3 Media Centers and only 1 winner. Which one will it be? Will it be the odd designed little cube named D-Link Boxee? Or will it be Apples sleek little black device, Apple TV? Or will Western Digitals WD TV Live win the ultimate showdown of the Media Centers?
The Showdown will be divided into 6 categories. Interface, Apps/Features, File Formats Supported, Network capabilities, Price and the Remote.
Interface
Apple TV (2nd Gen)
The interface on Apple TV looks ok. Nothing fancy but not ugly either. However, it's an Apple product and I really expect more. Apple usually know how to design gorgeous looking devices and GUI's. Sadly Apple haven't concentrate of making the Apple TV look good.
The menus looks a bit grainy, it's as if it's not high resolution. It looks a bit cheap. I just hope future updates can bring some changes. An idea is to implant skins to the Apple TV interface so you can choose yourself.
Score 6 out of 10
WD TV Live
The WD TV Live interface is really really dull. It has it's blue background with some bubbles I use to make in Microsoft Paint when I was a kid. Through out all menus the blue theme comes back and haunts you with it's dullness. WD TV Live has stopped (I think?) making updates so no changes concerning the interface will come. This might be beacause Western Digital has 2 new media centers and all of their effort will be focused on them. I've seen some pictures and the interface looks much better on those units.
Score 4 out of 10
D-Link Boxee
Now here's a winner. With a kick-ass interface the Boxee rules compared to Apple TV and WD TV Live. It has nice colors and sleek icons that's a joy to glance at. Everything looks great. No grain, no nothing to complain about. The menus vary a lot depending on which section you choose. Great job you guys!! However, the Boxee also needs a option to change the skin. After using it for a quite a while you might get a bit bored of looking at the same interface over and over again. Can it be so hard to implant skins to an open source device?
Score 8 out of 10
Conclusion
Boxee wins this round with no doubt. I'm surprised that Apple TV hasn't put more effort of making a better looking interface then it has now. To WD TV Live defense the device is bit old now. When it was released the interface weren't looking so good on any media centers. However, Western Digital basically threw out a new update every month earlier this year and last year. Not a single one of these upgrades changed the interface. Guess Western had other priorities. So if a nice looking GUI is your creed of life when it comes to media centers, then you should definitively choose the D-Link Boxee.
The other parts can be found here:
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