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Albina Hickel
At DEFCON20 GTVHacker demonstrated two ways to get root on the Boxee Box, a software method that runs a shell script every boot, and a hardware modification that requires the user to cut two traces and solder wires to a UART adapter. The easiest and most feasable way to root the Boxee Box is using the software method which I will describe below.
The original method and updates to the Boxee Box was called Boxee+, later it was renamed to Boxee+Hacks (assuming trademark issues). The original developer of the Boxee+Hacks repository probably gave up on the Boxee Box and therefore has not made any updates in about 10 months or more (last update was Feb 2013). Luckily the demand was still there, and a fork of Boxee+Hacks was created and is still being actively developed and enhanced.
There are instructions under docs/README.boxeebox on how to build and compile XBMC so you can install it on the Boxee Box. Most users are not familiar with building from source, let along using Linux or Mac to do so.
I just purchased a boxee box that will not fully start up, as it sits on the first loading screen and the lights blink 1 green, 2 red. I have seen others with 1/3 blinks and it is a firmware issue, so what does this reveal for this boxee? Any and all input is greatly appreciated.
The folks at Boxee definitely took some risks with the design of the Boxee Box. Most people will either love the design or hate it. I am personally not a big fan of it, in particular because the neon mat lifts up alongside the front of the box and is very visible. Fortunately the Boxee Box is controlled with an RF remote so you can easily hide it out of sight
One other issue for some is the fact that the Boxee Box is RF based. What this means is that for many people who use Universal Remotes, they will need to purchase separately a USB IR Receiver. Of course it is not as easy as that as the Boxee Box only states support for MCE2 IR Receivers, so it may be hit or miss if you have a receiver that works. This is something that Boxee/DLink should have developed and sold as an accessory to the Boxee Box (similar to what Syabas did with the C-200).
Setup is relatively straightforward and only took a few minutes. You are required to have an account with Boxee (free) which can either be set up online or you can set up directly from the Boxee Box. Once signed up and logged in everything needing to be done can be found in the settings. The first thing you are going to want to do is set up your File Sources.
Once a source has been selected you need to tell Boxee what type of media is in this source and how often scanning of the source should be done. That is all it takes to set up your media sources. If it is the first time setting up be prepared for it to take a while for Boxee Box to scan all your media. I would not recommend doing much else with the Boxee Box until scanning has been completed.
Not really a setup item per se but thought it would be worth mentioning. It is possible to access information about your Boxee Box from a web browser. All you need to do is from a web browser go to -ip:8080 (where boxee-ip is the IP address of your Boxee Box which you can locate in the Settings). Once there you can see some of your hardware information such as CPU temperature and Fan Speed, as well as submit logs to Boxee.
On the negative side, the moment you shut down the Boxee Box you lose cover art that has been cached. This combined with poor caching performance in general does affect the user experience, and I got frustrated waiting for images to load. Many playback controls require multiple steps to access and some basic controls (such as the ability to leave subtitles off) are left out of the system settings. Navigating around the UI can be a little confusing since it is not entirely consistent from one screen to the next. Of course my biggest gripe was the decision to present a new UI at launch which hides local content and basically pushes Online content on the user.
For the most part I found network performance to be adequate. Using the infamous Planet Earth bird scene I was able to play the 60 MB/s clip without a hiccup on the Boxee Box. Anything over that bitrate stuttered, but 60 MB/s is more then adequate for high bitrate (i.e. BluRay) playback. Currently you can connect to the network via Samba and UPnP, and I believe Boxee has suggested that NFS support may be in the works as well.
The biggest issue noted was with playing BluRay Rips (folders and/or ISOs). The Boxee Box appears to implement some sort of buffering to handle playback, yet in many cases this fails with BluRay content, leaving the user with frequent interruptions while trying to watch a BluRay over the network. This is something that must be addressed and fixed immediately by the Boxee team if they hope to be taken seriously by the Home Theater crowd.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the review I was debating whether or not to write the review now because in my mind there are so many things wrong with the Boxee Box that could easily be fixed in the coming weeks. However, I have no idea how long, or honestly if ever, the issues noted will be fixed, and the fact that the Boxee Box is available for purchase means potential consumers need to be aware of any issues.
