I Pre-Ordered a Boxee Box: Have You?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhomethoughts-20/detail/B0038JE07O' target='_blank'>http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhom...tail/B0038JE07O</a><br /><br /></div><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1285623484.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Last week, I placed a pre-order for a <a href="http://www.boxee.tv/box" target="_blank">Boxee Box</a> (you can too via this <a href="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhomethoughts-20/detail/B0038JE07O" target="_blank">handy pre-order link</a>!). Why? Well, I've been watching the network/local media player space evolve over the past few years, and I've yet to implement any of them. I've seen two basic types of devices:</p><ol><li><strong>Devices that offer superior technical capabilities</strong> in terms of files (ISO rips, etc.) and formats supported (every video codec under the sun), but lack any semblance of true usability, often featuring awful user interface, painful performance, or both. I'd put most of the dedicated network media players in this camp; Popcorn Hour, efforts from Seagate, Western Digital, Asus, etc.</li><li><strong>Devices that offer superior user interface and usability</strong>, but lack broad technical abilities; they're often limited in terms of file types (no ISO support), codecs, and are very mainstream in their support of content. I'd put Windows Media Center, and anything based on that (Media Center Extenders), in this category along with the Xbox 360, Apple TV, etc.</li></ol><p>I've wanted a device that does both, and it looks like the Boxee Box may be the closest I've come so far. I've messed around with several of these devices over the years; I even bought an Acer Aspire Revo and installed XBMC on it in the hopes that I'd finally be able to do what I wanted. It failed. <MORE /></p><p>The primary goal? Being able to rip ISOs of my DVDs and play them back from my Windows Home Server, with automatically generated cover art and meta data. Why ISOs? Speed, quality, and features. Transcoding a DVD is slow, and you lose quality; keeping the DVD in ISO format means the file size is big, but the quality is retained and ripping an ISO is faster than transcoding to an MPEG4/h.264 format. Besides, big hard drives aren't very expensive any more. Features matter too: if I watch a movie, then I want to watch the special features, having them all there in ISO format is the best way to do that.</p><p>XBMC really seemed like the best way to accomplish that task, but the UI quirks drove me slowly nuts over a period of weeks; it's open source software that seems designed by committee without anyone having a singular vision of what the software is supposed to accomplish. It's made by geeks, for other geeks, and while I saw the gems of something really great, it lacked the polish I was looking for. I didn't want to have something I needed to fight with. There's a right way and a wrong way to do a media-focused OS, and XBMC just got too many things wrong in my book.</p><p>That's what's so appealing about the Boxee Box: it has all the technical chops of XBMC (and then some), along with very capable hardware from Dlink, and the user interface polish that comes from a team of people who know what they're trying to accomplish. Even if I only use the Boxee Box to watch DVDs, it will be worth it to me. I can't wait!</p>

[ptyork]

I'm looking forward to your review. I do LOVE the UI. Super simple, quick, sleek, rich, etc. I've got two issues with Boxee (i.e., the Boxee that runs on Windows) that are keeping me from jumping. First, it seems to have a problem with UPnP/DLNA sources (i.e., it doesn't support PlayOn, which for me is critical if it isn't going to support Hulu natively). And even if it did, the interface isn't hierarchical, which plain doesn't work for these types of servers. Second, the Netflix app sucks for TV shows. Perhaps the new "Box" version of the app will be better, but this one displays the episodes in a seemingly random order and doesn't keep track of which you last viewed. This, too, is a major deal-breaker for me.

I'll be interested in your findings on these fronts.

Incidentally, I wish Microsoft would "clue up" and take Boxee Box's hardware and release an extender based on this (or something similar). Despite some codec limitations, the extender concept is so near perfect. It has always been hampered by truly crappy (slow as Hell) hardware. Basically you had crappy-experience extenders or great-experience monster, power-hungry, loud XBox 360. Nothing in between. Perhaps a little soul-searching may tell them that a nice, low-power, quiet, $150 extender with decent hardware might be just what the doctor ordered. Then you get broadcast TV streamed everywhere you put one of these boxes, and suddenly the Ceton 4-tuner CableCard solution makes perfect sense stuffed into a PC in a closet instead of whirring away in TV stand. I'm NOT buying 4 or 5 $199 XBox 360s (because of the loud/hot/power thing), but I might buy 4 or 5 $150 extenders that don't suck.

