The Boxee Box Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi & Ganesh T S on November 23, 2010 5:42 PM EST- Posted in
- Gadgets
- Media Streamer
- HTPC
- Boxee Box
The Media Streaming Suite & File Compatibility
During the launch event for the Boxee Box in New York, Avner Ronen (CEO, Boxee) used our media streamer test suite on stage to demonstrate the extensive codec compatibility of the Boxee Box. After putting our review unit under the scanner, we realized that Boxee had indeed devoted efforts to ensure that they had the best compatibility score amongst media streamers. As the graph at the end of this section shows, the Boxee Box is bested only by HTPCs.
However, the high score in our media streamer test suite belies the fact that the Boxee Box had many issues with files it was supposed to play back without any problems. Before listing out the issues, let us look at the positive aspects:
1. High quality re-encoded non-DRM videos from non-streaming Internet sources play back without issues. Most commonly in the MKV or AVI format, with H264 / MPEG4 video and DTS / AC3 / AAC audio tracks, the Boxee Box is able to handle anything thrown at it in this department with aplomb.
2. Streams for which hardware acceleration is not supported (such as RMVB) are decoded on the host CPU (Atom)
3. MPEG-4 decoding has no problems with Q-Pel and Global Motion Compensation (GMC) with multiple warp points. This is one aspect with which streamers based on Sigma Designs and Realtek SoCs have problems.
Once we started testing out the common formats for personal backups (ISOs / M2TS), the issues started cropping up.
1. TrueHD audio is not bitstreamed to the AV receiver.
2. There are very minor stutter artifacts while decoding L5.1 1080p60 H264 clips
3. Stylized subtitles (ASS / SSA) are woefully bent out of shape and misplaced on the screen too. Karaoke subtitle effects are not rendered.
4. Video in WTV containers is not recognized (possibly due to lack of public knowledge about the structure of the container)
5. Bugs existing in ffmpeg are carried over to the Boxee Box. A couple of H.264 / AC3 M2TS clips for which the ffmpeg splitter doesn't work well (on HTPCs) have slight stuttering issues. Interestingly, none of the Realtek or Sigma Designs streamers (except for the WDTV lineup) have this problem. The WDTVs exhibit the same issue as the Boxee Box for these clips.
6. HD Theora videos playback audio only, as the video has too much resolution to be reliably decoded by the Atom host CPU without hardware acceleration. This issue applied to our 1080p RMVB file also.
7. MKV sample with H264 video and TrueHD audio, along with PGS subtitles, crashed the system completely after the streamer made an attempt to try to demux and decode all the applicable streams.
8. DTS-MA audio in MKVs have some audio dropout issues.
9. Some M2TS clips (both H.264 and MPEG-2 content) buffer a little, play a bit and go back to buffer some more, even though these clips are on a local USB drive connected to the unit. This process keeps on repeating causing stuttery playback.
10. Forced subtitles in MKVs are not handled properly. Subtitles being on by default is a major issue too, and that has ramifications in this scenario.
11. At least 1 MakeMKV created BR folder structure resets the Boxee Box back to the main screen.
12. The CE4100 SoC doesn't have MJPEG decode which is what many older cameras record video in.
The encouraging thing is that the Boxee developers have obtained samples from us for streams which are meant to be supported. We should hopefully see fixes soon.
With the firmware v 1.0.1.16125, the Boxee Box obtained a score of 286 out of a maximum possible 358. With a normalized score of 79.89%, it is comfortably ahead of streamers such as the WDTV Live Hub.
Think of the Boxee Box as a pre-configured HTPC. It almost reaches the compatibility levels of the Atom/ION ZBOX, perhaps losing out on some Windows specific formats. After codec compatibility, next up on the list is picture quality.
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krotchy - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
They must use the same electronics supplier we do at my work."Oh we decided to buy 500,000 older revision PCBs because the forecast said to, even though you already pushed all of the paperwork for the latest PCB revision and we were told not to order the old one. We will just rework them until the existing stock is gone unless you want to pay us $2,000,000 to scrap them"
justaviking - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
For "average Joe" consumer products, I have ask myself, "Can I picture my wife using this?"I have to say, "No." She would probably make me return it within a week. Why?
