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Product Description
From the Manufacturer
We get it -- you want Internet freedom on your TV, but you want it to be the stuff you actually want to watch in HD and you want to enjoy it from the comfort of your couch. We're all over it-introducing the Boxee Box by D-Link: click, follow, watch -- you are now in full command of your TV for the first time. No rules, no contracts.
Superconnected
Not only is Boxee the best way to watch movies, TV shows and clips from the Internet on your TV, it's the easiest. All you need is a TV with an HDMI input and an Internet connection, and Boxee Box will take care of the rest. Equipped with an SD card slot, two USB ports, an optical digital audio connector, HDMI output, and an 802.11n Wi-Fi-equipped Ethernet port, there isn't much Boxee Box can't plug into.
Stream Your Favorite Flicks in a Flash!
Put your car keys away. And prepare for a serious couch party. Because the Boxee Box is amped and ready for instant streaming from Netflix. Your favorite blockbusters. Timeless classics. Gotta-see TV. Netflix delivers all these and more by the thousands -- with no late fees. And the Boxee Box pipes it all right into your living room -- on demand, with just a few clicks of the remote! With a one month free trial for new members, you'll be able to instantly watch unlimited TV episodes and movies as often as you want, anytime you want. You'll be hooked before you know it!
And this isn't just your everyday Netflix, but the new Netflix 3.0, providing better navigation and movie selection options, along with a cooler interactive experience overall. You'll not only find what you want faster. With Netflix's unique LoLoMo (Lists of Lists of Movies) recommendations, you may discover your next watch-till-you-drop favorite served up on a silver platter. And many titles are available in HD. You are so done with long lines and pricey theater tickets!
Now HD Has a Whole New Meaning
Four words: On-Demand HD Library. It doesn't get any better. With over 3000 HD movies and TV titles to choose from you'll never have to leave your couch again -- except for the occasional popcorn refill. Stream hundreds of new releases the same day they come out on DVD. With the convenience of the VUDU app on the Boxee Box, you'll be on Cloud 9 -- and trust us you're not going to want to come down. The best part? You only pay for what you watch, so kiss those late fees goodbye!
With VUDU you have instant access to the largest HD collection available anywhere, yeah that's big. The bestest part -- movies in HDX. That's the creme de la creme of HD, the True Cinematic Experience -- 1080p and Dolby Digital plus 5.1 surround sound. Watching movies at home just got more exciting. Lean back -- see VUDU in all its amazingness on your HDTV with the click of a button. And sign-up now and enjoy a rental of up to $5.99, on us!
Tailored to Your Couch
The Internet gives you the freedom to watch what you want, and the power to choose what you want to pay for. It's awesome. What's not awesome about the internet: no big screen, no HD, no home theater experience, no easy interface designed to sift through the mountains of TV shows, Movies, and content available online. And the real killer: no remote. If only there was a little box that brought the freedom of the Internet to your HDTV in stunning 1080p, Dolby Surround Sound, and had a slick interface to simplify everything and -- wait for it -- a remote to put it all at the tips of your fingers. Too bad nobody has thought of that yet. Oh wait, we did. Haha! Ahem...
The Boxee Box, by D-Link, featuring our ingenious two-faced remote. Say goodbye to hunting and pecking for letters on screen, the Boxee Box remote comes with a full QWERTY keypad -- as soon as you start typing Boxee Box's autosearch function starts finding.
Use Your iPhone or Android Device as a Remote
We think our two-sided, QWERTY enabled Boxee remote is pretty darn cool, but hey maybe you lose it, or maybe you just like the stuff you already got. No biggie! Use your iPhone or Android-powered device as a remote with the Boxee Box, and get all the cool functions you're accustomed to. Use your voice to search and use multiple phones as remotes. Boom!
via the Boxee Box.
Send to Boxee Box
Watching video on your iPad and want it on the big screen? Send videos straight to your TV via a Boxee Box so everyone in your living room can enjoy. Now you can go back to playing Angry Birds on the iPad while you watch.
Setup? No Biggie!
