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PopBox Media Player
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PopBox Media Player

Average Rating:
Average rating of 1.5/5Average rating of 1.5/5Average rating of 1.5/5Average rating of 1.5/5Average rating of 1.5/5
List Price:
$129.99

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Product Info

  • Brand: popbox
  • EAN: 0892002002126
  • Manufacturer: Syabas Tech. Incorporated

Features

  • Stunning HD Video: Displays the best HD quality on your HDTV via HDMI / Component Video outputs and extensive codec support.
  • Simple and affordable to play all the movies, home videos, photos, and music stored on your home PC on your HDTV
  • Simple and Easy to Setup and Operate
  • Enjoy the Best of Internet Movies, Videos, Sports, and More
  • An Unbeatable Price: No one else offers this many features for one low price with no monthly fees!

Editorial Reviews:

  • The PopBox makes it simple and affordable to play all the movies, home videos, photos, and music stored on your home PC/network as well as streamed from the Internet on your HDTV! With PopBox you can finally give your HDTV what its been hungering for - all the best sports, entertainment, movies, videos, and music the Internet has to offer, PLUS an incredibly simple way to play all of your own stored movies, home videos, pictures and music on your HDTV sets and home theater system. Why watch things that were meant for the big screen on a computer monitor when you and your family can enjoy it all in any room of your house on your HDTV? With PopBox connected to your HDTV suddenly everything can go big screen! And we've made sure to make setup automated and simple - just hook the PopBox up to your Internet connection and it does the rest!

Spotlight customer reviews:

  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
  • Summary: Loads of potential, doesn't deliver now.
  • Comment: I feel sorry for this device, but it is going back. It froze playing approximately 75% of my videos. The interface frequently leaves you in a black-screen limbo with no way forwards or backwards without powering down the box. You can't power down the box without unplugging it (not too hard because the plug fits very shallowly into the socket on the back of the device.) When the PopBox works, it work just OK. Response time can be very laggy and awkward working through large filelists. The network functionality (wired to router, bridged 802.11N to Linux Samba fileserver) worked great and it worked well connecting to the Internet for firmware updates. The unit was pathetic playing Yahoo videos (video would freeze up and audio would continue with a static image at the point it froze.) For an example of this, search "swedish popcorn" and play the first video (Muppets Swedish Chef making Popcorn Shrimp). The humorous disclaimer at the beginning of the video plays fine, but when the video should start the audio continues and there is no video, just the image of the disclaimer. My Sony BluRay player plays this same video fine. There seem to be some third-party utilities to mess around with the database on the SD card to get everything just so...
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
  • Summary: Product is obviously unfinished...
  • Comment: I really wanted to like this product, but the interface was very much unfinished, and buffering was inadequate for dealing with wireless networks. Had I known in the first place that the "included wireless" was a little dongle, I never would have bought the wireless version. There are better options now, including the other products from this company.
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
  • Summary: Fail.
  • Comment: Epic Fail.

    Pretty graphics on boot up. Makes you excited.

    Until you find out that most things don't work. The "apps" are stupid and really don't add anything to the overall experience.

    Music playback - while the music does indeed play, it only plays one track at a time. Why would anyone want this?

    Video - well, it will play, once you figure out the kludge of attaching your network shares via the crappy UI.

    Firmware Updates? Well, all but one have failed in online automated mode, but you can go to a computer, download the image file, copy it to a thumb drive, and then upload it manually to the box. Super.

    100% unhappy.
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
  • Summary: I wouldn't call this beta software - maybe early alpha
  • Comment: Unfortunately while the product holds out a lot of promise it isn't there yet - by a long shot.

    Clunky, slow UI
    Videos stop & stutter depending on codec
    Youtube freezes for me regularly
    Network setup a chore
    Media library not well organized

    etc.

    Buyer beware
  • Customer Rating: Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5Average rating of 1/5
  • Summary: A downgrade from the 3 year old model
  • Comment: I am a long time user of the precursor to this product, the original Popcorn Hour A-100, made by the same company. With years of experience the popbox was intended to be the next-generation product yet it is inferior in nearly every way.

    The day I received my popbox I happily retired my A-100 only to find that the new box was less responsive, despite a faster processor. While most files would play it was prone to freezing, issues the old product had fixed years ago. The popbox lacked support for even basic features such as displaying subtitles or switching audio tracks. The remote is simplified to the point where even if the software supported it buttons for these functions no longer exist. Within the first week there were multiple firmware updates.

    The fact that a company with years of experience making essentially the same product has regressed so significantly in quality is quite disappointing, and worthy of this one star rating. The concept of this product is great but if you are considering purchase wait until they finish alpha testing it.