popcorn hour - anyone use it?

[mitt]

It was mentioned in a thread this week - I had never heard of it.  I did some research, and it seems pretty damn cool.  Anyone here use it?

mitt

[Desmostro]

what? 

It was mentioned in a thread this week - I had never heard of it.  I did some research, and it seems pretty damn cool.  Anyone here use it?

mitt

[Gator]

never heard of it... until now.
 

Seems like a bit of a waste, why not just buy a laptop with a tv out port?

[mitt]

never heard of it... until now.
 

Seems like a bit of a waste, why not just buy a laptop with a tv out port?

That might be more simple.  But, a $200 device, that can play almost any file format from its own hard drive, or a drive on your home network, or external usb drive seems pretty cool.  It can also be a bit torrent device, and download without tying up the computer.  I think it can also play some streaming content, but that is hit and miss.

The main problem I see with a lap top, is that every time you want to use it, then you have to plug it into your tv, adjust the resolution, etc.  With a device like the popcorn hour it can just sit there always connected.

I see the advent of sites like tv.com and hulu.com and bit torrent as just the beginning to end our dependence on sucky cable tv providers.  It seems there is a market that is untapped for a cheap media center like device, kind of like the popcorn hour, but also able to stream.


mitt

[MendoDave]

what? 

+1     

[Le Pirate]

I'm somewhat Interested, but the Roku player seems like a better option to me...as long as you have Netflix. It's only 99 bucks, but only plays netflix streaming stuff (there is a whole lot of netfix streaming though)

[NeufUnSix]

Aside from streaming and bittorent, my PS3 does everything you listed, plus BD playback.  And it plays games, too. If you don't think the HDD is big enough, it's a cheap and simple upgrade.

[jammer]

A couple of buddies have one (well, each has their own).  They both report some issues that are supposed to be taken care of in firmware upgrades, though there hasn't been one posted yet.  One issue is overheating.  If you install a hard drive, the thing will overheat quite quickly, unless you have good airflow.  So he just removed the drive.

When you open up the box, it's just a circuit board with the Sigma chip.  Then there's the extra space just big enough for a hard drive.  Another issue is that every once in a while, the thing won't play anything.  Then you have to do a reset.

The A110 is a newer version than the A100.  The A110 has the fiber optic output whereas the A100 has the coax digital output, among a few other changes.

Personally I have the WD HD Media Player.  It's cheaper, smaller and looks more elegant, works great.  The only minus is that it's not network capable.  I have all my movies on hard drives so I just plug them in to the player.  WD has already released a firmware update to fix some complaints (eg. menu listing) so they are listening to the buyers.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2008/12/02/Western-Digital-WD-TV-HD-Media-Player/p1

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993217&st=wd+hd+media+player&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218008588808

[mitt]

The more I think about it, the more I want a dedicated HTPC sitting in the stereo rack.  Each solution can only do 80% of what I want on their own, while a media center pc could do 100%.

mitt

[minkman]

I use MythTV as a DVR. I have a server in the closet of my office with the tuners and use AppleTVs as display units(frontends in MythTV parlance) at my TVs. Since MythTV is open source, it can play just about anything. I download something, I throw it into a certain directory on the server and now it can play at any MythTV frontend, including my laptop and desktop.

AppleTVs can be easily reloaded with Linux and can play 1080p. I use mine at 720p as that's all my HD TVs will do.

Ken