Popcorn Hour A100 Review PDF

Anything in this publication can change due to Syabas releasing weekly updates addressing issues found!!
Prelim review from www.mpcclub.com about the PoPCorn Hour A100, created by Hi-Jack
Contents MPC Reviews

MPC Reviews are a great neutral source for any user or company, offering an in-depth opinion on products from the consumers point of view. Electronics company developers and designers wish to promote their products, good or bad, and often seek to do so by soliciting reviews from independent sources which have no links with these companies so that consumers can be assured that the outcome is unbiased. MPC is one of these unbiased resources with a well-established record of open and honest evaluations. Unlike most reviews which are limited to a few screenshots and some basic text, MPC Reviews are detailed and explore device features indepth, with many detailed pictures. This allows any reader to have a good idea about the product before purchasing it, and the high level of detail is especially appealing to well-informed, technically-inclined consumers who demand maximum information before making a purchase. Thats what makes MPC different. Reviewed by Hi-Jack, webmaster of www.mpcclub.com, this review is intended to be your first and best introduction for the PopCorn Hour A100 as most consumers will experience it, executed from a consumers perspective instead of being based only on technical details and specifications, which are easy to manipulate and always look good without in-depth review. Through our reviews we strive to provide valuable feedback to the brands making electronics equipment, in order to improve and tune the users experience with the latest state of the art players. Notice: MPC is a consumer oriented Media Portal analyzing products and offering a first impression in their reviews so that you have an idea of what you are about to purchase. In light of our efforts to provide reviews quickly to leading-edge consumers, these reviews are not always able to be fully complete or 100% accurate, and can become outdated over time. Date: October 30 2007 Device: PopCorn Hour A100 FW Version: 01-11-2007 2006 - 2008 MPC Club Contact MPC: Press: press@mpcclub.com Legal: legal@mpcclub.com Owner: admin@mpcclub.com
Digitally signed by Hi-Jack DN: cn=Hi-Jack, c=BE, o=MPC Europe, ou=MPC Club Press, email=press@mpcclub.com Reason: I agree to specified portions of this document Date: 2007.11.05 21:41:26 +01'00'
MPC Reviews ............................................................................... 1 Introduction PopCorn ................................................................ 3 About the PoPCorn .................................................................... 3 Setup hard drive ....................................................................... 4 Conclusion Initialization .......................................................... 5 Why no SATA or GBIT? ............................................................. 5 Brief about the unit ................................................................... 5 The Remote ............................................................................. 6 TV mode quick settings using numeric key: .............................. 6 Custom Setup ........................................................................... 6 Section 1: Adding network resources ....................................... 6 Section 2: General Setup options ............................................ 7 Preferences Setup.................................................................. 7 Display Setup ........................................................................ 8 Network Setup ...................................................................... 8 Media Server Setup ................................................................ 9 Torrent Setup ........................................................................ 9 Maintenance Setup ................................................................ 9 Conclusion setup ................................................................... 9 Network Performance ................................................................ 9 Samba .................................................................................. 9 FTP .................................................................................... 10 Conclusion Network performance .......................................... 10 Playback: The Interface ........................................................... 10 General Sound Options ............................................................ 11 Player set to RAW mode ....................................................... 11 Player set to PCM Mode........................................................ 11 ISO DVD / Video_TS ............................................................... 11 Conclusion DVD ISO ............................................................ 12 H.264 Playback ....................................................................... 12 General test Video .................................................................. 13 Music playback ....................................................................... 14 Picture playback ..................................................................... 14 Conclusion Pictures .............................................................. 15 NMT Apps and options ............................................................ 15 Samba Server ...................................................................... 15 Torrent Downloads .............................................................. 15
Hi-Jack
Conclusion Torrent files ........................................................ 16 myiHome Lite Server ............................................................ 16 Online MSP: ........................................................................ 17 Video MSP: YouTube ............................................................ 18 Video MSP: Google Video ..................................................... 18 Video MSP: Metacafe ........................................................... 19 Video MSP: Videocast ........................................................... 19 Music MSP: iPodcast............................................................. 20 Music MSP: Radiobox ........................................................... 20 Music MSP: ABC News and Jamendo ..................................... 21 Conclusion thus far ................................................................. 22 Pros (prelim) ....................................................................... 22 Cons (prelim) ...................................................................... 22 Conclusion.............................................................................. 22
PART 5 Change List:

Proof read for correcting mistakes/sentences Extended text intro and many sections Added corrections concerning: o Subtitles (added comment sync is available) o Subtitles (added reboot resolved grey colored subtitles, making them readable again) o Remote Control (added colored buttons coverage which can be custom programmed for custom NMT apps) Revised Pros and Cons list Seriously extended Online MSP section at request o Added Video Section MSP o Added Music section MSP o Pending others
Introduction PopCorn
Ive grown fond of the question "PopCorn anyone? as it has a totally different meaning today than it had a couple of days ago. It sounds like an offer for something completely different than a media player although that is exactly what PopCorn Hour is, more accurately, the PopCorn Hour A100. In the last few weeks and months, PopCorn Hour has attracted a huge amount of people given it's excellent pricing / feature balance, bringing the latest codecs and abilities to people's homes for the first time in years below expected prices. It could not start in a more positive way but the price alone, will not make it the best player out of anything unlike the cheapest maybe. Thanks for the review out there, that you can built up an idea before jumping on board. Now we are looking at the PopCorn Hour A100 and can't help thinking about all the good stuff it can do for this money including SMB server, torrent downloads, online access to the NMT media portal, custom modifications and all that beside its core business, playing media files up to the latest H.264 and VC-1 files. There is no doubt, if the PopCorn Hour A100 delivers upon the expectations, it will become the new leader to beat by the competition even though it does have several limitations which we should already get out of the way immediately and explain, which effect these will have on your experience.
drive like the use of FTP or the Internal SMB server which have a poor performance rate compared to USB Slave. Thats bad, but not that bad if one considers the PoPCorn Hour A100 is mainly intended as a streaming device So, there will be pros and cons for sure. Lets kick in the front door off the PopCorn Hour A100 and check the user options and interface to begin with before we actually put the player to the test on playback and features surrounding this little box.
About the PoPCorn

