To the Point – Roku Updates Media Streaming Boxes

Roku tipped their hand that a new media streamer hardware lineup was on the way with their price drops and a choice FCC leak recently.  Today Roku officially announced the new, slightly updated lineup for all to see.

Roku’s new Hardware includes:

• Roku HD at $60 with 720p, Wi-Fi + Ethernet connectivity and HDMI
• Roku XD at $80 that adds 1080p full HD video playback, instant replay button and Wireless N to the feature-set
• Roku XD/S for $100 that adds dual-band wireless, component video & optical outputs and a USB port.

If it were me and I was simply looking for a good UI for my Netflix streaming, that Roku HD would fit the bill honestly.  Neither the XD or XD/S look like they will be competitive in the realm of streaming from your home collection like the WDTV Live Plus and SageTV HD300 are.  And seriously, how many 1080p online streaming videos have you seen lately?  Yeah, me neither.  Anyway, here’s a few interesting articles on the web from today that cover these new Roku’s:

ZatzNotFunny! covers the new hardware and I mostly agree with his buying advice:

“Anyone who currently owns a Roku, other than the SD model, really has no reason to upgrade at this time.”

“However if you’re primarily interested in economical and diverse local media playback (USB or LAN) that also happens to have some online streaming capabilities, the WDTV Live Plus is a better solution.”

Engadget has a good review of the Roku XD/S.  They generally like Roku as a whole and have some guarded praise of the more expensive XD/S:

“There's still some work to be done and more content partnerships to strike -- add in Hulu support and it's game over, guys -- but the Roku XDS is definitely worth a look if you need a streamer, and the oh-so-cheap Roku HD is probably worth a look even if you don't.”

Finally, NewTeeVee has a video showing the new hardware off along with a run-through of the changes from the now-older hardware.  They also go on with another video claiming that 12 percent of Roku customers cut the cord.  I guess that’s possible, but if you care at all about picture quality, content selection and LiveTV events such as sporting events or “gasp” realityTV you’ll still need at least over the air – and probably cable if you want the sports.  I say the same thing when talking about the AppleTV…

What do you think?  Is the Roku for you?  Or are you looking for something with more of a multiple personality like a Blu-ray Player, TV or more powerful media player/extender to handle your online media content streaming?

Check out the official Roku info at their website

Boxee Box Gets an Inside Look

Ganesh at AnandTech has a great writeup about the coming-soon D-Link Boxee Box.  He goes into more detail about the hardware than I’ve seen thus far so it’s a must-read if you’re at all interested in Boxee and their new extender.

Speaking of the Boxee Box, it just arrived on the Amazon site this week.  It isn’t yet available for preorder, but there is a “send an e-mail” link for when it’s available. UPDATE: Looks like preorders once live will price it at $229

AnandTech spends some time talking about what the move from NVIDIA's Tegra 2 to the Intel CE4100 means.  Here’s a little taste of what Ganesh had to say about the Boxee Extender:

For AnandTech to recommend a media streamer, it must strive to enable the consumer to watch whatever content he wants wherever he wants. Boxee Box seems to have taken this philosophy to heart, unlike some of the other recently announced media streamers.

Read the complete article about the Boxee Box at AnandTech

Roku Drops Prices $69 for HD and $99 for HD-XR

Roku is responding to competition from Sony and possibly others (rumors of Apple TV and Netflix Streaming are leaking out tonight) with a decent price drop on their popular streamer boxes:

The Roku SD Player is now $59 (was $79)

The Roku HD Player is now $69 (was $99)

and the Roku HD-XR Player is now $99 (was $129)

Add to this the fact that the Roku HD-XR is due to receive 1080p streaming support later this year and you have an interesting story.  I expect the competition to get really tough for those focusing on Netflix streaming as this will become a very common thing in hardware that does much more – especially if it does turn out to be a feature in the rumored AppleTV upgrades.

Popbox Arrives – With Early Firmware Issues

The Popbox from Syabas has been one of the more anticipated media players for 2010 and it seems to have arrived a few days ahead of schedule.  Matter of fact Syabas, the company that brings us Popbox says they were “surprised” by the early availability on Amazon.  That brings us to the not-so-positive part of the story:  Many consumers who have the Popbox already have had a pretty tough time with the media player so far. 

