Boxee Box

mvallevand · 2010-11-15, 02:16 AM

I picked up a D-Link Boxee Box http://www.dlink.ca/boxee/ extender on the weekend and thought I'd share some info. I actually liked the look of the box which I thought I'd hate, but the remote keyboard is too small for me and needs a backlight.

They are not cheap $199 CDN but overall I thought for v1 firmware it was't bad. Certainly the Atom 4100 is the fastest processor I have used on a standalone player.

I haven't had a lot of time on it but I think there are some features that might be of interest to N/GBPVR users.

- per user resume
- DVB subtitles and ATSC/QAM closed captioning
- comskip

Boxee is known for online content and it wasn't too bad either, something like 132 services certainly better than the NMT's. I didn't expect much because I figured everything would be for the US market but I was happy to see all these http://www.globaltv.com/video/index.html for free and in pretty good quality too. Netflix is expected soon.

An expected surprise was the basic browser included has full flash support and pages that didn't have there own Boxee service or rss feed could still be viewed. It's probably the best experience I've had with justin.tv NEWA loaded too but the remote is a bit awkward as a mouse, but apparently a mouse can be attached.

The bad news for some is no HE-AAC support yet.

Martin

ga_mueller · 2010-11-18, 05:50 AM

Why buy the hwe as opposed to running the software from GBPVR (me) or NPVR? I tried the software a while back but it didn't offer anything more than the Roku box I already had. Although the shape IS unique.

steveum · 2010-11-18, 02:28 PM

Martin,
When you say the boxee supports comskip, are you saying it would do this through a SMB share of your recordings folder?

mvallevand · 2010-11-18, 11:38 PM

ga_mueller Wrote:Why buy the hwe as opposed to running the software from GBPVR (me) or NPVR? I tried the software a while back but it didn't offer anything more than the Roku box I already had. Although the shape IS unique.

Software is part of the problem, I don't like paying for Windows just for clients. XBMC on linux is a good choice for my needs but the I don't think running it on an ION without the possibility of Netflix is worth the money. Roku up to now hasn't been available in Canada,

Martin

mvallevand · 2010-11-18, 11:40 PM

steveum Wrote:Martin,
When you say the boxee supports comskip, are you saying it would do this through a SMB share of your recordings folder?

Yes it is the first standalone box I've see that reads edl files. Likely the XBMC heritage,

Martin

ga_mueller · 2010-11-20, 08:23 AM

mvallevand Wrote:Roku up to now hasn't been available in Canada, Martin

Got it. Sorry for Canada. Roku is $59US which is a pittace...has pretty much all of the functionality of the "Boxee Box", at a fraction of the cost...

mvallevand · 2010-11-20, 02:16 PM

The price difference for the Roku is deceptive. You don't get 1080p in the base model, and I since don't think the Roku plays from local shares very well, (but I'm guessing they don't strive to be a full media player anyway), you would need the $100 model to play from USB. Still the Roku is priced very well (I noticed that the BB is on sale now at dell.com for $180 but sadly not dell.ca).

There is also the question of missing Flash player which limits it's full potential (ie YouTube, Justin.tv).

Martin

-stattik- · 2010-11-21, 08:40 AM

mvallevand Wrote:Yes it is the first standalone box I've see that reads edl files. Likely the XBMC heritage,

Martin

Have you tested out the skipping yet? If so, it is accurate with transport streams?

mvallevand · 2010-11-21, 01:03 PM

-stattik- Wrote:Have you tested out the skipping yet? If so, it is accurate with transport streams?

This is a problem for me to answer since my NPVR ts files from the HDPVR and analog HVR 1600 don't have bad timelines. You sent me some sample files for PCH testing and both the ts file and the mkv file skip and position well using same the edl file.

I do have one reall bad file the timeline gets reset a few times, and the time bar reports the wrong time and skipping won't work.

On the subject for good files, single ff/rw presses move in 30 second jumps, holding longer you see the time bar change, but it can be a bit fast. Jumping to a specific time is possible too but the remote takes a lot of getting used to because on top of the keys being nearly impossible to read you have to use the Alt key when typing numbers. I will be testing hooking up an MCE remote when I find it.

Martin

nkh · 2010-11-29, 07:04 PM

I'm currently running Boxee on a 1st gen Apple TV, it's working nicely for playing back GB-PVR recordings, but it's a bit messy to have to do it though the files list. Has someone here looked into making a Boxee app for GB-PVR? To start with it would be cool to have the "What's new" list with descriptions and recording time/source. I guess it could be done with a RSS feed on the GB-PVR side?