Plug your Boxee Box into the wall, connect it to your TV's HDMI input and turn your Boxee Box on. Oh, please turn on your TV too, thanks. Make sure your TV is getting the signal from the correct HDMI input -- if it is, you'll see Boxee smiling at you :). Grab the remote and follow the on-screen instructions, and that's it! The Boxee Box will automatically configure your internet connection, tune itself to your home entertainment system, and get you up and running in a flash. Already a Boxee user? Schweeet!! The Boxee Box will automatically import your account. No Biggie!!
Insta-search-ability
Say goodbye to hunting and pecking for letters on screen, the Boxee Box Remote features an easy to-use navigation button on the front and a full QWERTY keyboard for text input on the back. Quickly and easily input URLs and account information. With its Smart Auto search function, as soon as you start typing, Boxee Box starts finding.
See What Your Friends Are Watching
One of the greatest things about the Boxee Box is that if you can't find something to watch, you've got your friends to turn to. Stop watching the same stuff over and over. With the Boxee Box, your friends can see what you've been watching and give fresh recommendations from Facebook, Twitter, and the Boxee network.
And it goes both ways. If its on Boxee and you like it, you can recommend it to anyone -- TV shows, amateur youtube videos, movies, and more. With the Boxee Box, you're pretty much free to be that guy: recommend anything you've ever watched to everyone.
Less Mystery, More Machine. TV on Your Terms.
Never be limited by what you can watch and when. The Boxee Box makes it easy to choose the TV shows you want to watch, and most importantly, the ones you want to pay for. And with over 40,000 TV episodes from your favorite networks instantly available -- that's a lot to choose from. The Office, Family Guy, Entourage, True Blood, and much more.
If we can't find it for free, the Boxee Box will connect you with premium options who can, instantly. Get tons of free stuff, and never pay for the stuff you don't want to watch. Easy.
YouTube on Your Tube
If you can watch it on your computer's web browser you can watch it on the Boxee Box, only better. Our browser is similar to IE or Safari, but optimized to work with a QWERTY remote and your HDTV, seamlessly. University courses, panel discussions, TED Talks, Current TV, Stanford Online, FORA.tv, whatever -- the Boxee Box delivers all your favorite web-videos and web-only content, no matter how obscure they may be, straight to your TV set.
Get Into the Game
Why sit on the sidelines when the Boxee Box offers apps to ring the bell of even the most diehard sports fan? Start by taking a courtside seat with NBA.com. Follow your favorite teams. Watch video highlights and get live game updates. Or check out player stats, and sift through league standings. Big on baseball? If so, MLB.TV is a guaranteed homer. Now you can keep up with every club, and be the hero of the block by hosting all the out-of-market games, live and on demand. As for those who need a good slap shot to send them off, NHL GameCenter LIVE is all that and a bag of peanuts. Watch up to 40 live out-of-market games every week. Plus, get unlimited access to the NHL Vault, featuring condensed and full-length replays of over 100 classic NHL games. If you've been in the bull pen too long, let the Boxee Box put you right in the middle of the action.
Hundreds of Your Favorite Apps, Optimized for Your HDTV
Netflix, Pandora, MLB, NHL, Flickr, Facebook, Vimeo... With Boxee Box, your favorite Apps have been optimized to be enjoyed from the comfort of your couch. We're adding new apps everyday and already have hundreds to choose from. Sit back and put your feet up, because with our remote your favorite Apps are now at the tips of your fingers.
Give Your Wallet a Break
Think about it: your cable bill is probably about $80 or more per month. You get 500 channels -- some are great, most have a ton of commercials, and you only watch a handful of them. The Boxee Box model is simple: Buy the Boxee Box once, and get instant access to all the entertainment the web has to offer, forever. No rules. No contracts. No monthly fees. If we can't find it for free, the Boxee Box connects you with premium options that can, instantly. Man, we should've started doing this years ago.
Say Goodbye to Files and Folders. Say Hello to Boxee.
Not only does the Boxee Box give you access to thousands of TV shows and movies from all over the Internet, it takes your personal video, picture and music files from your hard drive and home network somewhere they've never been -- your HDTV. The Boxee Box works with virtually any file type (MP3, MP4, .jpeg, .avi, .mkv) and makes it easier to sort through than ever. If you can create it, the Boxee Box will play and organize it. Automatically download all relevant artwork and info and simplify all your digital stuff with big, colorful thumbnail photos in a TV-friendly interface you can access with a remote. You're friends will be impressed, or jealous. Probably jealous.