First, the PoPCorn comes in two models, the EU and US version. While both are mainly the same, the US version features component RCA connectors while the EU version features SCART and outputs component over SCART (so you have to invest in a SCART to component cable / adapter on the side if youd like to use analog HD instead of digital (HDMI)). Second, the interface is mainly built around HTML and though things look much better than on the older Syabas middleware where it is more interactive and vivant. What remains is the that everything feel and looks like a "form" style interface using drop down boxes, selection boxes and more similar options. It also remains a bottleneck for the loading speed of pages during setup and navigation but it isn't as bad to have it become a problem. Some more finesse like using GFX engine, animation, things moving around would be a refreshing approach of the menus for the new generation. Though the interface could be more attractive, it is functional in its current form even though buttons and such are not always aligned well, making the interface sometimes even look "underdeveloped". Im mainly stating this due to many requests read online and I can say for 100% sure: "No", the PopCorn will not become the XBOX 4 with XBMC style navigation or options as requested for quite some time to come as seriously, it has important things to do beside adding features for starts, being tuning all things to mature levels. I must add, seeing many comparisons online comparing media players vs. XBOX kind of bug me. The XBOX is a PC platform totally open to developers while media players are not PC platforms and run on mainly a video processor chip: Sigma SMP8635. Add to that that XBOX is capable of many things due to illegal components as well and in some aspects only, cant compete with media play ers being Quality and ease of use. All else, the XBOX probably does better and faster exactly because it is a full PC almost. In such case, people should look at HTPC and not stand alone media players to compare (how would the XBOX compare there?) We do support requests for enhancements to be made but every single one must make sense to us before we can support it. Do not expect XBMC inside the NMT players but expect what it is designed to do be. Up to the Setup!
The cheap price partially comes from not having connections like USB Slave so the PopCorn Hour A100 cant be used as external USB drive to fill up the HDD with content. Also, it does not feature an optical output which is most often used by "normal users" with a receiver but Coaxial is just as good. It does feature HDMI 1.1 which comes with some limitations for the latest sound options (DD+, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) but none of these take away functionality or add value over the formats we have available like DTS, AC3 and Dolby Digital. In some cases we must stick to "older" variants thus (DTS, LPCM, PCM) or use different methods to fill the internal hard
Setup hard drive

Our review is based on using the unit with an internal HDD. This is an IDE hard drive set to jumper Slave or Master. Once the unit is fitted with a hard drive, you can format the hard drive using the integrated HDD wizard. The following images show the complete process where you can select both USB update and online update. I chose the USB method since the online servers were not available during our tests.
Luckily, there is warning before it executes a fresh setup procedure but you know how people dont read and just click away. I used to be one of them, until I had a few accidents.
You can update the NMT apps or initialize from both USB and Online resources. As stated before, I used the USB version as its faster and the only available option at the time of initializing the system.
PS: At first setup, only the Fresh Setup is available. In future updates, we can select the Typical Setup option as well which updates only the NMT apps without formatting the hard drive. NOTE: Using the Fresh option, all data will be erased! I would have preferred seeing the initial setup separate from the usual updates as this invites for making mistakes of customers not paying proper attention.
During the format, a progress notification is shown. Depending on your hard drive size, this should take only one / up to 5 minutes or so to complete the ext3 format of the internal hard drive. After the format, all applications are installed to it. Once installed, Im asked to reboot the system but if I dont react within about 5 seconds, the player reboots on its own. That completes the hard drive installation where we now can check the custom setup options we have available.
Conclusion Initialization Fitting the hard drive is a breeze. If you can handle it with a PC, you can handle it with the PopCorn Hour A100 as well. The molex rests on the main board a little which should be avoided. Not that it is a problem, but it causes the connection to be less convenient. Notice, unlike other hard drive models, a hard drive is not necessary for the functionality of the players. With the PopCorn Hour, using it without a hard drive would be bad, as some functionality will not be available. Applications and options are installed on the hard drive. For example, Torrent and the integrated Samba Server would not be featured without one. The different options to initialize the hard drive with or without formatting should be separated as even with a warning can be inviting for errors to be made when not paying proper attention for a minute. Overall the setup is easy and straightforward. The manual could cover it in some deeper details though for the real novice users which will be attracted to the product as well concerning its pricing. So far, all is good. No issues detected, everything ran fine from the start except maybe another little tip, dont connect HDMI from the start as I got no signal until the hard drive was initialized. Dont know if that is for me only or a general case. If so, start with S-Video or Composite to initialize and change during setup to HDMI or Component as you wish before connecting the cable.
Brief about the unit

The PopCorn Hour A100 has no cooling fan and therefore is also silent in operation. Besides the rattling of the hard drive, not a sound comes from the unit. Using a silent drive (Samsung, see www.samsung.com for options and tools) can help building a total silent solution which for media enthusiasts is very important to enjoy movies from their living room. No disturbing interruptions of a cooler kicking in blowing out clouds of dust behind the TV No power button is located on the player which is not as good as for sure, every player will lock up once in a while and forcing us to pull the plug which is not always accessible without aerobic exercises is not convenient, nor is it healthy for the system. In standby, the PopCorn Hour A100 recovers in less than 2 seconds, meaning, everything probably remains running in standby mode consuming about 12 watts. I would prefer shutting off the player especially when it would lockup (pulling the plug is so old school) or when I know I wont be using it for a while. PopCorn has already informed us it will cut power consumption in standby soon. (Good) As you are probably aware, there is no VFD on the unit (huge saving factor) and the USB hosts are both in the front of the unit which is easier to access, but also causes cables to be visual. Not a problem as it is easier to access them this way. Boot time of the unit after the initializing of the hard drive and NMT apps, is around 50 seconds. During the loading you are shown the PopCorn Hour logo which is not bad, but could it not get some more appealing splash screen. Once the boot is completed, you are at the main menu which in my case, with no network resources being added yet, only lists the hard drive. From the left hand menu, I can use the options Setup, Web Services and select my Media Sources. The last option will create a new list of all available sources online but fist, these must be added manually. Id prefer selecting the available PCs and NAS servers immediately by auto detecting these on startup or when using the Media Source option to rescan available sources so they become listed and allow me to browse. This would also lift the limitation of 5 sources to be added manually and can be considered quite a drastic improvement for some cluttered networks with way too many shares Its my vision playing with me again, that a player must not limit itself anywhere it does not have to be that way. It must fit into as many environments as possible and cluttered networks are one of them. Maybe it can still be changed, maybe not.
Why no SATA or GBIT?

