PopBox STB to ship soon, but sans Netflix, Pandora
Last updated Jul 11, 2010 — 2932 views
Syabas says it is nearly ready to ship the PopBox, which it announced in January. The $129 Internet-based A/V streaming set-top box (STB) will offer a variety of user-selectable media-streaming apps, but probably won’t include Netflix, Pandora, or Amazon PPV support at launch.
What’s a PopBox?
According to DeviceGuru’s interview with Syabas in connection with our PopBox coverage earlier this year, the PopBox is based on essentially the same hardware design as its Popcorn Hour predecessor, except without the option of a user-added internal hard drive or of the ability to provide media streaming server functions (dubbed “networked media tank” capabilities) on the home LAN.
PopBox front view, rear view, and remote control
(click remote control image to enlarge)
The PobBox reportedly runs a customized version of Linux 2.6 as its internal operating system, on a RISC-based Sigma Designs SMP8643 system-on-chip (SoC) processor. For more specs and features, including details on the device’s hardware and its supported multimedia formats, read our earlier PopBox coverage.
Coming July 23?
Although Syabas for a while had planned to start shipping the PopBox by the U.S. July 4th holiday weekend, it later wrote on its blog that “although the firmware is good to go the software as of today just wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be, so we made the call to delay getting the boxes shipped out from Amazon’s warehouses until July 23rd.”
“Compared to what we’ve seen out there thus far, the UI we’ve put together is truly a cut above, and we’re also pleased with the fact that the box plays just about everything we can throw at it — movies in the most popular formats, home videos, etc.,” the company’s blog post continued.
PopBox apps selection screen
(click image to enlarge)
As pictured above, PopBox apps available upon initial launch will include: Funspot Games; Picassa; Livestation; YouTube; Blip.tv; Next New Networks; Channels.com; Photobucket; Twitter; ShoutCast; Weatherbug; Revision3; MediaFly; Clicker; Video Detective; and MotorzTV.
No Neflix? No Pandora? No Amazon?
The company notes that “although this is the ‘at launch’ list of apps, we want to make it clear that the PopBox that ships is, TODAY, capable of supporting all foreseeable app partners in the future WITHOUT requiring a hardware upgrade, and, although we can’t name names, we continue to work on finalizing software development with additional content providers. This version of the PopBox does contain the required hardware security and other mechanisms to fulfill premium content providers application requirements in the future.”
Given Syabas initially promised Netflix support, the phrase “all forseeable app partners” in the paragraph above can be construed to include an intention to support Netflix, since no internet-streaming TV STB worth its salt could be without the popular instant-downloads content provider. Ditto for Pandora’s enormously popular music streaming service, as well as Amazon’s popular PPV (pay per view) video service.
Clearly, recipients of initial PopBox units will be expecting these must-have apps to become available soon — and Syabas is well aware of that.
Incidentally, the company also noted that the PopBox “has component outputs in addition to HDMI (and we do support RealD 3D).” The PopBox is only usable with HDTVs; it does not support standard definition TVs.
PopBox user interface screenshots
The following screenshots, provided by Syabas, show the initial PopBox UI (user interface) in action (click each thumbnail for a larger image):
For further details on the PopBox, read our initial coverage of the device and visit the PopBox’s website and blog.
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does not support standard definition TV?! Does that even make any sense?
The cheapest media boxes support SDTV so I don’t see why this wouldn’t.
My SDTV has component inputs, but you are sure that this won’t work through the component input on my TV?
This combined with the loss of Pandora and Netflix spells disaster for this box. Why wouldn’t they just put the time they wasted on this box into perfecting the Popcorn Hour line? I guess Syabas wants a piece of the Apple pie (Apps can generate a ton of revenue).. Oh well.
@SpooNMan: I think the statement from Syabas is that the PopBox’s output signals are not capable of driving standard definition TV sets’ input signal timing requirements, not that it can’t display SD content on an HDTV.
What about Hulu?
@Michelle: I checked with Syabas regarding whether/when they plan to add Netflix, Pandora, Amazon, and/or Hulu, and they’re totally tight-lipped regarding any specifics. Here’s their response:
“We would love to tell you what is in the pipeline but unfortunately we can’t for NDA reasons. It will not have any of those services you mention when the devices hit this week or so. There will be a software update shortly thereafter that will add some additional services but as I mentioned our hands are tied right now. We would love to scream some of these things from the mountain top, but alas we can’t.”