Media Streamer Platforms Roundup
by Ganesh T S on June 13, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- Gadgets
Devices such as the Vudu and the Roku boxes fall under this category. They aim to do one thing and do it well by restricting themselves to some VOD services and presenting their users with an environment similar to DVD renting, only online. Local media can't be played through them. Some of the SOC platforms which have found traction in this market include NXP STB 236 and Broadcom BCM7401. These SOCs were primarily designed for the IP set top boxes (Vudu and Roku may also be termed IP set top boxes, but at a more basic level compared to what these were originally designed for). These platforms do not support DTS audio, which is pretty much a pre-requisite nowadays for products geared towards the media streaming audience.
The Roku HD streamer introduced recently utilizes the NXP platform with a 320 MHz MIPS32 host processor. The STB 236 platform uses the PNX8336 at its core. H264 and VC1 seem to be supported codecs for hardware acceleration, while MPEG-2 seems to be only partially supported. The SOC has suitable connectivity options including USB, SATA and Ethernet. However, HDMI is not integrated in the SOC. The PNX8336 was released in April 2008. Since then, NXP has released video decoder chips targeted towards the TV and the DVR markets in December 2008 and March 2009. However, they seem to miss the mark as far as the features required for a media streamer device go. It will be interesting to see what Roku has in its roadmap, and whether they would shift suppliers for future products. The Roku HD-XR has a USB port, but it serves no discernible usefulness at present. The unit has an operational power consumption of 6W.
Vudu & Roku
Media Streamers Based on IP Set Top Box Platforms
Vudu, on the other hand, has realized that selling a restrictive IP set top box in this market is not an easy task. It is now striving to remodel itself as a service provider of sorts by integrating their software into the next generation Blu Ray players and TVs. Still, it is interesting to take a look at the platform behind their original device. It is based on Broadcom's BCM7401 (which also happens to have a 300 MHz MIPS32 host processor), which provides support for H264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 decode. Connectivity options include the standard set of USB, SATA and Ethernet. Now classified by Broadcom as a legacy product, this SOC has probably been superseded by the BCM7400 / BCM7400B introduced around the same time. It is also puzzling as to why the BCM7400B which provides support for DivX decoding wasn't used. That would have probably made the box closer to what the media streamer market needs. Vudu, unlike Roku, also provides the ability to purchase and download movies from their collection. This necessiates a hard disk inside their unit, which puts the operational power consumption much higher than Roku's at 18W.
All said and done, the days of these types of media streamers are numbered. They have to evolve themselves to different types of products in the coming years in order to survive in this market.
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Stokestack - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
An oft-ignored product category is that which streams content FROM your cable or satellite box TO your computer. I don't really care about watching crap-quality compressed video on my big TV, but I would like to watch shows from my cable box on a laptop in my kitchen or home office.Please include products that perform this task too. Thanks!
ganeshts - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Stokestack, yes, we are working on covering these devices too, but in a separate series of articles in this very section. Do you have any particular devices in this category that you would like us to review?Stokestack - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
Thanks for the response.The first product that comes to mind is Slingbox, and that might even be overkill for just viewing stuff around the house. I don't really care about transmitting stuff over the Internet to watch remotely.
Another appears to be the HAVA Platinum HD TV Device.
And, uh... those were the only ones I could find. I guess this could be a very series.
Stokestack - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
SHORT series, that is.Hubble70 - Wednesday, June 16, 2010 - link
Hauppauge HD-PVR over component up to 1080i / digital audioBlackmagic over component and HDMI up to 1080p
Avermedia over component up to 1080i / analog audio
nexox - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
I've got a Popcorn Hour A-110, and I'm nearly entirely impressed with it. All it really needs is a much better menu system. I'm hoping that the Popbox fixes that, if it ever comes out.I'd like to point out one of my main concerns with these sorts of devices, which the PCH series handles, and which many others don't: NFS.
I understand that lots of people use Windows with the built in CIFS file sharing, or even UPNP/DNLA, but honestly those protocols are pretty weak when compared with NFS (especially over UDP on wired ethernet.) Since I don't use Windows, NFS is the natrual choice, but I've found little information on whether most of the current generation of media renderers support NFS well or at all.
And lots more people than just Linux users would potentially benefit from NFS - many of those little NAS boxes people like so much can do much higher performance with NFS than CIFS or UPNP, which means higher bitrate video, less skipping, and better wifi performance.
ganeshts - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Yes, NFS is one of the best network sharing protocols. The WDTV Live also supports it in the custom firmware. We will add this to our testing methodology for reviews:(1) Network / Local file system and communication protocol support.
daskino - Monday, June 21, 2010 - link
however it is only the original WDTV that supports NFS the the Live and the live plus and the next gen wdtv oes not support true NFS olny by CIFF interceptorModeverything - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
This looked like a really nice streamer for only $88.http://www.brite-view.com/cinematube.php
DieterBSD - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
ganeshts writes,> DVI and DisplayPort are not aimed at the multimedia market. DVI is unable
> to carry audio signals, while DisplayPort connectors are not present on
> TVs / AV receivers which are common parts of a home theater system. Like
> it or not, home theater enthusiasts seem to be stuck with the HDMI
> standard rather than the royalty free DisplayPort
My point is that many people already have a TV/monitor/display/projector
that does not have HDMI, so they might not care if a streamer has HDMI
or not. I've read plenty of complaints about HDMI, apparently the
connector likes to fall off. What counts is if the streamer has the
outputs the user wants/needs. Unfortunately there are quite a few
these days: RF, composite, s-video, component, DVI, HDMI, displayport.
A computer monitor might require the so-called VGA, and there are
at least three varieties: separate H & V sync, composite sync, and
sync-on-green. Streamers aren't just useful for the main TV, people
might want to use one with an older TV in another room.
Then there is DiiVA:
http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news/2009/4/22/eth...
http://admin.virtualpressoffice.com/SupportingDocC...
Unfortunately I haven't heard of any products with DiiVA. :-(
Stokestack writes,
> An oft-ignored product category is that which streams content FROM your
> cable or satellite box TO your computer. I don't really care about watching
> crap-quality compressed video on my big TV, but I would like to watch shows
> from my cable box on a laptop in my kitchen or home office. Please include
> products that perform this task too. Thanks!
An excellent idea, although I would suggest making these a separate article.
nexox writes,
> I understand that lots of people use Windows with the built in CIFS file
> sharing, or even UPNP/DNLA, but honestly those protocols are pretty weak
> when compared with NFS (especially over UDP on wired ethernet.)
And do the boxes support NFS over TCP? (Older implementations of NFS
were UDP only.) Personally I'd like to see something better than NFS.
Too bad that popularity seems to be inversely related to quality.