Blockbuster OnDemand Gets Unboxed

Blockbuster's OnDemand video streaming box was promised before the holidays, and Dave Zatz has just taken delivery of his.  The 2Wire-made streamer offers access to over 2,100 titles, including movies and TV shows; first-impressions suggest it's a neat, if initially frustrating, option.

Bizarrely, a wired ethernet connection refused to work for Dave, but WiFi connected straight away.  The OnDemand box downloads content direct to an 8GB USB stick glued inside; the memory proved unreadable by Dave's Mac.  So far there's no sign of life from the SD port mounted on the front.

Compared to Roku's Netflix box, the Blockbuster system is larger and the remote has more options.  You can also queue up content from your TV screen, rather than having to do it on your computer as with Netflix's streaming service.  However the big drawback for Blockbuster could be the sales model: there's no all-you-can-eat option as with Netflix, meaning that once your prepaid credits are used up you're looking at $1.99 for every new film.