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The Internet Media Hardware Entertainment

ExtremeTech Reviews Akimbo Internet-Movie Box 57

Posted by timothy from the don't-most-pcs-do-this dept.
prostoalex writes "ExtremeTech published a review of Akimbo DVR, a $229 box that coupled with $10 monthly subscription fee and a broadband connection would provide access to a variety of Internet-only shows. ExtremeTech review is positive, although it does mention that downloads take long time, the content is not what one would call rich, and quality of the video differs, since the Windows Media files are coming from a variety of providers. Inside Akimbo one can find a 733 MHz Celeron, 64 MB of SDRAM, 80 GB hard drive and Windows CE. Even though the reviewers keep calling the Akimbo product a DVR, it's not perfectly clear whether a basic DVR function (recording TV content on schedule) is supported."
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ExtremeTech Reviews Akimbo Internet-Movie Box More

ExtremeTech Reviews Akimbo Internet-Movie Box

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  • legal issues also? (Score:1, Insightful)

    by KingPunk ( 800195 )
    ok, now that i got the 1st post. lets get to buisness. heh.

    i wonder what kind of real legal issues that they'll be getting into now,
    considering that this provides the pvr feature, that many
    television networks, and private-tv based movie sales people
    love to hate.

    • Re:legal issues also? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dlZ ( 798734 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:08PM (#10804764) Journal
      My largest question regarding this would be the quality of the video. I've seen way too many downloaded clips with offset audio or super grainy video. Why would I want to pay money, be it a nominal fee, to wait hours to get crappy video. And the fact that it may or may not be a DVR. As a DVR, it may well be worth the purchase, when you figure in the extra content.

    • Re:legal issues also? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:11PM (#10804781) Homepage Journal
      The blurb says they cant decide if it does act as a pvr.
      Also, the content available isn't exactly what most people would consider amazing.
      For example, one of the "channels" you can PURCHASE is:

      FILMCLIX

      Independent feature films, extreme sports, award-winning documentaries, foreign films and music documentaries. Five titles with two new titles added every month.

      Rental: $1.49 - $2.49 / 7 days

      I'm not knocking the idea per-say, and I would happily shell out for a net based service if I could choose the current popular shows via BT.

  • It's not a PVR (Score:5, Informative)

    by node 3 ( 115640 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:08PM (#10804762)
    From the FAQ:
    Does the Akimbo Player have DVR/PVR functionality? Record shows over cable, pause TV, rewind and instant replay?

    The Akimbo player will pause; rewind and instant replay your downloaded programs. The Akimbo Player does not record your cable or satellite programs.
    • If you pretend that the websites are the channels, and that you are doing a bitstream record like DirecTivo, then it might be considered a PVR even if it doesn't capture over-the-air or conventional cable.

      I must say, this would require a fat connection to get good download times AND good video quality, even using one of the MPEG-4 variants or WMV. If the video is 1.5Mbps, then that would require a better connection than some DSL services can provide for many areas.

    • Re:It's not a PVR (Score:3, Interesting)

      by PetiePooo ( 606423 )
      Inside Akimbo one can find a 733 MHz Celeron, 64 MB of SDRAM, 80 GB hard drive and Windows CE.

      Sounds an awful lot like my XBox.. [system-mods.com] but with a smaller HDD.. [maxtor.com] and no MS software! [xboxmediacenter.de]

  • "After Dark" Programming (Score:5, Funny)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:10PM (#10804776) Journal
    Hot Damn it carries Naked News! Who cares about the other features!

  • Alright, I ordered one but then cancelled it ! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:14PM (#10804795)
    For one reason, I bought Windows Media Center 2005 at OEM with the remote to qualify for Hardware OEM builder. This definitely kicks anything out there (for $160 total). I hooked up Windows Media Center 2005 to my LCD tv and I get HDTV like video streaming from my network. Very nice.

