Watch out Roku and Boxee, there’s a new kid in town. Due to be released in the next month or so and priced at $129, the  Popbox set-top box  streams Netflix videos on demand, has interactive ‘popapps’ to use on Facebook and Twitter. The clever box can also scans your home networked computers and show your home videos and photo slideshows.

Supplied by Syabas, a global provider of  set-top box software and hardware and creators of award winning Popcorn Hour C-200, the new Popbox has been designed to cater to the new tech savvy consumers and will be competing with the likes of Roku (famous for inexpensive Netflix-streaming) and Boxee (which just unveiled its $200-ish, D-Link-manufactured Boxee Box).

The Popbox itself looks like your standard black A/V set-top box, complete with HDMI and component-video outputs, USB and SD ports for plugging in memory sticks or external hard drives (reps for Popbox claim the device will play just about any non-protected video file you can throw at it), along with support for 1080p video streaming. For $149, you can also get a Popbox with 802.11n Wi-Fi capabilities.

The Popbox interface has navigation tabs along the top of the screen, a row of “popapps” with widgets for time and date, current weather, and Twitter, a “movies” screen that displays poster art and other info from IMDB for any movies that happen to be on your local network, and icons for a variety of online streaming services, ranging from Netflix and Photobucket to Facebook, Revisions3 podcasts, and streaming Shoutcast channels.

The Popbox list of around 20 providers/partners are:-

• BlipTV: Distributes 48,000 independently-produced Web shows
• Clicker: An Internet TV guide that catalogs all broadcast programming online, along with TV-quality Web originals, making it easy to discover what’s available to watch (and what isn’t) online, where to watch it and what’s worth watching
• Crunchyroll: An online video service and community that offers full-length episodes and movies of the very best in Japanese anime and Asian entertainment
• Eyecon: Enables consumers to connect to their content and seamlessly route it to any compatible playback device in the home
• FunSpot: A casual gaming service that offers everything from multiplayer board, arcade and card games to puzzles, strategy and quizzes
• Internet Movie Database: (IMDB) A video search engine that supplies the metadata that integrates a consumer’s video collection with the corresponding movie’s artwork.
• Internet Video Archive: The entertainment industry’s leading aggregator of movie and TV trailers, game previews and music videos. The channel features 500,000 unique video assets from over 1,200 content providers
• Livestation: Live video streams of international news channels to give you more choice and perspective wherever you are.
• MalaysiaKini: An independent media organization that streams Malaysian video news and views
• Mediafly: An Internet service for managing digital media shows such as video and podcasts and downloading them to many types of devices
• MetaChannels from Channels.com: A video aggregation and distribution service that enables device manufacturers and application developers to integrate the best shows on the Web into their product offerings
• Netflix: The world’s largest online movie rental service, with more than 11 million subscribers
• NextNewNetworks: Producer of online television networks that creates, packages, brands, markets and syndicates some of the Web’s most popular regularly scheduled and episodic programming
• Photobucket: The premiere site on the Internet for uploading, sharing, linking and finding photos, videos and graphics
• PicoChannel: A service that makes it easy for people to share their personal photos and videos with friends and family on connected TVs and picture frames
• Swarmcast: Transforms the Internet into a reliable medium for distributing high-quality video enables content providers to engage global audiences through high-quality viewing experiences
• Twitter: A free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables consumers to send and read messages up to 140 characters in length
• Twonky: Streams music, photos and videos to compatible devices in the home
• Waterfront Entertainment: Develops casual games for interactive TV, Web, mobile and emerging platforms
• WeatherBug: The leading provider of weather information services that manages and operates a proprietary network of over 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations

Sounds good, although you may have noticed the omission of the mighty Hulu, Syabas would not discuss their plans for future “popapp” except to promise that more are in the works. However do not expect Hulu anytime soon. Hulu are not big fans of sharing their TV shows and streams with third-party TV set-top boxes.

Latest TV searches:

roku competitors, boxee competitors, roku competitor, roku competition, hulu competitors, movietogo tv/blog/navigation, boxee competitor, boxee competition, hindi channels on roku, boxee box competitors

Related News:

1. Boxee To Launch New Internet TV Set-Top Box
2. Roku to get more Internet TV channels
3. Boxee adopts the Netflix movie streams
4. Hulu getting tough with TV.com and Boxee
5. Internet TV wars update – Boxee regains Hulu streams. Then loses them again