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PopBox 3D set-top media player

Goggle box

App my box up

Any disks linked directly to the PopBox appear as a shared drive on your computer, but unlike some media streamers you can't drop media onto it over a network - creating a Nas-like experience from a normal external disk drive - which is a shame.

Popcorn Hour PopBox

PopBox populates its movie listings with film posters and IMDB info

There’s no built-in Wi-Fi but you can attach the £20 WN-150 wireless dongle, though it uses up a USB port.

About 40 apps are available for the PopBox, including YouTube, Blip TV, Shoutcast, Picasa, Photobucket, Flickr, Weatherbug, Twitter, Facebook and the aforementioned iPlayer in the UK, which is fast and effective. As yet there are no premium movie rental services like Lovefilm.

There’s an auto video output mode for the HDMI port, or it can be forced into 720p, 1080i or 1080p. However, the frame rate is fixed at the US-oriented 60Hz, so PAL (50Hz) material is adjusted during playback. Although this isn’t ideal, it nevertheless does a relatively good job. The general picture quality is fine and it has an option to output at 24 frames per second when compatible source material is detected.

Popcorn Hour PopBox

Access you shares, which the PopBox will index

I wanted to check its component video output too, but this was faulty, which is not a good sign.

Next page: Font of formats

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