Turn Your TV Into a Jukebox You Can Share
Your MP3 files are organized and simplified and ready to share with your friends, anywhere on the Boxee network. And with our Pandora App, you can create unlimited radio stations by genre, artist, or song you can also share from the comfort of your couch.
The Box Connected
Leave the computer and mouse on your desk. The Boxee Box instantly streams thousands of TV shows and movies from the Internet in glorious Full HD 1080p and Dolby Surround Sound. It's just another in a long line of innovative home networking solutions from D-Link.
Product Description
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Customer Reviews
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Out of the box, the Boxee Box runs the familiar beta version of the software, which is familiar to me as a prior Boxee user. Everything works fine, from what I tested, though the edges of the screen were cut off a tiny bit (not enough to cause a problem). While exploring all the options, I found that a firmware upgrade to version 1.0 of the Boxee software was available. I installed it, the unit rebooted, and it automatically started a quick-and-simple screen calibration utility. That calibration was useful, because the stock firmware had some overscan problems (that is, the edges of the screen were cut off) on my TV.
Version 1.0 brings with it a new, simplified user interface. I immediately had trouble finding my way around, and was a little disappointed that the experience was different than what I was expecting. My main problem with the new interface is that it now takes several more clicks to access local files (that is, anything on your attached drives or home network). That's my stuff, and that's what I primarily want a video player to be able to play. The old interface allowed you to toggle between your videos, and all available videos, very easily, once you understand where the option is. With the default firmware, after a minute of configuration, I was able to select "Shows" from the home screen and see just my shows. Now, I have to use other, more complex and time-consuming methods to do the same thing, such as "Files > Shows" or "Shows > Files".
The new interface does make it easier to start searches (just start typing), and is very attractive. I just would rather that it allow me to put my videos front-and-center. Networked content is fine, but my own content should have primacy over it. I think that new users will not have a problem with the interface, but experienced users should know that changes are in store for you.
Networked Content
I had no problems streaming SD and 720p HD H.264 and DivX files from my NAS to the Boxee Box via my wireless-N network. Internet videos play well, but some Internet video sources are kludgy. Playing a video on Fancast, for instance, will open a web browser, showing the web page and the video in a small box. You have to use the remote to move the mouse cursor to the tiny "full screen" button and click it to get the video to play full screen. Good luck doing that on the couch, 10-20 feet from the TV! This is a big deal because the new Boxee software puts networked content front-and-center, in the "Most Popular" movies and shows pages. It's wonderful to be able to watch (ad-supported) shows that you haven't paid for, but it's a pain that you have to hunt for the full screen button, which looks different on every website, to do so.
Apps, on the other hand, are fantastic. TED and YouTube work exactly as you would expect, and there are dozens more available. Netflix and Hulu Plus apps have been promised; Boxee is working out the arrangements and hope to have these available by the end of the year (early next year for Hulu Plus). I hope for their sake that they do. Competing devices all support Netflix, and Netflix is, in my opinion, one of the most compelling sources for staming content.
Linking your online Boxee account to Twitter and Facebook seems like overkill at first, but it actually is pretty compelling to be able to watch videos that your friends are sharing. The RSS app is great, too. Through the Boxee website, you can subscribe to a whole bunch of video and audio streams (podcasts). Then, you can launch the RSS app and browse through the stream. It's very nice. I don't bother sharing what I watch on TV with my Facebook friends and Twitter followers, though, but I could if I wanted to. I think that if a large number of people I know used Boxee, this would be a lot more useful.
Another quibble I have with the UI is that "Watch Later" queue shows your most recent additions on top, and you can't sort it. To find the next episode of a series you've been watching from the queue, you have to scroll down. If I'm going to the trouble of queuing videos, doesn't that imply that I want to watch them in order, not in reverse order?
