2011 Media Streamer Roundup : Netgear NTV550, A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD2 and the Boxee Box
by Ganesh T S on November 20, 2011 10:32 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- NetGear
- Boxee Box
Beginning with this review, we are changing the presentation of our media streamer test suite results. We have updated the suite with 3D streams and also added full Blu-ray disc backups in ISO and folder format. The first aspect we will cover is container compatibility. In the tables below, it is evident we have put more stress on Blu-ray ISOs and folder structures compared to DVDs. DVD menu and folder support is pretty mature in almost all media streamers. However, Blu-rays are a different story altogether. New features (such as 3D support) keep getting added to the core specifications. In order to understand the Blu-ray rows in the tables below, we will first look at the different types of Blu-rays in existence.
Blu-ray Profiles
The earliest Blu-rays all conformed to Profile 1.0. These contained the main movie in HD and some optional extra features accessible through the main menu. Starting in November 2007, Profile 1.1 Blu-rays added Bonus View to the mix. These Blu-rays included PiP (Picture-in-Picture) streams. The rise of network enabled Blu-ray players came about due to the introduction of Profile 2.0 Blu-rays which included BD-Live capabilities. With BD-Live, users could watch downloaded content related to the Blu-ray movie (including trailers of upcoming movies from the studios) and also interact with other watchers over the Internet. Local storage is also necessary for Blu-ray players supporting this profile. 3D Blu-rays have started gaining traction over the last couple of years. Despite have a separate profile (Profile 5.0), not all 3D Blu-rays seem to fall under this profile. My general observation has been that Blu-rays which indicate an MVC encoding in their jacket fall under Profile 5.0, but 3D Blu-rays which just indicate AVC tend to not care about the profile supported by the player.
Another irksome aspect of media players supporting BD-Lite or some other similar form of Blu-ray support is the unpredictable behavior of titles with seamless branching. In this case, multiple versions of the movie are spread over multiple M2TS files and different playlists have different orderings set up to represent the multiple versions.
The table below summarizes our Blu-ray test suite:
| Blu-ray Test Suite | ||
| Aspect | ISO | Folder Structure |
| Profile 1.0 | What's Up Doc? | Step Into Liquid |
| Profile 1.1 | The Hangover | Band of Brothers (Disc 1) |
| Profile 2.0 | 2012 | Public Enemies |
| Profile 5.0 | Alice in Wonderland 3D | Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs 3D |
| 3D (Non-Profile 5.0) | Coraline 3D | Monsters Vs. Aliens 3D |
| Seamless Branching | A Bug's Life | Avatar Collectors Edition |
The entire test suite was run off a hard disk connected directly to the streamer. For the A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD2, this disk was put in the internal slot. For the Netgear NeoTV 550, we connected the disk over eSATA. For the Boxee Box, the disk was conenected as an external USB drive.
| Container Compatibility Details | |
| A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD2 | |
| Firmware Version v9.5.3.r5440 | |
| Container | Notes |
| DVD | Menus Supported |
| ISO Supported | |
| Folder Structures Supported | |
| Blu-ray | ISO Selectively Supported (Refer Profile Limitations Below) |
| Folder Structures Selectively Supported (Refer Profile Limitations Below) | |
| BD Profile 1.0 Supported with Menus (if BD-Lite option is turned on)1 | |
| BD Profile 1.1 (Bonus View / PiP) Plays with No Menus, PiP Unavailable1 | |
| BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live) Plays with No Menus, BD Live Unavailable1 | |
| BD Profile 5.0 (3D) Plays in 2D without Menus1 | |
| Non-BD Profile 5.0 3D Blu-rays Play in 2D without Menus1 | |
| Seamless Branching Doesn't Work (Longest Playlist Chosen unless Profile 1.0 BD) | |
| MKV | Supported Video Codecs: H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (DivX / XViD) |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, DTS, DTS-HD HR2, FLAC, AAC, MP3, LPCM | |
| Supported Embedded Subtitles: SRT, ASS/SSA (PGS Not Supported) | |
| Multiple Video Tracks Supported | |
| Multiple Audio Tracks Supported | |
| Multiple Subtitle Tracks Supported | |
| Chapters Supported (Chapter Names Not Supported) | |
| Header Compression Supported | |
| MKV3D (Stereoscopic Flag) Not Supported | |
| Half SBS / TAB 3D Plays Back with Manual TV Mode Change | |