I must add, I seen quite some discussions online discussing how one would prefer GBIT network and SATA hard drive. Although true that IDE hard drives become harder to find in bigger sizes unlike SATA drives, it does not carry any advantage in speed. Ok, maybe one more, that the SATA hard drive can more easily be re-used in the future if upgrading to newer models, but thats it! The SMP8635 media processor, used inside the PoPCorn, has a limited I/O performance that lays far below the performance of both IDE and SATA hard drives. That said, there is no performance gain. In addition to this info, one must know that most SATA supported media players today use an IDE to SATA adapter integrated in the system. Its possible to use one yourself but it must be small enough to fit inside the PopCorn Hour casing and that will be hard to do, as the IDE connector fixed on the main board leave just enough room to connect the hard drive. For GBIT network we can file the same limitation. The SMP8635 platform is not capable of high bandwidth performance and neither must it be for video playback. For copying files over to the internal hard drive it would be a serious benefit if not for this limitation and the fact the Sigma processor does not support GBIT network. So, again, as with HDD, it doesnt matter if using 10/100 or GBIT even if it was supported as both again exceed the abilities of the processor and will lead to exactly the same performance.
The Remote
Often times underestimated, the remote is one of the most important things to consider when measuring convenience. Options must be clear, functions must be versatile and whichever functions are available will be seen later on during the tests. The remote that comes with the PopCorn Hour A100 is certainly not bad and offers fluorescent buttons so you can still see what you are pressing at night. It lies well in your hand but the size is too big to operate the buttons on top and on bottom without shifting the position of it in your hand. At the bottom are the buttons for teletext (colors) which can be programmed for custom use by NMT applications. Pretty standard remote, decent reception of the unit, well arranged functions though as with all remotes, you will need some guidance here and there to find all the options as not all features are recognized by looking at it alone. For instance, you can set the output and resolution from the remote without too much trouble. Following is the list of shortcuts for these: TV mode quick settings using numeric key: - TV Mode + 0 = Auto TV mode - TV Mode + 1 = Component/Composite NTSC 480i - TV Mode + 2 = Component/Composite PAL 576i - TV Mode + 3 = reserved - TV Mode + 4 = HDMI/Component 720p50 - TV Mode + 5 = HDMI/Component 1080i50 - TV Mode + 6 = HDMI/Component 1080p50 - TV Mode + 7 = HDMI/Component 720p60 - TV Mode + 8 = HDMI/Component 1080i60 - TV Mode + 9 = HDMI/Component 1080p60 Also during playback, pressing 1 will jump to 10% of the movie, 3 to 30% and so on (Also Time Search is featured and discussed further down in this review) Notice the DELETE button which is available and purposes file deletion options on the PopCorn. That is at least one of the mandatory features already available that enhance the convenience.
Custom Setup
Custom setup is discussed in two sections. In the first section I will be adding the network resources and in the second section, I will mainly concentrate on configuring the available options and settings to my personal needs. Section 1: Adding network resources To add network resources like my PC and NAS servers filled with media content, I have to use the setup functions located under Media Server. The option to add resources is almost invisible. I would like to see, like in the old days, adding and changing resources are available from the main page. Im not sure it should be called network share either, more like Add Shares or Add network shares. Yes, Im a sucker for clarity and this button does not invite me to use it when Im looking for adding resources. Anyway, adding shares is easy. I select the Network Share button which offers me a browser so I can browse to whatever device or share I want to access using the PoPCorn Hour. Once selected, it will become available from the main page, much like a favorite entry.
Selecting Browse leads me to my workgroup(s) where I can select the device Id like to add from a list presented to me. This is the auto detect functionality I would like to see on the main page, where it shows all available network resources. I guess its almost the same than adding the ones you want to use. No biggie. The popcorn internal hard drive is served as SMB source as well as you can see by below screenshot.
I can browse the shares using the browser but not the folders in these shares for selecting a deeper folder inside a share. When you have selected the proper folder, the PopCorn Hour will fill in the proper path in the field. Again, an enhancement to this making it both adding new shares and favorites, would be allowing mapping a deeper level (unshared folders for instance that are inside a shared folder. Confusing? Ok. A method to jump to a folder inside a share rather than being forced to always start from the shared folder itself. Still confusing? ) What can be considered a small inconvenience is when I boot the PoPCorn Hour A100, even after I did add resources. They do not show on the main menu directly after the player is booted. Instead I have to press the media Sources option at the left.
Once done, I can continue adding more shares from the same device or another one that is active on my network. After 5 sources have been configured, the options to add more are grayed out which mean you can add up to 5 sources maximum. Surely this can be increased to ten, especially when picking up on the favorites option above which would bring the feature to a different level of convenience. Better and more mature in my humble opinion. I consider 5 shares more than enough in its current form though as I actually do maintain a filing system for media so I dont need to go through 30 shares to reach my content. I use a main share which holds all data well organized in subfolders. For some, 5 shares will be limited and I can only offer one great tip for those: Organize! After adding all these resources, which I guess I can call something like favorite shares (note how I deliberately not use the words Favorite folders), all entries saved here can be found on the main page and used as source for media content. In case not all devices are online at the time you boot the PopCorn unit and you try to reach it, the unit will search for a couple of seconds and return a failure. From the main menu, you cannot see the difference between available and unavailable devices / shares. Again something that would improve the convenience. It would be a great feature to have such visual confirmation if at all possible without causing constant polling. Just at startup would be fine.
Inconsistent is the fact, I if start the media services from the setup (uPnP and myiHome), these show up every time. This is something that can easily be addressed in a future update for the PopCorn Hour.
Section 2: General Setup options The General Setup options are divided into several categories. These are Preferences, Display, Network, Media Server, Torrent section and Maintenance. Preferences Setup In the Preferences section of the Setup, you can enter the host name of the PopCorn (default is POPCORN), select your language (English or Chinese only), set the Screen Saver, select Audio Mode (PCM, RAW, RAW (WMA Pro), select the audio channel (Stereo or 5.1) and select the default subtitle language. More languages should be added to make the PopCorn Hour interesting for countries as Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, France, and Germany. I believe even Holland and Belgium would like to see Dutch interface being implemented (and support for their own local code page in subtitles too).
On the preferences page, you can enter a password to protect these settings from being altered. Tried changing the password but was refused for incorrect old password entered (blank). Must RTFM one day (The player did however accept the changes without prompting for the password) Display Setup
