The Boxee Box is a part HD media player and part HD media streamer. As one device, it attempts to do the best of what the WD Live HD media player series does and what the Apple TV does. And does so looking very unique.

Look & Feel

The unique cube-ish design makes the Boxee look very different from all other HD media players out there. No wonder, because it has been designed by the same people who designed the Xbox 360. The cube has been chopped away for a certain part. The base has a fluorescent green colour, contrasting with the combination of glossy and matte black all around. The base has a rubberized finish, preventing accidental slips. One look at the form factor, and you know this one will stand out in the midst of all the other gadgets in your home theater console. Which makes us wonder - why do companies not pay more attention to the design of their media players?

The front is completely clean, with only an illuminating Boxee logo. The colour notification here is quite unique - when you are connected to the network, the logo will illuminate in green. If however, you aren’t connected to the network, or the device has been in stand-by for some time, it will turn orange.

This unique design does bring in its own little niggle - the Boxee is much bigger than the WD Live, the WD Live Hub (despite the internal 1TB hard drive) and the puck sized Apple TV. No let up in connectivity options either - HDMI out, optical audio out, two USB inputs and a memory card slot. No internal storage space though, unlike the WD Live Hub.

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The remote that comes with the Boxee continues walking the path of uniqueness. On the front is the four way pad with a select key in the middle. Above this key is the play/pause key, and below it is the menu button - all on a glossy black surface. If you aren’t careful, the remote will look badly scratched in just a few days. With no dedicated keys for options, Home, stop media playback or eject hard drive, navigation does tend to be on the slow side, since everything needs to be followed on-screen. The remote on the WD Live has all these dedicated keys, and while it isn't as good looking, the functionality is greatly enhanced. Flip the Boxee’s remote over, and what you get is a full-fledged QWERTY keypad. That is useful when accessing web apps. Surprisingly, the depressed positioning of the entire keypad ensures that it doesn’t come in the way when you are just using the navigation keys on the other side. Solidly built remote, and the QWERTY is a great value add.  

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