TiVo haven't been able to do anything truly new or remarkable in over 10 years. It's a shame, but they've only themselves to blame for their stagnation.
In this area I will agree with you completely. I freaking LOVE Tivo, but since their first product, they've only done the bare minimum to keep their product up to date, and it shows.
I didn't imply that you weren't going to get the Boxee Box. I was just being inquisitive and dead serious. If anyone can figure out how to put together a box for around $200 I'm TOTALLY interested. Mainly because I want one NOW.

That's the thing, I'm not. I'm going to repurpose an old PC and live with it until the Box comes out. Otherwise, why on earth would I spend $200 now just to spend it later?
First off, screw Boxee. I used it and hated it.
Well, first off, that's subjective. I like the Boxee interface once it's all set up.
With the inclusion of VDPAU support building a box that can decode 1080p is even easier now. The Atom 330 plus Nvidia Ion is a pretty solid 1080p decoding platform.
True, but you'll be spending, at the very least,
$250 for a box with ION in it, and then you still don't have the incredible remote that Boxee will be offering. They'll sell it separately, but I'm sure it'll be at least $25 on it's own, so you're talking about $75 more, and it's not a purpose-built box.