    Akimbo on the other hand is a porn machine. There's tons of porno on that system for further money but is it worth it? Nope. That and I have a dusty Xbox in my livingroom just waiting for Xbox Media Center Extender to transfer all my music and videos plus giving me access to all of my online services for not much money. Akimbo, sure there's some targeted shows but nothing you can't watch with Windows Media Center, and in a couple of days Xbox Media Center entender kit.

    Add a Linksys NAS device for $79 and a Lacie terabyte USB 2.0 block with an old pc and you have a multimedia center for under 1.2 ghees.
    • You think it's kewl that you spend $900 on PC hardware, $130 on WinXP Pro (OEM) and $160 on Windows Media Center????

      And now you want to throw more money at it to 'extend' the features?

      Take off the blinders and wakeup! You sound like a 15 year old virgin who just made out with the old lunch lady, saying "WOW! That's the best sex I ever had!"

      I know it must be exciting to uncover a 'new' technology, but it is old news and has been done more ways than Paris Hilton.

      If you are going to share a single experie

  • XBOX? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by TheUnknownOne ( 810624 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:15PM (#10804800)
    So the thing is basicly an XBOX running a different version of windows? I mean the stats are pretty much the same :)

    • Re:XBOX? (Score:2, Informative)

      by rsrsharma ( 769904 )

      Yeah, actually, it's so damn close that it's almost like they ripped the hardware out of an XBox and stuck it in the case... the XBox has a 733 MHz Pentium III-based Celeron processor (with a modified version of the Tutalin core I belive), 64MB of RAM, and a NVidia GPU. Although the processor that's in the XBox is specially made for this purpose, maybe this company got their hands on the exclusive supply?

      Also, what about expandability? (Note- I haven't RTFA yet, so don't bash me.) I'm guessing that there a

      • with a modified version of the Tutalin core I belive

        The CPU in the XboX is a 733Mhz Coppermine Celeron. The only difference between it and a regular Celeron is that it uses a 133Mhz FSB instead of 100Mhz. This doesn't necessitate a core change, just a different multiplier, which is set when the core is attached to the organic substrate that carries the pins.

  • MythTV? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So how long until someone upgrades one of these boxes to run MythTV? Of course without a TV tuner it might not be worth it.
    • Well, I don't see much interest and big challenge doing so, since it's about the same box as the Xbox, for about the same price if you include the mod-chip. This maybe an interesting MythTV client, why putting a TV tuner to turn it into a MythTV server. Run the MythTV backend on a server with enough CPU power to transcode, record and feed live TV to your client box. Anyway, that's more or less what they offer with the 10$/month subscription plus the pay-per-view shows,without live TV, just already recorded

  • Why CE? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Slashdotted ( 665535 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @10:39PM (#10804911)
    Even Microsoft is pushing Media Center Edition (MCE), with a strategy to push media to "extenders" like Xboxes and TV-boxes. What's the purpose of CE other than being able to use skimpy hardware? Would you want skimpy hardware encoding your movies?

    • Re:Why CE? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Let's see. The license cost for WinCE is much smaller than MCE. The Akimbo box has no video input, so MCE's PVR features are wasted. MCE requires more expensive hardware to run. Did I mention that the Akimbo box has no video input, thus it doesn't do any encoding? RTFA next time.

    • "Would you want skimpy hardware encoding your movies?"

      hopefully there's a dedicated hardware mpeg encoding chip, so you don't have to rely on the main cpu for encoding...

  • one pic says 1/2 of GreenCine titles are free (Score:3, Interesting)

    by artifex2004 ( 766107 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:05PM (#10805010) Journal
    Yet when I go to the Akimbo website, they say the titles have to be bought.

    I wonder whether that article used a prerelease press pic instead of something real, or whether the deal really hadn't been worked out yet when the writer reviewed the box. Regardless, it's making me wary of the rest of their content claims.

