Potential XBMC Killer: Popcorn Hour's Networked Media Tank

[Kaido]

First, the linkage:

http://www.popcornhour.com/

Release date is October 30th, 2007. Sale price is $179 USD direct. This is similar to Tvix and Tomacro boxes, only a heckuva lot cheaper. Also the newer chip is supposed to better support 1080P. If you aren't familiar with this type of device, it is basically a media file player in a very compact design. You can load up files in the following ways:

1. Internal hard drive (looks like PATA, so up to 750gb)
2. USB drive (Flash, HDD, DVD)
3. Network (10/100 Ethernet for playback from PC or NAS)

Right now I have a Tvix M-4100SH and it's pretty good, but they cost $379 without a hard drive. The new Popcorn Hour box costs $179 without a hard drive. They real key to these devices is the firmware updates. As new media file encoders and containers become available, the companies that make these update their firmware to be able to handle them. Some companies are very slow and others are faster. Right now Tvix is doing pretty well with regular updates; their next update is supposed to have better 1080P MKV support. I would definitely wait for some reviews before ordering a Popcorn Hour box, but so far signs are looking good that it is going to lead the pack. As far as outputs go, it has the following:

1. Video: HDMI, Component, Composite
2. Audio: Stereo, Coaxial digital audio

So no S-Video and no Optical digital audio, although you can buy aftermarket adapters for both for under $20 online (Composite to S-Video & Coaxial to Optical). The kit includes the player unit, a power cable adapter, a 3' HDMI cable, remote control with a couple AAA batteries, and a quick start guide. I'm surprised it comes with an HDMI at this price point, as well as remote batteries - that's a nice touch!

Although you can store content on an internal or USB hard drive, if you're planning on using more than one of these devices I would suggest a NAS. That way you can access your content from anywhere in the house you put them - home theater, living room, kitchen, bedroom TV, etc. If you have a spare computer, check out FreeNAS. I have a nice little writeup here and a howto here. You don't need a powerful computer, practically anything will do - just slap a large hard drive in there, or a few with software RAID, and setup NFS, SMB, and FTP (as simple as checking boxes on the FreeNAS Web GUI). This is what I have setup for my modded Xboxes right now, but I can only play basic HD stuff on it due to older hardware. The Popcorn Hour is looking like a beast of an SD/HD playback machine, especially for the price.

Just wanted to pass this along in case you were thinking of an HTPC but don't required DVR capabilities

 

[DBL]

looks good. Seems a bit cheap considering there is not much out there with this kind of video support. I'm hoping it's the real deal. I'd certainly like to be able to stream HD well over my network.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: DBL
looks good. Seems a bit cheap considering there is not much out there with this kind of video support. I'm hoping it's the real deal. I'd certainly like to be able to stream HD well over my network.

Yeah, the Tvix M-4100SH I have is $379 and has an older chip; $179 makes these things incredibly affordable. I'm very anxious to read some hands-on reviews of these things!

 

[Slick5150]

Wow. $179 almost seems too good to be true for those features. I'll definitely keep an eye on this. As much as I love my Xbox w/ XBMC, the lack of HD is a weakness.

 

[Mitch101]

Im wondering the same the price seems low but possible.

I have the IODATA Linkplayer 2 and its been great for the last 3+ years. Its still keeping me from getting into the format wars. Between this and my X-Box with Media center they have been great.

I would have figured that the next step would have been media center in the living room however if this can truely do H.264 streams then this might be the next toy.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
Wow. $179 almost seems too good to be true for those features. I'll definitely keep an eye on this. As much as I love my Xbox w/ XBMC, the lack of HD is a weakness.

Yeah, XBMC can't be beat and who knows when the Linux port will be finalized, so I've been looking for a good HD alternative in the meantime. I'm not interested in DVR since I have a Tivo, so I basically just want a great SD/HD video file player. I'm really hoping this holds up to the marketing. I don't see why it wouldn't, the other players in this class do pretty well...