[brianchris]

VERY interinsting! I too am looking forward to your review. Maybe this is a dumb question but I've been looking for a way to play ISO's on a mobile media player, that could attach to my car's AV system for my kids, but also have a screen for use on an airplane. Anyone know of PMP's that play ISO's? The ideal would perhaps be an ap for the iPod touch that play ISO's. Thanks!

[Jason Dunn]

Perhaps a little soul-searching may tell them that a nice, low-power, quiet, $150 extender with decent hardware might be just what the doctor ordered. Then you get broadcast TV streamed everywhere you put one of these boxes, and suddenly the Ceton 4-tuner CableCard solution makes perfect sense stuffed into a PC in a closet instead of whirring away in TV stand. I'm NOT buying 4 or 5 $199 XBox 360s (because of the loud/hot/power thing), but I might buy 4 or 5 $150 extenders that don't suck.

Yeah, I agree - the Media Center Extenders have been suckstastic thus far. So bad that basically every player has exited the market because of poor sales; but did they ever stop to ask why they weren't selling any? Because the products SUCKED! :rolleyes:

I've heard rumblings about Windows Media Center going away in future versions of Windows though, so I'm not sure if there's any future for it...which ticks me off if it's true. :mad:

[Jason Dunn]

Maybe this is a dumb question but I've been looking for a way to play ISO's on a mobile media player, that could attach to my car's AV system for my kids, but also have a screen for use on an airplane. Anyone know of PMP's that play ISO's? The ideal would perhaps be an ap for the iPod touch that play ISO's. Thanks!

I haven't heard of anything like that, and a quick Google search came up dry - because of the size of an ISO (typically 4GB to 8 GB), they're not a good fit for portable devices with limited storage...so maybe that's why no one has made an app for this yet?

[electrollama]

I am curious to read your review too. I have tried to make boxee my main interface on my mac mini, but a few nagging issues have always stopped me. The performance of things like youtube is abysmal, the deinterlacing on DVDs was poor compared to the built in mac player. The other annoyance is the US only content, but that's not boxee's fault.

[Jason Dunn]

The performance of things like youtube is abysmal, the deinterlacing on DVDs was poor compared to the built in mac player. The other annoyance is the US only content, but that's not boxee's fault.

I just tested those same things in Boxee on my Acer Aspire Revo, and playing back a DVD ISO looked good (no interlacing issues), and YouTube HD content worked OK. It doesn't seem like there's a way to pick 1080p content, but when I toggled HD on, performance was fine. Maybe it's your Mac Mini?

As for the US content, yeah, I feel your pain - most of what's in Boxee I can't watch. :(

[electrollama]

I've found that all the xbmc based players do a crummy job deinterlacing on my mini (there's about 4 different modes, but none of them look as good as the mac os x player)... i have a feeling it's because on the mac it's not doing it in hardware. i think it does under windows. hopefully the dedicated box does it in hw if that's the case. as for youtube etc.

it seems that it is flash performance related (which is known to be not great on macs). in this case plex (another xbmc based player) performs great (i think it just plays the h.264 versions directly).

my mini is pretty dated (1.6ghz core duo), but i imagine the boxee box hw is relatively weak as well, hence my concern.

looking forward to your thoughts!

[Jason Dunn]

i have a feeling it's because on the mac it's not doing it in hardware. i think it does under windows. hopefully the dedicated box does it in hw if that's the case. as for youtube etc.

Yeah, Macs tend to lack hardware acceleration that we take for granted on Windows - that's been one of the core problems with Flash on OS X until recently. It's weird how Apple hasn't been more eager to let developers leverage the hardware assets that are there.

my mini is pretty dated (1.6ghz core duo), but i imagine the boxee box hw is relatively weak as well, hence my concern.

I think it might surprise you with how capable it is. Here's an article I'll be linking to on the front page shortly:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/3912/boxee-box-the-inside-story

Pretty interesting stuff!