What is the Popbox?

Popbox is a $129 media player that builds on the popular enthusiast-centric Popcorn Hour and attempts to make the Popbox a more general-consumer-friendly device.  It has a brand new interface, many online content plugins (no Netflix yet folks), a SDK, 100Mbps bitrate support, 1080p video and an attractive form factor.

Key Facts:

• Cost: $129
• Shipment ETA: March 2010
• Newer UI than current C200
• Size: 15.9 Oz, 8”x6”x1.25”
• 1 USB 2.0 on front and 1 USB on back
• SD Card Slot on back (2GB SD Card included)
• Video: M1V, M2V, M4V, MP3G1, MPEG2, TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS, AVI, ASF, WMV, MKV, MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4, FLV, F4V
• Video Output: HDMI (1080p/720p/480p) and Component Y/Pb/Pr
• Apps: Netflix 2.0, Shoutcast, Revision3, Twitter etc
• Network: Ethernet 10/100, WiFi 802.11 N/B/G (option), and UPnP

Where can you purchase the Popbox?

Amazon seems to be the go-to place to purchase your PopBox Media Player and they are already shipping them.  Price is $129 with free shipping.

Early Firmware Issues

Now for the bad part.  The first reports – from what I can tell all of those who have received their preorder Popbox already are having major issues so far.

Anyone who has dealt with a new-to-market media player knows that beyond the actual hardware specs inside, the success or failure of a device like this is the firmware/software that runs the thing and the diligence of the company to update and improve that firmware.  Typically there is a private beta where the device is given to testers to report and assist the developers in fixing most problems with the device before it goes out to the general public.  Unfortunately it appears the beta process wasn’t as far along as they had hoped and to make matters tougher, the shipments of the device happened a week before expected.  I expect they will catch up on this and get the necessary firmware updates in place, but it is doing some damage on the PR front – especially since this has been marketed as a end-user type device and not an enthusiast-device like the PopcornHour.

Examples of issues being reported:

• Turning on the Popbox without a SD card inserted causes lock-up:  “Just hooked unit to my LCD in my office and was met with a screen that says " //Firmware Recovery" Please insert USB Drive.... Just blinking waiting for a USB drive with the firmware.. I checked the website and nothing is available for download... I will call @ 9:00 am to tech support to get the firmware it needs.... A slight bump in the road is all..... Lets hope they can send the firmware I need to recover whatever is wrong. All I did was turn it it.....????????????”.  Hard reset in the front.. Did nothing. The unit is not locked up.. The firmware is corrupted.”
• Firmware Update Issues: “Not sure what's up.... FW downloaded and rebooted.... the menu came up> and music was selected> now for 5-10 minutes I get "loading". I don't have the many songs on my drive. Tried turn on/off still get "loading" message.”
• Switching to Invalid Video Mode with no way to reset:  “i changed video mode on accident to something not supported and there's no instructions on a safe mode type or reset.”

Check out the harsh Amazon reviews so far – whether these reviews are totally truthful or not, it’s no doubt quite damaging to future sales

Despite all of the bad examples there is hope.  A few of those with their Popbox have been able to get things working after receiving firmware updates.  If you have purchased a Popbox expect some early issues, but have patience as I expect Syabas will get things working eventually.  That being said it doesn’t seem like this was ready for mass consumption by any means.  The Popbox website has no user forum for troubleshooting so they threw one up on the NetworkMediaTank forums for now.

How to get support

Popbox Website – there is a sparse support page on their website with a quick-start guide, recovery firmware and a few other tidbits.

Phone Support – You can call 888-9-PopBox (888-976-7269) from 9am – Midnight PST to get live support.  Note this is an outsourced (Read: other country) support so your mileage may vary

Email - support@popbox.com

Temporary Support Forum at NetworkedMediaTank – This is a good place to post your issues and questions as it appears you’ll get more official help and it’s being moderated to keep out the over-the-top complaining to a minimum.  It’s also a good read if you’re planning to purchase ;)

AVSForum Thread – Lots of information and misinformation in this one, but it’s an entertaining read at least.  There is a host of people complaining about the many issues in here.

