Topic: Popcorn Hour A-400 #1 3D Dual Core, New VXP Processor, iPad Integration, NMJ

[jcsantamarina]

Sir, Try turning the TV and AVR first in order to establish the HDMI connection between the TV and AVR and then turn the a400 next

I've followed this same advice too since day 1. No problems at all. My TV and YSP-2200 is connected to AVRegulator, so I turn on the AVR, then TV, then YSP2200 then I plug in the A400.

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but have you changed the HDMI cable also? (",)

[ert]

you may download it here http://www.popcornhour.com/download/A400/firmware-A400.html

Firmware version : 05-01-130205-24-POP-422-000

1. Known Issues
   - Playback DTSHD sometimes will hang (already feedback to sigma)
   - Playing a DVD with DD over Avr and then play any file with PCM gives just noise
   - Sample King Kong with DD+ Video doesn't run smooth (still working on it)
   - BD with TrueHD when switching next/prev chapters cause audio out of sync
   - BD with TrueHD when keep on pressing Info/Title button will get audio drop issue
   - Seamless branched BD will auto switch back to default audio tracks when change to next chapters
   - BD audio does not always follow BD language set at setup page
   - Adaptive Deinterlacing & Film Cadence Detection causing issues with frameratesync and MotionBars when enabled

2. Firmware
   - Fixed external text subtitle move along movie when doing video zoom and pan
   - Fixed Sample Cars with TrueHD stops at some point and buffers before it continues again
   - Fixed idx subtitle crash issue
   - Fixed idx subtitle sometimes shown as corrupted
   - Fixed 3D fullframe side-by-side does not playback correctly problem
   - Filename with keyword "3D-H-SBS" will be played as 3D
   - Allow external text subtitle to move outside movie area or to middle of the screen
   - Improved MKV performance
   - Changed when 3D setting is off, 3D BDMV/BDISO will play the 2D version (m2ts) instead of the 3D version (ssif)
   
3. System
   - Fixed white dot on top of splashscreen
   - Fixed Myihome is running when it shouldn't
   - Fixed torrent crash problem
   - Fixed arabic word does not align correctly in UI
   - Improve quality of small size font
   
4. NMJ
   - Fixed NMJ tv season could get incorrect media path after restructuring v1.8.0 to v2.0.0 database issue
   - Fixed NMJ scanner crash during database restructuring
   - Fixed NMJ scanner ignore nfo file and thus fail to get external subtitle file for BD rip issue.
   - Fixed NMJ audio album listing crash issue due to invalid utf-8 character
   - Fixed NMJ cannot show watch icon for BDMV (via NFS read only).
   - Fixed NMJ access to movie/TV series details page take more than 30 seconds
   - Fixed wrong video name when playback BDMV/BDISO video
   - Fixed wrong video name when playback movie after playback movie over samba/nfs
   - Fixed after played first song, cannot proceed to second song (via NFS read only)

[anya618]

compatible ba ito sa 3tb and 4tb external hdd?

[balto]

We tested yesterday a newly acquired A400. Were expecting that it has the latest fw coz we requested it from the supplier before sending the item to us. We just tested 2 movies.

1) Avatar, bdmv file, 1080p. Theres a buffering from time to time.
2) The Dark Knight Rises, mkv file, 720p. It keeps on shifting from full screen to 16:9 (those with black spaces on the top and bottom part).

The A400 was set to 1080p/60hz video output, and set to FULLSCREEN.

These are just the initial observation we had. Very limited time to test.

Thanks.

[Clondalkin]

1.  First of all, try to reconfirm if you indeed have the latest FW already.  If YES, then that sucks indeed - so got to wait for further FW updates which will hopefully fix the issues.  I dont want you to lose hope on the A400 but based on what happened sa A200, the bugs of Simple BD mode (which is the only Full Blu-Ray playback mode your A400 is capable of right now), were practically wiped out when Sayabas enabled BD-J in May 2011 via a FW update.  I clearly recall all sorts of issues associated with Full Blu-Ray under Simple BD mode before that.   Im sure Sayabas is trying to work things out with the A400, but at the moment, BD licensing conditions seem to be rather intricate.

2. That's OK.  Those Batman movies are combination of IMAX and non-IMAX scenes so palit-palit ng aspect ratio as the movie plays along.

3. Did you consider my suggestion na A300 + a separate Full 3D player? - Ang dami mo namang pera it seems.  Hehehe

We tested yesterday a newly acquired A400. Were expecting that it has the latest fw coz we requested it from the supplier before sending the item to us. We just tested 2 movies.

