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Airbox $10 per month (Spanish)

H

HoustonListener

I saw a billboard on the Southwest Freeway today for Airbox -- the billboard was in Spanish, showed a converter box, and said something about T V service being $10 per month.

I had no idea what it was, but found this.
http://houstondtv.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/airbox-channels-now-transmitted-over-ion-stations/

however, airbox.com does not appear to be an active website.

This appears to be a service of about 10 Spanish language channels send over subchannels of KPXB in MPEG 4 format that will be decoded by a box rented for $10 per month.
 
All I get is "Coming Soon." Nothing else.

- Trip
 
I get the same thing Trip does.

There's an awful lot of code on that page for something that just displays "Coming Soon"! The script for ordering and finding retailers is present. There's a tempting link in there that says (in Spanish) "Go to the home page" -- but the URL it links to is a bookmark in the page itself, a bookmark that doesn't exist.

The code for geofencing isn't in the page, but there are certainly other places it could be where we can't see it.
 
I'm going to go down to the 'hood and check out their nearest listed retailer to see if they have any printed material I can scan.
 
"Geo-fence" sounds accurate. I get the same message in Phoenix as Trip and Doug are getting in Chattanooga and Nashville.
 
I went down to the Fiesta and got a copy of the Airbox flyer.

In the fine print on page 2 it says: (translated) "Airbox programming and service only available in Houston, TX."
 
This has been tried before and it was a miserable failure. Do you recall USDTV? I think it had maybe a total of 5,000 subscribers across 3 markets. (including the DFW market) It was a disaster that cost many big name media companies millions of dollars.

Why cut cable if you're just going to stick another box on your TV and pay for that?
 
I think Airbox might have a better chance:

They're only sending six channels at an attractive price point. The channels are ones that are only available in a higher-priced cable tier, if they're available on cable at all. Plus they are promoting to a demographic that is more likely to be reliant on over-the-air TV.
 
Gridlock Joe said:
I think Airbox might have a better chance:

They're only sending six channels at an attractive price point. The channels are ones that are only available in a higher-priced cable tier, if they're available on cable at all. Plus they are promoting to a demographic that is more likely to be reliant on over-the-air TV.
Click to expand...
you may be right, but they need to keep their costs low.
 
For some reason, airbox.com worked for me in Chrome, but it would not open in Explorer (a warning about the security certificate, and then after clicking past that, it still would not connect to the page).
I am in Houston (midtown).

5 channels for $10 per month

or $10 extra dollars per month for Starz (says the audio is in both English and Spanish).

(cut and pasted from their website -the 5 channels for $10)

Teleformula
El canal de noticias más prestigioso de México con noticias de México y del mundo las 24 horas del dia.
( I have never heard of this channel so not sure how prestigious of a channel this is in Mexico, as it is described).

CineMexicano
Películas mexicanas sin cortes comerciales de todos los géneros – comedias, rancheras, dramas, romance y de acción

Pasiones
Novelas clásicas y novelas modernas de los mejores productores de México, Latinoamerica, Brazil y Corea.
(Is there a big market for Korean soap operas dubbed into Spanish? -- there are so many Spanish language channels I haven't seen any here yet)

Sorpresa
Entretenimiento en español para los niños y la juventud latina.

GolTV
El canal de futbol para el fanático del futbol. Juegos de las mejores ligas del mundo, noticas, y programas sobre el futbol los siete días de la semana
 
tested said:
This has been tried before and it was a miserable failure. Do you recall USDTV?
Click to expand...

USDTV was my first DTV converter box.
It does scan.
If the airbox scans, then it won't be a total doorstop if the service folds.
 
HoustonListener said:
There also is, according to the website, capability for PPV events, such as upcoming UFC fights and Showtime Championship boxing.
Click to expand...

Count on UFC. When they were testing last Novermber, they had UFC 139 on the Airbox 100 barker channel, which at the time, was showing unencrypted. It was a pretty good picture and although I only had time to catch 2-3 undercard matches, it was pretty good action too.
 
I've been wondering how & when MPEG-4 streams would start being added to DTV channels. I guess a subscription service is a logical starting point: since most folks will need new receivers anyhow, might as well create a revenue stream to help compensate participating stations for upgrading their equipment. If the box scans and shows unencrypted MPEG-4 streams as well as the subscription-only streams, it'll be useful even without the subscription service. Some Hispanics may be getting a tech jump on us Anglos with this!
 
JHBrandt said:
I've been wondering how & when MPEG-4 streams would start being added to DTV channels.(snip) Some Hispanics may be getting a tech jump on us Anglos with this!
Click to expand...

Some Mexican digital stations have been using MPEG-4 subchannels for quite a while now. There has been some discussion on AVS Forums about viewers in San Diego using software defined computer OTA tuners to receive MPEG-4 signals out of Tijuana.
 
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