The ON DEMAND player is similar in shape to an AppleTV (but with a black and white trim), and takes its cue from the Internet by using a server to download titles for viewing. These are saved into flash memory, a departure from streaming or using a hard drive, also allowing playback to be presented in a progressive format that provides for better video. However, since the box won’t work if it can’t see the server, forget about taking it to Grandma’s broadband-free house.
Titles range from free to $1.99/$2.99/$3.99 (plus tax), with the usual copy protection that deletes after 30 days or 24 hours once viewing starts. There’s a fair amount of recent and classic films to choose from (2200+ available), and since rentals are based on a per-title basis, there’s no monthly subscription charges.
Setup is extremely simple: plug it in for power, use an HDMI, Component, S-Video or Composite for video and an optical out or pair of RCAs for audio (stereo being the only choice). Onscreen wizards guide you through connecting to the Internet (wired is automatic, wireless requires choosing the network/entering a password) and setting the TV’s resolution (up to 1080i). You do have to sign up for a free Blockbuster account and register the box and enter credit card information, but once this is done you never need go to the PC again.
So I cycled through menus like Just Added and Drama and Action and chose the Search menu to find 1988’s Big Top Pee-Wee. Once rented, the download started and a progress bar appeared - a screen informing that until the download completed, you can’t go forward/backward but can only watch/pause the movie. I was able to start watching in about a minute, which was also the case when using the built-in WiFi which doesn’t use the fastest ‘N’ standard. The included palm-sized remote will take a bit of getting used to though, as it has color keys for specific functions and a non-standard layout.
Stopping Pee-Wee from playing and returning to the menu, I selected the classic Adam’s Rib and saw it was being queued since Pee-Wee’s download was still going on. So since I didn’t know how many titles the box could store, I put the listing of Dolphins-IMAX which is in HD into the Favorites menu to download later (HD took about 4X longer to download, by the way). I also simulated a power failure later by pulling the AC plug - the download of Dolphins which was less than 1/2 done started up again once the box recycled (suggestion: use an uninterruptible power supply).
yes the a/v quality is very good, the download speed is also ok for me and I can keep multiple movies, some last for one month.
Technically, media stream w/o hard disk, latest movie compression (WMV) of high quality movie, wired/wireless conncetion, these seems new to its field, and would be a trend soon. I also hope free TV can be added on thus I can get rid of cable/sat.