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
Now that we have an understanding of the new platform which will be powering the Boxee Box, it can be said that it wouldn't be unfair to expect as close an experience on this to what one gets with a HTPC version of Boxee. That said, we did have some queries for Boxee, and they were kind enough to get back to us with answers. Based on our interaction, the pros and cons of the Boxee Box as it stands now are as below:
Pros:
- Bitstreams HD audio from MKV, M2TS and ISO containers
- uPnP support (DLNA certification will be a technicality)
- DVD and Blu-Ray ISO support without menus
- 3D playback of content which can be transferred through HDMI 1.3
- Multichannel FLAC supported
- Gapless audio playback supported
- PGS and forced subtitles in MKV supported
- Support for SSA / ASS subtitles (first for a dedicated media streamer as far as we know)
Cons:
- Premium content partners not announced yet
- Only SMB and AFS (HFS+) supported for network storage as of now (No NFS / FTP etc.)
- No menu support for DVD and Blu-Ray ISOs as of now.
- HDMI 1.4a support not possible
- No support for MKV chapters as of now
- No support for playback of DRM content from external Blu-Ray or DVD drives as of now.
Some aspects on which we are awaiting further clarification:
- Support for native resolution / frame rate
- Support for 23.976 Hz refresh rate
- Extent of hackability of firmware for open source developers
- Nature of the 802.11n support
- Power consumption profile
-
Support for Real Media
From the demo that we were able to see, most of the generic online content is easily accessible, and the WebKit browser is always a fallback option. As the firmware matures further, most of the above cons should disappear. We should get a good look at the capabilities and test out Boxee's claims for ourselves once we receive the review unit. Boxee also went the extra step and requested a copy of our media streamer test suite. This should help them fix up any minor corner case requirements with respect to video decode. As for the other details, we will have to wait for the unit to reach our hands.
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ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
T2 is infinitely more capable than A4.Boxee just didn't want to ship a streamer with such crappy specs :)
tipoo - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Exactly, lol...Cant wait for Cortex A9 (what the T2 is based on) smartphones to trickle down.sprockkets - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Except for the fact that you are both wrong, at least on this front:MPEG4 is the old "divx" lame codec. You aren't going to find anything HD encoded with this, and if anybody does, they are idiots.
Apple TV supports H.264 at the main profile (which is just high profile without 8x8 transform) and at LV 3.1, which is defined as 1280x720 at 30FPS at 14mbps max bit rate.
But let's face it, if 2.5ghz dual core processors from Intel take around 70% of cpu time to decode 1080p WITH the deblocking filter on, what makes you think a 1ghz ARM cpu can, WITHOUT custom decoding hardware?
ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Both T2 and A4 are aimed at the tablet / smartphone market. No one should expect these app processors to decode HD video on the host processor.While T2 uses nV's custom decode engine, Apple uses the PowerVR VXD line (which is the same as that used in the CE4100), BUT, the clocking rate is probably much lower on the A4 compared to CE4100 because it is supposed to be for mobile usage. In addition, DRAM bandwidth available on both A4 and T2 is probably not good enough for high bitrate Blu-Ray material. (They have 32b DRAM interface, while CE4100 has 64b DRAM interface).
As for T2 vs A4, my comment was mainly on how powerful each SoC is. (On paper T2 will beat A4 hands down). As for comparing the exact video decoding abilities, it is not possible to comment for 2 reasons:
1. Tegra 2 hasn't reached any reviewer yet.
2. Apple will never allow any stream into the A4 device unless it goes through iTunes, in which case, it gets auto-transcoded.
sprockkets - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
We can if nvidia simply tells us what profile at what level it can do. At least Apple, of all people, post what exactly it can and cannot play.Even later firmwares of the old Cowon A3 claimed it could play HP h.264 video at 1280x720 with TI's OMAP from like 2 years ago.
ganeshts - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
nV has no obligation to tell that except to customers who want to use T2 in their products. Apple, on the other hand, has to, because they are selling a product directly to the consumer.Anyways, nV's marketing team seems to have screwed up here.
I haven't tested Cowon A3 personally, so can't comment on that.
mindbomb - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Tegra 2 can play 1080p30 baseline profile level 3.1decent for a phone, embarrassing for an htpc.
mindbomb - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
No, mpeg 4 part 10 is h264.mpeg 4 part 2 is what you are thinking of, but it is pretty unpopular outside of people transcoding their dvd's, so when people say mpeg 4 video, its implied that they mean h264. (especially if its apple saying it)
mindbomb - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
oh wait, they mentioned it after a section specifically detailing h264 playback. You were right, they were referring to mpeg 4 part 2.sep332 - Monday, September 13, 2010 - link
Isn't CIFS effectively the same as SMB?