To get the Boxee Box to where it needs to be the primary focus of the Boxee team should be on correcting the many various playback issues I noted as well as noted by other users. Also, local content needs to be put back in focus instead of buried, and the caching issues need to be resolved. Changes to the layout/design of the UI and a completely redesigned remote although welcomed could be pushed back until some of the more critical issues have been addressed. There really is a ton of potential with the Boxee Box and if the Boxee team can be quick in addressing these issues and well as getting the big online content players active, they could be sitting on a golden ticket. For now I would recommend that anyone interested in the Boxee Box sit on the sidelines. If you are interested in tracking the progress of the bugs, you can do so here. I will also be updating my review and/or doing additional posts as hopefully things progress.
Hi, my name is Damian, and I'm tech gadget addict! Although I always had some interest in technology, it wasn't until I got my EX470 and more importantly found Mediasmartserver.net, that my interest became an addiction. My goal, aside from world domination and to see the Mets/Broncos win another championship, is to set up the perfect digital home where all my media is available at the click of a button. When I am not writing for Mediasmartserver.net you can find me over at my blog at or follow me on twitter
This review is spot on. I have a boxee box sitting in my living room right now, and I so want it to stay there, but right now I am terribly disappointed with it. The lack of caching is maddening. I am so spoiled from using XBMC for so many years.
I have a nice return window from Amazon, so I am going to ride this out over the next month or so and see if Boxee comes through for us. Once again, great review and I think you touched on all my biggest problems with it.
You did not mention that fact that trickmode play is absent (true FF and REW at different speeds which is pretty standard) !! Left and Right provides skips but they UP and DOWN were not used to give more skip options, instead a useless Audio volume control has been assigned to Up and DOWN.
Nice review. Wanted one of these, however, working on the new GUI update for the Popcorn Hour A-2000. SO far so good. Also have a Logitech Google TV on the way. Will see how it integrates with my new Priemere TIVO
The Boxee team has been very proactive in trying to fix the bugs. However, fixing some bugs is introducing new ones (for example after the latest update there appears to be a lot of problems with DVD rips). Best bet give it a couple of months to let the dust settle, and then look at again to see if any true progress has been made. For better or worse, if you are a Boxee Box owner right now you are a beta tester
Hi P.G. I was waiting for a few other items before doing a revisit. I can confirm that Blu-Ray ISO support appears fixed, much of the buffering issues have been resolved, and additional features such as forced mkv subtitle support, Netflix, and Hulu have been added. Two items still broken, DTS(MA) bitstreaming results in audio dropouts and TrueHD still gets decoded instead of Bitstreamed. Let me know if there is anything you have questions on and I will do my best to answer
Hmm.. actually, I think I may put a hold on things and do further research. Found out that popcorn will do RealD3D, which puts everything into the back burner until I finally decide! All these goodies, so much to research. Decisions, decisions.
What I would recommend is testing out the Boxee Box (I assume you still have a return window). If you find that it plays back your local content without much issue, then that combined with the online content support sounds like it would have all your areas covered.
Anyway if someone figures out what to do please post it up...I'd love to get it working...otherwise I'm gonna have to get an apple tv 2 from somewhere and jailbreak it so I can still use XBMC and netflix together
That the sad part I already have done that... and every other app eg hulu plus works fine but netflix is getting blocked somehow.
Open Netflix up on another PC on your network that is also using unblock-us.com's DNS. It might just be that you need to reauthorise unblock-us.com because your IP has changed :)
First I have to say that Netflix just might be the best thing since sliced bread, unfortunately I have it set up on a Samsung Bd-e5900. My problem isn't with Unblock-Us or Netflix but with the Blu-ray player for some reason deciding that some streams need sound and some others don't. I am really stumped by this and have come to the conclusion that the last upgrade of firmware was bugged in some way. This problem occurs in abc I-view app as well when the player thinks it's an Aussie.
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