Syabas & PopcornHour

We had the chance to talk to the management at Syabas, the parent company of media centre manufacturer PopcornHour, which successfully drove the market forward at a time when growth was relatively static by developing incredibly flexible products.  For them, a media centre isn't a product that's fixed in time: it evolves, adding new features not just via firmware updates, but also with tools developed by users themselves.

We asked them about four main topics:

- General Questions
- New Interface
- Technical Issues
- The Competition

1. General Questions: second generation NMTs, new models and TV tuners

DigitalVersus: First generation NMTs from various manufacturers really took off.  For the time being though, apart from the PopcornHour, no second generation (200 series) products are available.  Is that something you planned to happen, or do we just need to be patient while we're waiting for third parties to bring second-generation NMTs to market?

Syabas/PopcornHour: Syabas' NMT brand, Popcorn Hour, has been quite successful.  We're proud of it and the community of users who constantly improve upon it and push us to improve.  We can't comment on other companies' products or plans but think we're pushing forward to the next generation with our Popbox media centre, which will be available in the United States this Spring.

Until now, no Popcorn Hour units have included HD TV tuners.  Our readers often ask if we know about any plans to include this feature, and for many for them it would make a perfect media centre, with the widest possible range of features.  Can we expect to see a D-200 one day, a C-200 with a tuner?  Or are you considering adding the ability to connect a tuner via a USB port?  And if you are planning either of these things, can you tell us when they'll be ready?

We are constantly evaluating new features such as tuners but have nothing to announce at this time. Our latest innovation takes a different approach and focuses on delivering great content via Internet applications.  You'll see a great push for that in our Popbox media centre and its app-based platform where our content partners can offer their services through your existing broadband internet connection. While Popbox is being designed and launched for the US (Ed: and will have video demand and Web TV services), it could make its way to our European consumers down the road. Additionally the Popbox application store is being added to the Popcorn Hour C-200 and A-200 units and will feature as many apps as possible from the Popbox.

In general, what models are you planning to release this year?

We announced Popbox at CES Unveiled in January and have received a tremendous response.  Additionally we launched the Popcorn Hour A-200 in January and have been quite pleased with the market's response.


2. New Interface: Flash-based, with a video jukebox--and a web brower?

The new Flash-based interface looks very promising.  Can you tell us a little bit more about it?  For example, will the video section include a video jukebox features similar to YAMJ?  And if it will include this feature, will users need to run an app on a PC first, or will the device itself be able to generate the jukebox?

The Flash-based interface for PopcornHour, called Rich UI, is a combination of three parts, a data aggregator, a standardized database and a graphical presentation. We're locking down the database section so that users can mix and match data aggregators and presentations to fit their preferences.

For example, if the default UI isn't something you like and you would rather have something done by YAMJ, then you can install that on the box instead. Or if you have a better online database to pull metadata from, something with local movie information, then you can change that out as well.  We've built Popcorn Hour for the hobbyist and enthusiast who wants to customize their experience and has the expertise to do so.


From what we've read on various forums and heard from own readers, we get the impression that the YAMJ project is one of the biggest players in the NMT world.  The app was developed by an NMT user, Stuart Boston, along with some others, rather than your company.  A lot of users get confused about the difference between YAMJ and NMT and think that all NMTs come with YAMJ ready to go.  Why don't you explore this avenue more, and perhaps work with Stuart to help integrate this feature? Your team could help develop a GUI to configure and use YAMJ, for instance, or even include YAMJ in the basic NMT set-up?

Popcorn Hour is a community-driven project.  We're constantly in touch with our most active users via our forums.  We have spoken with the YAMJ creators as well as other movie jukebox creators and are working with them to create a standardized database. That way their presentations and aggregators can work with ours, or other user-generated ones. The new Rich UI will run entirely on the box, without the need for a PC to always run the script.

At the moment, some media centres are starting to add web browsers.  Is that something you're thinking about including in a PopcornHour product?

We're evaluating the right way to bring Internet content, and possibly a browser, to the TV.  Currently, for users, content owners and distributors we feel Popbox's Flash Lite-based experience offers a robust, consistent and navigable experience for the user.
 

If you were to introduce a web browser, would you consider including a remote that contained a keyboard to make typing text easier?  The Dlink Boxee Box for instance will include a similar remote.
 
Regardless of whether or not we introduce a browser, we are looking at how to better enable text entry. Popbox, for example, features an on-screen keyboard to keep the remote simple.  We want to make search as easy as possible while enabling the functionality the user needs.  Currently, our bias is to focus on bringing better remotes to market with partners, such as Eyecon, and to look at what's possible with companion smartphone applications for iPhone, Android and the other global platforms.


3. Technical Issues: network problems and automatic firmware updates

We know that Sigma Designs' Gigabit Ethernet controller is proving problematic and can't provide the bitrate that we'd expect from a Gigabit Product.  Is Sigma working to solve this problem or will it be fixed only with the next generation of this chip?

We work very closely with Sigma, who is a great partner, and have brought this to their attention. They're looking at addressing the issue but we don't have any concrete details at this time.  It should be noted that gigabit support only affects data transfer speeds (Ed: i.e., for copying files from your computer to the media centre). Even the most demanding Blu-ray file is below the 10/100 spec as far as bitrate is concerned.

One of your brand's main strengths is the frequency with which you update your products.  A lot of ordinary users don't always think to check for firmware updates though.  Why not include an automatic system that periodically checks for firmware updates and lets the user know?

That's a great question.  To this point we've leaned away from forcing updates and don't assume that every device in the field is network accessible, given the HDD and USB capabilities.  We're also sensitive to user privacy concerns.  We are, however, always looking to improve our firmware update process and take great pride in constantly improving the firmware with bug-fixes and new functionality. We would like to use this opportunity to ask your readers if they would like auto loading of updates. In the past we have taken a slightly more conservative approach where the consumer checks to see if there are updates available and then decides to install them or not.

4. The Competition: media centres vs HTPCs

A lot of readers find that the cost of high-end media centres like the C200 is far too expensive when they can get a HTPC for the same price but with more features.  What do you think about that?  What advantages do NMTs have over HTPCs in your eyes?

HTPCs are great, really, with all the power of a PC in a box designed to connect to your TV. But usually you're required to build those yourself, you need to pay for software to add features, there's a bit of setup and maintenance involved and then in the end you still have a Personal Computer not a media centre, something that's built from the ground up to support the user experience. HTPCs are costly when all is said and done. Our players are designed with the “10 foot experience” in mind and, we believe, provide a tremendous value to users.


Given the pricing of the Atom/Ion platforms, as well as the Nvidia Tegra, have you thought about moving over to these platforms, or are you planning on sticking with Sigma Designs?

Sigma is a great partner, and we're proud of what we're able to build and deploy with them.  We are, of course, constantly evaluating new platforms and technologies to ensure that our customers get the best product, experience and value.

In general, what are the advantages of Sigmas's chips compared to the Atom platform now that it can handle HD acceleration?

We haven't sufficiently compared the two to discuss the advantages of one over the other. But we know that the Sigma platform can support very high bit rate, high quality decoding that our users expect. This is the bar we want to achieve regardless of the platform going forward.

Our thanks go to Syabas and Scott Walters