Bottom Line

Syabas planned to bring out the Popbox to be an end-user/consumer-centric device and this may well be that device eventually, but they certainly didn’t start out well.  The firmware doesn’t appear to have been ready, support wasn’t prepared to deal with issues and there was no user manual was included – only a quick-start guide.  I expect they will get things in order in the coming week or so – I just hope they recover from the PR damage that seems to have been done already.

If you are at all interested in the Popbox the one place I would go to for a good first-impressions and review of the device is Damian’s Digital Home Blog who writes for MediaSmartServer.  He’s knowledgeable about media players and has his Popbox scheduled to arrive Monday.

WDTV Live Plus Review – With Netflix Streaming

Western Digital’s WDTV media streamer has been one of the more popular media player devices over the past year and just recently introduced the next generation of that player, the WDTV Live Plus.  ZatzNotFunny! has a full review of the device worth reading if you’re interested in media players.  Here’s a few excerpts from the review:

I’ve been looking at WD’s lineup for some time and finally decided to pick the newest rev up. It can stream 720p, 1080p video content and Netflix – the main things I am looking for. It also supports streaming popular media codecs and enclosures. Here’s the list supported file types:

Video: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9
Photo: JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist: PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle: SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

The player includes optional WiFi support for these cards and now includes Netflix streaming which is a very nice-to-have feature for a box in this price range:

By comparison, Netflix streaming was great. You need to register the device with your Netflix account and then after that you are good to go. The interface is the similar to the one found on the PS3. And the WD TV also steams Pandora Internet Radio and Flickr.

 

Check out the full review of the WD TV Live Plus at ZatzNotFunny!

Hauppauge MediaMVP-HD Player Nearing Release

It’s been a whole fourteen months since we mentioned it, but Hauppauge appears to finally have their MediaMVP-HD Media Player ready for the masses. 

NOTE:  Read below for info on how to win your own Hauppauge MediaMVP-HD

Hauppauge is the company that brought us many HTPC tuners and devices (Hauppauge HD-PVR anyone?) and also was the company who brought us the now aging MediaMVP media player.  This media player is a new, HD-ready version called the MediaMVP-HD.

The MVP-HD is set to compete with comparable stand-alone media players such as the WDTV, D-Link, Asus and many others that work to connect media from your home network or USB drive to your TV.  It appears to handle all the popular file formats including DivX, H.264 and many others.  It has a built-in UPNP client to play from any UPnP servers including Windows 7.  The MediaMVP-HD sports a Sigma 8655 processor running a Linux OS.  It of course handles standard definition and high definition video up to 1080p.

Here’s the detailed specs of the MediaMVP-HD:

MediaMVP-HD decoder specification

• Dedicated hardware decode support for MPEG-2 Transport and Program Stream up to 1080p, H.264 streams up to 1080p
• Video output: HDMI, Component high definition out. Composite, S-Video standard definition out.
• HDMI formats: 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 720i, 480i, 480p. 120Hz, 100hz, 60hz and 50hz.
• Outputs NTSC and PAL video, software selectable.
• Volume adjustment for all audio outputs
• Briteness, contrast and saturation adjustment.

MediaMVP-HD file formats

• MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264 SD or HD
• H.264 in MP4, MT2S or MKV
• AVI
• VOB
• Divx SD and HD

MediaMVP-HD audio decoder specification

• Two channel audio output.
• Optical audio out (5.1 channel)

Included in the MediaMVP-HD package

• MediaMVP-HD digital media receiver device
• Wall mounted power supply
• MediaMVP-HD remote control with batteries
• MediaMVP Installation Guide
• 1 meter HDMI cable
• 1.5 meter Ethernet cable

Power consumption

• Approximately 6 watts when playing HD video from network
• Power supply: 5v at 2amp

Finally, I’ve included a few screenshots of the very simple user interface:

I don’t have the suggested retail price or the ETA, but according to the Hauppauge experts at SHSPVR, it will be shipping very soon. UPDATE:  Thanks to an anonymous tip, I found the MediaMVP-HD for sale Hauppauge MediaMVP-HD for sale at Amazon for $139.99 w/free shipping.  Amazon has it listed as shipping within 1-2 months, but I’m guessing it will be much, much sooner.

