D-Link Boxee Box
MRP: Rs 19,300
Street Price (As On 28-Nov-2011): Rs 14,600 (Letsbuy.com); Rs 15,100 (Rediff Shop & Gift)

We have been reviewing media players for quite some time now, but today we have a media player that is quite different from the rest. This is the D-Link Boxee Box, which is a hardware implementation of the Boxee software. This Linux-based device is therefore not just a local media player; it can also play online media via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and is upgradable to add new features.

Bundle
D-Link Boxee Box
Remote control
HDMI cable
Power adapter with power cord
User manual
Warranty card

Remote Control
The remote control is two sided, with one side controlling the media functions, while the other with a QWERTY keyboard to be used with the internet functionality. The media side has two buttons and a directional pad. The top button is for Play and Pause, while the bottom button is for Back and Menu. The D-pad aids in navigation. Essential buttons such as volume control have been completely omitted.

As mentioned earlier, the bottom part of the remote control is a QWERTY keyboard.

 

The good thing is that this remote control uses radio frequency (RF) for communication, unlike the IR used in conventional remotes. This means it does not require line-of-sight contact between the sensor on the device and the emitter on the remote. It literally works even through walls!

A big design flaw of the remote control is that all the buttons have the same colour as the remote control, which is black. Furthermore, the labels on the buttons are also dull and barely readable. This makes it almost impossible to locate the button in a dimly lit room. The problem will not occur after you are used to the media side of the remote because there are very few buttons to locate, but it will definitely be disastrous while using the QWERTY side. The solution to this is that the keys should either be backlit, or at least have a brighter colour with readable labels.

Alternatively, you can even use your iPhone or iPod touch as a remote control for the device. You need to download and install the free Boxee app from the App Store and connect it to the player via Wi-Fi to start controlling it. This remote control has the button mode and gesture mode of control. It lacks the QWERTY functionality altogether, though we think that D-link should add it in a future version.

 

A similar application is also available from the Android Market for Android smartphones.

Design And Build
The Boxee Box is designed to look like a cube with one vertex along with a huge chunk slashed off to give it a pyramid-like appearance. It is a lot bulkier than conventional media players and weighs around 720 g. The bottom surface is made of bright green rubber to help the device get a grip on the surface on which it is placed. We don't understand its necessity because there are no moving parts involved in the device and no other source of vibration. It may be necessary only if you have a powerful sub-woofer placed under the desk on which the device is placed. The power button is located on top surface near the back. The left face has a glossy black finish and has a backlit logo of the device, which glows when the device is powered on. The right face has a SD memory card reader.

 

Connectivity options are located at the rear. These include an HDMI port, Optical, RCA connectors for analogue stereo audio, Ethernet port for wired network, and two USB 2.0 ports to connect storage devices. Wi-Fi is built in the device, thus not requiring an external dongle as is usually the case. D-link has omitted composite and component connectivity, leaving legacy TV users in the lurch. Ventilation sieve is also provided over here.

 

On the hardware front, this is a Linux device based on the Intel CE4100 SoC (System-on-a-Chip) with 1 GB RAM and 1 GB of NAND flash memory. The SoC consists of a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom CPU with a PowerVR SGX535 integrated graphics processor.

Features
On powering it on, the Boxee Box takes around a minute to get to the ready state, which is the longest of all media players we have tested so far. Even a laptop takes a lot less to boot these days. Once you power it on for the first time, you are prompted to create a Boxee account or login if you already have one. Since this is mandatory to proceed any further, you must connect it to the internet using Ethernet or Wi-Fi. Boxee then updates to the latest firmware if necessary, and it does so without even asking the user for permission to do so.

 

To register an account, you must provide your email id (necessary for verification), user name, and password for the account. Once the account is created, an email is sent with a link to confirm your address and to allow you to add more account details such as your name and avatar. However, you can login and start using the player even before you confirm the email.

 

The Home screen presents a very slick and easy to use uncluttered interface with six sections placed horizontally.

 

Friends section is the social networking part of the Boxee, which lets you share and watch stuff with your Facebook and Twitter friends. To populate this section, you are required to add your FB and Twitter accounts to your Boxee account from your computer's web browser.

Watch Later is similar to a bookmark in your web browser. You can mark online shows and movies as well as local files to watch later and they will appear in this section. From the design point of view, we think that this section should appear after the other media sections.

