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
The extent and nature of support for various audio codecs decide where the media streamers can be used. For example, in most setups, AVRs are available only in the main home theater location. The streamers used with bedroom TVs are usually directly connected over HDMI. In this context, we need to understand the three important aspects of audio codec support.
Bitstreaming: This refers to the ability of the player to send out the audio track in the media file directly through HDMI to the next device (usually AVR) in the output chain.
Decoding: This refers to the ability of the player to decode all the channels in the audio track and send out the LPCM version through HDMI or output all the audio tracks through the analog audio output ports (if available).
Downmixing: This refers to the ability of the player to decode all the channels in the audio track and combine them in such a way as to output stereo audio (2.0) over HDMI or the analog audio output ports.
Other audio aspects which get covered in this section include support for ISOs of SACDs, DVD-A and BD-Audio, playlist support, gapless audio support and sampling frequencies.
| Audio Compatibility Details | |||
| A.C.Ryan PlayOn!HD2 | |||
| Firmware Version v9.5.3.r5440 | |||
| Codec | Bitstream | Decode | Downmix |
| AC3 (Dolby Digital) | Yes | Yes (upto 2.0) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| DTS | Yes | Yes (upto 2.0) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| Dolby Digital Plus | No | Yes (upto 2.0) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| DTS-HD HR | Yes | Yes (Core) (upto 2.0) | Yes (Core) (down to 2.0) |
| Dolby TrueHD | Yes | Yes (upto 2.0) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| DTS-HD MA | Yes | Yes (Core) (upto 2.0) | Yes (Core) (down to 2.0) |
| WMA Pro | No | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| AAC | Not Tested | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| MP3 | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| FLAC | Not Tested | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| Cook (Real Audio) | Not Applicable | Yes (upto 2.0) | Not Applicable |
| Vorbis | Not Applicable | No | No |
| APE | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| AIFF | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| DVD-A | Partially Supported (AC3 Version) | ||
| SACD | Not Supported | ||
| BD-Audio | Supported with bitstreaming | ||
| Playlists | M3U with Relative Pathnames Supported, PLS Support is Spotty | ||
| Gapless Audio | Not Supported | ||
| Sampling Frequencies | Faithful Decoding to LPCM upto 192 KHz for non-HD Audio Codecs, 48 KHz maximum for Decoded HD-Audio Codecs | ||
| Audio Compatibility Details | |||
| Netgear NTV550 | |||
| Firmware Version 1.03.10 | |||
| Codec | Bitstream | Decode | Downmix |
| AC3 (Dolby Digital) | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| DTS | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| Dolby Digital Plus | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| DTS-HD HR | Yes | Yes (Core) (upto 5.1) | Yes (Core) (down to 2.0) |
| Dolby TrueHD | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| DTS-HD MA | Yes | Yes (Core) (upto 5.1) | Yes (Core) (down to 2.0) |
| WMA Pro | No | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| AAC | Not Tested | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| MP3 | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| FLAC | Not Tested | Yes (upto 5.1) | Yes (down to 2.0) |
| Cook (Real Audio) | Not Applicable | No | Not Applicable |
| Vorbis | Not Applicable | No | No |
| APE | Not Applicable | No | No |
| AIFF | Not Applicable | No | No |
| DVD-A | Partially Supported (AC3 Version) | ||
| SACD | Not Supported | ||
| BD-Audio | Supported with bitstreaming | ||
| Playlists | M3U and PLS files with relative pathnames show up in the library, but don't play back | ||
| Gapless Audio | Supported | ||
| Sampling Frequencies | Faithful Decoding to LPCM upto 192 KHz for non-HD Audio Codecs, 48 KHz maximum for Decoded HD-Audio Codecs | ||
| Audio Compatibility Details | |||
| D-Link Boxee Box | |||
| Firmware Version v1.2.2.20482 | |||
| Codec | Bitstream | Decode | Downmix |
| AC3 (Dolby Digital) | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| DTS | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| Dolby Digital Plus | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| DTS-HD HR | Yes | Yes (Core) (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (Core) (down to 2.0)1 |
| Dolby TrueHD | Yes | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| DTS-HD MA | Yes | Yes (Core) (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (Core) (down to 2.0)1 |
| WMA Pro | No | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| AAC | Not Tested | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| MP3 | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| FLAC | Not Tested | Yes (upto 5.1)1 | Yes (down to 2.0)1 |
| Cook (Real Audio) | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| Vorbis | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| APE | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| AIFF | Not Applicable | Yes | Not Applicable |
| DVD-A | Not Supported | ||
| SACD | Not Supported | ||
| BD-Audio | Supported with bitstreaming2 | ||
| Playlists | M3U and PLS With Relative Pathnames Fully Supported | ||
| Gapless Audio | Not Supported | ||
| Sampling Frequencies | Decoded Formats Downsampled to 48 KHz | ||
| 1 Decoded / Downmixed Formats Downsampled to 48 KHz | |||
| 2 HD Audio Streams Suffer from Dropouts | |||
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43 Comments
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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.