Look Out Boxee, VUDU, VuNow PoD… TVBLOB’s BLOBbox Is Ready to Challenge

By Alexander Grundner | May 14th, 2009 (4) Comments

If you believe competition is a good thing, then you’ll be interested in learning about the new BLOBbox (MSRP € 307.50) created by TVBLOB in partnership with Telsey. The BLOBbox is designed to be a multifunction mini set-top that can stream online media content & access web services without a PC, function as a DVB-T tuner PVR, stream media from your PC via UPnP, and much more. The other thing going for TVBLOB is that it’s an open platform ready for development. Anyone can join the BLOBforge network and create service tie-ins that leverage TVBLOB’s BitTorrent, podcast, or video on-demand delivery methods. TVBLOB also provides developers hooks for interactive features, pre-roll advertising, and even payment collection via PayPal.

[Interface & Product Shots]

BOX FEATURES

• Dual DVB-T tuner: for access to digital television
• HD: up to 1080p
• Internet access: to any website via a simple URL entry field (warning: most sites are NOT optimized for TV display!)
• PVR with internal hard drive: with 160 GB built-in storage
• BitTorrent support: for efficient content download/distribution
• Podcasting with automatic download: using HTTP, FTP or BitTorrent
• Personal Download Manager: using HTTP, FTP or BitTorrent
• Streaming from PC to TV: using UPnP automatic discovery
• Box access from PC via web pages: uses auto-discovery in the Home Network and TVBLOB services for access via the Internet
• File Uploader: via HTTP and FTP
• USB storage support: with playback and file management
• Samba (SMB) server

INITIAL SERVICES

Inside of the box, there is a TV portal that provides access to online services, such as:

• YouTube: accesses feeds, channels, searches, personal profiles, content sharing, and social features.
• Reeplay.it: accesses personal library, shared media, and friend management features.
• My Photos: supports Picasa; in Q1’09, Flickr and Facebook, as well.
• Miro: accesses their open directory with more than 5000 podcasts in all languages.
• Vcast: enables Internet PVR for program recording scheduling via TV or PC.
• Last.fm: accesses personal web radio.
• New services: are continually being added and we hope to see and promote yours here, as well.

So, even before you start developing anything, you’ll be able to do more things on TV, without a PC.

BOX SPECS

• Output: HDMI up to 1080p, SCART Composite video, Analog audio, Optical S/PDI
• Expansions: 2xUSB 2.0
• Network: RJ45 Ethernet 10/100, Wi-Fi b/g/n (with optional USB accessory)
• Antenna: dual DVB-T tuner with pass-through
• Stream/file formats: MP4-MOV, AVI, ASF-WMV, MP3, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS
• Video codecs: MPEG-2, H.264, WM9, DIVX, XVID
• Audio codecs: MP2, MP3, AAC, AAC-HE, WMA
• Streaming and control protocols: HTTP (with fast-start), RTP, RTCP, RTSP
• Available runtime for applications: Javascript 1.5 (with HTML 4, XHTML 1.0, CSS 2, XHR)
• Supported runtimes accessible on request: J2SE 1.4, Python, C, C++
• CPU type and speed: MIPS 300 MHz
• System RAM: 114 MB

USER REQUIREMENTS

• TV with HDMI, Scart or other AV analog input
• Internet access: via available Ethernet CAT.5 connection and DHCP for IP address assignment
• Wi-Fi b/g/n support: with an additional USB accessory

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