1) Avatar, bdmv file, 1080p. Theres a buffering from time to time.
2) The Dark Knight Rises, mkv file, 720p. It keeps on shifting from full screen to 16:9 (those with black spaces on the top and bottom part).

The A400 was set to 1080p/60hz video output, and set to FULLSCREEN.

These are just the initial observation we had. Very limited time to test.

Thanks.

[balto]

3. Did you consider my suggestion na A300 + a separate Full 3D player? - Ang dami mo namang pera it seems.  Hehehe

Hahaha... Pang china nmt lang po budget natin boss Clondalkin. Yang A400 ay pinahiram lang sakin ng kaibigan ko. For testing only. Hehe.

Yung mga 3D movies ko kasi nasa hdd. Wala po akong mga cd files.

May na observe pa ako sa A400 na yung 3D SBS na file ko ay hindi nya automatic nade-detect. Literal na SBS ang palabas nya. I have to configure pa the 3D function in my Sammy. So, i suppose ang 3D video quality nya ay galing sa Sammy and not from the A400 chip. Pero sa Egreat nmt nadedetect nya lahat ng klase ng 3D files ko.

[balto]

@ clondalkin

Firmware installed was the latest. The posted posted by sir Ert above (feb 20, 2013).

Been playing and testing some bdmv and 3d.iso files this whole afternoon, keeps on buffering pa rin.

[Clondalkin]

Oh well, so wait for better FW pa rin kung ganoon.

Again, A300 + R6S or Measy X5.  Konti lang difference sa budget mong 15K.  hehehe. 

Pero as I told you last time, kung OK kalang sa SBS or OU instead na Full 3D Blu-Ray, maski A300 lang.   3D subtitle lang naman ang malaking pagkakaiba. 

@ clondalkin

Firmware installed was the latest. The posted posted by sir Ert above (feb 20, 2013).

Been playing and testing some bdmv and 3d.iso files this whole afternoon, keeps on buffering pa rin.

[balto]

was looking at med1000x3d nalang. hindi naman siguro night and day ang difference ng pq sa pch. havent tried med though.

[Clondalkin]

You still wont get Full BD Navigation even with the Mede8er.  If you want Full 3D Bluray, why wouldnt you want Full Blu-Ray - like a real Blu-Ray player?   For every Full 3D Bluray out there, there must be at least 100 Full 2D Bluray.

Mede8er is a good brand.  I owned a Mede8er 500X before and their FW development is pretty good. PCH is better no doubt, pero nakatali nga sila sa BD Licensing right now.

was looking at med1000x3d nalang. hindi naman siguro night and day ang difference ng pq sa pch. havent tried med though.

[balto]

Got a 3D BD Player already. Ang hanap ko yung nmt that can play the 3d.iso and bdmv files that i have in my hdd. Kung pwede lang sana maconnect yung hdd ko sa bd player at mabasanya lahat ng files, di na ako bibili ng nmt.

[Clondalkin]

I think if you dont need Full BD navigation capability of an NMT, then better have Remux in MKV instead na BDMV or BD Folder Structure.  Theoretically pareho ang quality non in terms of AV because walang compression and mas playable because MKV folder. Yun nga lang, many NMTs have issues with the Bluray format PGS subtitle that usually comes with a Remux.

[toys4geeks]

After so many years, my C200 died (may the gadget gods bless its soul). Is A-400 worth the jump, does it PCH pedegree eventually have full BD later, Coz i dont think its gonna happen in Realtek?

One thing i love with my C200 was the BD navigation, dont need 3D much since I have other players to do it.

[busabos]

PQ wise, I'll go for Popcorn hour, A400 to be specific; all other features including price, I'll put my money on other brands (med1000x3D, Measy X5 or EGreat R6S).  This is just my opinion so don't shoot me, I'm sure a lot would disagree.

[xb24]

hello po I'm new to media players and I just want to ask if possible na magkaroon ng full bd menu navigation itong a400 with a firmware update or should I just buy the a210.

I'm also concerned with the picture and audio quality of both a400 and a210 w/c is better?

Also are there any stuttering issues in both picture and audio when playing through an external hard drive?

thanks guys. Hope you can help me out.

[Clondalkin]

Possible nga kaya?  that is the question.

