Popcorn Hour's latest all-accessing all-playing media device has finally made its way into our hands, and while we haven't had nearly enough time to put the
C-200 completely through its paces, we did spare a moment to take some pictures and play a movie or two. Other than using
RF (no line of sight needed here) the remote is mostly unchanged from the earlier
A-110, though we have had some issues with the box not responding to inputs, tightening the antenna seems to have made things better for now. Slipping a SATA hard drive in requires only the lightest tug on the drive bay door, it really couldn't be easier -- we'll have to see how a Blu-ray drive fits soon. With the exception of slight noise from the HDD we put in, the C-200 is nearly silent in operation, and home theater nuts will be glad to know that bright blue display up front can be dimmed all the way to off. An extra USB port front and back hasn't hurt usability either, though it would have been nice if it recognized a keyboard when we were setting up new RSS feeds. Thanks to DLNA support, Windows 7 Play To functionality worked sufficiently playing media, but we couldn't get the titles to display properly on the C-200 whether initiated from the PC or on the box itself. So far it's played everything we've thrown at it, from legitimately downloaded trailers to less MPAA-authorized material. Anything you want to see tested as part of our full review? Leave ideas in the comments while you check out the pictures.
posted Sep 25th 2009 3:34PM
HD Audio? Can it bitstream or decode to LPCM? Blu-Ray .ISO and .m2ts?
This is exactly what I want to know too!
Can it play back ripped Blu-ray discs? With full lossless audio quality? With special features? BD-Live?
Agreed. I would love to see an M2TS file with HD Audio playback bitstreaming to a receiver. Too much to ask for? :D
Using 2.4GHz RF for the remote is pretty silly and bound to cause problems. Little wonder there is no WiFi ethernet included. I understand the desire to have an international model, but you can't always get what you want.
In short, buy the IR addon when you order, espedcially if you want to use a universal remote ever.
I'm curious about performance playing retail BDs with a bluray drive -- do menus work, what's the performance like, etc.
Please shoot video of navigation using just the LCD on the front of the unit. Would love to be able to play music without turning on the TV to navigate.
Can you test reading a backup dvd from an external hard drive or nas device? (basic structure, video_TS folders)
Please test mkv playback, how it handles different audio streams embedded in the container and how can handle multiple subtitles embedded in the container or outside of it.
Also test transport controls (rew, ff, pause) with MKV, that being something the A100 did very poorly.
50hz caps from europe (HD). As well as the previously mentioned HD audio (DTS-MA, DD True HD, LPCM).
Also a THOROUGH codec test from blu-ray streams. AVC, VC1, MPEG2 (okay, well...). The PS3 will do all but VC1 from a blu-ray rip, so it would be nice to see if the PCH takes up the slack.
-Pie
Will it play dvd and blu ray disks ripped to a windows home server with Anydvd HD?
1. ¿what about region restrictions playing commercial BDs and Dvds? ¿you can change the region anytime you want or only a limited number of times?
2. ¿Any type of video scaling (for dvds and videos that arent hd)?
Basically im between this and Oppo Bluray Player. I know they are not in the same league, the Oppo has a very good hd scaler, SACD, DVDA, region free BD and dvd, modded of course, 7.1 analog audio, and the Porcorn hour plays almost all digital formats, bitorrent client, etc..
Basically, if you want a blu-ray license it WILL . NOT . VIOLATE . REGION . CODES
Please test the HD audio codecs from within all of the possible container formats.
the previous popcorh hours had a hard time playing mp3 with playlists... you could only run songs seperatly... could you test mp3 playback
Any idea when the WDTV2 is scheduled to drop? Even though they're not 100% identical products, there is enough overlap that I'd love to see a shootout on the areas where the 2 products overlap.
Could you test the display of international characters - European, Asian, other Unicode characters? Thank you very much.
I want to know how it does with Blu-ray ISOs. Can it mount them? Menu support? Bit-steaming support? Can it play BDMV folders (Blu-rays ripped to folders instead of ISOs)?
can you test to see whether the device plays directly from rar files without having to decompress. could be anything inside, perhaps mkv.
I would be interested in testing how well this device works with other network hard drives. I think it is essential that it streams smoothly and easily media files from the NAS drive.
http://mymediaexperience.com/why-do-you-need-network-hard-drive/
Would def like to see how this connects to a NAS (I'm thinking of buying a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo to host movies, iTunes and photos), specifically, do you need to use the UP'n'P/DLNA connectivity.
Also, if using it with iTunes (specifically the firefly iTunes server running on the readynas if possible), does it organise your files nicely for browsing by album, genre, title etc. or is it merely a file browser for mp3 directories?
Also, do you know if there's any planned support for BBC iPlayer?
1) Can it mount/play my Blu-ray backups (.iso)?
2) Can it do it with copy-protection still there or does it need to be removed?
3) Can it mount/play from a windows share on another computer?
4) If #1 is yes, can it bitstream DTS-MA and DD TrueHD to my receiver from the backups?
I'd love to see how it consumes content from Windows 7 Media Centre - e.g. can you play back or stream a 7MC Recorded TV file (.wtv file), either from SMB share or via DLNA. Any chance of testing a file that is currently recording as well as previously recorded? My ideal usage would be to have the Popcorn Hour consume content from my main 7MC machine as a secondary device (in a bedrom etc)...
So is the full review ever gonna make it? ;)