Boxee Box Teardown

Teardown

Teardown

Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.

Featured Guide

Featured Guide

This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.

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The Boxee Box is a cubist deviation from the traditionally rectangular set-top box. The oddly-shaped form factor forced D-Link to make the internals equally odd. But that also made it super fun to take apart!

We're also taking action against made-for-obsolescence devices with our Self-Repair Manifesto. Pay with a tweet and get a free poster!

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Add Note Edit Step 1 — Boxee Box Teardown  ¶ 

  • Ladies and gentlemen, iFixit is proud to present the Boxee Box by D-Link.

  • It's hard to ignore how much taller the Boxee Box is than the Apple TV and Logitech Revue. This half-sunken cube will definitely stand out in your entertainment system.

  • Yet, we feel that the Box has build quality that rivals Apple's, and is much more solid-looking than the Revue. The front panel is made of glass sturdy plastic and displays a Boxee logo once you power on the device.

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Add Note Edit Step 2  ¶ 

  • The Boxee Box looks huge when compared to the Apple TV, but it's really not that cumbersome in real life -- the Apple TV is just teeny tiny.

  • The Box' remote is only a tad bigger, but features a Qwerty keyboard that would come oh-so-handy on the Apple TV. Otherwise, spelling out "the lonely island" takes a while on YouTube.

  • It does remind us of a certain other Apple product, though...

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Add Note Edit Step 3  ¶ 

  • We had to peel off Boxee's lime-green rubber base and the adhesive sheet underneath to expose four #1 Phillips and two #2 Phillips screws.

  • The #2 Phillips screws are clearly visible when you peel off the rubber base.

  • The #1 Phillips are recessed, so you'll need a screwdriver with a longer shaft to access them.

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Add Note Edit Step 4  ¶ 

  • The bottom cover of the Boxee Box pulls off fairly easily, exposing all of its boxy goodness.

  • The Boxee Box gives us everything we want, and nothing we don't need:

    • HDMI out

    • Optical and analog (RCA) audio out

    • Ethernet

    • Two USB ports

  • The RCA jacks are a great addition for people who want to hook up the Boxee directly to computer speakers or retro stereo equipment.

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Add Note Edit Step 5  ¶ 

  • A single #1 Phillips screw and a bunch of plastic clips hold the front panel to the side of the Boxee Box.

  • The front panel can be detached by disconnecting the connector for the status panel.

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Add Note Edit Step 6  ¶ 

  • A little bit of prying and the status panel can be removed from the front panel.

  • A soft white plate on the status panel disperses the light from a couple LEDs to illuminate the semi-transparent Boxee logo either orange (standby) or green (running).

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Add Note Edit Step 7  ¶ 

  • The Boxee Box' wireless board is secured to the metal frame by more Phillips screws.

    • It certainly is refreshing to see common screw types in electronics. When you don't need special tools to repair devices, it's easier to fix it yourself.

  • The wireless board is held on by a data connector and a couple antenna cables.

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Add Note Edit Step 8  ¶ 

  • The wireless card assembly is composed of a Mini PCI-E wireless card and an interconnect board where the cable from the motherboard is connected.

  • On the back side of the interconnect board we found a Nordic Semiconductor NRF24LU1P transceiver.

    • This chip is most likely used to decode signals received from the awesome QWERTY wireless remote.

    • We recently found the same chip in the Boxee's direct competitor, the Logitech Revue.

  • The Mini PCI-E wireless card employs a Broadcom BCM4319XKUBG.

  • An remote control antenna is printed into the interconnect board right below the Mini PCI-E socket. This is positioned near the top of the device when it is assembled to aid in remote control reception.

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