The Display section covers the available outputs for Video where I can set the desired output manually or by using a wizard. The Wizard offers me a selection between Video Output and Zoom first, followed by the options assigned to both. The Video Output Wizard will offer a selection between analogue and digital first before leading you to the available resolutions and refresh rates for both PAL and NTSC. For analogue, you have Composite followed by PAL/NTSC selection; For Component, the same options in addition to a list of resolutions to select from. As you can see, up to 1080p is supported on component output and both 60Hz and 50Hz are covered. The ZOOM wizard guides you through selection of Actual Size, Full Screen and Fit To Screen with proper explanations on the benefits and disadvantages. You have the option to select or toggle each option.
For those who prefer selecting from a normal drop down box, the manual option is also available holding the same amount of options to select from including the default zoom level.
Network Setup In network setup, we can find options that concern both wireless and wired network while we believe the A100 will not have wireless functionality. Maybe there are plans featuring USB wireless but notice this is not the model that will hold Wireless N via a slider card which will become the A100n. You can set manual IP or use DHCP. The setup section displays the MAC ADDRESS of the unit as the IP address currently assigned to the unit. No settings are available to set more advanced options concerning network like half or full duplex settings.
Selecting Digital will show all possible resolutions for the HDMI connection including 60Hz, 50Hz, 20Hz and 30Hz options. This leads to a massive amount of resolutions to select from which might not be so easy for novice users.
Media Server Setup Now, we start covering the NMT applications amongst which we find the UPnPav sever, myiHome server. The workgroup name is misplaced here and was expected in the network section where it belongs, as do the network shares option belong as well if I think deeper about it. Maintenance Setup Im almost finished covering the setup now. Last on the menu is Maintenance where we previously already saw how we can initialize the hard drive. The same method is for updating the NMT apps so we skip that part and run briefly the the rest of the options available here. Factory defaults can be loaded and you can check online for available updates and perform the update. That covers it as there really isnt more to it keeping things simple and well organized. Conclusion setup Even though shares on the network are not detected automatically, there are as many benefits having that function against not having it at all as it might list all kinds of shares you never intend to use for media playback. Further, I consider the browsing method easier than entering IP settings and share names with a remote controller. We have to credit Syabas for this. The only negative comments I can make are the limit of 5 shares and that the added shares are not available on startup (when the internal services arent running) until Media Source is pressed. That, and 2 options being misplaced under Media Services instead of Network is about the only things that managed to alert my brains saying This isnt right, is it? All in all, the stuff works out fine. Some pages take a second to load, you can see its based on HTML and some options are not designed as well as they could be.
From this page, you can start and stop the UPnPav server and myiHome which if unused sounds good in order to not loose performance on options you wont use anyway. The boot time is not affected by running these services and I noticed, while these services are running, the network resources on the main page are available after a cold reboot unlike when disabled as mentioned before. Torrent Setup A feature many will like is the torrent integration of the PopCorn Hour A100. Options available are the PORT settings beside max Up and Download rates and the max number of peers.
Network Performance
Samba One of the main limitations of the PopCorn in the form it is available today, is having no copy abilities beside FTP and SMB. While both use the network to transfer files, considering the limitations of the Sigma Chip, this will always be far below the performance we need or can accept for transferring HD files of up to 10GB and more. With IOMETER we measured the max read / write speed using SMB which resulted in the following MB/s translation for files, in addition, we translated this speed into actual file transfers further down below.
PopCorn Hour A100 Read Performance Write Performane 8GB File (H.264) 4.3GB File (iso) 730MB DivX
Torrents are added by the web services application which we will cover later in the review. Although this function is a welcome solution, we would like to see a schedule to start and stop downloads at predefined times being added to the Setup section.
MB/s 3.3 5.1
Minutes
26.4 14.2 2.3
If we would measure speed on really transferring files and not just translate the MB/S measured with IOMETER, we would see even lower performance results in write speed, around 3MB/s while copying a 8GB mkv file for real leading up to a massive use of time.
Anything in this publication can change due to Syabas releasing weekly updates addressing issues found!! 4.3GB File (iso) 730MB DivX 15.5 2.6
Conclusion Network performance Weird how read performance is slower than write performance as usually it is the other way around. A massive 40 minutes to copy 8GB over to the NMT using SMB (real time) is a killer and shouts for a solution. The same speed counts for downloading your torrents for example from the unit to central storage for archiving. FTP does deliver better speeds in real time around 4.6MB/s average but still are considered slow for HD files. One thing is certain, another solution should be offered to get higher transfer speeds to fill up the internal drive or move downloaded content from the internal drive to a USB external disk as this is currently the bottleneck of the PoPCorn. I cant help but wondering how streaming will go later on when we start media tests on the unit. NFS will be added in a future FW release as its currently not available.
This translated to 40 minutes before the transfer was completed. About the same performance is reached by using FTP (obviously, same network). While this is currently a "major" limitation considering the PopCorn Hour is mainly a HD player, we see it causes some limitations in other sections too. For instance, torrent downloads need to be transferred back to a PC if you want to archive them. What use is fitting in a 750GB hdd if you need weeks to fill it up with content? The PopCorn Hour is still a work in progress and the severity of this limitation today does not necessarily carry the same severity tomorrow, where Syabas has confirmed it is working on solutions to provide higher transfer speeds in different ways. We cannot include that in our current review however if unavailable but we can list what is planned: External USB drives as source for copying files at higher speeds to internal drive (including NFS Read/Write) So, in the end, yes, the limitations as applied today are rather "bad" but it's good to know things will change in the future. We cannot comment on those without seeing it actually work but surely, we don't feel like being too hard on the PopCorn Hour just yet because of this "current" limitation. It's something you should be aware of before purchasing though, which is why we mention the limitations and the future plans. I don't see it as a killer for the product, more as a current limitation for early adopters that is painful if you need to copy a lot over to the hdd (like me for testing files). Besides that, the streaming function is not affected but these performance limitations. PS: NFS is listed as a feature but currently not supported. FTP FTP access works with the integrated FTPD. The Setup options don't offer settings on FTP yet in which you can use a custom User/Password or enable/disable the FTP service. This should be added and controlled by the user in a future FW update. For now, FTP is used using a default user and password being ftpuser.
Playback: The Interface