Hardware
The unique shape of the box is controversial, but it is very small and you should be able to tuck it away somewhere. The remote uses RF, instead of IR, to communicate with the box. Therefore, unlike most (if not all) of your other components, you don't need a line of sight. I actually decided to put the BoxeeBox behind my TV; I can't even see it, but the controller works perfectly fine! The only thing better would be to have Boxee software integrated directly into my TV.
The box is very capable. Until new video formats arrive on scene, I don't see an immediate need for Boxee or D-Link to refresh the hardware. I just hope they continue to improve the software and make the updates available to the Boxee Box.
Overall Impressions
The hardware is great. The box is small and silent (from across the room at least), the RF remote is fantastic, and the hardware overall is a good value over buying an ATOM/ION nettop and IR remote, and installing Boxee (beta) yourself.
Honestly, Boxee got off on the wrong foot with me for introducing so many changes to its UI at the same time it launched this product. Boxee 1.0 looks great--better than ever, really--but it is so simplified that it now takes extra button presses to get to my own content, and I think that was a bad move. I like the product, though, and will get used to the new interface soon enough.
I still think this is a geeky product that is trying to be usable for non-geeks, and just hasn't gotten all the way there yet. I'm a little disappointed in that, and hope that the software will be updated eventually to make it easier and faster to access both local and online content.
It is difficult for me to rate this product 3 stars, but I think that it just isn't quite up to snuff yet to earn 4 or 5. Some software updates and agreements with content providers could improve the user experience greatly (fix that full screen problem or provide a shortcut, please!). I am eagerly anticipating the Netflix app, and plan to award an additional star once it arrives.
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Firmware updates.
11/25/2010 update:
Boxee updated the firmware on Thanksgiving to improve playback issues and stability. This resolved an issue I ran into infrequently (after I wrote my review), in which some local MP4/H.264 files would start playback with sound but no video.
12/13/2010 update:
This is an important update to the user interface!
Boxee updated the firmware to allow users to put local content up front in the "Shows" and "Movies" sections (the top-level, giant icons on the home screen), or to allow online content to take precedence. This is accomplished in the least geeky way possible: After updating the firmware, you are simply sked whether you use the box mostly for local or online content. If you pick "local," the main "Shows" and "Movies" sections default to local content, and online content is buried one level deeper in the menus. You can toggle this preference, and refine it independently for Shows, Movies, and Apps, in Settings > General > Menu. Bravo to Boxee for listening to their users and pushing out this change.
The update also added an hourly scan option for your local content folders, and an icon in the "Local Shows" and "Local Movies" screens that allows you to kick off a rescan immediately. Hourly scanning is a huge upgrade from the daily scanning option, and the new location of the rescan command is a lot easier to get to than it used to be (in Settings > File Sources > [Share Name]).
Boxee also added sorting (A-Z, and Newest First) for Shows and Movies, though, sadly, not in the Watch Later queue. There are also new A-Z lists in the Local Shows and Local Movies sections, to help you browse faster.
There still aren't Netflix or Hulu Plus apps, unfortunately. I think the Boxee Box's UI and playback are shaping up incredibly nicely, though. Now they just need to match their competitors' online content choices.
1/20/2011 update:
Boxee upgraded the firmware to include Vudu support, a new sort option to ignore (if you want to) "A" and "The" when performing a title sort, and various minor fixes. The browser is now much more readable on the TV, and many more online videos open in full-screen. I also discovered a two-click method to put online videos into full-screen if they don't open that way: [menu] > [middle button] (select the double-arrows icon). Vudu's 1080p online movie rental app offers compelling content and great video quality. The Boxee Box still, desperately, needs Netflix and Hulu Plus to catch up with and overtake the competition. Nonetheless, I'm now convinced that this is the best video streamer for local content, and a quality competitor to Google TV and Roku for online content. Netflix should arrive soon; I will award another star then, because then it would be on par with competitors' feature sets.
2/14/2011 update:
After a long wait, and behind schedule (unfortunately), the Netflix app finally arrived on the Boxee Box with this firmware upgrade. The Netflix interface is quick, and the hi-def streaming looks fantastic. Hopefully Hulu Plus will arrive soon.
