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The death of AppleTV....Popbox

M

mychetboy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
At CES Popbox was announced and will sell for $129.00. Check out the link and tell me if you think this an AppleTV killer? I hope Apple gets on the streaming wagon. I love their products in general, but have not purchased an AppleTV yet due to what seems to be at least 3 generations behind the competition and I will give Popbox serious consideration.

Syabas http://www.popbox.com/
 
VTMac said:
What are you talking about? ATV streams everything. It's the only way I've every used mine. Stream or sync. Your choice.
Click to expand...

I'm sure he means streaming content from providers like Netflix, Pandora, Hulu, etc.

The popbox looks nice, but I'm sure the UI won't be as elegant as the aTV. Plus, it still won't play my iTS protected files.

As long as Apple still sells the aTV, it will still be sort of relevant ... just because it's an Apple. But yeah, Apple needs to S or get off the pot.
 
Glad you mentioned the Volcano...
I really don't know one of these hardware devices from another. I own Apple computers, which makes me want to lean to the ATV, but my tv is 1080p, and ATV isn't. So is Volcano the AppleTV killer?
malch
 
Heres some info and a video of the Popbox:-

http://www.webtvwire.com/popbox-hd-review/

Looks nice in the video, sort of like what boxee is doing. Kind of puts me off that its the same people that made the popcorn hour. I just hope they do a better job with this, because the popcorn hour sucked big time.
 
I love the Apple TV and own two of them, both 160GB. Mine work perfectly, stream perfectly, and do precisely what I want them to.

Right now the ATV only supports 720P, but for 99% of movies the user cannot tell the difference between 720P and 1080P. My ATV looks fantastic in HD on my widescreen HDTV.

I love the Apple TV!! 😎
 
mychetboy said:
At CES Popbox was announced and will sell for $129.00. Check out the link and tell me if you think this an AppleTV killer? I hope Apple gets on the streaming wagon. I love their products in general, but have not purchased an AppleTV yet due to what seems to be at least 3 generations behind the competition and I will give Popbox serious consideration.

Syabas http://www.popbox.com/
Click to expand...

Looks cool. I like how they want developers to create apps for it. It's got a weather app for it. Something I'd like on my AppleTV. Funny, I'm using weather and news on my Nintendo Wii... 😀

Aeolius said:
The one that caught my eye was Monsoon's Volcano:
http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/10/01/09/volcano.streams.video.to.smartphones/
Click to expand...

Wow, if AppleTV is such the flop, why does it need to "die" and companies are copying it? 😱
 
Nothing will kill the Apple TV until there is a device that syncs and streams content (including protected content) from iTunes out of the box.
 
roidy said:
Kind of puts me off that its the same people that made the popcorn hour. I just hope they do a better job with this, because the popcorn hour sucked big time.
Click to expand...
My Popcornhour NMT A110 and A100 do work without any Problem, even with my Harmony One. It could have a prettier UI but that is all i don't like about it.
 
mychetboy said:
At CES Popbox was announced and will sell for $129.00...
Click to expand...
That price does not include either a hard disk drive or WiFi. Thus, once you add those options (or requirements) the price will likely be higher than the Apple TV. It's not an Apple TV killer, it's just another product in an already crowded field where the Apple TV still (arguably) has the best out-of-the-box experience.
 
fpnc said:
That price does not include either a hard disk drive or WiFi. Thus, once you add those options (or requirements) the price will likely be higher than the Apple TV. It's not an Apple TV killer, it's just another product in an already crowded field where the Apple TV still (arguably) has the best out-of-the-box experience.
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Very true, but with this device you can't add a internal HD. It is meant to connect to a network or external HD.
 
rogervzv said:
I love the Apple TV and own two of them, both 160GB. Mine work perfectly, stream perfectly, and do precisely what I want them to.

Right now the ATV only supports 720P, but for 99% of movies the user cannot tell the difference between 720P and 1080P. My ATV looks fantastic in HD on my widescreen HDTV.

I love the Apple TV!! 😎
Click to expand...


What is your setup? My ATV has Ethernet but iTunes server is wireless-N 40 feet away. It's a nightmare for me.
 
Donar said:
My Popcornhour NMT A110 and A100 do work without any Problem, even with my Harmony One. It could have a prettier UI but that is all i don't like about it.
Click to expand...

And not once did I say they don't work...... They do play video fine.

What I said is they SUCKED BIG TIME........

