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Boxee Box Teardown

Teardown

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

Featured Guide

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

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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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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.