| M2TS | Supported Video Codecs: H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, LPCM | |
| Supported Embedded Subtitles: PGS | |
| AVI / DivX | Supported Video Codecs: MPEG-4 (XviD / DivX), MJPEG |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, MP3, PCM | |
| SBS 3D AVIs Don't Autoswitch | |
| MP4 / M4V | Supported Video Codecs: H.264 |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AAC | |
| Miscellaneous Containers | DVR-MS Not Supported |
| TRP Supported | |
| WTV Not Supported | |
| MTS and TS Supported | |
| M2V Not Supported | |
| 1 Audio tracks sometime go silent when playing ISO or folder structure, but navigating to the M2TS file and playing that is flawless | |
| 2 HD Audio support in MKV is very unreliable, and doesn't work most of the time (especially when HDMI Audio is set to passthrough for bitstreaming) | |
| Container Compatibility Details | |
| Netgear NTV550 | |
| Firmware Version 3.2.16NA | |
| Container | Notes |
| DVD | Menus Supported |
| ISO Supported1 | |
| Folder Structures Supported1 | |
| Blu-ray | ISO Selectively Supported (Refer Profile Limitations Below) |
| Folder Structures Selectively Supported (Refer Profile Limitations Below) | |
| BD Profile 1.0 Supported with Menus | |
| BD Profile 1.1 (Bonus View / PiP) Plays with Menus, PiP Available | |
| BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live) Plays with Menus, BD Live Available2 | |
| BD Profile 5.0 (3D) Doesn't Play | |
| Non-BD Profile 5.0 3D Blu-rays Play in 2D with Menus | |
| Seamless Branching Works Perfectly | |
| MKV | Supported Video Codecs: H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (DivX / XViD) |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, Dolby Digital Plus3, Dolby TrueHD3, DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, FLAC, AAC, MP3, LPCM | |
| Supported Embedded Subtitles: SRT, SUB, PGS, ASS/SSA | |
| Multiple Video Tracks Not Supported | |
| Multiple Audio and Subtitle Tracks Supported | |
| Forced Subtitle Tracks Supported (with manual selection) | |
| Named Chapters Supported | |
| Header Compression Supported | |
| MKV3D (Stereoscopic Flag) Not Supported | |
| Half SBS / TAB 3D Plays Back with Manual TV Mode Change | |
| M2TS4 | Supported Video Codecs: H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, LPCM | |
| Supported Embedded Subtitles: PGS | |
| AVI / DivX | Supported Video Codecs: MPEG-4 (XviD / DivX) |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, MP3, PCM | |
| SBS 3D AVIs Don't Autoswitch | |
| MP45 / M4V | Supported Video Codecs: H.264 |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AAC | |
| Miscellaneous Containers | DVR-MS Supported |
| WTV and TRP Not Supported | |
| TS and MTS Supported | |
| M2V Not Supported | |
| 1 Many of the ISOs and folder structures in my media library played without issues, but our test suite ISO and folder structures failed to play back correctly (the menu title took us back to the main screen) | |
| 2 Usage of BD Live features sometime tend to lock up the system requiring a hard reboot | |
| 3 Support for some of the HD audio codecs in MKV containers is not reliable. Works sometimes, sends static to the AV receiver on other occassions. | |
| 4 The M2TS splitter has some issues with H.264/AC3 content as described in this bug reported against another Sigma based media streamer. | |
| 5 Many of the MP4s in my media library played without issues, but one of the MP4s in our test suite played back with audio only (blank video) | |
| Container Compatibility Details | |
| D-Link Boxee Box | |
| Firmware Version v1.2.2.20482 | |
| Container | Notes |
| DVD | Menus Supported |
| ISO Supported | |
| Folder Structures Supported | |
| Blu-ray | ISO Selectively Supported (Refer Profile Limitations Below) |
| Folder Structures Selectively Supported (Refer Profile Limitations Below) | |
| BD Profile 1.0 Plays without Menus | |
| BD Profile 1.1 (Bonus View / PiP) Plays with No Menus, PiP Unavailable | |
| BD Profile 2.0 (BD Live) Plays with No Menus, BD Live Unavailable | |
| BD Profile 5.0 (3D) Plays without Menus | |
| Non-BD Profile 5.0 3D Blu-rays Play in 2D without Menus | |
| Seamless Branching Doesn't Work (Longest Playlist Chosen) | |
| MKV | Supported Video Codecs: H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (DivX / XViD) |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, FLAC, AAC, MP3, LPCM | |
| Supported Embedded Subtitles: SRT, SUB, PGS, ASS/SSA | |
| Multiple Video Tracks Not Supported | |
| Multiple Audio and Subtitle Tracks Supported | |
| Forced Subtitle Tracks Supported | |
| Named Chapters Supported | |
| Header Compression Supported | |
| MKV3D (Stereoscopic Flag) Not Supported | |
| Half SBS / TAB 3D Plays Back with Manual TV Mode Change | |