Bili ka muna ng A210 or A300 if you really value Full BD Nav.  Tapos if ever that feature can be enabled sa A400 in the future, madali naman ibenta ang A210 or A300 sa Marketplace.   Can you still get a brand new A300 these days from Ert or from his dealers?   If, A210 most likely puro pre-owned pero OK na OK lang yon.  Swerte nung mga nakabili ng pre-owned A210 sa marketplace - kasama na ako doon.  hehehe

Default settings palang, MALAKAS/MATINGKAD ang kulay ng A400 compared to A210.  If you find it too green (as my wife did), just adjust the color to your liking.  Pero since you are interested sa Full BD Nav, that implies you like to watch Full Blurays - thus, not much difference in image quality especially if you have a good HDTV, and SQ if you have the proper AVR to decode HD audiostreams.  Baka nga lang mas mabilis ang initialization ng A400 if it can do Full BD Navigation - kaso it cant do Full BD Nav nga so there is no way to compare at the moment with the speed of the A210 or A300.

The stutter of Full BDs that I observed last December 2012 on the A400 has nothing to do with the type of HDD connection.  Internal or External should be OK kahit anong content, but personally, everything is externally connected.    It was a FW problem that caused the Bluray playback issues - probably rectified na through a FW update by this time - pero in any case, Simple BD Playback mode pa rin.

hello po I'm new to media players and I just want to ask if possible na magkaroon ng full bd menu navigation itong a400 with a firmware update or should I just buy the a210.

I'm also concerned with the picture and audio quality of both a400 and a210 w/c is better?

Also are there any stuttering issues in both picture and audio when playing through an external hard drive?

thanks guys. Hope you can help me out.

[xb24]

^salamat ng marami sa info.

sir how about the a300 vs a400? in terms of PQ, AQ, stuttering and audio drops? thanks.

[Villaco]

My a-400 when i played w/ a DTS-HD OR DTS MA ang audio nag esstutter sya kahit na mkv file na sya.. Hope something can b done about this.

[Clondalkin]

As I was told by a good PDVD friend, the A300 is practically the same as the A210 except with a different GUI and a faster processor - and I know he is very much into Full 2D Blu-Rays.  Hence, the A300 should be quite stable for playing Full Blu-Rays and MKVs.  Whatever problems there are, should be more attributable to the file itself, not the PCH.

Just take note that PCH MAY have issues with  encodes in MP4, MOV, FLV, MPG, WMV containers - those XXX stuff, those small net-streamed files, and mostly non-high def small files.  My guess is, the engineers of Sayabas don't really care that much about non-high def and non-MKV stuff (as if their way of saying that the PCH is meant for high def MKV and Blu-Ray), or, could be some inherent limitations of the Sigma chip which are not present in Realtek.  Anyway, if your main concern is Full BD Navigation = Full Blu-Ray, the A300/A210 are definitely the best in my opinion.  Maski the old A200 is very very good on this regard although the fan can be rather noisy when playing Full Blu-Rays - the Sigma chip must be running at full load under that condition.

As for the A400, again it has stronger, more striking color saturation out of the box.  Complexions are too green for my wife.  However, that is no big deal in my opinion because you can adjust the color settings of the player itself, the HDTV itself, and even through the AVR if you set the AVR to do video processing.  It just sucks that the A400 does not do BD-J/Full BD Navigation.  Stuttering and audio drop out can be rectified via FW updates.

^salamat ng marami sa info.

sir how about the a300 vs a400? in terms of PQ, AQ, stuttering and audio drops? thanks.

[wacksy1021]

hi sirs, i bought the a400 so i can use my external 3TB hdds but my unit just cant seem to format or even recognize my external 3TB hdds. i have updated already to the latest firmware but still not recognized. Is there a way to get this to work? thanks sirs...

[vittditt]

bump....... any FW updates regarding the Full BD Navigation on the a400? Planning to purchase 2 new NMTs for my bedroom and my HT, currently using the a200. Any advise? Thanks!

[boybi]

How do I access the files in the A400 from the PC or other media players?

[jcsantamarina]

hi sirs, i bought the a400 so i can use my external 3TB hdds but my unit just cant seem to format or even recognize my external 3TB hdds. i have updated already to the latest firmware but still not recognized. Is there a way to get this to work? thanks sirs...

Have you tried formatting it via Win7/8 first before plugging it into the A400? My HDD's had content already when I loaded it to my A400, but if I were to have a new HDD, I would format it via Win7 as NTFS.

bump....... any FW updates regarding the Full BD Navigation on the a400? Planning to purchase 2 new NMTs for my bedroom and my HT, currently using the a200. Any advise? Thanks!