- Inconsistent behavior. Sometimes you do this, sometimes you do that, other times you do something else. Full-screen display is an example of that.
- Lock-ups.
- Bugs.
- Sort of aggregated, but not really.
- A naming convention for files on your network? I don't see that happening any time soon in my house. I might do it, just out of habit, but my wife or kids? No way.
It's a good attempt.
I appreciate the challenge Boxee is faced with, and I'd be happy to pull the plug on my cable bill too, but I don't see it happening yet.
Jackattak - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Couldn't agree more. I would love to forcibly remove Comca$t out of our house, preferably kicking and screaming (mostly screaming), but this fails the wife test (and my wife is fairly tech-savvy).There has got to be a better way. This is not a consumer-ready product. This looked more like an alpha release review. Far too many bugs and far too little consistency.
Chillin1248 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
From what I understand from Boxee, the reason behind the strange (and internet download full) naming strings is due to the IMDB service that identifies the movies and shows. This is completely separate from Boxee.bernstein - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Quote: "You can’t build a similarly capable HTPC with better power characteristics than the Boxee Box (simply because Intel won’t sell you a CE4100)."This is just wrong... go to to www.pandaboard.org (or heck even a beagleboard) and get a beagleboard friendly build of linux/xbmc and you've definately got a more power-efficient htpc... best suited for 1080p playback...
and just how does a piece of hardware with 10w standby power have best power characteristics? heck not any notebook will consume anywhere near that power in standby...
now nough harsh words. great article, as always. a delight to read.
ganeshts - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Why do you think Boxee went off from Tegra 2 to Intel CE 4100? And the Pandaboard you are talking about is OMAP4 based.. Surprise Surprise.. OMAP4 host CPU = Tegra 2 host CPU, and the power profile of both is approximately the same.. so the capabilities of both are going to be similar.. in other words, don't expect 1080p60 or any other complex encoding playback!vhawkxi - Friday, November 26, 2010 - link
My sister brought me one from Canada as South Africa is again looked over as a country where people would like to have the device.I just love it, so much better than the MVIX device I had to use as media streamer up to now.
The networking works flawlessly and the 802.11 n wireless is more than sufficient to watch content in 1080p 24Hz.
Contents is currently an issue but as soon as Hulu is up and running, I will have access to the source I have been using on the software version. So I am happy with that.
The browser is still a work in progress but I assume it will eventually get there and allow nice browsing on my TV.
So overall - even at $199 which I was more than happy to pay - it is a nice product with great potential - and it has already received 2 system upgraded in the last week. Much more than one can say of similar devices that gets bug fixes once or twice a year.
Well done dudes - this may still be a winner !!
trip1ex - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
About as expected. IT's a device that wants to give the consumer something it can't deliver - free cable tv.It's telling that the article felt it had to have the same number of pros as cons. YOu can tell this is the case when one pro says "it can only get better."
And another says, "they are pro-active at fixing bugs."
I sense some allegiance to Boxee. Maybe because they are a small company. Or because they have a personal relationship with those at the company.
In any case ....why wouldn't the folks who would tolerate bugs and problems just use a pc with their TV in the first place?
wadsworth - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Love it. The new Thanksgiving firmware update fixed a ton of issues I had with 720p and 1080p non-MP4 codecs. The thing played everything I threw at it, from flv to mkv. The show/movie stuff was okay, but nothing compared to the "apps" component IMO. It is up to 142 web interface apps with everything from MediaFly to YouPorn. Heck, I didn't even know Sarah Lane was doing stuff with Leo nowadays. Moving through your own files is fast/smooth, unlike my WD TV Live.saltyzip - Tuesday, November 30, 2010 - link
Boxee has so much promise, but it doesn't deliver on the most important aspect which is speed and reliability, especially when it comes to HD content.I have evaluated the free downloadable version for the PC and posted my views on their forum, only to be flamed by the moderators for expressing my constructive criticism.
No support for blu-ray or HD streaming is a big issue in my books, but the general reliability of playing any kind of content is really a hit and miss experience.
I had crashing, videos only showing on half the screen, resolution not changing to reflect the media being played so was jerky.
Why would anyone want to put this onto a TV in the living room, it would drive my misses nuts.
It needs at least another year to get it right, but by then it will be too late.