Browsing content always shows the full directories of the unit serving the data but one must still select the file type being Media, Pictures or Music. The browsing works in three parts being the selection of the source, selecting the media type you wish to use and then select the file(s).
Files are numbered and show enough characters for being able to recognize them by title. If the file list is longer than what can be shown you can browse down fast by keeping pressure on the arrow keys. Changing pages takes a second to load. One can also press the number beside the files to start playing them from the numbers shown onscreen. Its not possible to start any movie deeper down the list from here unless the file is shown on display.
PopCorn Hour A100 Read Performance Write Performane 8GB File (H.264)
MB/s 4.6 4.6
Minutes
28.9
While the player was busy loading something heavy, I decided to test putting the player in standby and when recovering from it a few seconds later, it was still busy loading the same thing! This is a concern as it proves the player keeps running 100% in standby. Its not just the SMB server running, but everything. We checked with PopCorn and its already in the plans for future updates. (Needs a power button.) In the above image, at any screen, you can press the Title button on the remote and enter a web address to open on the player. Its not the same as on a PC, though for a quick read, its ok - AC3/MP4 Analog 5.1ch, 2ch PCM on SPDIF/Coaxial/HDMI - PCM/WAV/MP3 2ch PCM on all outputs Player set to PCM Mode - AC3 Analog 5.1ch or 2ch PCM on all outputs - DD+ Analog 5.1ch or 2ch PCM on all outputs - DTS No output - DTSHD No output - WMA PRO Analog 5.1 ch or 2ch PCM on all outputs - WMA 2CH PCM on all outputs - AC3/MP4 Analog 5.1 ch or 2ch PCM on all outputs - PCM/WAV/MP3 2ch PCM on all outputs
ISO DVD / Video_TS