Speaking of SHSPVR, if you’d like to get your hands on one of these MediaMVP-HD’s for free, head to the SHSPVR forums to enter for a chance to win one of five he has available for giveaway!  Get over there by May 15th when the contest ends.

Official Info at Hauppauge

MissingRemote Reviews the Asus

 

MissingRemote has another Media Player Review up – this time the ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 Media Player.  It sells for $99 and has a lot going for it.  The non-extender, Media Player market is pretty competitive though so I wonder how many of these can survive in today’s tough economic environment without some sort of edge – like extender capabilities for instance.

Mike Garcen at MissingRemote has this to say about the ASUS:

After living with both the Patriot Box Office and this ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 media players, it has proven difficult to choose a clear winner. I have centralized storage with torrent support in my Windows Home Server, so the inclusion of hard drive support and extras would be of no use to justify the extra $30 Patriot asks for its device. As the two compete features via firmware updates, I would imagine they would stay on par with each other as well, making the ASUS' sub-$100 MSRP a frontrunner.

The ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player is $99 at Amazon (affiliate) with Free Shipping

Read the complete review at MissingRemote.com

WDTV Live Media Player Firmware Update Problem Resolved

Western Digital announced today that they have resolved the issue some experienced with the firmware update to 1.01.12 (read about that debacle here) and say it is now safe to update.

They also are offering to replace any bricked media players affected by the bad firmware update free of charge.  Here’s the full announcement from WD:

We have tracked the problem to the Internet update process for WD TV Live firmware version 1.01.12. The firmware version is functioning normally, the problem intermittently occurred when using the Internet to update WD TV Live to version 1.01.12. If you've successfully installed update 1.01.12, there's nothing further you need to do.

If your product failed during the update process, we will replace it free of charge. Please contact our customer service department.

The product in stores and shipping today is functioning normally. Update version 1.01.11, and the Internet update process for 1.01.11 are also functioning normally. So if you own a product that you haven't updated, or buy a product today, you can safely update it with version 1.01.11, which is now the most current update.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Definitely a terrible problem to experience with a hardware device, but good to see Western Digital is standing behind their product and doing the right thing here – kudos to them.

via Western Digital Website

WDTV Live Media Player Firmware Bricks the Players

If you own one of those Western Digital WD TV Live Media Players, read this:  Do NOT do a firmware update to 1.01.12.  It apparently is causing the units to brick and as of tonight there isn’t a fix.  Western Digital is telling those who have experienced this to RMA their box!  Here’s the official notice from Western Digital via their blog:

“A small percentage of our users are experiencing a problem with WD TV Live Player when they update to the newest firmware release (version 1.01.12). We’re investigating the issue and until we identify the root cause, we’ve removed these updates.
If you’ve successfully updated to version 1.01.12 there’s nothing further you need to do. If you are experiencing any problems with your WD TV Live player, contact our customer service.

As soon as we learn more we’ll post the information here. Should you find any other issues that you feel have not been addressed with this update feel free to leave a comment or tweet us @WDTVLive. Thanks for all your input and know it is always helpful to hear from our users!”

WD says “a small percentage of our users”, but it seems like a pretty large group according to these forum posts.  Regardless, WD has pulled the firmware for the moment and I’d be very careful of any updates until they give the all-clear.

Lots of anger and upset folks at the Western Digital Forums Here

via WDTVLive Blog & Engadget

Vudu Streaming Service Adds Wikipedia to the 10-foot interface

Vudu, provider of high definition streaming service has integrated Wikipedia into the Vudu interface.  Vudu originally  service sold via a CE box that  later moved on “outside the box” and began also packaging its service into LG and Mitsubishi TV sets.  Vudu’s service keys on a Movies-on-Demand service where you rent or buy movies of your choosing right from the 10-foot interface.

