Popcorn Hour look set to unleash a brand new digital media receiver soon, and it’s looking mighty fine! The C-200 comes with a two SATA hard drive sockets, HDMI out, and most interestingly, a drive bay into which you can fit a Blu-ray, DVD or additional hard drive.
We’ve heard from a lot of people in the past who really love the previous Popcorn Hour, as it plays almost any audio and video format you throw at it. The C-200’s supported formats are similarly impressive:
Connectivity
Bonjour
UPnP SSDP
UPnP AV
Windows Media Connect
Windows Media Player NSS
Samba
NFS
Media servers: myiHome, myiHomeLite, myiHomeMS (UPnP), MSP Portal
Third party media servers: WizD, SwissCenter, Llink, GB-PVR
BitTorrent P2P
Usenet downloader
NAS access: SMB, NFS, FTP
Web services
Video: YouTube, Vuze, Revision 3, Videocast, CNET TV, Mediafly, Veoh, Mevio, Bliptv, Break Podcast, CBS Evening News, CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Daily, CNN The Larry King Podcast, NBC Today Show, The CNN Daily, CNN In Case You Missed It, NBC Nightly News, NBC Meet The Press, CBS Face the Nation, Podfinder UK
Audio: Jamendo, iPodcast, BBC Podcast, Indiefeed, CNN News, ABC News
Photo: Flickr Photo, Picasaweb Photo, Pikeo, 23
RSS feed: Yahoo! Weather, NMT Forum, Bloglines, Cinecast, MSNBC News, Traffice Condition, Yahoo! Traffic Alerts, Yahoo! News, Weather Bug
Peer-to-peer TV: SayaTV
Internet Radio: Radio box, Live365 Radio
Media files supported
Video containers:
MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB)
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
AVI, ASF, WMV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4
Video decoder:
XVID SD/HD
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 MP@HL
MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
MPEG-4.10 (H.264)
BP@L3
MP@L4.0
HP@L4.0
HP@L4.1
WMV9
MP@HL
SMPTE 421M (VC-1)
MP@HL
AP@L3
Audio containers:
AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV
WMA
FLAC
OGG
Audio decoder:
Dolby Digital
DTS
WMA, WMA Pro
MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3
MPEG-4 AAC-LC
MPEG-4 HE-AAC
MPEG-4 BSAC
LPCM
FLAC
Vorbis
Audio pass-through:
DTS, DTS-HD HR, DTS-HD MA
Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD
Other formats:
ISO, IFO navigation
Rich Object Based Interactive Graphics
AVCHD navigation
Blu-ray ready (requires addition of compatible BD-ROM and at least 1GB USB stick or internal HDD)
Photo formats:
JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
Subtitle formats:
SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX
DRM
Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD)
Chipset
Sigma Designs SMP8643, 667MHz CPU with floating point coprocessor.
Memory
512MB DDR2 DRAM, 256MB NAND Flash
Audio/Video outputs
HDMI v1.3a with CEC, 36bpp deep color, 12-bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 content protection
Component Video
S-Video
Composite Video
Stereo Analog Audio
S/PDIF Optical and Coaxial Digital Audio
Other Interface
192×64 dots white text on blue background LCD display, with software adjustable brightness and power off
Power button with standby, reset and full power down
2x USB 2.0 host at the front
2x USB 2.0 host at the back
1x USB 2.0 internal
2x SATA (one occupied by HDD tray)
3.5″ HDD tray
Internal mounting for 2.5″ HDD
2.4GHz RF Remote Control
Infra-Red Remote Control port (Infra-Red Remote Control optional)
Network
Ethernet 10/100/1000
miniPCI MII interface for 11n WiFi card (optional)
Power
100~240V AC, 50~60 Hz, max 2.5A
typical: 13 W (no additional device installed/attached)
maximum: 70 W
Dimension
Width x Depth x Height : 425mm x 290mm x 80mm (16.73″ x 11.42″ x 3.14″)
Weight
3.7kg (8.3 lbs)
Package Content
Popcorn Hour C-200 (HDD not included)
IEC 60320 C13 power cord
1.5M length HDMI cable
RF Remote Control with 2 “AAA” batteries
Quick start guide
More Info: Engadget | Networked Media Tank
18. June 2009 at 2:41 pm
I was about that by a PH a-110 or TVIX, but now I will wait for this one! Especially the screen which allows you to play back mp-3 without turning on the TV is a winner for me!
18. June 2009 at 4:14 pm
I almost purchased an A-110 and a 1TB drive to go in it.. I do believe I will be waiting for this bad boy to hit the streets!
18. June 2009 at 4:46 pm
Can you clear up a couple of things for me?
