D-Link Boxee Box vs. Western Digital WD TV Live

[kokkat]

As of Firmware v1.1.2.19250 (20Jun2011):
The Boxee Box seems to be clipping everything outside of the 16-235 luminance range (and possibly outside of the 17-234 range); this happens in both of the two RGB output modes that the Box currently supports ([16-235] & [0-255]).
Refer http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-8252

[darcilicious]

http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-8252 marked as fixed for the next release too

[Mike Hock]

If you watch any fansubbed anime like I do, then the Boxee Box wins hands down as it supports stylized ASS subtitles with font and positioning. The WDTV Live does a terrible job of this since it doesn't support any of the fonts and just uses the default WDTV Live font. Also, if there are multiple subs on screen such as dialogue overlapping or translation notes at the same time as dialogue, the WDTV Live will just pick one and display it meaning that you usually end up missing dialogue.

Also, I had a lot more file format issues with the WDTV Live such as MKVs with header compression causing the box to not play any files in any format until you unplugged it and restarted it before they fixed it in a patch which doesn't come out as frequently as on the Boxee Box. So things like an actual movie wall were just added to a new piece of hardware they wanted you to buy (WDTV Live Hub) instead of being included in a firmware update. So despite the higher price and a lot of the faults I find with the thing, I'm having a much better experience with the Boxee Box.... until they break something else or I find a better alternative like the Tizzbird player running Android which looks promising.

[IzzyDeadyet]

Yeah, all technical features aside, this is what kept me from going with the (formerly) cheaper WD. While the WD interface is good enough for a year or two ago, it just can't hold a candle to Boxee's.

Also, the Boxee remote is quite a bit better.

Why would you care about the UI? Are you watching movies or watching the UI?

WDTV pros: Turn it on and it works, has working FF, no audio dropouts, no HDMI handshaking issues ...

The only real problem with the WDTV is the lack of audio support with the stock firmware. No HD Audio passthru and it does multi channel LPCM as 2.0 so you don't have a center channel which makes it pointless.

If you want something that does what it claims buy a WDTV. If you want something that will "one day" POSSIBLY do what it claims then buy a BB.

Since I have both BB and WDTV as well as a 360 and PS3 running PS3MediaServer I manage to play every A/V combo. Would be nice to have a single device though.

[Bargeral]

I got the WD Live first thinking it would have the same interface as the WD Live Hub that you see on the web sites. It did not. Also the little plastic remote seemed cheap. Didn't like the interface and returned it and got the Boxee Box.

It's funny, I wasn't willing to spend 200 on the boxee at first, but once I had a 100 credit from the WD, spending 100 more to get the boxee seemed OK. Cognitive dissidence, I guess. That and the the WD hub was the same price and I wasn't willing to trust them just then.

[Prospero424]

Why would you care about the UI? Are you watching movies or watching the UI?

Simple: the UI on the Box allows me to do about 80% of what I'd like. The UI on the WDTV allows me to do maybe 50%. Maybe. If all I was interested in was watching local movies from a relatively bare-bones file list along with a Netflix app, the WD would be enough. But it's not.

There's no format that I would EVER use that the WDTV can play properly that the BBox can't.

And yes, I actually do use the social features of Boxee. A lot. The superior cover art, etc. and the fact that it simply looks better overall is just a bonus. And now that the new WDTV boxes cost just as much as the BBox, there's no comparison to my mind.

WDTV pros: Turn it on and it works, has working FF, no audio dropouts, no HDMI handshaking issues ...

Well, support forums for the WDTV tell a different story, and I personally don't have these issues with the Boxee Box, but YMMV.

[lovelove]

Why would you care about the UI? Are you watching movies or watching the UI?

lol, beautifully said ... you gotta love it!

Does the newer WDTV product allow searching your local content?

yes, there even is a search button on the remote

Does it keep an index of all your local content?

what is that supposed to mean?

Cover art?

yes

Metadata?

not sure

Does it know anything at all about TV shows and episodes?

don't think so

[lovelove]

nobody wants to continue the little +/- list from above ?

[twistybox]

It's generally a given that a particular product will be able to play the files/formats it advertises. At present time, most products can play most popular formats, so that's generally a wash. The rest is really about feature set and how it's presented to the customer. Generally speaking, the UI. It's easy to spot the difference between a good product and a bad one. Bad products don't show any images of the software (UI), only some images of the hardware and maybe the packaging.

Not every product will be problem free for every customer. Every item that has been mentioned can go either way for any product, depending on the circumstances - one need only to check other forums to confirm that.

At the end of the day, this is a Boxee Box forum. Discussing other products except to further discussions about the Boxee Box and make suggestions about its feature set, is really rather pointless.

If you're trying to solicit a recommendation then you have it, buy a Boxee Box as it's currently the most capable device on the market with the most robust user interface. If you are trying to give a recommendation for someone else to buy a WDTV product instead of a Boxee Box, then that doesn't really belong in this forum.

If UI are not important to you, then there are many other products available besides Boxee and WDTV at much much lower price points that will play many of the same formats. They may or may not have internet streaming built in.

[riha]

One thing that WD TV HD boxes have that boxee does not have (I even have an open thread about it) is the fact that the WD box can easily play multiple files in a row by just highlighting the one that should be the first one and then press the "play" button, it will then play the other files in the same folder one by one automatically until you stop it.

THAT is NOT possible in boxee. It seems that you need to create a playlist on a pc for it first or concat the files or group them as a movie with several parts. Much hassle for such a trivilal thing.

Other than that the boxee wins technically and the WD wins because it is easier = much more "family friendly" to use.