Remember that buzz saw of a fan that the second gen Simple.TV shipped with? Well Simple, and their hardware partner Silicon Dust, have resorted to a variety of software updates and a drill to rectify the issue. And, as you can see above, they’ve begun shipping devices with a newly perforated chassis. But the good news doesn’t end there…
Built into Simple.TV’s Android and iOS apps for phones and tablets, support for Chromecast enables users to easily ‘cast’ their favorite live or recorded over-the-air TV shows onto any HDTV powered by Google’s device. With Simple.TV’s ability to stream live and recorded TV anywhere, users can watch their favorite shows on the big screen at home and anywhere a Chromecast is connected.
As if that wasn’t enough, Simple also has flipped the switch on video downloads for offline viewing. While this is (currently) accomplished via PC/Mac desktop, we imagine the MP4s can simply be relocated to the mobile device of one’s choosing – until such a time that the apps themselves are updated with this functionality. Speaking of updates, Chromecast and content downloads are only available to Gen 2 hardware at this time, but Simple indicates future support for early adopters running first generation hardware.
Given the enhancements, and new press representation that we hope keeps it real, we’ll probably give Simple.TV another look (in relation to Tablo, which we’ve been quite impressed with). Stay tuned.
“Remember that buzz saw of a fan that the second gen Simple.TV shipped with? Well Simple, and their hardware partner Silicon Dust, have resorted to a variety of software updates and a drill to rectify the issue. And, as you can see above, they’ve begun shipping devices with a newly perforated chassis.”
This is absolutely going to kill the device’s aerodynamics. I’d be surprised if it can even make it up to 55mph on the highway.
Looks like progress to me. That’s good.
Chucky, you may have a point. Though overheating is probably less desirable than sluggish 0-to-60 time on the thruway.
Is this the version that’s on woot today (June 2, 2014)?
Does the Woot offer include lifetime service like in the past? I didn’t see mention of it.
Jeff, Based on the picture it is… But I’ve had problems buying from Woot in the past and would be reluctant to make a purchase should I have to trade up or return if they got it wrong.
Joel, I see no mention of service either. Given that this is a relatively new product, offered by Silicon Dust, not Simple in this particular promo, and given the pricing I doubt any service is included. If so, it’ll end up biting them in the ass because folks will purchase without realizing additional fees are required.
same fan and heatsink? I thought they replaced both in this unit.
Len, I emailed their PR rep for clarification. What little I’d gleaned was via random Facebook comments and forum chatter – it’s possible I missed something.
Just heard back from Simple’s PR firm – changes consist of new venting, as pictured, and smarter power management.
I got the new unit, but that buzz saw fan noise is still there. It’s more prominent actually as the unit has all them holes to let the darn noise out.
Also, I find performance of this gen2 box worse than gen1 (I have 2x gen1’s). The 1-4 minute padding for scheduled recordings has zero effect. While the new download to PC feature is nice, it takes forever for STV to generate the MP4 file; sometimes the spinning logo stays that way and you have to fresh and try again. The resulting recording has blockiness/pixellated artifacts when played back on XBMC and media players like WD TV or Mede8er. The user-made app in STV’s forum for downloading recordings is much better, plus if you save the recordings as .ts, they play fine in media boxes.
I got mine from woot and they’re refusing a return saying problems I’ve noted aren’t defects.