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ExtremeTech Reviews Akimbo Internet-Movie Box

Posted by timothy on 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."

4 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. It's not a PVR by node+3 · · Score: 5, Informative
    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.
  2. Re:XBOX? by rsrsharma · · Score: 2, Informative

    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 are DIMM slots in the motherboard. The only way to expand on the XBox's (measly) 64MB is the buy some chips and solder the (surface-mounted) chips in by hand. And even that requires a hacked bios (Cromwell).

    So, anybody have plans to change this thing into a basic Linux box? I.e. basic word processing, internet, e-mail, etc with a basic (preferrably) Gnome desktop? Any takers?

  3. What a LOAD? by poptones · · Score: 2, Informative
    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 five years ago when this sort of thing was relatively unique, 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..."

  4. TechTV (Prior to G4) reviewed this and AVOID IT by pappy97 · · Score: 2, Informative

    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 2000. Boooring (besides the porn selections)...