PopBox STB To Ship Soon But Without Netflix, Pandora 56
DeviceGuru writes "Syabas says it is nearly ready to ship the PopBox, which it announced in January (though they said at the time it would ship in March). The $129 Internet-based A/V streaming set-top box will offer a variety of user-selectable media-streaming apps, but is unlikely at launch to include Netflix instant downloads (promised at announcement), Pandora music, or Amazon pay-per-view video support. According to Syabas, the PopBox only works with HDTVs and not standard definition TVs, and has component outputs in addition to HDMI; plus, the company says the device supports RealD 3D. More details are on the PopBox website."
Yawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
this is OSS Linux. instead of being entertained you can spend all night hacking it and playing with the file system
Re: (Score:2)
If you want to spend all night hacking it, a better plan would be to build one yourself from scratch.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No Netflix? DOA. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Doesn't require Windows "server" software? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Not so... WDTV Live (SMB, UPNP-AV, YouTube) has been around for a while and supports custom firmware. I have one, I can even play DVDs over USB DVD drive or SMB share (providing you have some sort of DeCSS tool running on the server/machine you're streaming from). To me, it looks like a bit of a waste if you just want to stream off your network. Other applications it may work well for, but I'll stick to my WDTV Live in the bedroom and my Beyonwiz DP-P1 in the lounge.
Re: (Score:2)
Let's not forget it's competition is also newer TVs and Blu-Ray set-top boxes with app support built-in.
There's also to consider Google TV and what that'll produce.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
a lot of new TV's will play media off a hard drive connected via a USB port. no need for separate media servers
Re: (Score:2)
This appears to be the first inexpensive STB that supports discovery and streaming of media directly from a SAMBA or other protocol server. Most of the set top boxes to date have been dependent on software running on a host OS on a computer elsewhere in your network (I have one of the Kodak ones).
is dlna that hard?
Re: (Score:2)
No it isn't.
MythTV has a DLNA (aka UPnP AV) server built in, and MediaTomb works great for other stuff.
If this doesn't do Netflix, Pandora, or Amazon on demand, what does it do? It seems like it offers very little for $130 compared to slightly cheaper devices (like the WD TV)
This looks like a Slashvertisement for a pretty dull product to me. I've seen some comments that this might be based on Open Source with hackable firmware, but there's nothing about that in the article summary.
Re: (Score:2)
That's sort of my point, Personally I use PlayOn to host netflix and local media to my DLNA machines though. Why is this better then a WD TV? The only difference I can see is it costs $50 more and only works on one TV in the house.
RealD 3D.... (Score:2, Informative)
If it comes with same firmware issues as before... (Score:5, Informative)
If this unit has the same firmware development team (and likely, it does) who handle firmware for Popcornhour & etc, good luck getting this unit to a usable state until at least a year after initial release.
popcornhour c-200 is a perfect example of good hardware ruined by crappy firmware support.
there are still bugs over a year after release that aren't getting fixed. ridiculous.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I'm an original owner of the A100 and also C200 players from this company (pch, syabas).
what the parent says is true.
I would not have any confidence in this box's ability to do what its advertised (well) and to go beyhond it with meaningful updates.
they will claim some api or toolkit or library is holding them back. for years at a time, they'll say this.
so very lame.
sorry, but do not buy this box or their designs. they are not well thought out (spdif and NICs are also not well designed from a hardware POV
BoxeeBox (Score:2)
Hurry up and release please, or I might end up buying this.
Re:NUU Player (Score:1, Insightful)
Look at the NUU player [nuumedia.com] as well.
Who is the market? (Score:4, Insightful)
DOA?:Who is the market? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The market is for people that download 4-8GB Bluray rips off of the PirateBay and want to play them on their big screen HDTVs. Most laptops older than 3-4 years that were not top of the line will not have the horsepower to do a 1080p mkv, let alone have an HDMI and optical audio output.
This might not do everything, but If your main goal is to play Hires movies that you already have on your network, this is not a bad option.
I own a WD TV Live (Score:5, Informative)
And am really unhappy with it.
They advertise that it works with network shares. The pains I had to go through to get it to work with windows 7 was crazy. It just wouldn't recognize the shared drive. I'd be able to see it from my wifes PC just fine, but the WD Live wouldn't see it. Had to go through 3 or 4 howto's online to figure out how to make it work. Finally got the right combination of settings and it worked, but if you disconnect the network cable from it (I only have one cable ran to my living room and it has to share with my 360) it takes about 15 minutes before it'll start talking to shared drives again. It'll get online and let me watch youtube, so I know it has access, but it won't talk to the drive on my laptop.
This is going to sound kinda dumb, but I also really hate how small it is. It doesn't look like it fits in my TV cabinet with everything else.
In order to use Hulu and netflix, I have to use a program that runs on my laptop called Playon. It essentially transcodes the video and acts as a media server. So I use the WD Live, go to media servers, then Playon, then select hulu, and I can search TV shows. It also works for netflix, amazon video, ESPN, Comedy Central, and a few others. The interface is really bad, it looks just like folders in explorer in windows. Actually searching for something is impossible, you just have to look through alphabetically. And no way to make playlists or anything. I'd like to make a playlist that has my favorite shows on hulu so I can check it quickly, but instead I have to check each show for new episodes individually.
Re: (Score:2)
I can't comment on the WDTV, since I don't own one, but why are you switching the network cable? Get yourself a cheap switch at Newegg and be done with that hassle.
popcorn hour (Score:3, Informative)
I own the popcorn hour box (the same company - network media tank - as far I understand) and well, it leaves a lot to be desired. Internet is full of complaints from users trying to play their blue ray disks; youtube does not work even though there is some note about it on their main page (now the support has been promised in the "next firmware version"), podcast clients (provided as standalone "application" for each podcast) are absolutely useless - no history, no forwarding, sometimes skipping a part of the podcast. Internet browser is worse than IE 3.0. Networking quite slow (4-5MB/sec in my case), even on a 1G network.
So if you are looking for something to play your DVDs, .avi and .mkv, with optional subtitles, go for it. just do not expect it to do anything else. If you need more, it might be better/cheaper to buy a mini fanless computer with an external HDD.
I want my XBMC (Score:2)
If someone will just produce a small form-factor XBMC-dedicated box then I will be very happy indeed.
At the moment I use a hacked Apple TV, which is perfect, except that it's too slow to play HD content.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Get a Broadcom Crystal HD, pop it in to replace your Airport card. With that card in my Apple TV running XBMC I can play any 720p content, and even some 1080p content.
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly, that would mean buying a router with more ethernet ports spare, and then running a cable across the middle of my living room.
Meet the competition (Score:3, Interesting)
Oh, so in other words, it's dead on arrival.
When you figure that Blu-Ray players can be had for $12 more than this piece of crap and the Blu-Ray player can do not only Netflix, Amazon, Pandora, Youtube, and so on, it can also play Blu-Ray, DVD, and CD media.
Fail.
Extra Cost for WiFi (Score:2)
From the web site:
Optional 801.11 N/B/G Wi-Fi
From Amazon.com:
PopBox Wireless Media Player Price: $149.99
Re: (Score:2)
801.11? Hmph. My Wifis go to 802.11.
nice (Score:1)