Boxee Box: The Inside Story, Swapping Tegra 2 for Intel CE4100
by Ganesh T S & Brian Klug on September 13, 2010 10:31 AM EST- Posted in
- Media Streamer
- Home Theater
- HTPC
Media streamer companies have expertise in either hardware or software, but rarely both. Boxee realized this early on that were they to go out and try to build a box themselves, they would probably fail. By linking a strategic partnership with D-Link which has experience building hardware, and also has a great retail channel presence, they managed to make up for one of their critical shortcomings. D-Link, on the other hand, had to figure out a way to handle the shift in the entertainment ecosystem. For an optimal user experience, a full solution, right from the NAS to the home network to the actual media streamer, had to be created. We have seen attempts at this from both Netgear and D-Link earlier, but all their media streamer offerings failed in terms of the user interface and experience. By partnering with Boxee, they too have managed to overcome one of their shortcomings. How well this has worked out will soon be seen, as the Boxee Box is already up for pre-order on Amazon and should ship before the end of November. D-Link and Boxee also announced that the unit would be up for pre-order internationally (including US, Canada, Australia and the EU).
This product also gives Intel a boost in the mainstream SoC market space. Being the first unit with the CE4100 (actually, any x86 based SoC) to ship to the mainstream consumer (at a palatable $199 price point), Intel would hope that its popularity would be a sign of things to come for x86 based SoCs.
For AnandTech to recommend a media streamer, it must strive to enable the consumer to watch whatever content he wants wherever he wants. Boxee Box seems to have taken this philosophy to heart, unlike some of the other recently announced media streamers. While we hope that the unit can live up to the heightened expectations it has just created, we know that the proof is in the pudding. We will be closely following this streamer as it nears release, and in the meanwhile, if you have something particular that you want to be tested on this unit, feel free to let us know in the comments.
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ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
mataichi, What you are referring to is the SSA subtitle reproduction capability. It is part of our media streamer test suite, and Boxee has their hands on the test stream. I think they will make every effort to ensure that the subtitles display as intended by the subtitler.That said, do wait for a review of the unit from our side. We will confirm this for you, so that you can make an informed decision on the purchase.
conejo99 - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
I see where it says this supports ISO, but how about VIDEO_TS folders (IFOs, VOBs etc.)?ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
This is part of our test suite, and Boxee has it to make sure it is able to score as much as possible on it. I have no reason to believe that it won't be supported, but you will have to wait for the final review to confirm this.gigahertz20 - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Thank god they dropped Tegra 2, everybody would have just dismissed the Boxee Box if it came out and couldn't handle high bit-rate HD video. Why buy a Boxee Box that can't handle true HD video when you can buy a WD TV Live for $65 off eBay that can handle almost everything? Now that it has the CE4100, the Boxee Box has become interesting again.Uzan - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Surely when talking about network filesystems you mean AFS rather than HFS+?HFS+ is to AFP what NTFS is to SMB
ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Uzan, that wasn't about network file system alone. Sorry if that was the meaning which came across. What we wanted to convey was that Apple based file systems are supported on external USB drives also.icrf - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
I'm honestly much more interested in the hackability of the thing. I run both, but I'm a much bigger fan of XBMC than Boxee, as I have more often stream LAN content than from the internet and the UI is nicer for that IMO. They had previously said they were sending all their changes related to the hardware back upstream to XBMC and the box was supposed to be friendly to people that wanted to make a change to that, or anything else, really. I hope that spirit stays alive. If XBMC can run, due to the relative simplicity of an x86 core, but does have access to the decode hardware, I'll be a very sad panda.Any idea as to when they'll be able to send you a review sample? I assume the hardware is solid enough already, but they're spending time tweaking the software and don't want to send out too early and have reviews full of known problems (hence, you sending your test suite).
But, even that said, I'll probably pre-order anyway. I'd wait for a review of the Tegra-2 version, but this I think I could just buy. I have more faith in x86 than ARM for a media player. If the above issues are handled, I'll evangelize the hell out of the platform.
haze4peace - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
gigE port just isn't needed on this device. 100Mbps can stream your most demanding videos with plenty of headroom to spare. Also I'm sure you mean eSATA, which would be nice, but USB2.0 also has plenty of bandwidth to stream a high quality movie. So these are really non-issues, unless you have an external drive that only does eSATA.mindbomb - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Not a first.the western digital line of media streamers can do this.
ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Do you mean to say that special fonts / karaoke effects are supported in the WDTV Live? The last time I checked, it wasn't the case... I should probably recheck if you can confirm for sure :)