Icy Box IB-MP309HW-B HD Media Player

But Wait, There's More!

While the software behind the Icy Box might have some annoying issues when it comes to playback, it also holds some seriously impressive hidden features. Within the unit’s setup and maintenance config menu is an option to install Networked Media Tank (NMT) software onto the Icy Box, unlocking a huge array of powerful additional features. Install files are helpfully automatically downloaded by the unit (although the process does require a drive format), and then allows the Icy Box to serve as an AV Server, an FTP server, a Samba-based NAS, an NFS NAS and even a a fully featured BitTorrent or Usenet client – there’s even a button on the remote control to pause all active BitTorrent downloads!

These extra features are a serious bonus for the Icy Box, and allow it to function not just as a video player, but as the centre of your media collection. Feed it a .torrent file and using the BitTorrent client it’ll automatically download the file to the shared folder, where you can arrange files via the network, or playback from the Icy Box onto your HDTV. Transfer speeds, while obviously not the fastest thanks to the limited setup of a 10/100 Ethernet port and a slower hard disk drive, weren’t too terrible and transferring some 30GB or data took just over 90 minutes, at 44.4Mbps.


Despite its somewhat sluggish interface and a few annoyances, it’s still hard to look beyond just how enormously capable this little bit of kit is. For £200 you’re getting the HD playback abilities of a dedicated HTPC that would cost significantly more, and with the addition of a hard disk drive and the subsequently unlocked NMT functionality there’s also a ton of attractive extras for those who like to fiddle with such things. The NAS functionality is particularly good and while not as powerful as a dedicated NAS box is still a genuine feather in the MP309’s cap.

The big competition when it comes to multi-format HD playback is still the Western Digital WDTV, a similar magic black box of HD trickery available for just £95, but which crucially lacks both an Ethernet port and hard disk drive mounting. Considering its superior technical specifications, and much enhanced network storage features, we think the Icy Box more than earns its higher price in comparison, even if the interface is inferior and sluggish.

Considering all that’s on offer here the Icy Box IB-MP309HW-B HD Media Player manages to overcome its interface’s shortcomings through sheer technical merit. It offers an incredibly flexible and capable HD media platform, able to play almost any codec out there with ease, while also bringing the advantages of network storage and the ability to stream even the meatiest HD content. While it’s not as accomplished as it possibly could have been, if you’re looking to get your video collection off of your PC and onto your flatscreen then make no mistake, this device is a still an extremely worthy choice.

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