Syabas, creator of the Popcorn Hour Network Media Tank, have today unveiled their latest offering called the Popbox. Expected to launch in March for $129, the new device features a completely new UI (created by Moxi Media Center designer, Dewey Reid), slim form factor enclosure sans HDD bay (includes 2 x USB, 1 SD card slot), and support for a bevy of media formats and popular internet services like Netflix, Clicker, IMDB, Twitter. From the company’s press release (attached below), Syabas hopes to entice more content producers and service providers to port their services via the system’s Popapps Portal, which can then be offered to users for free or for a fee. All in all, the Popbox is looking like a top notch HD media streamer.
Syabas Announces Popbox for Big Screen Everything
New, Affordable Over-the-Top Settop Box Features an Open App Platform to Bridge the Gap Between an HDTV, a Home Network and the Internet
Syabas, a global provider of over-the-top settop software and hardware and makers of the award-winning Popcorn Hour C-200, today announced Popbox, a small, $129 open platform settop box that streams music, movies, photos, games, social media updates and more to today’s HDTVs. Popbox supports just about every audio and video file type and recognizes content from the Internet, a personal computer and a USB-attached storage device such as a Flip Video™ HD camcorder or an external hard drive.
What separates Popbox from its competitors is its ability to handle virtually any file and content type, its ease-of-use and open development platform, which allows media companies to rapidly develop, deploy and monetize a wide range of interactive high definition applications and content. Those applications and content may then be given away or sold on the Popapps Portal. Developers can sign up for the program at www.popbox.com.
In a separate release, also issued today, Syabas announced that it has added a number of new content and application partners including:
- Netflix (feature-length movies and television shows)
- Twitter (social networking and micro blogging service)
- FunSpot (interactive videogames)
- Crunchyroll (Japanese anime and Asian entertainment site)
- SHOUTcast (32,000 professional and community programmed radio stations)
Popbox also features a new, easy-to-navigate user interface (UI) that was designed by Dewey Reid, who won an Emmy award in 2004 for the UI he created for the Moxi Media Center. The UI enables users to browse content from a wide variety of Internet-based content channels, as well as a home networked media library with full metadata-based navigation. Metadata partners include Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for movies.
“I strongly believe that this year over-the-top settop boxes will go from the niche enthusiast to the mainstream consumer,” said Alex Limberis, chief operating officer of Syabas. “Popbox is perfectly positioned to deliver everything from movies to photos, to music to games to Tweets in an inexpensive, easy-to-use platform that will drive this market forward in 2010.”
Syabas has been developing software for connected entertainment devices for companies including HP, Netgear, I-O DATA, Pinnacle Systems and Viewsonic since 2001. In 2007, the company began shipping Popcorn Hour, its first over-the-top (OTT) settop box that has over the last two years earned a number of industry Editor’s Choice awards. Popbox is expected to be available in the United States in March and will be the company’s first product available through the retail channel.
Popbox is expected to be available in March for $129. For more information on the Popbox, please visit www.popbox.com.
PopBox v1.0 Features:
Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr)
Stereo Analog Audio
Content Services such as
Flash Lite 3.1 support
Application Store (Popapp Center)
Video File Containers
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
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4
MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
SMPTE 421M (VC-1)
Audio File Containers
AAC, M4A, MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV, WMA, FLAC, OGG
WMA, WMA Pro
MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3
JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD)
IR Remote Control
8.0” [203mm] X 6.0” [154mm] X 1.25” [32mm]
Input 100~240V AC, 50~60Hz
Output 5V DC, 3A max
Syabas, headquartered in Fremont, California and with facilities in China and Malaysia, was founded in 2001 and develops software for inexpensive wired/wireless digital home entertainment settop boxes that are sold around the world. Syabas’ product family, which includes the award-winning Popcorn Hour, A-110, C-200 and just announced Popbox, enables users to access content such as high- and standard-definition video, music, photos and services, such as BBC, CBS, CCTV, CNET TV, CNN, NBC, Photobucket, Revision3, SHOUTcast, Veoh and Vuze, over a local network and the Internet. For more information on Syabas and their products, please visit www.popcornhour.com.
Tags: CES 2010, Syabas, Syabas Popbox
Filed in: Streaming Media Devices