Philips HMP2000 Gets Philips Into The Set-Top Box Race

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You’ve got to give the folks at Philips due credit for sheer chutzpah, as they recently announced their upcoming HMP2000. See, the HMP2000 is a set top box that’s going to try and capitalize on their recent smart TV push, and let them play in a sandbox formerly occupied by only a handful of firms like Roku, Boxee, and the 800 pound gorilla in any room that is Apple.

Philips only recently showed off its spring line of televisions, making it quite clear they were going to go over the top in terms of including streaming capability in with their upcoming television lineup. But now, they’re planning to bring that same technology to most every other television, Philips or not. And they’ll be bringing quite a bit of capability along for the ride.

Basically, the HMP2000 will include not only some of the standard streaming venues like YouTube and Netflix (and will even boast dedicated buttons for same on the remote itself!), but also throw in a little something less widely seen in the BBC iPlayer. But this is merely the beginning, as they’ll also throw in integrated wi-fi, HDMI output for full HD output, a USB port for hooking in your various storage devices, and can handle video in a variety of formats from MPEG 1 and 2 to less common formats like MKV and VC-1. Plus, it will even handle a variety of still image formats, from JPEG to PNG and beyond. Sadly, if you’ve got older hardware that doesn’t boast an HDMI port, you’ll be left out in the cold here, as there’s no composite, component, or S-video jack involved with this one.

The HMP2000 is already available in the UK, though there’s no word on just when this one will go into a wider release–if ever–but it will come your way at a pretty reasonable $79–49.99 pounds sterling–so Philips may be on to something here.

I say may, of course, because both Roku and Boxee–and of course Apple TV–have some pretty extensive channel lineups included in their set-top boxes, and the Philips version seems a bit lacking on the content side of things. But still, it’s one of the better priced offerings I’ve seen of late, and that may give it a bit of an edge. Plus, it’s hard to overestimate the value of the BBC iPlayer if for no other reason than the Doctor Who access.

But what do you guys think here? Figure that Philips might be able to play ball with the HMP2000? Or is it too little too late to get in the market? No matter what you think, hit the comments section below and fill us in!