Would You Rather Have an HTPC or a Set-Top Box?

Yesterday I purchased a Home Theater PC to supplement my existing DirectTV hardware—although I hope to ditch cable TV/satellite providers all together sometime in the future. What I'm interested in knowing is what kind of setup you guys prefer. More »

Cable Industry Starting To Realize That They Need To Let Go Of the Box

An interesting article published on the CableFax industry webpage argues that vendors and suppliers need to loosen their grip on the set-top box in order to keep up with our increasingly open source culture. More »

Blockbuster OnDemand Download Service Coming to Blu-ray Players, Soon

Netflix streaming has been making waves with its wide, fast integration into just about anything that'll have it, and the reception has been generally positive. As has been the pattern for the last decade, Blockbuster is slightly but embarrassingly behind: according to company Chairman Jim Keyes, we'll be seeing Blockbuster's download-to-rent service in a Blu-ray player by Q1 of next year. It's not clear if this will come in the form of a firmware update for existing hardware or as part of a new player, but it'll need to be fairly ubiquitous (and probably lower its rental prices) to have a fighting chance against the 'Flix. [RegHardware]

Blockbuster MediaPoint Set-Top Box Out Now For $99

Seems like the threat of Netflix partnering up with everyone for TV downloading services has spurred Blockbuster into action. The video rental chain has finally confirmed rumors that it'll launch its own set-top box before the end of the year. For a “limited time,” their 2Wire-built MediaPoint player will be free and give you an advance rental of “25 first-run movies, TV shows, foreign or classic films from Blockbuster On-Demand for $99.” Anything after ranges from $1.99 to $3.99 a piece. More »

Neuros Hackable Open-Source Set-Top Box Updated: OSD2

Neuros has taken another stab at the open-source set-top box market, and created the "Open Source Device 2." The original OSD was aimed at developers, but ended up finding use as a DVR. The new OSD2 has a more conventional box, can encode video at 720p in MPEG-4 format, H.264 D1 resolution (that's DVD quallity) from an analog video source, upscale video to 1080i or transcode it for a PMP. It's got a serial port, IRBlaster port, connections for Wi-Fi antenna, USB, LAN, HDMI, composite video and stereo audio, and even packs an SD port. It's shipped with a Linux-based firmware stack, but is completely open to user OS hacking. Available now for $250. [Linuxdevices]

ZeeVee: One Box to Broadcast PC's HD Video All Over the House

Today, a startup called ZeeVee is launching the ZvBox, a three-part plan for getting all the good HD video content from your PC out to all the TVs in the house: More »

Motorola Readies Up MPEG-4-Ready Next-Generation Set-Top Box Army Led by DCX3400

The Scratch: Motorola is launching a new line of MPEG-4 set-tops designed for HD video and surround sound—DCX. They all rock 1GHz tuners (good for bandwidth-binging HD and VOD) and support whole home networking, which is useful for sharing DVR goodness. The DCX3400 (picture) is a dual-tuner HD DVR, while the DCX3200 is a single-tuner HD set-top and the DX100 is standard def set-top box. The Catch: Whether or not you'll see 'em on your shelf depends on your cable company. [Motorola]

Broadcom to Bring Bluetooth to Set-Top Boxes

Chip manufacturer Broadcom has gone ahead and decided to add Bluetooth to its reference platform for consumer set-top boxes. Not only does this mean that you might be able to use a Bluetooth device as a remote control, but also opens up the possibility of having direct audio transfers. That means either wireless speakers or headphones are a very easy and real possibility. Maybe Sony wasn't as crazy as we originally thought for skipping IR on the PS3. [The Register]

Dcube Mvision: HD Playback, No Discs

Bypass the Blu-ray and HD DVD "revolution" altogether with the Dcube Mvision, an HD DivX player that can also play ripped DVD files from its hard disk. This setup box plays back DivX, OGG, WMA, WMV and MP3 files from its internal hard disk, and sends Dolby 5.1 sound through optical and coaxial ports, too. More »

Coming Soon: Matrixstream 1080p IPTV Streaming

You've seen how voice-over-IP services such as Vonage and Skype have turned the world of plain old telephone service upside-down, and now Matrixstream may be just about to play a similar trick on the cable TV and satellite TV market space with its end-to-end IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) set-top box and transmission technology. More »

iSetBox-Home Multimedia Communication Center

iSetBox-Home Multimedia Communication Center is an oddly-shaped set-top box from Bulgarian company Media Systems Ltd. that uses a PixelWorks CPU running Linux. It has a DVD player, accommodates six different types of flash cards, has a PAL and NTSC digital/analog tuner, and it also functions as a networkable PVR if you spring for its optional hard drive. Attempting to cram every possible feature into the same box, it even has an FM radio. More »