Popbox V8

Reviews: Media Centres

Popcorn Hour media centres are justifiably successful but are also often very expensive. Syabas, the the company behind the PCH brand, is now also offering a much more affordable media streamer, the Popbox V8. It includes a certain number of PCH features such as the built-in jukebox and the well designed applications market. Does this make the V8 a real hit in the mid-range media centre segment, or rather a damp squib? Answers below! Entirely in aluminium, the Popbox V8 casing is very compact. There's no fan and the centre therefore runs in silence - low energy consumption (5.3 Watts) means it doesn't heat up much. It is however a shame that you can't turn it off entirely. It continues to draw down 3.6 Watts in standby and there's no switch to turn the power off. The infrared remote made a good impression. All that's missing in comparison to the Popcorn Hour remotes are the number buttons. It nevertheless has the same high-end finish with excellent quality plastic, rubber buttons and the very practical backlighting. The interface is well designed and navigation through the files nice and fast. Two display methods are available: list or thumbnail. The list display simply lists the names of folders and files in tree format.