Let me begin by stating that I am new to the Boxee platform. I've occasionally watched a missed episode of network TV on my MacBook attached to my TV; but only as a last resort. I probably visit youtube.com about 4 times per year and never for more than a 10 minute period. I pay for DirecTV and Sirius XM and have 4 networked DVRs. In short, aside from the fact that I've been hacking computers since the early 80s, I am apparently not part of the target demographic for this product.
General observations:
- The box is nearly silent. This is a very good thing.
- The box is very small (about the size of a box that a baseball would come packaged in).
- The box consume 12 watts of power while running, while idle, and while on standby. If you turn it all the way off, it consumes 0 watts. It seems to run just over 100 degrees while powered on.
- While the unit itself is small, the mini power brick in the power plug is larger than typical-sneaky and annoying.
REMOTE CONTROL
The remote control gets (some) raves and is probably one of the coolest things about this device. It is also the main hardware component of the solution that makes the Boxee Box a hassle. The remote control is RF which means it cannot control most devices in your house. And likewise, your other remotes can't control the Boxee box unless you add an IR adapter. Forget about hitting one button to turn on the Boxee Box and your TV. This is a major source of frustration for me as the Boxee Box remote is essentially 3 buttons and a 4-way navigation tool. Because the button layout is perfectly symmetric, and the buttons are black, I frequently hold it upside down and hit the wrong buttons. This is annoying and often disruptive to what I'm watching/listening to as I will accidentally exit the pandora or viewer apps! I've had the Boxee for over 8-months now and this still frustrates me every time I use it.
What is cool about the remote control is that when you flip it over, it has a decent sized keyboard! When using the search features, this keyboard works like a charm.
In practice though, my usage doesn't result in much data entry so I don't get the payoff of the keyboard. Unfortunately, I DO prize being able to reliably pause/fast forward/rewind the Boxee Box remote control is not too good. This can't be fixed with firmware...
I did find one way to improve upon the remote situation- I plugged in a wireless mouse and keyboard. The wireless mouse made navigating the Boxee Box menus noticeably easier.
Unfortunately, the mouse does not work for jumping to a spot in a song or a video. Also, when surfing the web on the Boxee Box, the wireless mouse is unable to scroll content up and down and the roller wheel is completely disabled.
INTERNET VIDEO
The video quality of some of the Internet content is surprisingly good. Generally speaking, if you're paying for the content, it will look as good as the best high def feed from your cable/satellite provider. And generally speaking, if you get content for free, it can be pretty bad.
The Wired application has a bunch of movie trailers and I honestly couldn't tell that I was watching "downloaded" content. The picture quality rivaled the HD quality I get over the air from DirecTV. I found this impressive. I have a 6Mb/s internet connection which is certainly not a slouch so I'm sure that helps. Video quality can vary greatly though. Some of the stuff on youtube borders on unwatchable (though that is the nature of youtube, not Boxee Box).
My wife and I tried to watch an episode of CSI Miami on the Boxee Box and eventually gave up. It wasn't because CSI Miami is pointless and stupid, it was because the experience of trying to pause or navigate through the program was too awkward. At one point I tried to pause the show but accidentally hit the "menu" button. This took us out of the show and lost our spot. Then we tried to relaunch it and fast forward to our old location. This proved fruitless with the Boxee Box remote control.
During the 2010-2011 Women's basketball season, I ended up watching quite a few games on the Boxee Box as the only way to get them was on the Internet. I had to be careful not to touch anything once I got the game on screen but generally speaking this worked well and I enjoyed it over watching the same content on my laptop.
I am a Netflix streaming customer and the Boxee Box has a Netflix application. The application works well. Playback is first rate with excellent video and sound. The remote control rears it's ugly head here as the Netflix app does not obey the Boxee Box's pause button. This is supremely annoying. I can't pause Netflix without experimenting (sorry, I don't remember the button press).
Considering how well the Netflix application works on other platforms, I'm giving the Boxee Box implementation a "C-". This can improve with updates.
INTERNET MUSIC
The Boxee Box Pandora application works great. I was able to sync up to my Pandora account and play playlists of music that I like. Pandora is a great product-- but it is hardly exclusive to the Boxee Box. It takes a LOT less time to simply pick up my iPhone, launch the Pandora app and airplay to my AppleTV.