More recently Vudu has added Pandora streaming, flickr & picasa photos, YouTube and games.  This new wikipedia menu functionality lets you select the Wikipedia menu item on the page for any movie and find out what the world has to say about it.  You can also navigate through all of the links on the Wikipedia page just like you would on Wikipedia.com.  Vudu has built in the ability to link back into the VUDU service from the Wiki interface whenever it sees any movie, actor, or director in its database.

Vudu is promoting the fact that the service is internet based and therefore doesn’t require a manufacturer to push out a firmware update (or worse, take forever to push out a firmware update.

I don’t have access to Vudu, but I’m curious if any GeekTonic readers have it.   Let us know in the comments what you think.

Read more about the feature updates on the Vudu Blog

YouTube Gone from PopCorn Hour – For Now

Syabas, makers of the Popcorn Hour media players is telling its users that “As of Wednesday, December 2, 2009, YouTube will no longer be available to Popcorn Hour users.”  This is a move by Google to push CE makers to use the XL version of YouTube instead of the existing API method.  While I would imagine Syabas (and other CE companies) will work to build the XL version into their media players eventually, it will likely take a while.

It’s very likely we’ll begin to see this with other Media Players and consumer electric devices that have been implementing a YouTube app on the device via the API.  Google is doing this likely to control the content that is used and allow for advertisements and control of the YouTube UI itself.

From the consumers perspective this is not a good move by Google.  Then again, viewing YouTube videos on the TV or even PC has become a rare occasion by me – this will likely make it even more infrequent.

via digital.limberis

Popcorn Hour C200 Media Player Review – Awesome Hardware

Those of you who follow me on GeekTonic know that I spend a lot of time with HTPCs, Media Players and all gadgets that can play back media.  When Syabas announced the new Popcorn Hour C-200 I was intrigued.  From the specs it was clear that this device came to the party prepared.  It touts the ability to play back a multitude of different media file formats and it comes in a sleek-looking set-top device as well.  So how well does this new Popcorn Hour C200 perform?  Read on to find out.

I’ve used the earlier version of the Popcorn Hour A-110 a little and have used the SageTV HD Theater as a media player (it works as both media player and/or full-blown HTPC), but until now have never seen a media player with as much promise and capability in the hardware department as the PCH C-200.  I had a short post up when my review unit PCH C-200 arrived and originally planned to have the review out shortly after that, but I ran into a few bumps – partly due to firmware update issues and partly because of a rough patch in my schedule.  Regardless I have a lot to share about this incredibly media player and a lot of information you’ll find useful when deciding whether this is the one for you. 

Read on for all of the details and photos after the jump

PopcornHour C200 Preview and First Look

It has arrived!  The new PopcornHour C200 has arrived for its review at GeekTonic and I have a few quick photos to share with you while you wait for the complete review:

 

This media player looks quite interesting.  It’s powerful, supports an extremely large number of video/audio formats and codes, has HDMI 1.3a support, support for an internal drive and a nice LCD screen on the front.  So as you can imagine I’ve been waiting for this thing anxiously for the past few weeks – and originally that’s when this review unit was supposed to arrive.  Unfortunately due to delays it arrive today – and I’m not at the GeekTonic home which makes the unboxing thing quite difficult.  Thankfully I found a substitute to take a few snapshots (sorry for the blurriness – Monday’s photos will be much more detailed and clear I promise).

 

 

The top of the C200 has the logo and name engraved in the metal.  The remote looks pretty decent with a good layout.

 

Next is a shot of the front of the C200 shows the LCD (with protective plastic still in place).  You’ll see the power button on the far left with two USB ports right below that.  Then the LCD screen, a navigation “circle”, storage bay (hard drive or ROM fits in there) and finally the PCH logo at the lower right.

 

The rear of the unit shows the many ports as well as the fan grill.  HDMI, Component Video, S-Video, Composite, Stereo Analog Audio, SPDIF, Optical and Coaxial Digital Audio and even two more USB ports along with the power port.

