Sometimes (due to noise constraints), I find it necessary to record bass guitar direct. I've tried various DI methods but, am underwhelmed. I've heard good things about the Sansamp Bass Driver. Anybody using this? I've thought about trying a Line 6 Bass Pod or Behringer Bass V-Amp (or whatever that's called).
I thought I'd pose this question here to see what other folks are using so I can hopefully not waste a bunch of time and $$$ trying things that are just not good.
Thanks in advance for any help/advice!

A DI should work fine unless you just don't like that type of sound. What kind of soundcard are you using and what kind of bass sound are you looking for?
If it's an amped bass sound you prefer, there are a bunch of VST-based bass ampsims too, most notably Ampltube Ampeg, TH2 Mark Bass and Softube's Bass Amp Room.

Can you define "underwhelmed"?..
 
The DI part only gets you a clean signal and doesn't add any value to tone. So if you can record your bass noise free, then imo you wont add any value by purchasing additional boxes.
 
if you want a vintage type sound, then you will need to work the EQ for a typical cabinet response (falling past 4kHz ish, and also mimic the mid scooped tone of a vintage tube amp.
if you want a more modern sound, then amps typically have some presence hump and modern cabs are flatish response.
 
if you have some bass audio track, I would just suggest starting with the pro channel bass presets, play with the EQ, compression and tube drive settings.
 
hope this helps

Yeah, for a "direct" sound any reasonable DI should get a decent sound. For a passive bass you need to make sure the DI's input impedance is high enough or you'll get a dull sound - some audio interfaces and mic preamps with "instrument" inputs come up short here. Of course you need to get a good sound out of the bass itself.
 
For amp sounds, I like the Amplitube stuff which has a wide variety of good bass amp models, depending on what kind of sound you're going for.

Two popular DI's for bass are the Avalon U5 and the A-Design REDDI. I use an Avalon U5 into a FMR Audio RNC 1773 compressor (very light compression) and get great results with a variety of basses. Both the U5 and REDDI are a bit pricey, but they'll give you very acceptable results. They are common DI's in high end studios.

My personal opinion is that the direct box won't make much of a difference on a DI bass unless you have an exceptionally horrible direct box.  I use the Hi Z input on my interface with no direct box and that works fine.
 
I like the unaltered sound of the DI'd bass, with maybe a little limiting later.
 
For amped sounds, Line 6 doesn't make the Bass Pod anymore, but if you can find one, it has a good range of amp sounds.  (Line 6 has newer products to replace the Bass Pod and, unfortunately, I am not familiar with the current bass solution.)  Of course, there is Guitar Rig.  EZ Mix 2 has a few really good bass presets.

Amplitube Ampeg through my Focusrite 8i6 guitar input. Good bass and playing technique a plus.

For a while I was using a  BH 250. It has a DI XLR output and can be run without a speaker too. 
http://www.tcelectronic.com/bh250/
 
You download Tone Print efxs and can achieve just about any sound you like. I actually used it in by pass mode ( bypasses the EQ and EFX's)  most of the time and found it was the sound I liked best.
But then I bough my Focusrite scarlett 6i6 and found I got pretty close to the same sound just plugging right in. So depending on your interface there's no saying if it will be good or bad. My Tascams sounded boring in this regard.  
I have upgraded my Yamaha's Bass pick ups and personally I think that a good bass sound starts right there with the instrument. 
 
I do like to use compression most times but if I play carefully I get a good even track. 

I like the sound of the saffire pro 40(direct into) preamps for
neutral bass sounds, it´s a good basic for emulations like amplitube ampeg and the markbass plug in
and a mix of the Gap pre 73 as a DI box and a sennheiser md 421 mic for a 
growling (is that the right word?)  characterful bass.
 

DI is fine. Amplitube's Ampeg bass is awesome!!!