Topic: Popcorn Hour A-200! Jukebox, Apps Market, Torrent Downloader,3D,Facebook

[ert]

MOD NOTE:

this thread was merged with another popcorn a200 thread created by @macmel, who was gracious enough to give way to @ert's thread even if he created the thread earlier than @ert.


Announcing the all new A-200! now available!

The Popcorn Hour A-200 is the world's original Networked Media Tank. It allows you to stream rich-media digital video, audio and photos from your PC, storage device, home network or the Internet to your HDTV or home theater setup. Popcorn Hour gives you total control over your digital media experience

World's No. 1 Networked Media Tank!

ONLY player with HD Audio! Confirmed!
A-200




All New Chipset! Used in C200
Sigma Designs SMP8643, 667MHz CPU with floating point coprocessor.

Wifi Dongle
WN-150



visit www.popcornhour.com.ph for more info!

[Heartbreak Kid]

kailan kaya magiging available sa pinas nito? ganda ng specs, medyo mahal nga lang ... mas mahal pa sa wdtv live 

[ert]

kailan kaya magiging available sa pinas nito? ganda ng specs, medyo mahal nga lang ... mas mahal pa sa wdtv live  

available by end of January

do visit this thread: http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php?topic=107770.0

or www.popcornhour.com.ph for more info!

[Heartbreak Kid]

how much kaya SRP in Php sir? baka it is worth waiting for 

[keeper]

estimated price po?

[MaCMeL]

how much kaya SRP in Php sir? baka it is worth waiting for 

Sir ert will be in a better position to reply to you. If you do look at the US site, it say $179 w/out the WiFi dongle and $200 with it, of course you have to consider the shipping charges plus taxes applicable.

And I've seen him posted another topic for the A200, it wasn't here when I posted.

regards,
MaCMeL

[keema]

thinking of upgrading Sir Mac? 

Happy New Year 

[MaCMeL]

thinking of upgrading Sir Mac? 

Happy New Year 

Long time no see, Sir keema
Bakasyon ka ba?

No, not right now. Just bought the PCH A110, wouldn't want to jump to the new PCH. Siguro after a few months, let's see if it's good then will buy.

Pero at the moment, I am waiting for the Boxee TV to be available and have been considering the ACER REVO - Ion based XBMC setup.

belated
HAPPY NEW YEAR

[keema]

Hi Sir Mac! Nope still here sa abu dhabi...medyo puro basa lang...

what happened to your xtreamer? binenta mo po?

Anyway, where did you buy your PCH A110?

[Arnel E.]

Woohoo, I think I've found my next new toy. 

But seriously, this looks very promising.

[ert]

Short sneak about the upcoming Rich UI for A-200 and C-200 which is currently under development, this short clip will show you a short overview of the early Photo Part, please take note that this is a early view about what will come.

Wow! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIV0hosRXIA

or

http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/technology_and_gaming/watch/v196671333Ksg6NMF#

[Beefy]

No SRP yet?

[HD_MOVIES]

No SRP yet?

sana 4 digits lang.. 

[keeper]

sana 4 digits lang.. 

+100 

[ert]

LED Backlit Remote

[gaol]

That's great! Magkano kaya? 

[ert]

