Boxee Box Teardown
Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
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!
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Step 1
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Boxee Box Teardown
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Ladies and gentlemen, iFixit is proud to present the Boxee Box by D-Link.
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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.
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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
glasssturdy plastic and displays a Boxee logo once you power on the device.
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Step 2
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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.
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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.
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It does remind us of a certain other Apple product, though...
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Step 3
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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.
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The #2 Phillips screws are clearly visible when you peel off the rubber base.
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The #1 Phillips are recessed, so you'll need a screwdriver with a longer shaft to access them.
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Step 4
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The bottom cover of the Boxee Box pulls off fairly easily, exposing all of its boxy goodness.
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The Boxee Box gives us everything we want, and nothing we don't need:
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HDMI out
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Optical and analog (RCA) audio out
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Ethernet
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Two USB ports
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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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Step 7
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The Boxee Box' wireless board is secured to the metal frame by more Phillips screws.
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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.
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The wireless board is held on by a data connector and a couple antenna cables.
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Step 8
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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.
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On the back side of the interconnect board we found a Nordic Semiconductor NRF24LU1P transceiver.
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This chip is most likely used to decode signals received from the awesome QWERTY wireless remote.
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We recently found the same chip in the Boxee's direct competitor, the Logitech Revue.
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The Mini PCI-E wireless card employs a Broadcom BCM4319XKUBG.
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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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