The Boxee Box Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Ganesh T S on November 23, 2010 5:42 PM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- Media Streamer
- HTPC
- Boxee Box
Power and Performance
The Boxee Box is made out of relatively low power hardware and as a result, total system power consumption never exceeds 15.2W. While playing Flash video content via the web I measured a consistent 15W power draw at the wall and the highest I ever saw it hit was 15.2W.
The lowest I ever saw the Boxee Box drop down to was 11.2W. Typically the Box likes to hang out around 13W, but I would expect much lower idle power from the CE4100 when absolutely nothing is going on.
The biggest problem is sleep power. If you put the Boxee Box to sleep it will draw anywhere from 11 - 13W, while asleep. There’s no difference between it being asleep and idle. This is a CE4100 limitation as I’ve mentioned before, so if you want to truly save power you’ll have to shut the Boxee Box down completely.
Performance, as I’ve mentioned before, is a problem with the Box. While menu navigation is quick (not PC-quick but quick enough), everything else could use some work.
Adding shows to your Watch Later queue is slow, loading YouTube Leanback is slow, searching for shows is slow. Once you start typing there’s a couple of seconds before you actually get results to pop up. Even bringing up the Shows hub and waiting for images to load takes time. And don’t get me started on browsing the web on Boxee. It’s just not fast.
Part of the problem is that we’re running on an 1.2GHz Atom, however even that should be enough for all of Boxee’s needs. Netbooks feel faster than this, which points the finger squarely at Boxee. The software is in dire need of performance optimization. Thankfully the UI frame rate never drops below 38 fps so it always feels quick, the problem is more the speed at which things load (particularly over WiFi).
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ganeshts - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
At full shutdown, the power adapter consumes 0.5W (also enables switch on from RF remote).If you are worried about the 0.5W, better to pull the plug out of the socket.
Ethaniel - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
A fantastic review. Too bad the little box has holes everywhere. If things don't get fixed, I guess someone will find a way to hack it and start torrenting the hell out of it...earthzero - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
A comparison vs other solutions like Playon with Media Center and Mezzmo streaming directly to a Samsung or some other DLNA device would be worth comparing this to...Alexstarfire - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I'd love to have a streaming device that was capable of playing MKVs perfectly for only a couple hundred dollars. Not being able to play ASS subtitle files all but makes streaming devices useless for me. I already have an HTPC, but something like this would be far easier to set up, use, and transport.Cr0nJ0b - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
I'm just astounded that this isn't an demonstration of an alpha release product. reboots are to be expected? really? I'm sorry, I don't care how cutting edge you are...if you sell something to the general public as a finished product and not a "build it yourself" "fix it your self" hobby kit, you need to have higher standards. I was actually thinking of buying a boxee box this week...thank you for the review. I'll stay away.dagamer34 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Something I'd buy a V2 of the product when hardware/software issues are hammered out. Though I'm wondering if they are ever going to support Bluray menus...probedb - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
A nice review yet again but I'd love a decent round up of some of the more popular streamers like the PlayON!HD etc.I'm particularly interested in how good they are at deinterlacing content ripped from DVDs as that's how I have them backed up.
Krofojed - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
I don't have any experience with watching TV online, but my impression is that the access to music and video tends to be conutry-specific. So does this thing work outside USA? (I haven't read every word of the review, so if this is mentioned somewhere, I apologize.)Definol - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
You can download boxee and try it on your computer to see what is available in your country. I'm pretty sure that netflix and hulu aren't available outside of the usa without using a vpn.I live in europe and I can't access either of them.
Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Why not just buy an Xbox 360 and do the same and more?