None yet. I think it's more of a licensing issue for now. You can head over to networkedmediatank.com for more accurate updates.

How do I access the files in the A400 from the PC or other media players?

Good question! Any of the other A400 owners here who have done this? I just normally take out my HDD and use a dock to transfer files. It's much faster.

[vittditt]

Hi guys, I just bought the new a400 and now I'm having a hard time trying to configure the network, network share to my NAS. I hope someone has already configured the network of their a400 that could help me here.

Anyway, I already connected the ethernet cable from the ethernet port of the a400 to my NAS. While trying to configure this through the a400's SETUP WIZARD, I noticed this:

STEP 1: Language.........chose English and entered NEXT;
STEP 2: Network Connection........I only see this "Wired (Continue to Step 4) (Ethernet cable)"
and then when I entered NEXT, it jumped to STEP 4 which I now see "Obtain an IP address automatically" searching for the IP address of my NAS and then stopped and saw these:

IP Address......................IP address of my NAS
Subnet Mask...................Subnet of my NAS
Gateway.........................blank

and after I presses NEXT, this came up: "Error. Setting could not be saved."

Then I'm stuck there.

Please help.

[ert]

are you using a direct connection? it would be better if you would connect it first to your router/switch so that the router will set a dynamic ip address for your popcorn hour. then from there you can now setup the network with your NAS.

[ert]

www.popcornhour.com.ph

Release date: 2 April 2013
Firmware version: 05-01-130329-25-POP-422-000 (STEPSTONE FIRMWARE)

Extra Notes:
Please take note that this firmware is a Stepstone Firmware,
it is not possible to flash back to previous public firmware
05-01-130205-24-POP-422, because there are major changes in the microcode!

1. Known Issues
   - Playing a DVD with DD over Avr and then play any file with PCM gives just noise
   - BD with TrueHD when keep on pressing Info/Title button will get audio drop issue
   - BD audio does not always follow BD language set at setup page
   - Adaptive Deinterlacing & Film Cadence Detection causing issues with frameratesync and MotionBars when enabled

2. Firmware
   - Fixed after playback video using audio passthrough, YouTube does not have audio output
   - Fixed App Market Video streaming issues
   - Fixed audio now playing screen highlight on wrong song sometimes
   - Fixed Blinking on some mkv test files Dexter and Batman with 1080p24 with 1080p60 no issue!
   - Fixed BD with TrueHD when switching next/prev chapters cause audio out of sync
   - Fixed subtitle out of sync after seek or resume from bookmark
   - Fixed audio out of sync after seek
   - Fixed some BD hang issues
   - Fixed crash at the end of music playlist playback for certain mp3 files
   - Fixed Prev/Next issue with BDMV and BD Iso
   - Fixed Bookmark not working with BDMV and BD Iso
   - Added "Right Eye First" Setting
     - On 3D BD Playback press the "Setup" on your Remote, in Video at the first entry you can switch between "Right Eye First" and "Left Eye First"
     - Added 3DRL Tag to switch to "Right Eye First", currently only supported on files movie.3DRL.ssif, will get added for ISO in next build
   - Improved Video streaming performance
   - Improved Buffering issues with some 1080p mov Apple Trailers
   - Improved transition with seamless branched BDs
   - Improved zoom/panning speed
   
3. System
   - Fixed some flac does not show metadata in now playing page
   - Fixed focus at bd_rip, dvd_rip and video_iso, hit play key able to play playlist issue
   - Fixed or Improved Network Drop Issue
   - Enabled screensaver when photo slide show is paused
   - Update language files for German, Italian, Czech and Hungarian
 
4. NMJ
   - Fixed update scan could keep duplicating the same external subtitle record to database
   - Fixed AVCHD always get file size zero in scanner#
   - Fixed scanner do not update TV series rating during update scan after adding another seasons
   - Fixed scanner do not update total runtime, rating, last play item records for TV series/season/episode, multiple movies during update scan after removing some files
   - Fixed incorrect last play item record for TV show
   - Added customizable TV series poster feature

[comet]

Mga sirs how's the new fw update? Any improvements?

[xb24]

Are the stuttering issues fixed w/ the new update? Some of my mkvs still stutter it's really annoying.

[ert]

www.popcornhour.com.ph

[Clondalkin]

Any updates about the A400 performance?

No news is definitely bad news in this case.

Is anybody actually happy with his/her A400 right now?