| M2TS1 | Supported Video Codecs: H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2 |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-HD MA, DTS-HD HR, LPCM | |
| Supported Embedded Subtitles: PGS | |
| AVI / DivX | Supported Video Codecs: MPEG-4 (XviD / DivX), MJPEG (upto SD Resolution) |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AC3, MP3, PCM | |
| SBS 3D AVIs Don't Autoswitch | |
| MP4 / M4V | Supported Video Codecs: H.264 |
| Supported Audio Codecs: AAC | |
| Miscellaneous Containers | DVR-MS Supported |
| TRP Supported | |
| WTV Supported | |
| TS and MTS Supported | |
| M2V Supported | |
| 1 The M2TS splitter has some issues with H.264/AC3 content as described in this bug reported against another Sigma based media streamer. | |
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
43 Comments
View All Comments
kolepard - Sunday, November 20, 2011 - link
Could you mention where you found a Boxee Box for $90? I can't seem to find one for much under $200, and at $90 I'd purchase additional units.Kevin
gplracer - Sunday, November 20, 2011 - link
Looks like a media pc is still the best choice.Matt355 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
I replaced my HTPC after I purchased the Boxee Box. It serves my Needs Perfectly and uses far less electricity, its never gone over 15w and is easier for other family members to use.jbm - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
Indeed. No full 10bit-Support=fail for fansubs. What use is a streaming device when you cannot play your current video downloads.ganeshts - Sunday, November 20, 2011 - link
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=46697I am sure we will see more such offers as time goes by.
Matt355 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
I purchased my Boxee Box from Best Buy for $89.99 last week. They price matched Comp USA, who was sold out. No doubt Amazon will be offering it at that price soon also.I must say I had not really considered it at $179.99 but if I had Known how good it is I would have Gladly payed full price, It plays everything. even video I had Problems With on the WD Media Player, it applies dvd and album art to music and video files and has channels for streaming live content from the internet and only uses 15W under full load, far better then my HTPC it replaced. I only wish now that I had purchased a second one while it was on sale.
mcturkey - Sunday, November 20, 2011 - link
The biggest issue I have with all of these is the fact that if you truly want to move to a whole-house entertainment system, none of them support streaming CableCard tuners and the DVR functionality that provides. Of the Media Center Extenders that exist with this capability, only the 360 is still supported, and it requires a Windows 7 system with a fair bit of processing power and memory to transcode newer formats on the fly.I am about to take the plunge on moving to 360s for streaming from my HTPC for movies/tv shows/cable. If someone would just make a proper media streaming box with the kind of native codec support that these streamers have and make it an MCE, they could really make a killing. But I'm not going to have multiple boxes for this stuff. I'd build HTPCs for all the rooms, but you lose out on proper whole-house DVR capability, and you have to manually assign tuners to each box, making it more of a hassle to use than it should be.
Matt355 - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
Boxee Box will be selling a dongle that plugs in and allows recording of over air TV, I tried the X Box 360 Solution and gave up. There is no excuse for the 360 not supporting more codecs. That sad, I can point my Boxee Box to any folder on my Windows Home Server or Macbook, So you could record on 1 PC or server and point all your Boxee's to it and stream to any room. All codecs are built in to Boxee Box. Just like WD Media Player. so no transcoding and no re encoding required.CU - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
Mythtv can do that. You setup a backend somewhere, and then install frontends at each TV.mcturkey - Monday, November 21, 2011 - link
MythTV doesn't work with CableCard tuners, though, which is necessary for making whole-home DVR and TV support work. The only software that has been certified by Cable Card Labs or whatever they're called is Windows Media Center :( It's not just playing back recorded stuff (which requires extenders under WMC due to copy-never flags), but also sharing tuners for live TV. I'd much prefer to use HTPCs for this as I'd never need to worry about codecs and transcoding--not to mention having more control over the interface.