Syabas Popbox surprises everyone, including Syabas, by going on sale today
By Richard Lawler 
posted July 15th 2010 5:34PM
posted July 15th 2010 5:34PM
[Thanks, Jason]
posted July 15th 2010 5:34PM
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I think i'll wait and see what the Google TV has to offer first.
No Netflix, no buy. Although that 100 Mbps 1080p would be pretty cool.
@VetteDude
Same here, my dad would buy this in a second as he has been eyeing the Roku box which I feel is just getting really long in the tooth and doesn't do nearly as much (expect Netflix which is what he mainly wants)... wait nvm this only works on HDTV's so this is a no go anyway... It's just for an old TV by the elliptical so it's kind of hard to justify a new TV too.
@VetteDude
Glad I cancelled my order two days ago. No Netflix is a dealbreaker... perhaps they started shipping once they realized how much business they were potentially going to lose?
Mine is on the way.....finally.
I got a notice from Amazon today to expect delivery tomorrow.
Again, these new bits are a bit worthless with out knowing how they all stack up. I have zero issues with my WDTV Live and don't know what a "better" version of the same toy would do differently.
Cody
Having had a popcorn hour for a while now, I can say don't judge the box by its specs. Their UIs have always been total crap making the box worthless.
The claims are the limitation of the chipset.
Anyway, I'd hold out for Boxee (assuming they put in the Delete File function).
@deadken
Yeah codec, subtitle and UI are all important to me (and it's frustrating not being able to find any good videos showcasing the UI, or comparisons of the various boxes out there.) Still using XBMC as the high water mark for comparing anything new.
@deadken
The out-of-box UI for the popcorn hour (A-110/A-100) is crap, but the free jukeboxes like Yet Another Movie Jukebox (YAMJ) and skins make it beautiful as seen at http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=25534 .
I bet it can't either play Blu-Ray rips from Harddrive with Menu's.
I believe it can.
@oddtodd
If it plays the menu of a blu-ray with full java. I'll buy one.
Woot!
We own two of the original Popcornhour A100 units, great devices.
Plays almost everything including mkv, xvid, dvd iso and -filled directories.
Highly recommended if these are anything like the originals.
@grub
How does it do with Bluray?? I have a WDTV Live, and the sound loses sync on some of my movies?
Can they deal with BD ISO, or would I still need to strip the movie out?
@QChronoD Sorry, I don't know how it handles BD-ISO but if you get the raw data (30ish GB for some movies) it requires a quick run through some software to make it compatible. Not a reencode, only takes moments apparently.
The Popcornhour and syabas forums are very active with some nifty work being done. I have a wee program that indexes my movies and tv (about 8.5 TB on a FreeNAS box), generates a webpage with imdb links and whatnot that play direct from the pch.
We've had ours for a while, first model A100, and many people who have seen ours have also bought. The newer units are pretty nice and non-geek friendly.
Anyone know if this will connect to Windows Home Server to show videos?
Does this still have the annoying ads built into the menu like when it was originally shown?
wait for the boxee box
Okay, I know allot of people are crapping all over this thing over the lack of Netflix, but I'm remaining fairly optimistic. I already have a dozen Netflix compatible devices in my house at the moment (including my tv), and one more won't make that much of a difference for me. Currently, I use a Popcorn Hour A-200 for all of my downloaded content, but the interface is total crap. Even with YAMJ running on the system, there's still way too much micromanaging. If this thing makes watching my shows and movies easier, then I'll take it! Plus, if it sucks I can always return it.
Prices need to drop on these things.
$59 or $65 maybe would move them.
@savagemike I think the price is fine. The barrier is the fact that none of them work for all stuff you want to run through them: Netflix, all file formates, Hulu, Amazon streaming, etc.
@savagemike
Let me guess, you're the guy whose bathroom is full of towels, soap, and shampoo that say Motel 6 on them.
So what is the best non-vapor media player box these days?