Release date : 29 January 2010
Firmware version : 02-02-100128-19-POP-411-000

1. New NMT apps 02-01-100119-19-POP-411
2. BD/AVCHD/DVD/CDDA
   - Retrieve DVD region and number of changes available from the hardware;
     show these info in the region setting pop-up box
   - Bookmark/resume support for DVD ISO/VIDEO_TS
     - Max. 10 bookmarks.
     - known issue, sometimes failed to resume correctly for certain clips
   - Implemented simple persistfs folder
     - if NMT HDD not exist, any available writable device (HDD/USB)
       will be auto-detected and used.
     - previous /persistfs mounting wizard removed
   - Temporarly mount VideoCD/SVCD as data disc, to play the .dat
   - Fixed DVD fast-forward issue; press FF->PAUSE->PLAY key, playback could not resume
   - Fixed some DVD ISO files cannot resume from bookmark.
   - Fixed system hang when BD-J ISO playback BDJ ISO without /persistfs (Bug #5000285)
   - Fixed playback BDJ disc from internal BDROM without /persistfs connected.
   - Fixed certain DVD ISO (Apocalypto.ISO) cannot resume from bookmark (Bug #5000289).
   - Fixed subtitle cannot be enabled when play DVD with only single subtitle.
   - Fixed audio CD info not showed
   - Fixed occasional access/mount failure to disc in USB drive (Bug #5000315, #5000316)
   - Workaround for CDDA issues (Bug #5000302, #5000303)
   - Workaround for BD-ROM via USB support
   - Performance improvement for BD ISO playback
   - Added patches for audio bitstream issues
   - Enabled MENU key for DVD/ISO/VIDEO_TS playback
   - Added REPEAT A-B function for DVD/VIDEO_TS and CDDA
     - Known to have slow response
     - A-B interval of less than 2sec may have issue
   - Workaround for BD audio no output after switch from HD audio to Dolby Digital/DTS
   - Fixed after HDMI audio muted, DVD playback will have noise on audio output
   - SimpleBD navigation feature for A-200
     - Added support for ISO files.
     - Fixed video skip forward about an hour when switch audio track. (Tested BEVERLY_HILLS_CHIHUAHUA)
     - Fixed subtitle menu incorrect listing
     - Fixed audio/subtitle persistency issue
     - Fixed incorrect icon displayed when doing scene selection using menu
   - Enabled MENU key for DVD/ISO/VIDEO_TS playback
   - Added ANGLE switching OSD display for DVD/ISO/VIDEO_TS/BRD playback.
   - Added option in SETUP page to enable or disable BD PiP
   - Fixed AVCHD disc intermittent "could not play" issue.
   - Fixed AVCHD shown as "BLU-RAY Video" at OSD infobar
3. Video and Audio playback
   - Added Dolby DRC (Dynamic Range Control) setting
   - Fixed RW/FF/Slow icon not cleared after seek
   - Fileplayer bookmark/resume support (first-cut)  
     - Max. 10 bookmarks
     - bookmark saved on STOP keypress; subsequent press (ENTER or PLAY) will resume from bookmark.
     - To start from beginning, press '0'.
   - Fixed incorrect aspect ratio (Bug #5000155)
   - Fixed "actual size" aspect ratio issue when playback clips below 1080p. (Bug #5000154)
   - Fixed BiDi char type table to resolved incorrect Hebrew subtitle rendering.
   - Partially fixed Arabic Tashkeel character shaping issue
   - Fixed subtitle size/position affected by pan/zoom.
   - Modified time seek hh:mm:ss key handling.
   - Fixed certain clips WMAPro audio lose output after 1-2 sec playback.
   - Forced 24p source to framerate 60Hz for non-1080p TV mode
   - Fixed issue where audio playback do not stop gracefully when encounter file read error
   - added FLAC audio support, including multi-channel FLAC
   - Fixed and restored video/audio bitrate display
   - Added Vorbis/FLAC audio bitrate display
   - Fixed MKV playback file cannot get audio bitstream/passthrough after resume from bookmark.
   - Modified subtitle menu order and reversed time offset key direction; same as A100
   - Changed tab-switching (SOURCE key) focus behaviour
   - Show only ID3 album art if exist, when music playback
   - Fixed incorrect ID3 genre display for certain files
   - Disable bookmark for Internet/Broadcast/MSP/SayaTV video playback
   - Temporarily disabled video format with psfdemux/demux for video/audio bitrate shown on infobar.
   - Increased subtitle font size range.
   - maintain adjusted subtitle time offset throughout playlist.
   - Increased vertical position range for external text subtitle.
   - Stop background slideshow before starting VOD to release free memory (Bug #5000299)
   - Fixed detection conflict between FLAC, WAV and AVS video (Bug #5000287)
   - Enable support for FLAC and VORBIS with 3, 4 & 5 channels
   - Support Thai(codepage 874) external ext-based subtitle
   - Checking of Byte Order Mark for external SRT in UTF8 (Bug #5000322)