One of the most popular functions for the past few years on media players is the ability to play your DVD backups. Some prefer the ISO method and others prefer the raw DVD files (VIDEO_TS) so this section checks what can be done with these formats and what not. Although ISO files failed to load initially and blocked the player causing a forced reboot, our report to Syabas about this resulted in an immediate quick fix. The issue was resolved and both ISO and VIDEO_TS now load successfully from network storage devices (PC and NAS). It shows how serious Syabas and PopCorn are with getting stuff in working order and at what speed.
Figure 1: SD screenshot I have to add, the HDD holds 3 folders, video, music and pictures. The proper media should be placed in the appropriate folder or will not be found by the player. It would be better to allow any structure custom and then filter by file formats or something. Even selecting Photo from the menu options will not reveal images in video folder for example. They have to be in the pictures folder. Ok, most of the other interface stuff is shown during the further tests.
General Sound Options

In general the following options are available during file playback. We gathered them in an overview for ease instead of drowning them in the rest of the written text. Player set to RAW mode HDMI / Coaxial AC3 is supported and sent RAW over HDMI and SPDIF/Coaxial DD+ no output over HDMI or Coaxial / Optical DTS raw over Analog, SPDIF/Coaxial and HDMI DTSHD recognized as DTS on some receivers WMA PRO RAW on SPDIF/Coaxial and HDMI (if setup WMAPRO) WMA 2CH PCM on SPDIF/Coaxial/HDMI
With both ISO and VIDEO_TS supported, we kind of covered the possibilities without the need to play VOB files separately. One issue found is that sound is always output as 2ch PCM while playing DVD using Dolby Digital and the unit set to RAW (digital) using SPDIF/Coaxial. This should be fixed ASAP.
Trying a couple different ISO files the issue is noticed on all DVDs. For VIDEO_TS, from the first files we played until the very last bfore the update, we saw playback lagging. With the latest update installed, all seems well though it might have something to do with us reinitializing the full system. Audio selection works fine as soon as you start a movie but subtitles are not available by default. If I select a subtitle from the main menu of the DVD however, I can suddenly choose all languages supported so there is a little glitch here where subtitles are not available unless you first select a track from the main menu. The remote is sometimes a little awkward in presenting features. The A-B selection for instance is under the Home Button which I can repeatedly press to use the A-B functions of the player. Theres also lag in using trick play options. When pressing FF, it results in a small delay before fast forwarding starts, same thing for skipping ahead. You can see the actor is totally surprised by this, so am I. more important issue to resolve (dont care for bookmark as much as I do for DD sound) Most other features are provided which is positive and general playback is satisfying.
H.264 Playback
So the most important stuff for many to consider the PoPCorn, HD playback. Most are based on USB/network playback and not from internal hard drive. The first thing we check, is DD playing ok, which it is. The first test movie is watching 300 on which we will check many options to find out what is available. First thing we notice is that rewind does not function yet, fast forward is ok up to 4X. With 8X it no longer does it properly. 16X is not available. Subtitles are not supported (embedded) but you can use SRT subtitles. Also with these, we see some small issues. Subtitles are more grey than white, un-sharp and few letters stick to others.
See how the g is always close to the next letter and even is worse with the j that almost integrated fully into the next letter. There is some work pending subtitles as it is a major feature from most EU countries. Subtitle sync is available (press left/right arrow)
Now, what else can we say? Step playback is fine and I can slow down playback by 2X, 4x and 8X. I can pause video, then use step by step option to not miss a frame of the video, select subtitles and audio with the remote but no bookmark function and no DD sound That about sums it all up. Zoom functions go from 100% to 133%, to 200% and finally 400%. With the most generic features available, Im pretty satisfied with the DVD playback especially because of the ISO fix that no longer led to the player locking up. Copying the files over to the HDD (at 20 minutes a pop) is not a good option for me so proper playback from network sources is a must have all the way. Luckily, beside very few titles lagging a bit, everything is generally ok except for the DD issue which is pretty severe. Conclusion DVD ISO No bookmark functions and the DD issue are about the only remarks we can possibly make in this DVD section of which DD sound is the
The grey subtitles are not always an issue. Rebooting helps often to return to white and readable subtitles being shown but the issues with the subtitles not displayed at once remains. You can pause playback and as with DVD use frame by frame on MKV files and even slow playback is available but, recovering from any of these options results in the sound being gone for at least 3 seconds. Just pausing and resuming playback does not have this minor issue. Subtitles are outlined which is good, but somehow the lines are not projected at the same time. First line is ok, the second line almost always shows a black line firs before it becomes readable. Difficult to explain, so we made a short clip for you using a normal DiVX files to present the issue. PopCorn Subtitles: http://www.mpcclub.com/temp/subs_popcorn.avi GoTo (Time Search) is not available during H.264 playback. In general, all files played fine without glitches though we prefer to have mass tests before deciding playback is flawless. We saw no issues playing at least about 50 samples until we tried the Matrix. This
seems to block once in a while during the movie (each couple minutes) for a few seconds. (File info: Matrix 720p, DTS ESIR rip). Embedded subs in MKV files are detected but not shown. Pressing subtitles will show subtitles are on. So, based on our tests, the main red line would be that MPEG4 AVC is supported quite well as long as AAC and AC3 (DD) are used as audio. When using DTS there are sound drops from beginning to end which we saw on both the Matrix and other MKV samples and movies using DTS. MKV holding Vorbis sound will play without sound (not supported). Both 720p and 1080p files played smooth and fine from USB (not tested streaming or internal but should work equally) and embedded subs are not supported. TS files play fine as well as long as it holds supported audio and does not exceed about 40000 bitrates. We ran about all our samples on the unit and came up with a score of 73% passing fine. Rest used DTS, Vorbis or simply ware DiVX Low 3 files in an MKV container which failed with showing no video at all. AVCHD is supported as well. (Sony and Panasonic recorders). More reports should follow shortly after the release as the real performance and playback is measured using complete movies (300 and Next played flawless and complete as a test). Multiple audio tracks can be seen but not used. Subtitles are outlined, but notice the issues I wrote before are the same for the DiVX section. Up to 50 characters are shown on one subtitle line and in the file menu while browsing lists up to 40 characters. The PoPCorn performed rather well in the DiVX section but we did have some lockups especially with WMV containers using WMA9 Pro or standard sound profiles. After playback the unit would just remain having a black display and no longer respond to the remote. This happened in several other occasions as well during the tests and should be looked at. VCD, SVCD, KVCD, 720P Mpeg2 and 1080p Mpeg2 all passed. So did DivX3 up to 6000 bitrates, up to 720p and 1080p as well. Also with MPEG4 we saw no issues except with more than 1 warp point. Nero Digital tests passed completely although chapters etc are not supported. The files all played fine. WMV9 then, 720p and 1080p ran fine as long as no DRM is used. The PopCorn does not play native DRM protected WMV9 files so you must go back to using a PC client that takes care of the licensing and then streams to the PopCorn (Windows Media Player 11 for example or in case with older versions, Windows media Connect). Also MKV containers, not much to notice there except no support for embedded subtitles yet. OGM containers are however not supported and all files holding Vorbis sound will run without sound as it is not supported. In general, we are pleased with the supported files and playback. Few glitches, few errors, few lockups, it all still sounds normal and cant completely be avoided, yet, it must be reduced to minimal possible times. Notice that with Video, there is no progressive zoom unlike in the picture section. Here it is pure Full Screen, Stretch and actual size. Overall on sound options, multichannel files play fine but in case of using DTS, troubles start and sound either skips or locks up. There is something fishy with DTS right now used by the repeat button on the remote. If selecting more files, you can repeat One, All, Off as options but I cant find shuffle for video.
Pressing Info twice, offers more detailed info on the file playing.
General test Video

