Free adds a new feature on the POP player, which allows you to manage everything easier

We said, in the first contact, the player Pop strikes above all by its size riquiqui. This tiny cylinder 12 cm in diameter (the size of a CD) and 2.7 cm high will have no trouble finding its place in any TV installation. But these very modest dimensions do not prevent it from displaying a very satisfactory manufacturing quality: matt matt plastic and very clean assembly are there.

Handling of Freebox Pop Player: a TV box doped with Android TV

Far from the extravagance of “player“Devialet of the Freebox Delta, Free has designed for its new Freebox Pop a TV case that wants to be as simple and effective as possible. A winning approach for the French operator ?

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Launch price 39.99 €

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It is an understatement to say that with his new Freebox Pop, Free has taken the total opposite of the Freebox Delta. Like its server part, of which we have already offered you our overview, the Freebox Pop Player proudly displays its compactness, taking the form of a very small black pebble, a thousand leagues from the co-designed triangular mastodonte With the Audio Devialet equipment supplier.

An unfair comparison, you say ? Let’s admit that you are not completely wrong: in many aspects, it seems more judicious to bring the Freebox Pop from the Freebox Mini 4K with which it shares a lot of common points – starting with an operating system based on Android TV. However, it is the operator himself who invites comparison with the Devialet case, since this player Pop can be acquired not only with the subscription of the same name, but also with the Delta subscription, to benefit from both the advantages of the latter – including the Fiber 10 GB/S – and the Free TV offer , without having to acquire in addition a bulky and expensive devialet pregnant which we would not necessarily have the utility. A very interesting possibility in itself, provided that the proposed TV experience is satisfactory – which we will check from this step.

News: Multimedia case
Handling-The Freebox Pop Server Charming, but without Wi-Fi 6

After the Delta inaugurated in 2019, Free launched a new box, the Freebox Pop. It is intended for a less expensive offer, but is not.

Knowing yourself Small

We said, in the first contact, the player Pop strikes above all by its size riquiqui. This tiny cylinder 12 cm in diameter (the size of a CD) and 2.7 cm high will have no trouble finding its place in any TV installation. But these very modest dimensions do not prevent it from displaying a very satisfactory manufacturing quality: matt matt plastic and very clean assembly are there.

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In terms of connectors, on the other hand, the case inevitably lacks space to afford great originality. The main thing is certainly assured: an RJ45 network port (the box is obviously also Wi-Fi compatible), an HDMI output, an Optical S/PDIF audio output, and a TV antenna input. The flanks of the beast are decked out of a USB 3 port (type-A) and a microSD location for external storage addition-whose use will be a necessity for many users, internal storage does not extending that out of 16 meager gigabytes. Note in passing that the player POP supports all the main file systems perfectly, including NTFS and Exfat. Finally, the pop player is compatible Bluetooth 5.0, but only on the low energy profile and not on the general profile.

Note that, as was the case with the Freebox Mini 4K at its beginnings, the Freebox Pop is supplied without CPL adapter “Freeplugs”. The connection between the server and the player must therefore be done directly either in Wi-Fi (possibly via the repeater supplied as standard), or via Ethernet. However, it is of course possible to use CPL adapters purchased separately.

On the remote control side, no more frills to report: we do in the simple and functional. The manufacturing quality is summary, although an impact is sufficient; Just one might regret the lack of backlighting. As it has almost become the standard today, the remote control communicates with the box not via infrared, but via a radio link. We can therefore without fear hide the box behind the TV or even in a piece of furniture without sacrificing the proper functioning of the zappette.

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The OQEE TV interface, a “simple” Android TV application, but reactive and pleasant

During the presentation of the Freebox Pop, Xavier Niel had insisted at length on the qualities of its OQEE TV interface, developed internally by free teams. However, this is clearly less central than one might think in the experience of using the player Pop, since it is in truth only a pre-installed application on the Android TV system of the box, and not a real overlay in the Google operating system. From the first ignition, moreover, the regulars of Android TV will feel at ease, since the initial configuration procedure of the OS is taken up without any modification.

That being said, this interface ultimately does not need to be more than that to be very satisfactory for use. Above all, we appreciate its speed: the movements in the menus are of impeccable fluidity, the zapping between a TV channel and another is almost instantaneous, as well as the launch of previews on the home screen. Same observation with regard to the programming of a recording from the Programs Guide, which is carried out in a handful of seconds only. A perfect painting, so ? Certainly not: Free will always remain free, and in these first days of existence of the Freebox Pop, it is not uncommon for a few bugs to be suffered in its software. During our test, we underwent some malfunctions of previews, and in two instances a freeze a few seconds from the interface. As usual, it will probably be necessary to wait a few weeks for the free teams to smooth out these roughness via updates of firmware. Anyway, the current degree of finish of the interface remains significantly higher than what the operator had been guilty in the past – we are very far from the bad memories of the Freebox Delta, not to mention the disaster that the Freebox Mini 4K had been at its beginnings.

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In addition to this television part, the OQEE interface also serves as a content aggregator from the “natively” applications supported by the Freebox Pop, namely Netflix, Video, Canal+ Prime (MyCanal and VOD channel), YouTube and the various services de replay TV channels. The home screen is automatically populated by recommendations decided according to user viewing habits – the latter that can create separate profiles so that the habits of one do not pollute the recommendations of the other. Alas, it is however impossible to “manually” this main profile “manually”. We would have liked, for example, being able to ask for a home screen highlighting streaming services, rather than TV channels as is the case as it is.

