Review: Popcorn Hour A-110 & Popcorn Hour C-200

I have an old component input tv capable of 1080i and I'm curious if this box is going to cripple the component output to DVD quality if it doesn't get the HDCP handshake.

I searched a bit on the forums and found this thread. The poster is specifically asking about HDCP compliance for HDMI but the answers indicate that there is no HDCP requirement in the Popcorn Hour.

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=23383

Looking at the spec sheet for the new model, the HDMI output mentions HDCP but the component doesn't. I am pretty sure that if HDCP is enabled, it will only be enabled for content provided through partners and not with your own downloaded videos.

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/wiki/index.php/Popcorn_Hour_C-200

Great, thanks for the links. This should make a good replacement for my mediacenter PC when it dies.

Reads more like a preview than a review. No Pro/Cons (every item has both) or and comparison or even mention of there being countless other options (smells like marketing)

Obviously no mention of the network bug.

Did you actually use the device or just read the spread sheet and the marketing brochures?

Just my 2 cents.

If you read the article you see at the top that it says I have the Popcorn Hour A-110. This article was written before the C-200 was even released. (so Obviously the part about the C-200 is a preview)

As for the network bug, I did mention it under the PlayOn Section. That is the only time I have ran into any network issues using PlayOn. (since PlayOn is not officially supported).

I also mentioned how recent firmware updates have fixed a lot of the fast forward and rewind issues that I was having.

Is there some other network bug that I'm not aware of?

The network bug that he is probably talking about is that the C-200 won't perform properly with streaming video off a sever (samba, nas or whatever). The video breaks up and drops out. The bandaid they released to fix this problem was give you a setting to turn off gigabit mode and just have the box operate in 10/100 mode. At this setting it's pretty stable but of course you aren't able to fully utilize the hardware.

-Wheaty

Hello-

I have owned an A-110 for a few months and have always had an issue with 1080i playback of .mkv files. Lower resolution (720p) .mkv files play fine from my internal HD in the A-110 but I've never had any luck playing 1080i. My display is a 50" Panasonic plasma fed HDMI. I suspected that the processor in the A-110 was not adequate for 1080i. The A-110 is connected to the network via 100Mbt hardwire ethernet through a router/switch.

Yesterday, I installed an HP XW 8200 on my network (multi CPU). A sample 1080i .mkv plays flawlessly on the computer/monitor itself. From the A-110, I network browsed to the shared file and attempted to play. Nothing...attempts to play then falls back to menu screen (no crash). I'm missing some part of the concept here. Any help will be appreciated.

Hmmmm, I haven't tried any 1080i files on my A-110 but I have played 1080p files. I haven't noticed any issues with the 1080p movies I've watched, so if the processor is fast enough for 1080p it should be able to handle 1080i and since you are using a hardwire connection, not sure if it is a network issue either.

What format are the files you are trying to play? There is a handy tool called MKVMerge that will convert almost any video to be compatible with the Popcorn Hour. (Including other MKV files that are causing issues)

Another possible option would be to try playing the file from a USB stick plugged into the PCH to determine if it is a network issue or not. I will try to download a few 1080i files in the next day or so and see if they give me any troubles.

If you want some other opinons you can try posting over at the Networked Media Tank forums where some of the developers might have a look at your issue. If you think it is specific to the way the video is encoded, you might want to run this program called MediaInfo and post the results over there.

_{(unrelated: My Popcorn Hour C-200 should be sent out in the Nov. 20th batch. )}

Thanks for the quick response.

Same file would not play from the internal HD in the A-110.

I will try your other suggestions and reply.

Just to experiment, in Settings under Audio/Video, I changed the Framerate Sync setting from "Off" to "NTSC/PAL/24p". Now my problem 1080i .mkv file plays perfectly from the internal HD! Fast forward works well but rewind gives the error indicator. (Many files seem to have NO rewind capability) ??? Do I remember reading about some key sequence on the remote that will cause a 10 or 20 sec replay? (Maybe some other equipment.)

Also, any browsing or playback from Hulu via PlayOn quickly yields "No material on server"...reboot to be able to access again.

Awesome, glad to hear you solved your problem with the settings.

For rewind, if you press the left arrow on your remote you will see the Time Seek will come up, pressing it again and then and pressing enter should send you back 30 seconds.

As for PlayOn, I have the same issue and a little disappointed to hear that it doesn't work at all with the C-200. It's possible future firmware updates will change that though. As you probably know, Sybas is really good about updating their player. Oh well, most shows I would rather watch in HD than via Hulu but it's nice to have access to it.