Review of Blockbuster's MediaPoint Digital Media Player

Blockbuster is shipping the new MediaPoint digital media players, and the first units are already in the hands of customers, including HackingBlockbuster and Zatz Not Funny. This review includes photos and a short video of the MediaPoint in action.

Here are some quick facts about the MediaPoint:

The MediaPoint is free with 25 pre-paid rentals ($99), and rentals range from $1.99 to $3.99.

There are approximately 2,000 movies available for rental now.

Some titles will be available at the same time as the DVD release, but others will be delayed (I've noticed 2 - 4 week delays on some titles). The Dark Knight should be available on the same day as the DVD release.

The MediaPoint includes composite cables, but you'll have to buy component or HDMI cables separately.

Audio out is currently limited to stereo.

The MediaPoint has 8gig of storage, and it can hold 5 or 6 movies at a time.

There are about 13 HD titles available currently (mostly iMax titles).

Movies are downloaded to the box and are not streamed, so slower DSL or cable customers can still watch movies. Fast forward and rewind is not available until the movie has completely downloaded.

This is a short video of the MediaPoint in action, including searching, renting, and playing movies:

Here's a photo of the retail packaging for the MediaPoint:

This is a photo of the MediaPoint player. It's square and measures about 8" on a side, and is a little more than 1" high.

A view of the back of the MediaPoint player. Ports, from left to right: USB, digital audio out, line out, composite video, component video, HDMI, ethernet, and power. There is a SD slot in the front of the unit, but nothing happened when I inserted a SD card with photos.

Here's a size comparison of Blockbuster's MediaPoint and Netflix's Roku Player:

A comparison of the Blockbuster (white) and Roku (black) remotes.

When you first configure the MediaPoint, you need to pair the box with your Blockbuster account. The player will display a code that you enter on http://www.blockbuster.com/settopbox.

This is the MediaPoint user interface. The menus are on the left, and this shows the "Featured" titles.

This screen shows the movie rental dialog:

Once a movie has been rented, it takes about a minute before it is ready to play:

The MediaPoint fits perfectly with Blockbuster's focus on new release titles -- Netflix can't offer a lot of them for streaming without charging a per-movie rental fee. Giving away the player with pre-paid rentals should help them sell the MediaPoint to customers. Roku has reportedly sold more than 100,000 Roku Players for $99, and Blockbuster has millions of online and retail customers they can market the box to.

One problem is finding and renting movies on a set-top box, something that Netflix requires customers to do on the web. Blockbuster enables searching for movies on the player, but I'm wondering if it will be difficult to find movies when there are 10,000 or more titles available on the box. It would be nice if MediaPoint titles showed up in your Blockbuster Online Queue.

I did experience some issues with speed that required rebooting the player, but it is the first day the MediaPoint is publicly available, so some quirks are to be expected.

What do you think of the MediaPoint player?

Comments

[GuidoTKP]

Thanks for creating a blog for us BB users!
What if I don't have a LAN connection near my TV. Can I get this onto my WiFi?

Are the movies HD or DVD quality?

Thanks,
GUIDO (yes, me)

[GuidoTKP]

Oh.. yeah.. one more thing.. Too bad that these rentals are not included in the Blockbuster online program.

[digifan]

The zatsnotfunny article says it supports WiFi, and everything else I've read says the movies are DVD quality and there is some HD.

[Ken]

I have one.
Yes it supports both Ethernet and WiFi. Most movies are DVD quality with a few iMax HD movies.

[Ken]

They have done several software upgrades. I'm up to rev 45 now.

[GuidoTKP]

Why do we still call these "set top boxes".
With most of the TVs being LCD or Plasma, there is no way these boxes will fit on top of the set.

:)

[WolfWoman24]

I want to know if they will make it available as a software download for us HTPC (in my case Media Center) people. I don't want another box when I have a quad 2.8 pc already there. Integration with "My Movies" would be a great added bonus :o)
I would also love for it to be integrated into one of their rental plans; Online, Instore and/or Snail Mail would be a great option.