ddubois posted the above statement to the forums, in a long thread . He has a popcorn hour that he's unhappy with and wanted to understand what's different about the LINK relative to the popcorn hour, etc. and I thought it was worth a post here too:

Here's why I, as a user, like the LINK over the popcorn hour and the other DMAs:

YouTube has started a HD section , and, no surprise, it plays on the LINK today. Once again, if you want all the latest internet TV advances, as they come out, you need a system that uses the open standards that those services will inevitably be built on. Buy a traditional electronics device and keep your fingers crossed that your brand's CEO is buddies with the new service, otherwise you're hosed .

NewTeeVee for more information

In what's surely your last chance to get a LINK for Christmas, ThinkGeek has a limited quantity of the devices available for immediate shipment.

The concept of an open set-top box is new and a place that Linux has a very favorable opportunity. Unlike the desktop, where compatibility with legacy applications and peripherals is a serious impediment, the set-top box simply has to play today's available content. Today the Neuros LINK, with Flash 10 and many other media plug-ins, is a lot of the way there already. There's only a handful of content sources that don't already play, and most of the pieces and parts are available for them as well. Once we incorporate those sources, there's little reason that anyone would need a full fledged PC connected to their PC, and even less reason for Windows.

As anyone that's struggled with getting legacy applications and peripherals on a Linux desktop knows, critical mass is important, and just like the desktop, there are liable to be winners and losers. Help us to make sure that Linux achieves the critical mass it needs to make sure that content producers and hardware makers ensure compatibility with Linux. Overall you don't necessarily have to own a LINK to complete a bounty, but some of the issues are hardware related, so ultimately to claim the bounties it will have to work on one of our devices in the office.

The Chicago Tribune published a story The 10 greatest TV episodes of Christmas that's practically a case study in the future of television: A third party is aggregating content from a variety of sources (coming from a period of decades) and you can watch it all where and when you want. it's self serving, but nonetheless true, that you can't browse this list on the AppleTV, XBox 360 or any of the other closed systems. If you want to watch this on your TV, you can either connect your PC to the TV, or use the Neuros LINK . In addition to the show links that are shown in the article, you can find most of the full length shows, by searching on Neuros.TV

The question we continually ask ourselves at Neuros is what will the future of TV browsing look like. Just as channel surfing gave way to the DVR's captured show model, we can expect all kinds of new forms of browsing, and things like the Tribune's list are a part of how we'll browse TV in the future.

You may recall Joost as the P2P TV service created by the founders of Skype and Kazaa. Its an interesting service that has some content you can't find elsewhere, including some "Joost Presents" content. I was able to find a number of full length CNN shows that I couldn't find elsewhere. Obviously the Joost folks are experts in P2P distribution with a host of sophisticated tools they've developed from their previous experience. Although they've recently moved to a flash interface, I suspect we haven't heard the last of their P2P tools since it has such advantages in high bandwidth applications like video.

In any case, it's supported today with the Neuros LINK so its adding to your available content. Obviously, this is a key part of the Neuros LINK's positioning, that adopting open standards will give users more access to content and certainly Joost's content is a welcome addition.

Amazon's Video on Demand Service is a great service. 20,000 titles, lots of rentals, and great convenience. All with no subscription fees or contracts. Rentals are $.99 to $3.99 and there's nothing to lose or return. But so far choices for viewing on the TV have been pretty limited, a couple of proprietary devices or connecting the PC to the TV.

It's been less than a week since our launch , we're still digging ourselves out of our order backlog, but we feel it's important to get a fast start on demonstrating new content sources. That's the power of our unique open approach, and you'll see more of it unfolding rapidly in the coming weeks and months. The open approach really allows us to run circles around the other electronics manufacturers, who are inching along trying to extend their proprietary technologies to the open internet.

So check out our Neuros LINK Gamma Program and join us in creating the open solution that connects the TV to the Internet in the way that makes sense for viewers and content providers alike.

If you're like most folks watching the "set-top box" industry, you're probably thinking that the last thing the world needs is another set-top box. All the major manufacturers have them in various proprietary shapes and flavors and none of them have really satisfied viewers desires.

Meanwhile, it's pretty obvious there's a need to connect the internet with the television. It's the worlds largest and most rapidly growing collection of content and 2008 is the year it really became comprehensive. Today the bulk of the network's broadcast content is officially available online. If we needed any more proof, it was just announced that the US president elect will have a weekly video address available only online.

Our experiences with open electronics over the last six years made the solution pretty clear to us. What's needed is a device squarely between the dedicated, proprietary electronics devices and the powerful but clunky and expensive personal computer. What's needed is a device that uses the open internet standards as they exist today to bring existing content, as is, to user's TV sets. If you want to provide access to the vast wealth of free internet video, a device must support all the standards, including Adobe Flash. That product is called the Neuros LINK and it's available now as a Gamma Product with a four month no questions asked return period.