By pressing the “Home” button on the remote control, we leave the OQEE interface to end up in the classic Android TV interface. From here, we can access not only the advanced settings of the device, but also and above all to the Google Play Store and to abundant application catalog. This obviously makes freebox pop a versatility model: whatever the dark streaming or multimedia player that we would like to make it work on it, there is a good chance that an application is available.

The on -board processor, without being a lightning lightning, is also enough to make most of these applications run in a perfectly fluid way. So much so that pop could have become an excellent video game machine in cloud gaming. If only she had fully supported Bluetooth ! As it is, it is unfortunately not possible to connect a wireless box controller to the box. However, there remains the possibility of using a USB controller, provided of course that it is Android compatible – this is the case of the PS4 controller for example, but not the Xbox One controller.

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Finally, who says Android TV obviously says compatibility Chromecast, and integration of the Google assistant, accessible via a microphone on the remote control. The latter works here as on any Android TV case. That is to say, this deserves to be specified, that it unfortunately cannot be used in the context of the TV interface. We can thus ask him to launch Netflix, for example, but not to watch a specific TV channel, and even less to program a recording.

Multimedia reading: VLC will be quite

For the multimedia player as for the rest, Free has not bothered to rebuild what has already been built elsewhere: the Freebox Pop simply takes on the VLC application by default. The latter is no longer to be presented, and benefits from particularly exhaustive compatibility with the various codecs and audio/video containers. The circuits embedded by the box have also been able to decode all the files that we have submitted to it perfectly fluid, even for Ultra HDR HDR files at 60 Hz.

Only small frustration: VLC, like most audio/video reading applications of the Play Store, is unfortunately not able to force the image frequency of the HDMI signal to stick to that of the video being read. This is problematic in particular because the case is configured by default on a refreshment at 50 Hz (to correspond to the French television channels), which accommodates very badly of flows at 24 I/s; Even the “Reverse Pulldown” of today’s televisions can do nothing against the judder – Image trembling effect – thus caused on films.

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Generous audio/video compatibilities

On the side of supported audio/video output formats, the Freebox Pop simply has nothing to blame. On the video side, we climb without any difficulty to the ultra HD at 60 Hz, to which is added HDR10 and Dolby Vision compatibility. Better yet, it is possible, via the advanced Android TV settings, to manually force almost all video parameters, including the colorimetric sub-sample format; THE Power-users will be with angels.

With regard to audio, in addition to the essential LPCM, the player Pop also knows how to produce DTS flows, as well as all Dolby formats from the Simple Dolby Digital 5.1 at Dolby Atmos on Truehd. From this point of view, POP even allows itself to speed up the Delta, whose Atmos compatibility is only expected for next September. assuming that it has not yet been postponed by then.

A sparrow appetite and heating contained

One of the most unexpected promises formulated by Free about the Freebox Delta is that of a particularly reduced ecological footprint. There would certainly be a lot of discussion to be held on the admissibility of such a marketing discourse; But by maintaining itself at a very concrete and practical level, it must be recognized that the player Pop is a model of energy sobriety. Most of the time, it is satisfied with 2 to 3 W of power supply; And even in the least favorable case (streaming of an ultra HDR HDR video flow at 60 Hz), it never exceeded 4.5 W of instant consumption when we measure. When stopped, it is placed in a prolonged standby state which allows it to come down to negligible consumption, less than 0.1 W. The icing on the cake, this is done without any compromise of the speed of the watch outing (less than 5 seconds).

Thanks to this sparrow appetite, and despite its small size, the player POP manages to maintain very correct thermal management. At most, the temperature outside the case reaches just under 45 ° C in use. Without being negligible, this remains a very wise temperature so that we have no fear about the thermal integrity of the long -term device. Note that it does not contain any active cooling, and that its operation is therefore perfectly silent.

One of the best free TV boxes

By choosing not to reinvent a wheel already widely imagined by Android TV, the player Freebox Pop stands out as one of the most successful TV boxes ever offered by Free. Minimal congestion and consumption associate with large audio/video compatibility, and a fluid and pleasant TV interface, that the few launch bugs fail to spoil. A success.

Free adds a new feature on the POP player, which allows you to manage everything easier

This shortcut allows you to quickly access the Android overall parameters, but also:

– Change HDMI output to adapt the TV refresh frequency to current content. It allows for more fluid films

– if a bluetooth helmet is paired, quickly connect the helmet

But this novelty also allows you to add personalized shortcuts. For the moment, these personalized shortcuts are aimed at the most geek, but the developers already announce an upcoming simplification, with a graphical interface that will allow a easier configuration.

Create a shortcut to the Nova video player

Thus, for those who wish to test now, it is for example possible to add a shortcut called “Nova” which will launch the Nova Video Player application with:

`Settings Put Global Custom_Shortcut_1_title Nova`

`Settings Put Global Custom_Shortcut_1_uri‘ Android-App: // Org.Courville. Nova#Intent; Category = Android. intense.Category.LAUNCHER; Component = Org.Courville.nova/. browser.Browseractivityvideo; end’ ‘

Directly control connected objects, such as a lamp for example.

It is indeed possible to add a shortcut for IoT control, for example here we add a shortcut called “lamp” which will send an http request on http: // 192.168.1.12: 8080/Hello:

`Settings Put Global Custom_Shortcut_2_title Lampe`

`Settings Put Global Custom_Shortcut_2_uri http: // 192.168.1.12: 8080/Hello `

Note that the XXX` Settings commands are to be executed inside `Adb Shell ‘connected to the POP PLOYER

We will soon offer you a more detailed tutorial on this new feature and all the possibilities it offers.