Move Over BoxeeBox, Here Comes PopBox 117
DeviceGuru writes "Following closely on the heels of the December announcement of D-Link's BoxeeBox, Syabas Technology today said it will ship the PopBox, a $129 Internet-based A/V streaming set-top box (STB) in March. Both new gadgets have the potential to give Roku's popular STB a run for its money. All three boxes can deliver a range of Internet-based A/V streaming and social networking services to consumers' TVs. Like Roku's digital video player STB, the PopBox will include Netflix on-demand video streaming when it first ships. D-Link, meanwhile, is rumored to be scrambling to add Netflix streaming support to its BoxeeBox device as well, prior to inaugural shipments of that device. All three run embedded Linux OSes, and all are expected to sell for less than $200."
PS3 (Score:5, Informative)
My PS3 can stream Netflix and stream video from my PC, at 1080p with 7.1 audio. And it can play BluRay and upscale regular DVDs. Oh and there are some games. Doesn't cost much more than these others and has a very nice user experience.
Why not just get one of them? Hopefully not because it doesn't run Linux.
Re:PS3 (Score:2, Informative)
Funny you should say that- it actually can run linux- and is a pretty straightforward process supported by Sony.
This was true for the first several generations of PS3s. But the "Install Other OS" feature has been removed in the PS3 Slim and is not expected to return.
Re:What's the point? (Score:3, Informative)
Not true. with comcast hating it's customers and switching to all digital in may places setting up a mythtv box is a major PITA. the HD5000 digital capture cards are barely usable. the only real choice is a HD homerun box and trying to snag the channel lineup stream so you can easily match QAM numbers with actual numbers. and then you need to rescan every few weeks because the assholes at Comcast move channels around just for giggles.
Right now trying to get MythTV working well with cable TV is a major undertaking and it will only get worse. Plus you can only get it working if you are lucky to live in an area where they gave out the crapptastic boxes that cant handle encryption.
A year ago? I'd agree. Unless you were using some bizzare tuner card or crap hardware MythTV from a mythbuntu install worked out of the box.
Re:could be cool (Score:3, Informative)
Re:could be cool (Score:2, Informative)
I've got the latest firmware on both units but am still unable to play iso files or VIDEO_TS folders. The video is garbled and the audio stutters on *all* files that I try.
To me, this just goes to show that these units are not ready for production since I'm definitely not the only one out there that has described these issues. I wish they worked as advertised, but they don't.
Re:Can't watch home UPnP/DLNA? Garbage. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:NetFlix in Linux? (Score:3, Informative)
The crazy thing her is that, as far as I know, Roku runs Linux, PopBox runs Linux, Tivo runs Linux. All of these appliances running Linux have Netflix streaming support. Yet we keep hearing the same line about regular old desktop Linux users not being supported because of Silverlight. These embedded Linuxes can all do it seemingly without the need for Silverlight. In the initial buzz here on Slashdot when Roku hit the scene and was revealed to run Linux, many hackers investigated the box for the same purpose you speak of. Turns out, that the part that does the Netflix magic is a binary blob. Maybe Microsoft secretely ported Silverlight (with the necessary DRM) to Linux and won't tell anyone. Maybe Netflix simply created a whole new application. My bet is on the whole new application. Other things I hear out there are that if you stream Netflix to one of the applicances (including PS3 and Xbox360) you get to stream in HD, where on the computer, you are stuck with the lesser quality. It seems like Netflix's real goal hear is service licensing revenue. I am sure Tivo, PopBox and Roku all pay for the priveledge to stream Netflix right to your TV, which is handed to the consumer, who then in turn pays even more money for monthly subscription. Sounds like Netflix has positioned themselves quite well, but is it good for the consumer?