 

It’s definitely much larger than the old PopcornHour A-110.  This unit is closer to the size of a DVD player if not a bit bigger.

Included with the C200 are the following:

• Power cord
• 2 AAA Batteries
• HDMI Cable
• Quick Start Guide
• RF Remote Control
• RF Antenna
• Screws for mounting optional drive

Full specs and more info can be found here

I’ll have more photos including the innards for you shortly.  I don’t take reviews like this one lightly so I’ll likely do it in two parts.  My first Impression early next week and then the complete review after using it for at least a week.  You just can’t get to know a device like this in a day or two.  It definitely has most of the right hardware.  Next we’ll have to see how it all performs and try out the usability.  Stay tuned for more!

WDTV Version 2 Photos Leaked

Looks like Western Digital is preparing a new version of their WDTV media player.  The WDTV has similar innards as the SageTV HD Theater, minus the HTPC extender capabilities among other things.  But it comes at a lower price (available under $99) and seems to have a pretty active user developer community.  So now the WDTV 2 is reported to add network playback over ethernet, DTS audio decoding and a component video port to go along with HDMI.  So it should be a little more comparable the the SageTV HD Theater if the reports are correct.

via Electric Echoes by way of EndgadgetHD

 

Speaking of the WDTV, you can get the existing version (not the unreleased WDTV2) of the WD TV HD Media Player at Newegg for $89.49 after applying coupon code HDDSALE15.

ZuneHD Pre-Orders Available Today

I’ve been incredibly impressed with the ZuneHD UI and the look & feel of the ZuneHD hardware.  It’s simply a beautiful device.  Starting today you can pre-order one from Amazon (affiliate) for delivery September 15th.

I’m on the fence on whether to purchase.  I definitely do not need it as I have a perfectly fine iPod Touch 2g.  But my gadget envy is pushing me to pick one up…

 

You can pre-order the Zune HD 16 GB Video MP3 Player (Black) for $219.99

or the Zune HD 32 GB Video MP3 Player (Platinum) for $289.99

 

Are you getting one?

Roku Getting Mediafly – and something even better?

According to Dave Zatz at ZatzNotFunny, the Roku box is getting Mediafly this fall. Mediafly aggregates free audio and video podcasts along with other clients for the iPhone, popcorn hour, chumby, blackberry and RSS.

Zatz also hints at another service coming to the Roku, but doesn’t go as far as saying who.  Whiile it would certainly be nice, I’m betting against Hulu and Roku already has Amazon On Demand so I wonder what it is?  Hmm.

Read more at ZatzNotFunny!

SageTV Adding Wireless N Option for HD Theater

 

One of the few shortcomings of the SageTV HD Theater (can be used as an extender to SageTV HTPC software OR as a standalone Media Player) is that it had no way to connect to a wireless network.  This was never much of an issue for me as all of my TVs have ethernet connections nearby.  But for many, there was a strong desire to have Wireless.  Soon, SageTV will release an update to the HD200 Theater device that will add Wireless N connectivity with a add-on dongle.

SageTV is working on a solution for this problem that eliminates nearly all of that headache and makes the installation and setup as easy as booting from a USB drive.  You supply the computer and hardware and this product handles most of the setup.

Coming Soon: Wireless N for the SageTV HD Theater

In an interview GeekTonic had with Jeff Kardatzke, CTO of SageTV we learned that the flagship CE device, the SageTV HD Theater (aka HD200) will be getting Wireless N support via firmware update.  This update should arrive in the next beta cycle in the coming month or so.  There currently aren’t many details on how it will all work or what specific hardware will work with it, but my bet is on a WiFi dongle.  Something like the Atheros-based WiFi dongle as used on the PopCornHour and other devices.

When?

When I asked Kardatzke about an estimated arrival date he said this:

“The current beta program will finish up to release first and then another beta will come out shortly afterwards with wireless support."

I’m expecting this could mean we’ll see this in a beta firmware in the coming two months and in a final version soon after.

