After a few months of delays used to tighten up their software and experience, the Sysbas folks have christened July 23rd as Popbox Launch Day.
Syabas is no stranger to this space, having produced the powerful Popcorn Hour boxes (and as the guy behind the guy prior)… And the Popbox miniaturizes most of those local media playback capabilities into a smaller form, with a modern UI, and the requisite app platform. Unfortunately, it still looks like Netflix won’t be a launch partner. Along with the also MIA Crunchyroll and Facebook. But there’s plenty others to get us started. With or without Netflix, I’m still quite interested in getting ahold of a unit given my positive, lasting CES Popbox exposure.
Amazon is currently the sole Popbox retailer, and they’ve got the hardware ready to roll in the warehouse. The wired-only unit, perhaps comparable to the WDTV Live, runs $130 while the 802.11n wireless revision will cost you $150.
(via EngadgetHD, thanks Chad!)
Any idea if the Wifi-n is dual band?
(Their tech specs omit mention of the issue, and 5ghz is crucial when it comes to video.)
No Netflix at launch is definitely disappointing. It was nice to see Syabas address the hardware and security (DRM) concerns, since most people were speculating that was the cause of delays and issues with the Netflix negotiations. However, if it’s not the hardware holding back the signing of a Neflix deal, I’m not sure what is, which is a bit troubling. Hopefully they’ll be able to work it out and add it at a later date.
Even without Netflix I’m still interested in Popbox for what looks to be a great UI overall and for local playback. It would be nice to see some updated demos of the UI in action though, as it’s going to need to be a spectacular experience to make up for the lack of Netflix.
Oh, and thanks for the acknowledgment, Dave! Glad to see you weren’t *too* bummed and decided to blog about it. :)
Chucky, I emailed their PR firm for clarification. Doubt we’ll hear anything over this long weekend though.
Chad, Yeah I’m feeling more positive today. The box looked quite nice at CES. Hopefully they can work out/through the business end of supporting Netflix.
Too little (no Netflix and lame initial channels), too late (multiple delays) for me. I canceled my pre-order after the announcement of the “new” ship date and verification of what would be offered. I will assess again after the box is released and others have had a chance to review it.
Dave, I’ve not followed this product. I just don’t see that much of a compelling difference between this product and Roku, with the exception of local streaming. Admittedly, I just did a cursory glance at their web site, but I don’t see it.
The powerful local playback capabilities ARE the primary differentiator. Which makes the Popbox is its current form more of a competitor to the WD TV Live series. However, all these boxes are pretty much in the same space with some overlapping functionality… that will no doubt expand. Another point for the competition: Roku maxes out at 720P. It won’t even fake 1080i for my older tube HDTV. But as far as channeling cheap and easy web content, Roku is hard to beat and I’ve been a big fan.
“The powerful local playback capabilities ARE the primary differentiator. Which makes the Popbox is its current form more of a competitor to the WD TV Live series.”
Which means interface design will be important.
Apple’s got a real chance to own the ‘second box under the TV’ space, just as long as they are not psychotic in how high they erect the walls around the garden.
If they come in soon, and if they’re willing to let 3rd party streamers on the device, Popbox, WD Live, and Roku are all going to be to this era what Archos and Neo were to the year 2000…
And BTW, I hope you get return mail on the 5ghz wireless issue.
It’s a crime against humanity that anyone making a video box would not put that in their published specs. You really can’t achieve adequate lean-back video wireless playback with 2.4ghz, even using the tricks of ‘n’.
(And there are 2.4ghz only ‘n’ devices out there, such as the iPhone, so the chipsets exist…)
The PR woman emailed me today saying she’s looking into the wireless frequency(s) for us.
“Another point for the competition: Roku maxes out at 720P. It won’t even fake 1080i for my older tube HDTV.”
If you get a moment, help educate me, por favor: what does the above mean?
– That there was actually a brief era where CRT 1080i TV’s were made?
– That giving such a set a 720p feed doesn’t give you a fullscreen picture? No upscaling is performed?
– But the Roku is fine with modern 1080 TV’s?
That’s my best guess, but I am confused.
Yeah, there are a number of televisions (tube and rear projection) that do 1080i but not 720p.
I have a 30″ Panasonic HDTV (tube) in the bedroom which we purchased maybe 9/07 or 9/06. So when the Roku outputs 720p, we get nothing but scan lines on the television. To use Roku in the bedroom, we have to output 480p and SD content.
Modern TVs will handle inputs from all sorts of signals/resolutions so it’s not a prob. But Roku is the only device I have that can’t feed our bedroom TV properly. (The TiVo is set to output 1080i, regardless of source, and it works fine. Xbox 360 was the same.)
The related thread on Roku’s forums is one of their most active with over 85,000 views, but there’s been no comment from the company:
http://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=18837
“I have a 30″ Panasonic HDTV (tube) in the bedroom which we purchased maybe 9/07 or 9/06.”
Huh. I avoid bleeding edge tech like the plague, in an effort to get the very most out of my tech budget. So I came late to the HD party. (I’ll should get around to 3D sometime near 2015…)
I really had no idea whatsoever that CRT’s were an option in the early days of HDTV.
I do learn new things every day.