Playon!HD2, WDTV Live or Boxee Box?

Kona*

Kona*

Kona*

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Two weeks ago I purchased an AppleTV 2 and loaded XBMC on to it as everyone said it was a great little HTPC and could even handle some 1080p films. Anyway, it turns out it's not that great even with some 720p films and I'm looking for an alternative. The three boxes I'm looking at are the Playon!HD2, WDTV Live and the Boxee Box. Can any of you tell me if these three support the following must have features please?

DTS/Dolby/AC3 Passthrough via HDMI
Ability to play from SMB share via ethernet
Play a wide range of codecs, mainly .MKV with x264
Ability to play 720p & 1080p smoothly

If any of the boxes can support the above then it's going to be purchased ASAP!

Cheers chaps :)
 
So much conflicting advice isn't there. Seems that for some reason something works for one person and then doesn't for another. Given that drivers must be pretty similar I wonder why :/.
 
Boxee box does all of those, I have mine setup with a samba share, it will even play bluray isos - not a thing I have thrown at it has troubled it.
It even does DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby TRUEHD
 
sHo0sH said:
Boxee box does all of those, I have mine setup with a samba share, it will even play bluray isos - not a thing I have thrown at it has troubled it.
It even does DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby TRUEHD
Click to expand...

6 minutes before the great river store dispatch cutoff, you sure know how to time your posts :) one Boxee Box on it's way to me tomorrow!

I was actually researching the difference between the three during the day and had almost decided on a Boxee Box anyway, your recommendation (and mentioning it does DTS-HD MA!) clinched it.

Lets hope it's better than the ATV2 w/ XBMC!
 
Kona* said:
6 minutes before the great river store dispatch cutoff, you sure know how to time your posts :) one Boxee Box on it's way to me tomorrow!

I was actually researching the difference between the three during the day and had almost decided on a Boxee Box anyway, your recommendation (and mentioning it does DTS-HD MA!) clinched it.

Lets hope it's better than the ATV2 w/ XBMC!
Click to expand...

If its not I'll eat my hair.

;)

I have had one since launch and it has come a long way since then, the latest update was the icing on the cake, its a very slick machine.
 
The Boxee box software is more advanced on the Box that it is on the PC at the moment, they will be updating it in September according to their blog...
 
I've had a boxee box since January and its certainly very impressive, especially since the recent updates and they'e updating it all the time.

The Navi-X app is a must
 
Update time!

So far everything is going pretty well. I had issues with audio sync but that was solved by ticking "match display refresh rate to video" and also everything appeared washed out, this was fixed by changing the black level setting from 16-236 to 0-255. The box has also crashed on me once when trying to change users, however it's only done it once and I've tried logging out several more times and it's been fine.

Now on to the positives...

It plays all my files that the Apple TV had problems with flawlessly, even 1080p video is silky smooth.

I love the interface, it's fast and easy to navigate, the media browser is fantastic at finding movie/tv series cover art and filling in all the missing information.

Once I've spent a little more time with the box I'll update this thread :)
 
sHo0sH said:
The boxee box only runs boxee, it's not been hacked to run anything else yet
Click to expand...

And after spending a further couple of hours with it this evening I can safely say it doesn't need to be hacked to run anything else imho - the Boxee software is fantastic.
 
sHo0sH said:
The Boxee box software is more advanced on the Box that it is on the PC at the moment, they will be updating it in September according to their blog...
Click to expand...

Can you explain to me mate how it's more advanced the boxee box then the free download at moment ? Reason I ask is i'm thinking about building a HTPC with boxee on it too and then atleast I can still do other things with it in the future if I get tired of it. Also guys whats the best price you got the boxee box for ? They are almost HTPC costs from what i'm finding :rolleyes: and as you have said they only run boxee.

Also can you let me know how the image via hdmi and sound quality is via the digital outs please and is there some form of adjustments for the sound (equalizers or bass, mid, treble adjustments on the boxee box)? Reason I ask is because my home theatre THX speakers only have a sub, rear speakers, centre speaker levels and no other form of balancing the sound grrr.


Thanks :D Ball is in your court now to persuade me to get the boxee box and not build a HTPC (which will make my girlfriend happy as she hates all the fiddling I do with the home theatre :rolleyes:, even when she realises later it's better for her enjoyment of it).
 
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I thought I'd update this thread after owning the Boxee Box for a couple of days now.

Internet content is fantastic however for local content I'm having major audio sync issues - every file I play is at least 350ms behind. I've opened a support ticket and it's been assigned to Priority 1 so hopefully it gets fixed soon - I'll update this thread with my progress :)

Out of interest sHo0sH, what hardware revision is your Boxee Box?

And yes, I did notice the adult apps :p
 
I got mine on release so it would be the first revision of the box, how are you streaming wirelessly or wired?

I have had no sync issues since the second firmware update back in Jan
 
Purgatory said:
Can you explain to me mate how it's more advanced the boxee box then the free download at moment ? Reason I ask is i'm thinking about building a HTPC with boxee on it too and then atleast I can still do other things with it in the future if I get tired of it. Also guys whats the best price you got the boxee box for ? They are almost HTPC costs from what i'm finding :rolleyes: and as you have said they only run boxee.

Also can you let me know how the image via hdmi and sound quality is via the digital outs please and is there some form of adjustments for the sound (equalizers or bass, mid, treble adjustments on the boxee box)? Reason I ask is because my home theatre THX speakers only have a sub, rear speakers, centre speaker levels and no other form of balancing the sound grrr.


Thanks :D Ball is in your court now to persuade me to get the boxee box and not build a HTPC (which will make my girlfriend happy as she hates all the fiddling I do with the home theatre :rolleyes:, even when she realises later it's better for her enjoyment of it).
Click to expand...

I paid £199 for mine at launch, they are still around that price - they are also $199 though if you know anyone in america or with access to an american air base

It all depends on the quality of the source - when given a BD-Rip image and audio is perfect for me.

The audio is pass through, so all of the adjustments are done on your amp, there may be some on the boxee but I haven't needed to use it. I will take a look later and see what there is.

Its a very WAG friendly device, I think even my grandmother could operate it :D
 
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