Video playback is still the media players main core and it shows. Video playback is the most advanced and most featured section. It does come with its own quirks though and Ill try to write everything down briefly. Supported subtitles are SRT, SUB, SSA and SMI. Multi Language SMI show subtitles from both languages on one line instead of two and if SUB/IDX is placed in the folder with the movie, the movie does not play. Featured tricks include FF/RW, slow playback and frame by frame but with the last two, on some files after resuming normal play the video would just start over from the beginning. Luckily, I can take notice of the time and use the GoTo function to jump back to the time I was before using these tricks.
Fast Forward and rewind is smooth but featured up to 8X only (no 16X or 32X). Pressing INFO offers OSD info on movie length and elapsed time as does it offer the info repeat status on/off, which is
Music playback
Over the years people have built up expectations for the next generation media players to become better and more versatile music players. Although progress had been made by allowing the user to continue browsing while playing back titles, the NMT kind of takes that away again. Its a return to the old days where if a file is playing and you want to select another one, you have to stop everything just to get the file list again. Whats wrong with this?
Support for music formats seem limited as no FLAC or Vorbis is supported yet. ogg files are listed but reported by the PoPCorn as Could not play. File types playing ok are MP3, WMA and AC3 files. Important missing formats here are AAC, FLAC and even WAV files for some. Also DTS and MPC are missing but less important for most. Im playing devils advocate here as in general the PoPCorn delivers just as much as most other players and has plans to add FLAC and Vorbis already. We just want to note this for everyone working on next gen, that we want better music performance so we can get rid of the need to buy separate players for Video, Music and Pictures. Its the ultimate goal, isnt it?
Picture playback
I never been a great user of picture slideshows on media players and the main reason is that certain formats are mostly not supported and features are usually missing to enhance picture playback. Loads of enhancements could be addressed by the newer models but are they? Not completely but it has improved at some points. Images are loaded with different transitions and the arrow keys on the remote are used to Zoom in/out in a progressive style after I pressed the zoom button. This allows for zooming in deep on images especially those of high quality that remain watchable after excessive zooming. Pressing ZOOM again, returns to normal size. See how a full page is used with only 2 lines of info containing the title of the song and the code used. Now why cant we continue browsing? Even the info on the files is limited showing title only so the music section is seriously underdeveloped offering playback from playlists, a folder with files or files one by one. What is missing? Browse abilities during playback, FF/RW on bigger music files, support for more formats and make it all spicier instead of dull. Why? The PopCorn does not have a VFD so playing without TV is not possible to startup music so if you have to turn it on anyway, make it a treat for the eyes. Using files with ID3v1 tags will show more info on the splash screen including album title, title, code and artist info. But what is weird is that on these files the Info button does not work. ID3v2 is not supported, neither is album art so to lift the music section to a 3rd generation level there is work to do for PopCorn Hour. The problem here is, I dont always want to zoom in the center of the image so the ability to shift left/right/up/down should be added as well. Loading images is slow, up to 7 seconds of black screen in between images of 3MB. Rotations are available using the angle remote key. No option found yet to enter slideshow interval. Pressing play on the remote will show current selected picture, play will start all files to play. There is no ability for background music during the slideshow, nor can you pause the show. When using ZOOM during a slideshow, you have to press next to continue before the slideshow goes on. Supported formats: Jpeg, GIF, BMP, PNG Rotations only works on Jpeg!
Conclusion Pictures Pretty basic playback remains the conclusion. Its good to see transition effects and progressive ZOOM but missing out on rotations or the ability to pause slideshow (and not stop and start over) or set a custom interval is a miss. Along with this, I might add the loading of images takes quite some time and even with the newer players, it seems picture abilities will remain as with the older players where main advantages are to be found in the video section by adding newer formats. Some very much wanted features like thumbnails etc are probably not implemented due to limitations of the 300Mhz processor. About the navigation again, I usually keep a main media folder without making subcategories like Video, Images and Music. Although the player forces you to select the type of files you want to use twice, it still cant show the images if not placed inside the Photo folder. It will however read this from a NAS server where it uses the filtering method, I mentioned above, to list file types regardless of their location. You can set the settings for torrents in the setup menu, but adding files is done by browsing to the torrent page using the IP address of the PopCorn Hour device. http://xxx.xxx.xxx/8883/torrent/bt.cgi Now I am troubled a little again. Some files for the torrent functions are located on the hard drive in the .btpd. However, if I try to connect to it using the PoPCorn itself I get this:
NMT Apps and options

One of the PopCorns most attractive features is software where customers are allowed to run their own binaries. Things are still at an early stage but available. In this section we only cover the default features provided. Samba Server SAMBA server is just a server like a NAS server allowing me to access the data on the internal hard drive from a computer in the same network. It will show the content using the unc path or you can map the PopCorn internal hard drive as a drive letter on your computer. Now you can copy data to and from the unit. The default setup of the hard drive includes the default folder share in which we find the default Music, Photo and Video folder. Two more folders lost+found and .btpd are located here.
Also, I cannot connect to it from my PC. Playing around with the port setting for the torrent server in the setup do not help. After multiple times double checking the settings and deciding the error is not from my end, I try loading the NMT apps again and
Ok, rest to defaults
Cold reboot 1 2 3 times
By now its time to get mad a little and pull out the MPC Mega USB stick! Actually, 1GB holding the firmware for a new full firmware flash (and losing all the content that took me hours to get onto it in the first place). I want to test Torrent!!
Torrent Downloads The Torrent applicationis basic to enable users to download media without the use of a PC. Almost! As adding files to download requires the use of PC to browse to the integrated torrent server.
There should be more info though like the amount of peers, estimated time of completion which could be offered by making the titles a link to more info on that file itself. After the complete format and newly installed apps, I can finally approach the local torrent pages inside the PopCorn Success! Now, I can access both the torrent on the player and from my PC. Not sure what was wrong before, but hey, we have arrived. Conclusion Torrent files Rather limited options to see more info beside up/download speeds and amount of MB downloaded. The torrent functions need some more info but otherwwise, quite handsome and functional. A scheduler function would be good so we can schedule overnight downloads for example and not during the day when we are using the device for movie playback. Also, adding options to move files to an unshared folder after completion would be nice especially with a scheduler to prevent a download finishing at 11PM while it remains seeding at 10KB until 8am in the morning. (Would cause 5.4GB data seeded) Not everyone has unlimited internet bandwidth and this should be kept in mind with further tuning of the functions. Its ok, nothing too fancy but functional if you keep monitoring myiHome Lite Server The myiHome Lite Server works fine as well. This is actually a server that allows a PC using the content from the internal hdd (HTML based server). It enables playback of the content on a PC, Windows Media Player etc or can simply allow browsing the hdd content from the web browser. You can upload only 1 torrent at a time although I would prefer selecting multiple files or a form allowing 5 torrents simultaneously to be added. The uploading is very fast and the titles are listed immediately when added with status information.
From the online interface you can add torrents to be downloaded and follow the progress along the way. This is done by loading the torrent files into the interface using the browse method.
I can browse the contents of my hard drive
We leave the nasty details on this feature up to you to discover as the many features are just too much to look at in detail. I think weve done our best to offer a brief overview of these and leave some of the exploration up to you. One more option we will look at though, the online MSP which features many little enhancements that can offer hours of playing with online resources More info on the myiHome Lite server: http://www.syabas.com/download/NAS%20Media%20server%20Broc hure.pdf
Online MSP:
One more option available on the PopCorn is the NMT online portal. This is a predefined environment of many additional plug-ins that can be fun to have including weather forecasts, online video, RSS feeds and more This calls for an overview
Theres too much to check for us in detail but surely, these will bring a lot of fun. Not all slots are filled on the MSP but most contain at least 4 items. Up to 8 items can be listed per category and possibly more (I dont know) A general check reveals all online options to work fine. For the next few pages, we will provide some screenshots of many of the online content so you have a decent idea of how things look and how much care are put in to these options.
Video MSP: YouTube Online video is always fun. The integration with YouTube is one of the most important additions to the online portal if you ask me. It incorporates basic functions as featured videos, most viewed, most recent, top rated, favorites and you can search off course. Video MSP: Google Video Google Video shows a different interface but is practically the same as YouTube. Notice the Earth Icon placed on these interfaces are to return to the main MSP menu. Also here, you can have categories more tailored to genres. Search is available as well.
Video MSP: Metacafe Metacafe might not be that famous but is a cool resource as well. Video quality on all these plug-in is average to good so do not expect superb quality all the time. Metacafe is more limited showing only 17 videos at time of review and no search or filter abilities. Video MSP: Videocast Videocast is equally unknown to many. It does offer 5 main categories showing quite some videos for each but equally like Metacafe it is limited to default content that might or might not change daily. No filters or search abilities.
Beside videocast shown at the right, further video portals include DLTV (Ziff Davis) and Cranky Geeks that show a new video weekly. There is room to add more channels (2) but these cannot be custom filled as far as I can see (like DiVX Stage6 which is high definition). Maybe a good tip to add
Music MSP: iPodcast With iPodcast you can listen to new releases. Im not very familiar with iPod myself neither have I tried this feature beyond the absolute needs to create screenshots for this review. Look like it offers the ability to listen to podcasts. Hence, the title says it all Music MSP: Radiobox Nineteen main categories are listed holding up to 10 radio stations so it seems. No custom selections or search and since these limitations apply, no ideas why not show them all on 1 page instead of 8 on the first and 1 or 2 on the second.
What becomes annoying here over time, is that returning to the main menu will always by default select video category and YouTube. The NMT should remember where we started and leave me with the option to continue from where I took off.
Changing this would again improve convenience. That it starts somewhere after first connecting to MSP is normal, while not leaving MSP and browse the different options, it would be better to keep track and return to the same place to continue exploration.
Music MSP: ABC News and Jamendo Two more options are available under Audio being ABC News podcasts and Jamendo which seems to be torrent based downloads of free music. The torrent is directly sent to the NMT torrent downloader.
Conclusion thus far

