New Boxee Box Firmware Finally Brings Netflix to US and Canadian Users

As it’s Valentines Day today, Boxee have finally given some Netflix love to its US and Canadian Boxee Box users, plus some other updates and bug-fixes for everyone else.

Here is what their blog post said:

We are happy to announce that TV shows and movies streaming instantly from Netflix is now available on the Boxee Box by D-Link in the US and Canada.

Netflix support was the most common request we had on our blog comments, forum posts, tweets, etc.  We heard you loud and clear. We were bummed that we could not make it happen earlier, but are very excited to have it out today.

To instantly watch movies streaming Netflix on your Boxee Box, you’ll need to update the software on your Box – it will update automatically to the new version (1.0.4.17443) within the next 24hrs or you can manually check for the update by going to Settings>System>Update.

A new public firmware for the Boxee box clients includes the following:

New Features/Enhancements
*Netflix -US/Canada only
* Support Dolby Digital TrueHD bit streaming.
* Support for high resolution SRT subtitles.
* Updated drivers for external IR remotes. Now supporting “Windows Vista class” remotes.

Bug Fixes
* Under some circumstances, audio took 1-2 seconds to start.
* Subtitle size change was not retained after restart.
* In some websites, switching the video quality during playback did not work.
* Post boot Black screen (only if you are able to view the start up video animation).
* Vudu was not authorized if system was unable to acquire a correct time and date.
* Could not go backwards, forward or pause in Vimeo.
* With some audio receivers, namely Onkyo, audio was lost after video resolution switch.

We have a Boxee Box we are currently testing, but it’s currently with me here in the UK, so no Netflix for me! Watch this space for our full hands-on review coming up very soon.

Have you got a Boxee Box? What do you think of it and will you use Netflix on it?