@arcasinky
Check out the patriot box office. very hackable with active community. rebate makes it $65 right now. external USB drive connetivity, ethernet, wifi, internal drive optional.
doesn't do netflix or hulu, but it does have a bittorrent client with web-based remote admin.
supports EVERY format including realvideo and iso's without mounting them.
finally, it also plays files stored on nas or other networked computer.
They lost my pre-order after the 4th delay. Now I'll just sit back and wait to see if it's worth buying in a month or so, or go with something else (boxee, googletv, whatever).
BTW, I already have a popcorn hour (got it in the 2nd batch a Looong time ago and one of the viewsonic players, for the kiddos).
@jonyah Honestly, I think that GoogleTV is a pipe dream. As of now, a majority of video content that you can legally stream over the internet is so locked down, I don't see how Google can bypass it. Yes, they can easily pull the stream directly from the source similar to what boxee does, but lets face it, if your a genuine HD enthusiast, your not going to want to watch a 360p stream on a 46"+ 1080p TV. I honestly think that were going to start seeing more companies like Hulu and Netflix which will give you "high quality" content, but at a premium price. I personally believe the only way Google is going to be able to break into this market is if they start up their own service that can compete with the previous two listed; which they may very well do so. At least with the popbox (and I assume the boxee box) you can stream all of the content within your personal library that you may have "acquired".
I do not need Netflix as I am in Germany. That is a great device.
Is the media library functionality even close to XBMC?
these guys should really consider springing for a more robust description on amazon there. The three or four bullet points isn't going to help them move units.
This could be great, but nothing will ever come between me and my Dune Base 3.0...other than an even better model perhaps. In addition to playing virtually every format and codec out there, it supports full DVD and Blu-ray menus on ISO rips, does 7.1 LPCM, and---with the latest update---has automatic frame rate switching that actually works, which the WDTV Live and Plus STILL haven't fixed (why is this so difficult to do, Western Digital guys?). Its only "flaw" is that it's as long and deep as a Blu-ray player, but that's no issue if you have the space. With all the delays and hoopla over the Popbox, you'd think it comes with built-in veggie slicer or something. : )
@engage
Its also almost 3X the retail price of the popbox. It is more comparable to the popcornhour c-200 than the popbox.
@scyber
Yes, this is true and could also be considered a drawback, but for almost the same price as a 360 or PS3, you get a media streamer that also "only does everything." Two more pluses: 1) the developers actually listen to and address complaints that users post in forums like MPC Club, and 2) it handles HFS+ USB drives without batting an eye. This is NOT a given for many of the streamers out there and is crucial if you can't stream files over 4 GB (which means forget about ISOs or larger MKVs).
The original WDTV and newer versions have always supported HFS+, but they continue to do so with weird read error messages at times. For my money, the Dune is solid and continues to improve. I've never been interested in whether it can do Netflix or other apps; I just want to watch what's on my drives with no problems.
The first person to have gotten one has hooked it up and is met with a sign saying "firmware recovery". As there is no support site up for this from Syabas yet and no firmware available it would appear that these early shipping units are simply bricks for the time being.
Before anyone buys one of these, or if yours has already shipped, I recommend you keep a close eye on this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1263001&page=4
So far 3 people have received the Popbox. 1 was DoA. The second one looked like it was going to work but locked up. The third one the user accidentally changed to an unsupported video mode and as far as he can tell there is no way back. The support responses have been useless.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the last two troubling posts have proven the points in my post. Sometimes, it's true that you get what you pay for.
You people relize that friggin everything else streams netflix these days. It is still coming to the popbox, just not at first. And have you seen the movies netflix offers on streaming? For the most part, they suck.
@Kid Wonderbread
No, it will never have netflix support. The processor in the popbox does not have macrovision copy protection, which is a requirement for netflix streaming. That's why WD had to change CPUs for the WD Live Plus to add the feature. NMT knows this, but they've been lying about netflix support from the beginning to sell units before people caught on.
Absolute nightmare of a product. Seriously. Review here if you like: http://blog.djvitamind.com/