Active Stocks
Thu Mar 28 2024 15:09:27
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 155.50 1.73%
  1. ICICI Bank share price
  2. 1,091.10 0.65%
  1. HDFC Bank share price
  2. 1,446.75 0.42%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 427.40 -0.14%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 276.00 1.83%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Make any TV super-smart
BackBack

Make any TV super-smart

Make any TV super-smart

Standout: The Boxee Box and remotePremium

Standout: The Boxee Box and remote

Boxee Box media streamer

Standout: The Boxee Box and remote

As a media player, it upscales your standard video content to HD with very high quality, if you are willing to tweak it a little for your TV. File playback is seamless, and it handles all major file formats.

The best thing about Boxee is that you can install the Boxee Media Manager app on your PC, and use that to wirelessly stream video content to the Boxee Box connected to your TV.

The only drawback was that Blu-ray videos had a little stutter, but everything else played smoothly. The Boxee remote is also excellent. One side has media remote functions—menu, pause/play, direction. The other side has a full keypad, useful for accessing Web apps for Boxee, including YouTube and Grooveshark, and a full Web browser.

Exciting apps such as Netflix are not available in India, which is quite sad. It is definitely on the expensive side, but that is the only real fault we could find with this device.

Specifications

HD media streamer

Resolution: 1080p upscale resolution

Connectivity: 2 USB ports

Storage: Memory card slot

Website: www.dlink.co.in

Price: Rs 12,999

Ratings*

Features: 8

Performance:7.5

Build quality: 7.5

Value for money: 5.5

Total: 7

*Ratings out of 10

ZOTAC ZBox Nano Plus AD 10

The ZOTAC ZBox Nano Plus

Also included is a Media Center edition remote control and an infrared receiver.

What really caught our attention was the base of the unit. It’s actually a standard Vesa mount. So if you have a monitor that meets the Vesa standard, then you can attach the base on to the back of your monitor, and the ZBox Nano will easily latch on to it. You can convert your monitor into an all-in-one with this. They may as well market it as such. It features two USB 3.0 ports and an eSATA port too. So HD movies can easily be played via an external without any slowdown.

It’s quite easy to access the memory and HDD—unscrew the four thumbscrews on the bottom and the Vesa mount plate comes off. You can easily upgrade your drive and memory capacity. One might assume that the unit could heat up considerably, given the small form factor—however, the unit is surprisingly cool.

The AMD model with 2 GB RAM and 320 GB HDD makes for a great home theatre personal computer (HTPC) option, allowing you to use your old flat panel TV as a connected device, with full Internet access and media capabilities—you can connect your external hard disk or USB drives, and easily access any content on them.

Specifications

HTPC

CPU: AMD E-350 1.6GHz

GPU: AMD Radeon HD6310

RAM: 2 GB DDR3 1066MHz

HDD: 320 GB

Website:www.zotac.com

Price: Rs 18,999

RATINGS*

Features: 7.5

Performance: 7

Build quality: 7

Value for money: 8

Total: 7.5

This content is brought to you bythinkdigit.com

Write to us at businessoflife@livemint.com

Keep up with latest news/ views on the livemint Facebook page

Follow livemint on Twitter for latest news / views / full coverage

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 08 Nov 2011, 09:05 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App