Popcorn Hour A110

Getting the downloaded video to play at TV in the living room or implementing a home entertainment digital hub that connected all devices together is always a challenging task. It's not impossible but to simplify the process and to get the necessary tools configure to our needs with the least hassle of moving one media from one location to another, able to withstand 24/7 BT (Bit torrent) operation with minimal power consumption, and instantly available in front of TV with video on demand, i think it's not an easy task and much depends on the network solution as well as the devices.

Luckily, there is one device can make the dream comes true, the Popcorn Hour A110 which a.k.a. NMT (Networked Media Tank)! To best describe the Popcorn Hour, its main function as Media Player/Server with networking features and will play the media shared within the network; after installing an internal HDD and its applications, it offers secondary function as NAS {Network Attached Storage) with two BT clients.

The package is properly covered with a layer outside the box, unleashed the cover will lead you to the gateway of home entertainment...heavenly :)

Besides the standard accessories such as power adaptor, NMT quick start guide, USB slave cable, there is no network cable attahced but it supplied with a HDMI cable and remote control with 2xAAA batteries, now that's value for money.

Popcorn outside the box! There is one USB port (host) on the front-left for frequently use device such as thumb drive, sometimes i used it to charge my Touch Pro since the Popcorn is always on and sitting right there, it also detect the Touch Pro as USB drive. A quick reset button also found next to the USB.

While another one sits conveniently at the back for Wifi dongle or future extension of portable HDD. So there are all possible interfaces start from the right, power port, Ethernet port, USB host, USB slave (PC), HDMI, RCA Audio/Video out (with Optical S/PDIF), S-Video and Component Video. Obviously, the Popcorn is made for LCD/Plasma TV but not LCD monitor that typically offers D-Sub/DVI. The USB Slave will turn the Popcorn into external drive when connecting to laptop/PC but due to the Popcorn is ext2/3 formatted, you need special drivers for laptop/PC to view the partition.

Both sides you get it covered by tiny holes to improve the air circulation, especially for user who intends to add in HDD for BT 24/7.

It's cool when using the remote control for BT, surfing web content and also rewind/fast forward the downloaded videos. Words input with remote might test your patience, luckily the USB can work with wireless keyboard but it doesn't stopped you to do everything with the remote. For detail uses of remote control, check it out here.

It's no brainer to install the SATA HDD, just remove the screw at the four corners and plug in the HDD, A110 comes with the mechanism to hold either 2.5" or 3.5" HDD, click here to see the supported HDD, so far user has successfully tested up to 1.5TB.

The media source page will show you all the connected devices and allow user to choose the interested source, it could be the internal HDD, the thumb drive, shared folder on the network & etc.

Once selected the target source, you'll get into the home screen, the first logo on the left is Video, follow by Music, Picture and File. Basically user need to aware the type of media file they want to play, and enter into that category, i.e. if one wants to play the mp3, then you need to enter through music but only folders and music files will be displayed, similarly for video where only folders and supported movie formats will be shown. Usually the File is used to run the installer of application including the firmware updates.

This is the snapshot after entering Video mode at the internal HDD, showing default directories.

User can play the media with the play button or enter button on the D-Pad, the playback is smooth without lag. Popcorn Hour offers three fast forward speed, that is 2x, 4x and 8x. The rewind or fast forward work flawlessly unlike in laptop/PC with delay, thanks to its SMP8635 the Sigma decoding chipset. Most importantly, it supports full HD 1080p playback.

Although Popcorn supports a wide range of video format, it does not play rmvb. Fortunately user can install myiHome server into PC/laptop to do the transcoding and stream back to the Popcorn.

The box plays decent quality of sounds, i've yet to figure out way to insert album art as well as to display the chinese characters.

The picture viewer comes with transition setting, time interval, the color of the photo is a bit vibrant compare to what i've observed from laptop/PC, but it could possibly due to the my TV setting.

Here's the default web services, you can add favorite podcast, RSS channels, online video services & etc.

Entering the setup page, user is open to a series of configuration.

Under the maintenance, you can upgrade the firmware through internet or USB, it's also the place to install NMT applications after adding in the internal HDD.

In overall, the GUI is clean, simple and easy to navigate, but what you've seen here is just a tip of iceberg, there are NMT plugins, skins/themes, music/video jukebox and MSP (Media Service Portal) out there which open to many customizations and additional features. It's about bringing the content from monitor to TV, and changing some habit of content browsing from study desk to living room, i found myself at least spend another 15 minutes in the morning, reading or listening to latest news before heading to work. On the home entertainment side, Popcorn supports HDMI 1.3a and does 1080p playback with HD audio pass through for DTS-HD high resolution, HD master audio, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD, which bring it on par with the expensive Bluray player.

NAS feature is another strength of the Popcorn, in a nutshell, it's actually embedded linux box provides NAS services like BT, FTP, Telnet (through hacks), Samba server and do a lot more as media streamer. Since the Popcorn only has one HDD bay and targeted for home entertainment, there is no RAID or backup solution. Like other NAS, a simple setting in the router with free DNS service will allow continuous uploading of torrent file on the go and keep it busy. The Popcorn Hour has been a reliable BT machine and running for weeks without a glitch. It's silence and what you hears is only the HDD spinning.

Here is the snapshot of two BT clients installed, BPTD and Transmission (Clutch is the name of web interface). Although there wasn't much features offer in these two clients as in PC, it's good enough for daily use.

Regarding its network performance, here is the typical transfer rate from the Wiki.

SMB: ~38Mbps
NFS: ~33Mbps
HTTP: ~42Mbps (same clip peaks at 47Mbps)
USB HDD: ~ 42Mbps
USB DVDROM (8x): ~42Mbps
Internal HDD: ~42Mbps

Pros

- Power efficient
(standby ~15W, active ~26W depending on the active process, ~9W in all operation without HDD)
- Smooth full HD 1080p playback

Cons

- No Gigabit Ethernet
- No built-in Wifi, need to use proprietary Wifi dongle
- RMVB only supported through transcoding from PC/laptop

Conclusion

The Popcorn is worth the money as the possibility seems to be endless with the user generated apps and contents, and it's going to keep me busy for sometimes to fully explore the box and get the most out of it. Instead of having multiple devices to do the job which consume more electricity, you can rely on Popcorn Hour as single solution to NAS and media hub. On the other hand, i've yet to try the video streaming to Windows Mobile phone but being uPnP/DLNA certified, it should do the magic, thumbs up for Popcorn Hour!

Product Info

Price: SGD448
Reseller in Malaysia/Singapore: ServTouch-Wywy (S) Pte Ltd

Useful Links

Popcorn Hour Products
Networked Media Tank Forum
Networked Media Tank Main Wiki Page
Networked Media Tank Misc Pages
Syabas, the Popcorn Hour is running Syabas NMT middleware, they also provide the middleware to other NMT hardware manufacturer through licensing.