box like the WDTV Live. Not only is it very small you don't have to mess around with an OS or OS updates etc and installing codecs. Everything is loaded in the WDTV Live just plug it in and go.