Shows section lists the various shows available via Boxee. It downloads cover art of the available shows making it easy for you to identify them at a glance. In our case, it listed 183 shows, but it did not list shows that are popular such as Fringe, Camelot, Dexter, etc . These should become available once Hulu is integrated in Boxee.

Movies section provides a mix of Hindi and English movies. Of course, you won't get the latest flicks, but it listed 1222 free movies. This should keep you going for some time. Keep in mind that Boxee continuously adds movies to its online collection and the same become available to you under this section. Ultimately, Boxee will have to integrate Netflix for you to be able to get more recent titles.

Apps section contains Boxee customised interfaces to popular content such as YouTube, TED, Pandora, etc. Apps are downloaded when you click on them for the first time and then they are available even offline. More apps become available over here as more are added by the company online.

Since regional channels are not directly available under the Shows section, there is the YuppTV app that allows access to a number of a number of free-to-air Hindi, Marathi, and other regional channels.

 

Files section is similar to a file browser to browse attached removable storage media or content on the local network.

Local files are also indexed and cover art is downloaded along with information such as the actual title, duration, rating, and list of people associated with the movie.

 

Once on the network, Boxee is easily able to find network shares and shared videos, starts indexing them, and downloads thumbnail cover art for the same. It also has the ability to guess the title for a file if one is not provided (such as the case with videos recorded by a camcorder, which have generic names), although this can be a hit and miss.

Boxee gives you access to its various settings. You can adjust resolution, filtering, subtitles, audio, subtitles, photos, network settings, etc. This device also supports 24 fps film mode output at 1080p, which makes viewing as realistic as watching in a movie theatre on a compatible HDTV.

 

Performance
The overall experience was good and the interface is really smooth and polished. The controls were found to be very responsive. It could play all the media formats we threw at it without any issue. Playback was very smooth and the picture quality was as good as the source. Upscaling was handled well too. It can work with two USB storage devices at the same time, listing the contents of both separately. Controls such as forward, rewind, or even volume control are not present on the remote control. Barring volume control, you can control the rest through the menu during file playback. However, it would have been better to provide dedicated buttons for the same.

Video, Audio, and Subtitles settings can be adjusted during movie playback. Video settings consist of aspect ratio, zoom level, overscan, etc, while Audio settings lets you specify audio offset time, useful when video is not in sync with the audio, and lets you choose audio stream in case of the presence of multiple streams in the media file. Subtitles settings lets you browse and choose subtitles, specify offset, and choose character set. Advanced settings for all of the above are already available under the Settings as mentioned earlier. If you do not have a subtitle for a movie, Boxee can search and download it for you as well.

For reasons unknown, it takes up to 10 seconds from the time you press the Play button, to start playback of a file, while it takes an equal amount of time to stop it as well. Media players are generally known to instantly respond to Play and Stop functions.

Playback of online media was found to be flawless, but that depends on the speed of your internet connection. A 512 Kbps connection is the minimum that is necessary as we found out, but ideally it should be 1 Mbps and above.

Power Consumption
The device consumes 10 W of power when measured using our Kill-A-Watt meter. The power consumption remains the same regardless of whether the player is idle or in use. While the consumption is higher than other media players, it is only marginally so. When compared to a home PC consuming around 100 W during media playback, the power consumption of the Boxee Box is still a lot lower.

The Verdict
The D-Link Boxee Box media player exhibits excellence in playback of various media formats and it offers the best online media component we have ever experienced. That being said, there are several issues we must point out. While the design is classy, it is an undeniable fact that it is bulky and heavy when compared to other media players. First time usage requires internet for registration, something which is not possible for a majority of home users. The two sided remote control is good for internet usage due to the QWERTY keyboard, but lacks even basic buttons for volume control on the media side. The last and most important problem with this device is that it is priced too high at Rs 14,600, which is a cool Rs 5000 more than the closest competitor. In the US, the Boxee Box is quite successful because it can virtually replace local cable TV due to the availability of almost all channels as well as the high speed internet. However, that is not the case in India, so we find it difficult to recommend this device.

The moral of the story is that you can buy this if you want only the best online media playback experience and provided, you have the dough to blow.

Design And Build: 3.5/5
Performance: 4/5
Ease Of Use: 2.5/5
Value For Money: 2/5
MoJo: 2.5/5

Overall Rating: 3/5

TAGS: Media Players, D-Link, Jayesh