Adding Wireless N capability should address one of the concerns reviewers mentioned when reviewing the HD200 as a Media Player.  While I always recommend using a wired connection for the best, most reliable connection – especially with HD content, it’s always nice to have options as some homes just don’t have the option to add holes in the wall.

 

Stay tuned to GeekTonic for more in-depth and informative articles and news about Media Gadgets, HTPCs and SageTV.

VideoLan VLC 1.0.0 Arrives

My very favorite non-HTPC media player released version 1.0.0 this week and includes some great new features.  If you're looking for a media player that can handle about any file you throw at it and is free, look no further than VLC.

 

New features include:

Major New Features:

• AirTunes Streaming
• Video Scaling in fullscreen
• Frame-by-Frame support
• More exact speed controls
• Zipped file playback
• Customizable toolbars
• EXPERIMENTAL work for the winCE port has been done.

Playback Features:

• Instantaneous pausing
• Frame-by-Frame playback
• Finer speed control
• Live, on-the-fly recording for all medias
• Timeshift for most medias
• RTSP trickplay support
• Subtitles core improvements and fixes

Decoders Added/Improved:

• AES3 (SMPTE 302M) decoder
• Dolby Digital Plus - E-AC-3 (A/52b) decoder
• True HD/MLP decoder and parser
• Blu-Ray Linear PCM decoder
• QCELP (Qualcomm PureVoice) decoder
• Improved Real Video 3.0 & 4.0 decoder
• WMA v1/2 fixed point integer decoder
• Closed Captions using the SCTE-20 standard are now correctly decoded
• Improvement of WavPack decoder to support all integer modes and float mode
• Corrections on 5.1 and 7.1 channel decoding and ordering

Demuxers:

• Support for Dirac, MLP and RealVideo in Matroska files
• Major improvements in RealMedia files opening (.rm and .rmvb)
• Improvements of the TS demuxer for M2TS files from Blu-Ray and AVCHD
• Metadata for mod files are supported
• GSM codecs in Wav files are supported
• New raw audio demuxer supporting raw PCM streams
• New Dirac demuxer for raw Dirac streams

Access:

• Playback for video in uncompressed multi-RAR archives
• DVB-S and ATSC cards support on Windows
• EXPERIMENTAL Blu-Ray Disc and AVCHD Folders support
• On-the-fly zip file decompression and browsing (MRL of the form
     zip://file.zip!/file.avi to specify the file - the development form of
     zip://file.zip|file.avi is not supported anymore)
• CD-Text support on the cdda module (CD-Audio)

Playlist:

• Export the playlist in HTML
• Lua script for BBC radio playback
• Better metadata handling and reading

Read about the VLC 1.0.0 release and get your download at videolan.org

Popcornhour New Version C200 Announced

The guys over at networkmediatank's forums have been waiting anxiously for more details on the newest version of the PopcornHour and Sybas finally delivered the specs and a few pics (see below) to feed the frenzy.

Some things I noticed when browsing the specs and the forum Q&A include:

• It's pretty big - much bigger than those older PopcornHour A110's.
• A nice move up to the much faster (more powerful) SMP8643 Sigma Chip (the A110 uses the SMP8635)
• It looks like it will support standard DVD and Blu-Ray, but not HD-DVD - there's a removable drive tray that seems to support a hard drive, DVD drive or Blu-Ray Drive!
• Gigabyte Ethernet support finally.  Too many media players don't yet support this.
• It comes with an RF remote control - something not all that common even these days.  I'll be interested in seeing what that remote looks like.  I would guess it will be something much less than a Harmony remote and closer in function/style to the Snapstream Firefly remotes.
• The C-200 (16.73" x 11.42" x 3.14") appears to be close to 2x the size of the A110 (10.5" x 5.25" x 1.25")
• The C-200 will be running with the latest Sigma Chip SMP8643 vs. vs the Sigma Chip SMP8635 on the current A110.

I didn't see anything showing price, but I'm betting it will start in the $300 price range at least.  Those GB-PVR guys have to be excited about this media player as they can use this thing as a GB-PVR extender.

