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D-Link's New Boxee Box Runs Linux, Eyes Netflix

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the one-ui-to-rule-them dept.

DeviceGuru writes "OpenBoxeeBox.com is reporting that D-Link's new DM-380 Boxee Box, demonstrated last night in New York at Boxee's Boxee Beta unveiling, runs Linux but does not yet stream Netflix video-on-demand titles. However, according to an unnamed Boxee insider, 'the goal is to have the device support Netflix.' The DM-380 features ports for HDMI, optical digital and analog audio, dual USB, and wired Ethernet, plus it has an SD card slot and built-in WiFi. Photos and screenshots are at OpenBoxeeBox, and additional details are on D-Link's website."

16 of 138 comments (clear)

  1. It looks like crap by MistrBlank · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This will never sell. It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm. It looks like a puzzle box and a toy.

    1. Re:It looks like crap by ottothecow · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Granted it isn't large enough that you would try setting some other full sized entertainment device (dvd player or such) on top of it but....damn guys, you couldn't even set your remote control on top of that thing

      --
      Bottles.
    2. Re:It looks like crap by manyxcxi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This will never sell. It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm. It looks like a puzzle box and a toy.

      I don't think it looks like crap, but it definitely doesn't look like it belongs in my A/V cabinet. Just make it look like a DVD player or something close and I think it would have a better chance of taking off. But, then again, the only people who will be buying this to begin with already know what Boxee is, which means this thing was never going to sell well anyways.

    3. Re:It looks like crap by qortra · · Score: 5, Insightful

      the only people who will be buying this to begin with already know what Boxee is

      You may turn out to be right if D-Link doesn't market this properly, but your underlying assumption is false. By way of example, most people who buy Nokia phones didn't already know what Symbian is. All people have to know to buy it is that it can stream "CNN, Hulu, CBS, YouTube, MLB.TV, Netflix (coming soon), Comedy Central, and more!"

    4. Re:It looks like crap by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Reminds me of a couple of years back when we hired a designer fresh out of art school. He had plenty of artistic and creative energy, but little to no concern with what consumers actually wanted or needed. I think he lasted about 6 months. I guess he's not compromising his vision in the unemployment line now.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    5. Re:It looks like crap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Or you could buy any of the dozens of sub-200 dollar boxes that are designed to accept a new OS.

    6. Re:It looks like crap by uglyduckling · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is TINY. It's not meant to fit into any 'paradigm', it's meant to live behind the TV amongst the cluster of cables, or else in the gap between the TV panel and the shelf/table it's on, if you prefer to see the unit. Check out TFA, the device is the size of a coke can.

    7. Re:It looks like crap by uglyduckling · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What were you hoping to stack on top of a box that's about 5cm wide?

    8. Re:It looks like crap by sootman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It doesn't fit into the entertainment center paradigm.

      FFS, it doesn't fit into an entertainment center, period. Nor can anything be stacked on top of it. Plus it's needlessly hard to manufacture, find components for, and assemble. This is quite possibly the most horribly designed piece of consumer gear I've ever seen in my life.

      ATTENTION LOSERS WHO WANT TO COPY APPLE: Design doesn't just mean making it look neat. Apple's stuff looks flashy but it actually works. (Most of the time, anyway.) And if your design only looks "neat" to 14-year-old males, you should throw it right the fuck away and never venture down that path again. Seriously, this thing looks like a prop from a bad SciFi (excuse me, SyFy) movie-of-the-week, or maybe a Roomba from Eureka that gains sentience and starts causing problems.

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  2. Re:HD Limitations? by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...anything interesting hardware-wise most certainly has binary proprietary drivers with no interfaces available for hackers or non-corporate programmers.

    OTOH, you can just get yourself an ION nettop and it won't look like some sort of an attempt at modern art.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  3. Still no Blu-Ray? by Tyr_7BE · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's too bad. Otherwise this would have been a serious contender for my next media box.

    It seems there's no "do-it-all" media center on the market. Games, Blu-Ray, XBMC. Pick any two. I'm waiting for someone to get XBMC going on a PS3. When that happens, I will have chosen my corner in this fight.

  4. Blu-Ray: not ready yet by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't buy Blu-Ray until the DRM gets more fully defeated. When Blu-Ray becomes ready, there will be some BD library that developers will be able to use to read the discs, and people will be able to implement players without getting licenses that specify that the product is required to suck (which is why there currently aren't any good players), and then good players (all-in-one boxes, MythTV, etc) will finally appear on the market.

    Until then, if you want high-definition movies, just let pirates deal with the hassles of Blu-Ray's flakiness, and you can download them with bittorrent. You'll end up with movies that just work, including with your own all-in-one box.

    Save your money until Blu-Ray becomes a serious consumer-friendly product. Right now, it's a problem-plagued scam for suckers only.

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  5. Re:Why not Tivo? by uglyduckling · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Everyone here is missing the point. This is TINY. It's the size of a coke can (look further down TFA). You don't stack anything on it - even if it were right-angled it's way too small and the vents would get covered. The idea is that you put it between the shelf/table/base of the TV is on and the bottom edge of the TV panel. Or hide it behind out of the way.

  6. This IS D-Link we're talking about. by Chas · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Marketing? Yeah right. The REAL issue will be SUPPORT. Having had to deal with D-Link support (both consumer and professional), I'd much rather be slowly eviscerated with a knitting needle.

    And if it's something that can't be reduced to a cookie-cutter firmware setting with no options available, D-Link will fuck it up.

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  7. Re:opengl to directx? by HermMunster · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The key here is "for Windows". There's plenty of hardware acceleration under OpenGL.

    The reason behind the lack of OpenGL in windows is that Microsoft dropped it in Vista. When you discontinue a "competing active technology" you can easily guess the reason.

    Under Linux HD video's play just fine, even under cheap onboard video chipsets.

    --
    You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
  8. Popcorn Hour by g8oz · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Popcorn Hour still looks better