    I'm not convinced a long-term niche really exists for this box, either, but that's another matter.

  • What a LOAD? (Score:3, Informative)

    by poptones ( 653660 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:12PM (#10805033) Journal
    At least LOAD was free and ran on any winoze peecee. Unless that ten bucks a month is going to be invested into licensing some exclusive content that doesn't suck I don't see anything here that one couldn't get with any other broadband enabled computer.

    It didn't fly [wired.com] five years ago [google.com] when this sort of thing was relatively unique [medialifemagazine.com], I sure don't see it flying now.

    This has the fingerprints of Warstler all over it. Morgan, are you out there?

    "Ahh, good times..."

  • Tricky business model (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Wesley Felter ( 138342 ) <wesley@felter.org> on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:14PM (#10805041) Homepage
    First you pay for the box, then you pay $10/month just to allow the box to work, then you pay for whatever you want to watch. It might be cheaper than digital cable with VOD, but with such a big upfront cost, many people will never take the chance.

  • What a dumb business plan (Score:4, Insightful)

    by EvilMagnus ( 32878 ) on Friday November 12, 2004 @11:16PM (#10805045)
    No, really. Whoever thought of this one is either trying to pull a fast one, or is really stupid.

    Who is the target audience for this? Early adopter techies? Who already have a broadband connection, bittorrent and a decent PC? Why would they want or need another piece of kit (and a *subscription* piece at that!) to get porn from the internet?

    This thing isn't a DVR, but costs the same as a Tivo or ReplayTV. Same price, less functionality! I predict this device will go the way of DivX - the rental DVD idea, not the codec.

  • That's what's needed. It looks like they're on the right track, but still have a way to go. IF they could license BBC programming for streaming/storage, they'd take off huge. There's a huge market for BBC stuff in the US, but we're only getting a small taste via BBC America and PBS stations.

    I mentioned it to my brother, and he thought it would be worth the monthly cost just to get commercial-free 'adult swim' and 'cartoon network' feeds, assuming those were not PPV.

    I think if they get more variety soon
    • I'm just not too crazy about forking over money for a device running Windows. MS gets enough money from me already, I would prefer a non-MS competitor. I really wonder why DirecTivo isn't offering more content packages like this? I'd be subscribing in a heartbeat. As it is, you get the standard PPV 'box office smashes' and sporting events you could get via regular cable. Give me something different (which akimbo seems to be trying) without MS involved and I (and others) will be there in a flash.
  • Those specs sound suspiciously close to a modded xbox.
  • Windows CE ? come on... they can do better than that!

    Every day that I read /. I start loving my MythTV [mythtv.org] box ;) more and more...

  • with bitorrent and RSS (Score:3, Interesting)

    by enrico_suave ( 179651 ) on Saturday November 13, 2004 @12:10AM (#10805250) Homepage
    you can do the same without the hardware...

    Bit Torrent + RSS: some dudes blog on his setup [pealco.net]
    *Shrug*
  • TechTV, prior to any merger talk with G4, reviewed this and I believe it was a "Don't Buy it" or something product on Fresh Gear.

    The TechTV experts loved the premise, but the implementation sucks. Plus it's a lousy DVR compared to Cable TV DVR's, let alone TiVo. Lastly, even if those issues were taken care of, the amount of programming stinks. You should only get it when it has plenty of programming to justify the cost.

    Right now it's content reminds me of the free stuff you could get on the Internet in 20
  • Here is a very informative article about this industry:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A216 5-2004Oct27.html [washingtonpost.com]

    Last week I talked with the CTO Tom Hammer about a business partnership. This company will be bankrupt in 24 months.

    Their decision to go with Windows CE was based on cost. The WinCE license is only $3 per box. IMHO their choice of WinCE shows a lack of imagination and a lack of vision. They probably did it because they wanted the partnership with Microsoft. But they also intend to g
  • Take a look at the remote's larger image. No "record" button. :-)

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