Popcorn Hour prepping trio of new media streamers?

Considering just how popular Popcorn Hour's A-100 has been with the media center crowd, we're not shocked at all to find the intarweb ablaze now that rumors of a new trio have surfaced. Said rumblings have originated from a curious post over at GeekZone, which sees a prospective reseller of Popcorn Hour products admit that "three new models" will be released "in the very near future," including one with WiFi. We are told that the three models will be priced around $250, $250 and $320, though not a bit of it has been confirmed. Hit the read link for a list of proposed specifications for each of the possibly forthcoming boxes, and in case you haven't figured it out, we'd keep those hopes low for now.

[Thanks, Simon]

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 9:42AM]

If and when this thing comes out it has potential to be the best for sure. I'm not sure how they are going to do the interface for ripped movie archives. If it's something like My Movies then I'm pretty sold on it. My 360 is doing most of what I want it to do with Netflix Watch Now and My Movies, however it would be nice to be able to stream the formats that Popcorn Hour can do, plus have youtube and such.

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 10:16AM]

Shiet ... I just started getting into my Popcorn hour A-100 , I knew this would happen ..Oh well such is good tech

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 11:41AM]

If it has the same crappy firmware, who cares?

They need to fix what they already have.

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 12:14PM]

Crappy in what way? Sure it may not look like much, but it plays many more formats than any other product out there. As long as it's functional, I don't care what it looks like.

That being said, the music interface needs a lot of work. If you're buying this for music, look elsewhere. If you're considering this for video, stop looking.

Marshall
The Real HT Info Podcast

[(Unverified) Posted May 22nd 2008 2:16AM]

Luckily, if you just want music there are about 100 different choices, starting with DirecTV's DVRs up to high-end audio receivers like the Denon 3808. Soon enough all these things will to completely debugged and it will be as difficult to set up as a network switch.

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 2:17PM]

"That being said, the music interface needs a lot of work. If you're buying this for music, look elsewhere"

Same with the photos. This is supposed to be a "media" streamer. Not a video player. Ergo.. crappy firmware. Be nice if they fixed it.

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 3:42PM]

There will be 4 actually :-) and a USB Wireless N stick...
I'm leaving for Malaysia Saturday for a visit up there and will bring back with me a report on the first hands on experience and details on the units...

Most interesting for now is the "ITX" form factore design board which can be used in mini PC's... how this will play out I don't know but it will be fun exploring... Further enhancement include USB slave probably and such but not any new chips announced... so all will remain around the 8634/35 with hardware improvements and some extra touches here and there...

Enjoy
Hi-Jack
www.mpcclub.com

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 5:19PM]

PCH brings out the best i enjoy all your reviews of both Hi-Jack and Marshall .. Hi-Jack so if they don't update the chip it still will not be Gigabit ? (i know it doesnt matter , but would be nice) , Do you think they will update the NMT Software to play more like a DVD jukebox w/ covers etc ? .. (id like to playback my backed up Bluray's jukebox style but thats just me...)

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 8:11PM]

Thanks Hi-Jack, looking forward to these new Popcorn Hour..though i don't understand what Option B is..look it's like it's better than Option C?

[(Unverified) Posted May 21st 2008 11:59PM]

Message wasn't supposed to be covered in news already as all PCH did was send announcement and target pricing info to some resellers. we also not verified all the specs and such and heard about "mistakes" made in communication so it's hard to make an accurate news article now. We look into sending some images and information over to you guys during next week when we actually can see and verify all the goods....

Here's what I know so far (unverified and subject to changes)

A-110: USB Slave / SATA / HDMI 1.1
B-110: Home Theatre main Board based on feedback, comments and targetted for the hobbyist to create it's own HTPC style case and be a bit active around modding and making it's own casing (also a casing could be provided).

IDE / USB Slave / HDMI 1.3 / MINI ITX factor Optical / Coaxial / Mini PCI
Player is internally references as "hi-jack hour"

A-112: SATA / USB Slave / HDMI 1.3 cube casing with LCD

S-200A: 2GB Flash, Black player, HDMI 1.1 and VGA, UART port (signage)

WN-100: USB Wireless N USB dongle (20Mbps capped for now)

If you want more, keep an eye on the news here and MPC during next week. This is all we know. Unless there are changes to be made, it is believed these players will make it around summer holidays (mid to end June 2008)

Chips are not communicated but we expect SMP8634/5 and maybe an older one in one of the units... We don't know yet but will know soon :-)

Enjoy
Hi-Jack

[(Unverified) Posted May 22nd 2008 7:22AM]

It sounds like if you use only USB drives there is nothing new coming so time to stockpile these before they get DRM'd or become too HTPC-ish. That's when they really get buggy.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 18th 2008 12:12PM]

Love my PCH even though its still a work in progress. Would like to have a slot for more ram, and easier access to the OS. I'm very excited and optimistic about it's potential with open source media center type servers. I can see this chip and tech finding its way into next gen televisions. Good luck Syabas!