Its easy, the PoPCorn Hour A100 (and NMT in general) has tremendous potential to become the best available player but the heart under the hood is not running as smoothly as it should yet. Though most options are available as promised, they dont work as well as they should and need tuning. Music browsing, Flac, Vorbis, torrent tuning, copy performance, DD in DVD playback, bookmarks, Custom FTP password, some interface changes and more, add up to our opinion today that loads of tuning is needed (and ongoing) to mature... That does not mean the player does not offer serious abilities to have fun Rome isnt built in one day. Neither is PopCorn More coming up Pros (prelim) - Excellent price balance - Small and Fan less design - Samba Server - Network Services - Torrent downloads - DVD ISO/RAW support - Picture transitions/formats - Rotations / ZOOM - Customization abilities (SE binaries) - General Video Support Cons (prelim) - DVD DD output as 2ch PCM - DTS sound issues - Copy Network performance (tba*) - Standby running 100% - DVD bookmarks (internal HDD) - Poor Music section - Random Lockups - FLAC support (tba*) - Torrent scheduler (tba*) - Picture performance (load time) - Small DVD subtitle bug - Subtitle enhancements (white, display same time, size, move?) - MKV Time Search
No, its not a finished product and people purchasing this device should be aware that it will take time to mature. For the cost of the unit this is acceptable up to a certain level where we can see continuous progress but not everything can be forgiven by the cheap price. We target with this line mainly the music section which brings us back in time instead of making progress. I like the PopCorn, its small, has loads of potential but to become what I had in mind it would be, will take months to come. No problem there if it makes good steps ahead and keeping in mind, even third generation is still meant to be mainly video players. The picture section is ok though some features are limited to JPEG only (Rotation). Playback from USB, network or internal HDD overall is fine though many things depend on local network so true results will only come en mass. In the end, by fixing the most urgent issues in general and basic abilities, everyone should be able to live with what the PoPCorn can do today for its price and can only become happier over time with constant updates being issued. PS: We cannot comment on the casing yet. We are using the main board and connection board only, fitted into our own casing for the purpose of bringing you this early review info! If any info is used from this review on other sites, please link to the original copy located on MPC and NOT just spread the PDF. We keep track of the amount of readers to measure popularity of the products and MPC Reviews all the time as do we consider it honoring our work. The link to this review: http://www.mpcclub.com/banner_log.php?id=5049 Enjoy Hi-Jack!
Conclusion
The PopCorn Hour A100 is cheap if compared to other players but that clearly comes with limitations and the product being a work in progress. In fact, the only serious advantage it has over the competition right now is being a Samba Server (which is slow in performance), integrates some quite nice internet features, allows custom development to enhance the player which is an advantage that will only come over time and is based on more powerful specs in chip and memory but not uses that potential fully yet.

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Anything in this publication can change due to Syabas releasing weekly updates addressing issues found!!

Contents MPC Reviews

PART 5 Change List:

About the PoPCorn

Setup hard drive

Brief about the unit

Why no SATA or GBIT?

MB/s 3.3 5.1

26.4 14.2 2.3

Playback: The Interface

MB/s 4.6 4.6

ISO DVD / Video_TS

General Sound Options

General test Video

NMT Apps and options

Ok, rest to defaults

Cold reboot 1 2 3 times

I can browse the contents of my hard drive

Conclusion thus far

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