Hardware Specifications

The brain of the unit is a Sigma Designs SMP8635 processor that runs at 300 MHz. After researching similar devices it appears that this is a very common processor for On Top Box (OTB) media players.

The Icy Box Media Player connects to your network via a 10/100 Ethernet connection or you can purchase a USB WiFi dongle that plugs into any of the available USB ports on the system. To get the maximum functionality out of the Media Player we requested one of the WiFi dongles to be shipped with our sample. In the testing portion of the article we will discuss this further.

The system has room for a single 3.5" form factor SATA hard drive and just about every manufactures drives are supported. The specifications list up to a 1.5TB drive is supported.

The front of the unit is where the only USB ports on the Media Player are located.

The back of the Media Player has more A/V inputs than you can shake a cable at. The only two things that are missing that I can think of are USB and a coax cable input. The Icy Box Media Player does not have a TV Tuner of any kind which was very disappointing. Users will have to think of the device as being more like a DVD player instead of a set top box that is able to record your TV shows.

Software Specifications

Icy Box claims that 99% of the available media formats are supported and I was not able to find a single media file on my NAS server that the Media Player couldn't play. The Apple TV and Microsoft Media Extenders have been neutered in this area thanks to compliance they needed to follow with the cable companies.

Pricing and Availability

After a brief search I was able to find the Icy Box Network Media Player for 264.00 USD from Gizmodaddy.com. Further searching showed that the Network Media Server is available all over Europe but only a small number of US e-tailers carried the unit or hand them in stock. The good thing is that it only takes one for your to get yours.