2 SATA, so does that mean the third drive bay has to be connected via internal USB?
Only one drive can be 3.5"?
18. June 2009 at 7:57 pm
If only it had a browser, and maybe even a remote desktop client…..__
19. June 2009 at 12:50 am
Does it play DivX ? as I see it play Xvid but I am also very much interested in DivX playback
19. June 2009 at 2:04 am
Other sites have said they don't post DivX support due to licensing reasons, but it does, in fact, play those files.
19. June 2009 at 6:01 am
This may just be the media device that I've been holding out for.
19. June 2009 at 3:18 pm
I hope they updated the UI, it's been pretty lame so far. Give me something that looks like XBMC.
19. June 2009 at 4:14 pm
Nah, the interface on the PH boxes has been just fine sofar: simple, elegant, easy to use and navigate. I'd rather have better CODEC support and such over a over-glammed up and complicated interface. There are third-party programs out there to spruce up the interface for navigating movies and such.
20. June 2009 at 1:57 am
Well, I've been using XBMC and Boxee. Ive seen the Popcorn and MVix USA boxes. This new popcorn item will darn near kill Boxee's idea of making a set top box in the future.
Looks sweet with all the on line TV options. IF it has a browser, that would be the killer app! Diggin' it though.
20. June 2009 at 4:09 am
I have a PCH A-110 and love it. I will probably pick up one of these and move my current PCH to the bedroom.
20. June 2009 at 5:26 am
can this thing act as a media extender? IF so the thing would replace my PS3 AND Tivo
20. June 2009 at 8:12 am
Tony, it most certainly will be able to act as a media extender. It's predecessor was absolutely sensational. If initial indications are to be believed, this one is a significant upgrade.
You can register an expression of interest for the Popcorn Hour C200 at http://www.eljomedia.com.au/Popcorn_Hour_C200_Net...
22. June 2009 at 1:39 am
Don't want to start a war here, but with the price of this, plus a blu ray drive it would be about the same price as a PS3 -$399ish. I have not used a popcorn hour, and use a PS3 for all my media, what is the benefit over the PS3 of the PCH as media player?
23. June 2009 at 1:31 am
eljomedia – "Tony, it most certainly will be able to act as a media extender"
Are you referring to that in the generic sense, or the Windows Media Extender sense of the phrase?
24. June 2009 at 4:43 am
I just got myself a SageTV HD200 and run it as a media extender together with SageTV which is installed on my WHS. While it doesn't seem to have all the HW features of this new Popcorn device (most notably: no WLAN), it works very well, plays almost all media formats and has a much nicer UI than the PS3. What I especially like is the integration with the DVD profiler software.
Cheers,
teq
29. June 2009 at 1:32 am
Can this run Windows? I have a custom video player application for closed caption that I would need to use for playback?
6. July 2009 at 5:07 pm
Needs support for Sirius and Pandora.
7. July 2009 at 12:20 am
There is extensive forum support for this device at http://www.networkedmediatank.com, the answers to most questions can be found there.
In terms of Media Extender, it is more a generic network media extender in that it will access a library of files stored elsewhere on your network and play them back to on your TV. You can also use it as your central media "NAS" device as well, as it is networked and has room for up to 2 x SATA HDDs.
–2manymp3s– "Needs support for Sirius and Pandora."
The interface of the Popcorn Hour players is open source and as such, people are always developing new applications for it. You should check out the wiki at the above link and perhaps make a request for sirius and pandora support.
Cheers. Eljo.
7. July 2009 at 12:20 am
There is extensive forum support for this device at http://www.networkedmediatank.com, the answers to most questions can be found there.
In terms of Media Extender, it is more a generic network media extender in that it will access a library of files stored elsewhere on your network and play them back to on your TV. You can also use it as your central media "NAS" device as well, as it is networked and has room for up to 2 x SATA HDDs.
–2manymp3s– "Needs support for Sirius and Pandora."
The interface of the Popcorn Hour players is open source and as such, people are always developing new applications for it. You should check out the wiki at the above link and perhaps make a request for sirius and pandora support.
Cheers. Eljo.
7. July 2009 at 12:20 am
There is extensive forum support for this device at http://www.networkedmediatank.com, the answers to most questions can be found there.
In terms of Media Extender, it is more a generic network media extender in that it will access a library of files stored elsewhere on your network and play them back to on your TV. You can also use it as your central media "NAS" device as well, as it is networked and has room for up to 2 x SATA HDDs.
–2manymp3s– "Needs support for Sirius and Pandora."
The interface of the Popcorn Hour players is open source and as such, people are always developing new applications for it. You should check out the wiki at the above link and perhaps make a request for sirius and pandora support.
Cheers. Eljo.