NZXT is
primarily known as a chassis manufacturer, though it also makes PSUs and coolers
too. The Doko is its first foray into the world of complete devices, partnering
with streaming folk MirrorOp to marry its software to the off-the-shelf parts
that NZXT has built the device from.
We’ve got to
hand it to the Doko from NZXT. It really tries. And bless it, the little streaming
box almost w orks. W hat we have here is a tiny client you plug into your 1080p
television, then into your home PC’s network, to allow you to use your rig as
though it was directly connected to the remote screen. But there are some
serious limitations to this bargain box of tricks which hold it back from being
the smart little device we were really hoping for.
MirrorOp is a
relatively established software setup, allowing the streaming of Windows and
Apple PCs as well as phones and tablets too. The hardware that NZXT has used is
an ARM 11-based SoC from Taiwanese manufacturer Wonder Media. Its Prizm WM8750
runs at 800MHz, with a 1080p video decoding engine and an H.264 encoder. It’s
also running with 256MB RAM and 8MB boot storage. All that adds up to a tiny
box that’s able to stream your Windows PC at 1,920 x 1,080, but only at 30Hz.
It also has to be wired into the same network as your PC too as it’s lacking
support for wireless connectivity.
To make things
as seamless as possible the Doko sports four USB 2.0 ports on the front, which
operate exactly like plugging directly into your remote PC. It’s ridiculously
easy to set up too – just download the Doko software on your PC, start it up
and the Doko device will spot your machine and get chatting. That means you can
game with keyboard and mouseor with any controller of your choice. You can also
plug in USB media as you would normally to view data, watch videos and so on.
That’s where
it starts to go downhill though. On a side-by-side network in the office, with
both the Doko and test machine plugged directly into the router, it works okay.
There is noticeable input lag when you’re using both mouse and keyboard and the
video doesn’t always stay particularly consistent. This is the big problem with
it running at 30Hz. It would almost be acceptable if it remained at a constant 30fps,
but even on the closest connection we could possibly make it was like an elderly
gent at a urinal, struggling to maintain a consistent stream. When you’re trying
to game – a key selling point in NZXT’s marketing strategy – that becomes a
real pain.
And when you’ve
got Steam’s In-Home Streaming and Nvidia’s SHIELD tablet offering better ways
to access your games away from your desktop PC, it’s tough for the Doko to
really make a name for itself. Sure, it’s a third of the cost of a SHIELD Tablet,
but when the experience is nowhere near as good it becomes impossible to recommend
on that front. We also had serious trouble across an otherwise rock-solid
powerline network too. The lag became monstrous and it introduced severe artefacting
on both the Windows desktop as well as in-game too.
Somewhat
inevitably we arrive at one of those close-but-no-smoking moments. The Doko
certainly does enable you to access your PC across a wired home network, and
the USB functionality is neat, but it’s low price doesn’t make up for that inconsistent
stream.
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