   - Fixed positioning of long/large-size text-based subtitle
   - Fixed external text-based subtitle via HTTP e.g. myiHome not loaded (Bug #5000250)
   - Fixed resume/bookmark issue; only seekable files can be bookmarked now  
   - Fix to only allow files with duration and seekable status to do time seek (LEFT/RIGHT/GOTO) (Bug #5000139)  
   - Fixed file certain WMV clip unable to end after LEFT/RIGHT/GOTO seek
   - Fixed STEP on clip that is not steppable will terminate playback
   - Fixed after trigger SEEK LEFT/RIGHT/GOTO on the infobar will show PAUSE/STOP icon then only show PLAY icon.
   - Fixed hang-up when press PLAY on m3u file (Bug #5000320)
   - Fixed issue regarding video zoom/scaling (Bug #5000327)
   - Improvements for h264 video frame sequence calculation to handle typical h264 encoding fault
     caused by non-standard ripping
   - MKV chapter support, use PREV/NEXT key
   - Added FLAC metadata display for music playback
   - Added shuffle feature for music playlist; press REPEAT to toggle
   - Added gapless playback feature for audio playback (first phase)
     - only for MP3 and WAV now, and for subsequent files of same format
     - cannot seek when prebuffer starts near end of file
   - Fixed certain TS video clips cannot do LEFT/RIGHT/GOTO/TIME SEEK seek/resume from bookmark.
   - Fixed if huge MKV chapter size causing system error.
   - Fixed certain Internet radio cannot play.
   - Fixed UPnP-AV (WMP11) playlist item crashes.
   - embedded PGS subtitle support for M2TS files (first phase)
   - Fixed PGS/M2TS subtitle rendering resolution flaw
   - Enabled camcoder AVCHD type detection.
   - Added gapless audio support for FLAC format.
   - Support for changing subtitle encoding on-the-fly
     - in subtitle menu; only for ASCII codepages (Latin1, Greek,
       Cyrillic, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai), GB2312, BIG5, Shift_JIS and UTF-8)
   - Fixed missing space with italic subtitle
   - Fixed PGS subtitle potential hang.
   - Workaround to enable 24Hz at auto framerate sync
   - Fixed gapless playback feature for small mp3 file less than 1MB
   - Added album art retrieval from FLAC metadata
   - Added Brightness, Contrast, Hue and Saturation setting for video
     (press Setup during video playback)
   - Fixed issue where single file playback could not toggle repeat mode.
   - Fixed M2TS PGS subtitle issue
   - Workaround WMAPro bitstream output issue
   - Added all playable formats allow for audio playlist
   - Fixed incomplete FLAC metadata retrieval
   - Fixed playlist sometimes does not start from correct file
   - Fixed m4a song info and album art display
   - Patch Colorspace algorithm (for file playback only)
   - Fixed playback failure via certain HTTP server (SwissCenter)
   - Disable subpicture for .VOB file play
   - Fixed WAV detection that crash with MPEG1/2
   - Fixed subtitle switching issue with MPEG; previously broken external subtitle on/off function
   - Fixed specific ASF cannot fast forward
   - Fixed subtitle CP1258 detection
   - Added album art retrieval from FLAC metadata
   - Added BCS (Brightness/Contrast/Saturation) on-the-fly setting during playback (press Setup)
   - workaround for MKV audio lip-sync issue
   - Fixed scaling/zoom/pan OSD menu unintended pop-up when playback near end of file
   - Fixed STOP key cannot save the bookmark file to flash setting when scaling/zoom/pan menu is ON.
   - Fixed playlist sometimes does not start from correct file
   - Improved SRT subtitle parsing
   - Display language code of MKV embedded subtitles
   - Fixed m4a song info and album art display
   - Exception handling for ID3 genre index out-of-range (7034.mp3)
4. Photo app
   - Fixed an issue when setting repeat on the last photo in playlist
     will show current playlist item as 0 on FIP (Bug #5000116)
   - Fixed PNG image decoding causing system hang
   - Fixed issues where myiHome (Mac) not focusing on photo when playback
     photo with BGM and stopping photo does not stop BGM
   - Enable screensaver during photo playlist pause state
   - Slideshow, new photo info (ISO speed, F number and Exposure time)
5. OSD
   - fixed minor OSD text wrapping issue.
   - slight modification for info display during video/photo playback.
6. System/Network
   - Fixed cannot eject data disc (Bug #5000064)
   - Workaround for missing folder issue due to filesystem failed to identify
     directory type for unknown reason with scandir (Bug #5000218)
   - Fixed incorrect display resolution when boot up in auto TV mode without
     connecting HDMI.
   - Tweak to improve network performance.
   - Fix for HDMI blackout and HDMI audio mute issue
   - Added progress indicator during firmware update download