As you pointed out the UI sucks. Sure there are some nice looking jukeboxes you can use but they all suffer from the same problem, their slow as hell, and dont tell me they aren't because I've had both a PCH A-110 and an iStar mini (which is based around the same firmware) and yes the jukeboxes look nice but once you actually press a button to go from one page to the next then you see the problem, you can go and make a cup of tea before anything happens. They just haven't got the processing power to run a nice interface.
 
Well I'm happy.......

I love my AppleTV. It does everything I was told it would do and more. I don't understand why some people want one thing to be able to do everything. I have a PS3 with a 500G hard drive. I could have all of my photos and music on it and use it for my multimedia device, but I don't. I turn it on when I want to play games. What I have, I use how I want to use them. I have an AppleTV in the bedroom. Everything that is on my mac mini in the den I can watch in the bedroom, because they sync. I'm not needing to post on facebook in the bedroom. When I buy Blu Ray movies with a digital copy I load them on my mini, and bam, its there on AppleTV. I then find that I end up watching my movies on itunes on the mini or AppleTV instead of pulling out the Blu Ray and powering up the PS3, because the UI is just soooo easy. Couple of clicks and it's playing. Same goes for TV's shows and movies purchased on the AppleTV. In fact I buy 90% of my media through the AppleTv and it too ends up on the mini. And then there is the Remote app for my iPhone that runs both units flawlessly. I can sit at my desk or kitchen table and listen to either unit (both are hooked up to home stereos), without having to get up.

I for one would be disappointed if they stop supporting it. i think its just like any other apple product, unless you own one, you just don't get it. I have only been a convert for about a year and everything I keep learning or seeing is blowing my mind still. I know the hardcore or long term users may not see this, so I am speaking as someone that didn't understand the fuss. Then I got an iPhone, next a hand-me-down G4 laptop, and as I started to learn what all of the fuss was about, I started looking further, bought an AppleTv and then my mini with a magic mouse. Now I can't stop talking to everyone about how everything just meshes and works together.
 
ntrigue said:
What is your setup? My ATV has Ethernet but iTunes server is wireless-N 40 feet away. It's a nightmare for me.
Click to expand...

I am running my two ATVs wireless with a Linksys dual channel WiFi setup. One channel is dedicated to the ATV, the other to the internet. So I can literally be doing a big download while simultaneously synching the ATVs, for example. It works great, albeit it takes a long time to synch 160GB onto an ATV (typically overnight.)

Both my ATVs synch effortlessly. I do think you need a dual channel WiFi hub to get the most out of this kind of setup, but these are available for not much over $100 so what's not to like?
 
There are lots of products out there that could be considered the death of AppleTV, however because Apple made the device there will always be people out there who love theirs. I loved my AppleTV until I discovered the streaming power that the PS3 and XBox 360 has, but each to their own.

I just don't think Popbox is death for ATV anymore than the PS3, XBox 360, or Western Digitals TV devices are.
 
roidy said:
And not once did I say they don't work...... They do play video fine.

What I said is they SUCKED BIG TIME........
Click to expand...
... and forgot to mention what exactly _sucked_big_time_ means. So no need for gluing Caps lock to the keyboard. 🙄 Just be more specific next time...

roidy said:
As you pointed out the UI sucks. Sure there are some nice looking jukeboxes you can use but they all suffer from the same problem, their slow as hell, and dont tell me they aren't ...
...they just haven't got the processing power to run a nice interface.
Click to expand...
I get your point. The NMT's where never build for handling a jukebox, the Popbox is. So there is a good chance that it will handle it's standard jukebox well.
 
Not meaning to come across as disagreeable, but I am getting a tad bit tired of all these overblown post headings such as "ATV Worst Product of Decade", "Death of Apple TV" and so on. The ATV works exactly as it is intended to work and does what it is supposed to do very well. Granted it is not able to, or intended to, stream movies from Netflix or whatnot and so what? My car won't float or work well as a boat, either, but it is a good car.🙄

From my perspective the one thing I would like to see on a future ATV is the ability to plug in an outboard USB HDD for extra disk space. There is a very good hack for that now which I understand is easy to do and not very expensive.
 
That is a concern of mine. I like being able to save my digital copies of movies, if fact when I buy BluRays that is something I look for. I am filling up the 160G drive.
 
I love my apple tv's but I agree that streaming is important. For this I use series 3 hd tivo's with a cable card. These will stream netfilx, amazon and blockbuster. Not to mention a great dvr. Plus with the tivos I can download cartoons for my kids using toast and put them in itunes/apple tvs.
 
Not sure I understand the concerns about netflix/blockbuster. More options is always better than fewer options. But doesn't iTunes fill that precise niche with movie rentals?
 
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