 

Here's the details announced this morning by Sybas:

• The new PopcornHour will be called the C-200.
• The C200 uses the Sigma Designs SMP8643 chipset - 667MHz CPU with floating point coprocessor
• Dimensions: 16.73" x 11.42" x 3.14" and 8.3 lbs
• Memory: 512MB DDR2 DRAM, 256MB NAND Flash
• A/V Outputs: HDMI v1.3a with CEC, 36bpp deep color, 12-bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 content protection
  Component Video, S-Video, Composite Video, Stereo Analog Audio, S/PDIF Optical and Coaxial Digital Audio
• 2x USB 2.0 host on front and 2x USB host on back
• 1x USB 2.0 internal
• 2x SATA (one occupied by HDD tray
• 3.5" HDD Tray
• Internal mounting for 2.5" HDD
• LCD display for quickly searching, streaming and/or downloading content - useful for listening to music without the TV on!!!
• 2.4GHz RF Remote Control
• IR Remote Control port
• Network: Ethernet 10/100/1000 and miniPCI MII inteface for optional 11n WiFi card
• Connectity options: Bonjour, UPnP SSDP, UPnP AV, Windows Media Connect, Windows Media Player NSS, Samba, NFS
• Media Servers: myiHome, myiHomeLite, myiHomeMS (UPnP), MSP Portal
• Third Party Media Servers: GB-PVR, BitTorrent P2P, Usenet downloader, WizD, SwissCenter, Llink,
• NAS access: SMB, NFS, FTP
• Video Containers supported: MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V), MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB), MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS), AVI, ASF, WMV, Matroska (MKV), MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4
• Video Decoders supported: XVID SD/HD, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 MP@HL, MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
  MPEG-4.10 (H.264), BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0, HP@L4.1, WMV9, MP@HL, SMPTE 421M (VC-1), MP@HL, AP@L3
• Audio Containers supported: AC, M4A, MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA), WAV, WMA, FLAC, OGG
• Audio Decoders supported: Dolby Digital, DTS, WMA, WMA Pro, MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3, MPEG-4 AAC-LC, MPEG-4 HE-AAC, MPEG-4 BSAC, LPCM, FLAC, Vorbis
• Audio pass-through: DTS, DTS-HD HR, DTS-HD MA, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD
• Other formats: ISO, IFO navigation, Rich Object Based Interactive Graphics, AVCHD navigation, Blu-ray ready (requires addition of compatible BD-ROM and at least 1GB USB stick or internal HDD)
• Photo Formats supported: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
• Subtitle formats supported: SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX

UPDATE 06/17/2009:  A Representative of Syabas contacted me today confirming that the Popcornhour C200 is expected to be available in July for $299

via Networked Media Tank Forums & Digital Home Blog

ZuneHD Confirmed with XBox Live Tie-In

Well, the ZuneHD rumors have now been confirmed by Microsoft and it's coming this Fall.  And they are talking about a tie-in with the XBox Live service too.

Looks like the ZuneHD is targeted as a direct competitor to the iPod Touch.

 

A press release by Microsoft tells us the following about the new ZuneHD:

• The Zune HD comes with a built-in HD Radio receiver - I like this idea although it's not something I'd pay much extra for to get the feature.  Still its a differentiater that should help.
• It comes with a OLED touch screen interface and a 16:9 widescreen format display (480x272 resolution)
• A high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) audiovisual docking station that connects direct to an HD TV in 720p is available at an additional cost
• Zune HD will include a full-screen Internet browser optimized for multitouch functionality.
• Zune HD is Wi-Fi enabled, allowing for instant streaming to the device from the more than 5 million-track Zune music store.
• "Zune will be a premium partner in the Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace."  This means TV, movies and games could be accessible to the Zune through the Xbox Live Video Marketplace

I see a few things here with the Zune HD that are interesting for sure and I definitely would love to see Apple get a little more competition on the iPod front.  But you know what I see glaringly missing from the Zune HD press release?  There is no mention of any Microsoft MediaCenter tie in - absolutely none.  I hope I'm wrong on this, but this really sounds like once again MediaCenter is not going to get "connected" to another Microsoft hardware device.

The ZuneHD Website is now live as well.

via ZDNet