   - Fixed flash driver to avoid occasional hang issue when umount particular partition
   - Fixed default value; DTS:PCM, DRC:off for factory setting
   - Changed "AC3" wording to "Dolby Digital", shifted DRC setting down to Audio section
   - Fixed language tanslations
   - Added Country/Region code to WiFi config setup.
     - Country/Region contains channel settings for 8 regions; only for Ralink MII card.
   - Fixed stuck in playback if no network up
   - Fixed reboot failure (Bug #5000243)
   - Fixed screensaver still kicks in at background when in standby mode
   - Show harddisk and usb disk size when info button pressed
   - Show file size on the UI listing
   - Reverted patch which fixed screensaver kicking in at background when standby; causing (Bug #5000314)
   - Resolved screensaver setting issue after restoring factory setting
   - Fixed video scaling info not updated during PAUSE (Bug #5000306)
   - Disallow file copy of over 4GB to FAT device (filesystem limitation)
   - included kernelmode NTFS read/write driver
   - Fixed configure proxy result in error page
   - Fixed DVD parental setting cannot be saved
   - minor update on Chinese/Japanese language pack
   - Fixed HDD name not displayed
   - Fixed occasional detection failure of NTFS harddisk
   - New network share UI
   - Turn on syabas_command_server
   - Improve time for NFS (UDP/TCP) client login to non-exist/blocked shares
   - Improve time for server discovery utility
   - More intelligent handling of protocol type instead of .udp. default
   - Torrent client HTTP wget fix
   - Network share, number of allowed persistent links has been increased to 20.
   - Fixed USB unmount issue
   - Fixed issue of incorrect redirection when changing password in NMT Apps page
   - Fixed CD status update while opening/closing
   - Fixed issue where some servers were missing from the discovery
   - Minor update to language pack
   - Added USB keyboard hotplug handling
   - Fixed incorrect harddisk status/icon display after USB slave operations
7. Browser
   - New twirling icon
   - New licensed font integrated
   - Support dynamic loading of external js file
   - New UI theme
   - To display memory usage; press SLOW key
   - Fixed Pause key wrongly mapped as Play/Pause key
   - Fixed 'No Disc Found' message not shown and browser hang when accessing empty loader (Bug #5000292)
   - press PLAY on non-playable item will instead play from first playable
     item in the folder
   - Browser user-agent missing closing bracket.
   - Added "remove USB device" feature in file mode menu
   - For browser to display USB mount point instead of USB name
   - browser will stay busy until all images from previous page is loaded
   - Fixed file operation delete/copy/newfolder/move/rename/createplaylist does not update the list in UI
   - Fixed Internet radio showing image info on front panel LCD
   - Fixed SD mode media source listing issue, broken in previous RC release
   - Fixed HTTP mime type overwritten issue
8. WiFi
   - Integrated WIFI driver for Realtek USB RTL8192
   - Turn on Ethernet LNK LED when link to 100baseT as well.
   - Fixed connection failure if disable SSID broadcast at router and key in SSID manually (Bug #5000331)
   - Fixed unable to play Internet radio via MSP when using WiFi (Bug #5000330)
   - Fixed issue where empty entry is displayed in the SSID dropdown list (Bug #5000341)
   - Added in support for extended printable ASCII characters for SSID/security code input (Bug #5000345)
   - Fixed soft reboot wasn't able to reboot machine, after connection to network with wifi device(Bug #5000340)
   - Check on WPA state and continue with configuration when state is WPA_COMPLETED
   - Fixed improper word displayed at the wifi connection column while not able to establish connection (Bug #5000342)
   - Improved IP address acquisition when using DHCP (Bug #5000339, #5000344)
9. UPnP AV
   - Added image resolution support (Twonky photo bug)
   - Fixed UPnP device duplication issue when server restart or host name changed
   - Added .ts, .avi support (Twonky)
   - Resolved photo pause-next will hang the system
   - support mp2v m4a mp4 m4v.
   - Resolved PlayOn "no content found" problem
   - Fixed URL with parameters cannot find extension
10. Web Services
    - App Center service
    - Official SHOUTcast service added
    - Fixed "scroll up" page handling issue.
    - Fixed loading wrong saved flash info in SD mode
11. PHF (ROBIG)
    - Overall performance improvement, fixes for multi-language support
    - Fixed PHF launch without special HTML attributes
    - Shoutcast app having problem; removed for now
    - Enable system font
    - New Revision3 app

