Customer Reviews

Akimbo AP1200 Video on Demand Player

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I preordered this system from the actual Akimbo company back in October and have since returned the system. It is very easy to set up and works just fine. The problem lies with the content that Akimbo has aquired rights to. If you dream of downloading whatever you want to your TV in good picture quality, you can leave those dreams on the outside of this box. First off, Akimbo jumped the gun releasing these systems. They have a small amount of content they have aquired rights to and its BORING content!! They brag about having over 10,000 different programs to watch. The stuff offered to download is junk!! Short films, movie trailers and video game previews aside from Luxury TV (some junk I can see on E!). The channels offered are what Akimbo can get the rights to at the time and nothing else!! I set my system up and watched all content within a day. Now, when I complained about content, Akimbo told me to look at the future content coming down the line. That was more junk. Old cult classic movies and inspirational television?? They recently signed Turner Classic Movies and thats supposed to be a big deal?? I can turn on my cable box and tune into that!! If you are shopping around for an OnDemand system I would really hold off on this one. Its release was too soon and it may get better but its not looking like it. Plus paying $9.99 a month for the content is a joke! I returned my system within 2 weeks and I am getting a full refund. I wouldn't waste your hard earned money! Save it for movie rentals or Payper View.

Totally agree with the first reviewer concerning content, or rather, the lack thereof. The amount of stuff available on this thing is worse than nil, because it's mostly free, low-quality, BORING clips that you can get FOR FREE on the Internet by yourself. (E.g., try Microsoft's windowsmedia.com.) I haven't tried the premium channels but that's because there's NOTHING worth paying extra for. Downloads are slow and the video quality is VHS-like. I'm afraid to say this is a rip-off despite its cutie-looking interface. Do not buy!

Akimbo's not the greatest, granted. But it does allow access to programming not normally available to the regular television viewer. Akimbo's cool because you get original programming and favorites from top tv networks, plus the service continues to improve. If on-demand is the future of television, this is a sneak-peak.

The Akimbo media player allows you to watch on your TV content that you choose and download from their servers over your broadband connection, for $10/month (or a $200 lifetime subscription). Interesting idea, but obviously what makes it or breaks it is the availability of interesting or exclusive content. Unfortunately, as many reviewers have pointed out, Akimbo is not delivering in this area.

In the FAQ section of their web site, Akimbo answers the question "why should i get Akimbo when I can download and watch videos on my computer for free" by saying they offer a better viewing experience. If that's all they offer, they should be worried: many products available today allow you to stream video (MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, DiVX, WMV) from your computer to the TV in your living room. None of them requires a monthly charge, and they are almost all cheaper than the Akimbo player despite offering better features. Happauge MVP, Roku HD1000 (high definition network player), IOData LinkPlayer (DVD player with hi-def DiVX streaming player), even the lowly XBox can easily be hacked and turned into a streaming video player.

In my opinion, Akimbo has missed its window of opportunity. Interesting concept, nice implementation, but too expensive and not enough interesting or unique content to justify the fees.

[Edit - May 2008, 3 years later]
Akimbo finally calls it quits. I guess my initial review was right...

When you buy an Akimbo you buy it because you are an early adopter. This company created a new method for content distribution that earned it the "Best of CES Show" and "Best of What's New" from Popular Science. It works. It's good. And there's no $10 a month fee yet, despite what some users are saying. (The "free-for-all" offering is decent.) Though the content may not yet be available, there's a bunch of new stuff coming. I was able to beta test a unit and I can say that, from an inside source, there are quite a few partners that are going to sign on with Akimbo in the future. No, this isn't an HD box, but if you think about that amount of data that would have to be downloaded over a high-speed connection, this is unrealistic for this type of technology. The Akimbo unit has come a long way from the one I first tested and it doesn't crash or break when you use it! This is like a Mac for PVR (Personal Video Recording) technology. (It's Windows based though, using WMV9...) It's designed for people that want an easy to use interface, but it's powerful enough for the more advanced user, too!

This is the PERFECT gift for college students (or high school boarding school students), especially ones that live in dorm rooms. This is because you can't upgrade your cable service in on-campus housing, and with the Akimbo you can watch what you want. When I was in boarding school we didn't even have cable/sat TV, so this would have been great in high school! (We did have high-speed hookups in the dorms.) I'm giving it four stars for the technology that is there; there's room to improve to five stars when the content is available. If you're an early adopter, then the Akimbo is for you.

O.K., I don't own an Akimbo...yet. I currently use Real Player to watch British TV on Demand (BBC and Channel 4 news). The quality isn't there on Real Player. Quite frankly the technology is new and real player often doesn't provide the content I want in that BBC news broadcasts don't repeat when they are finished. I receive the BBC 10 O'Clock news after it has finished with a screen saying the program is over. Channel 4 News is also by story. Hey, the early pioneers of satellite TV can tell you the same thing (I remember a friend proudly showing me a realtime broadcast of a cricket match that would never have been shown on ESPN). Maybe the content isn't there yet (I've told Akimbo about BBC news and some other internet services),but they could get some great stuff. And the pictures on broadband broadcasts can be pretty good. I'm all for it if someone can give me the content I want when I want it in a manner that compliments my high def TV. Cable just doesn't cut it and neither does Satellite. This just may be the technology I want to meet my needs.