LOCAL MUSIC
I have a large library of music that I've ripped into MP3 format on my mac. I was able to share my music folder on the mac and Boxee immediately found it on the network- it wasn't easy enough that my wife could figure out how to do it but I had no problem. But things fell apart when I tried to actually listen to my music. The problem is that Boxee can't see your itunes playlists. So you're left with playing music one directory at a time. This kills this feature for me- my directory structure is broken down by artist and then album. I rarely want to listen to just one album at a time. Because I didn't layout my music according to genre, etc..., I have no easy way to listen to songs.
I know nobody loves Apple, but implementing a way to import iTunes play lists would be helpful.
LOCAL VIDEO
I have a UPnP storage device on my network and uploaded a bunch of ripped DVDs. I also uploaded videos that I had downloaded from the Internet over the years- many in a wide variety of formats. When it comes to playing about any video you can think of, the Boxee Box is an A+ performer. It sees my UPNP server on the LAN and with a couple of clicks I'm in watching a movie. It always remembers where you left off and generally works perfectly. Fast forward, rewind, pause, everything!
As a comparison, I tried to view UPNP content on my DirecTV DVR. It was a terrible, teeth gnashing experience that ended with my DVR crashing and rebooting. Again, kudos to Boxee Box on their execution of this feature.
Granted, you have to do a lot of extra work to get your videos into a storage device on your LAN, but if you have such a video source, this is a great product for watching it on your TV.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Sorry, but I'm not getting the whole "add social media to your TV" thing. Gimmick!
We were able to sync the Boxee Box with my wife's FaceBook accountn but we never could figure out how to see FaceBook alerts while watching content. We'd hear sounds when notifications came through but there was no obvious way to get to them. We were so gunshy about touching the remote and losing our spot in a show that we decided they weren't worth it and just got out her iPhone/iPad to see what was new...
OTHER
With no local storage, the Boxee Box is not useful if your network is down or the content sources are unavailable (PC turned off). There is no way to save content to your Boxee for advanced buffering if you have a slow internet connection. You can plug in a USB key or a powered USB drive so it's not the end of the world.
They seemed to have done a good job with the CPU and memory selection- the unit is very snappy and fluid. I was pleased with this.
STABILITY
With firmware updates, the Boxee Box has gotten fairly stable. It doesn't crash very often. There are some quirky bugs. For example, about once per week, all of my "Favorites" disappear. This always annoys me but if I restart the Boxee Box, things come back.
SUMMARY
If you're going to only use Netflix or other common paid services, spend 1/3 as much and get an AppleTV. If you've got a bunch of ripped music and don't have Apple devices, get the Boxee Box. If you've got a ton of ripped video, get the Boxee Box.
Make sure you have a fast Internet connection (probably 3Mbps is the minimum I'd go with). Also, if your Internet provider is implementing data caps, you might not want streaming products like the Boxee Box as they consume a lot of data with frequent usage.
The ideal Boxee Box would tweak the remote so you could use it without having to look at it, and add a hard drive so it could be self contained. Oh, and switch to a NORMAL form factor so it will stack with the rest of my gear.
I'm sure a Boxee Box 2.0 is in the future; maybe it'll address some of my complaints.
Pros
-Quality hardware
-compact
-qwerty keyboard on back of remote (brilliant!)
-User interface (needs to improvement though)
-Zippy fast getting around (except for downloading cover art for thumbnails)
-Lots of content providers (more to come for sure, Netflix, etc)
-Streams every file I have thrown at it (my movie collection is over 500 strong with different formats).
-there are many more
Cons
-As others have commented (the qwerty remote is unreadable for me without extreem light (come on, grey on black letters!)
-no options to customize the user interface more (advanced settings?)
-many apps load a webpage with the video in a small window with the "full screen" option small and difficult to brows to with the remote (needs much improvement).
If you want to look at your digital piture collection, play your digital videos\movies, listen to your music collection and play content from the web all through a great interface on your DH TV and through your Home Theater system, this box is a must for you. I promise, you will not be disappointed.
I am confident this box will only get better.
Excellent product.
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