 

[Mitch101]

You know the X-box 1 surprisngly can do some 720P streams and 1080i. I found this out by accident when I clicked on a file it shouldnt have played. However still its too weak to do most of the newer stuff.

The PS2 might have outsold the original x-box but it has be the best media center ever.

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: Mitch101
You know the X-box 1 surprisngly can do some 720P streams and 1080i. I found this out by accident when I clicked on a file it shouldnt have played. However still its too weak to do most of the newer stuff.

The PS2 might have outsold the original x-box but it has be the best media center ever.

I'm pretty sure it drops frames though, at least when outputting 1080. But the only thing holding it back is the 700mhz cpu.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Mitch101
You know the X-box 1 surprisngly can do some 720P streams and 1080i. I found this out by accident when I clicked on a file it shouldnt have played. However still its too weak to do most of the newer stuff.

The PS2 might have outsold the original x-box but it has be the best media center ever.

Oh sure, my 720p HDTV Xvid-encoded recordings play just fine. It's when you get into 1080, MKV, and H.264 stuff that it starts choking.

 

[Slick5150]

Bumping an old thread here, but for those interested, I've had a couple weeks to play around with this device now. The summary: Its a work in progress. Its playback performance is outstanding. It did a great job with everything I threw at it including DVDs ripped to .ISO files, xvid .AVI's with various audio tracks, subtitles, and HD h264 .mkv files. No problems there.

The user interface, however, needs some major improvements. Scrolling through file lists is very slow, so if you have a bunch of MP3 folders for example, you'll spend quite awhile finding what you want. MP3 playback needs a lot of work too, and in fact is somewhat broken as it doesn't display song name or anything properly yet. The sound quality it outputs, however, is quite good (MP3s sounded better coming from the popcorn hour than in XBMC I think).

The company behind this device does a good job of discussing these bugs and improvements in their user forums (they've acknowledged the MP3 support sucks right now and needs a major overhaul), and firmware updates seem to be scheduled pretty regularly. So, its not an XBMC killer yet, but if they keep improving it, and it seems like they will, then this could wind up being a great device.

 

[randym431]

THey always hype these things up, and they fall short.
Heard the same-o about dlink media lounge dsm-520.
Never lived up to the hype.

 

[FP]

Is it possible/practical to stream 1080p content wirelessly on a 802.11g network?

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: randym431
THey always hype these things up, and they fall short.
Heard the same-o about dlink media lounge dsm-520.
Never lived up to the hype.

Don't get me wrong, this thing is far better than any other device like it, it just needs some polishing at this point. I think it'll get there.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: binister
Is it possible/practical to stream 1080p content wirelessly on a 802.11g network?

No. I've had no issues streaming DVD .ISO files over 802.11g, but HD content stutters over a wireless connection. (I tested using a Buffalo router set up as a bridge using TomatoWRT)

 

[Trogdor91]

So wait, does this product have a built in dvd drive? I think that would be a deal maker for buying one for my father. Playing .mkv or .avi straight off a dvd would be nice.

On the page the op linked to, it says play off a dvd drive, but I dont see a drive in the pics.

Edit: didnt read it right. Says it'll play off of a usb dvd drive grr

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Trogdor91
So wait, does this product have a built in dvd drive? I think that would be a deal maker for buying one for my father. Playing .mkv or .avi straight off a dvd would be nice.

On the page the op linked to, it says play off a dvd drive, but I dont see a drive in the pics.

Edit: didnt read it right. Says it'll play off of a usb dvd drive grr

Yeah, USB DVD drives will work, but there isn't one built in. There is a device coming out called the DuneHD that's based off the same Syabas chipset the Popcorn Hour uses that does have a DVD drive built in, but I believe its much more expensive.

 

[oznerol]

Is there a way for an Xbox 360 to stream DVD iso files from a PC? I've been using that as my media center and the image streaming is the only thing I miss from it.