[ert]

NMT Apps Version : 02-01-100119-19-POP-411

Release Notes :
1. Minimum firmware version to use this NMT App is 02-01-091203-19-POP-411
2. myiHomeLite
   - change audio playback slideshow images
   - change theme
3. BitTorrent
   - New Transmission client 1.75
   - Fixed parse data error causing BT page unable to show
4. FTP
   - FTP server, new share path (/opt/sybhttpd/localhost.drives) to
     share out all HDD and USB devices.
5. Network
   - Samba improvement on read/write speed
6. UnP AV Server
   - Fixed some media files not visible from 8642/8634 player
7. Change stop NZB command to fix firmware update getting black screen

[comet]

Sir Ert may SRP na po ito?

[scifi-fan]

Yup it's Feb already.

[gaol]

What if we post how much we think it should be priced, or at what price we would seriously consider buying it?

I'll start off:

I've read that it will list for US$180. The WDTV Live which uses a similar generation Sigma chip lists for $150 but retails at around $120, and here it's around that price ($120xP55=P6500 or thereabouts).

If we use the WDTV Live pricing as basis, the A200 would probably retail for around $150 (the premium over the retail price of the Live is justifiable: internal HDD for one). So locally, I'm thinking it would sell very well in the P7500 to P8500 bracket (I certainly would be very tempted). Higher than that, well ... if above P10K (same as the A110 it replaces), I think the market has moved on and expect much much cheaper, primarily due to the realtek-based players....

My humble opinion.  

[newwaveboy]

^ Same here ...... I think the people will choose Realtek NMT's due to the lower prices.

I'm guessing that there is no way in hell that the A-200 will price below 10k, given that it's an upgraded A110.

Let's hope for the best. 

[ert]

Yup it's Feb already.

will let you know within this week we'll try to lower the price from A110 if kakayanin..thanks!

[iiinas]

will let you know within this week we'll try to lower the price from A110 if kakayanin..thanks!

that's good to hear.

[scifi-fan]

will let you know within this week we'll try to lower the price from A110 if kakayanin..thanks!

Thanks...

I'll be waiting

[HD_MOVIES]

8.5k and below i will consider buying it and replace my xtreamer.. 9k and above, nope, will just stick to my current player..


sana nasa 8.5k price range lang.. 

[Beefy]

i certainly wouldn't be able to justify buying this if it's near the price range of the a110 knowing the srp is only $180.

If it is anywhere near the SRP, then that's a different story 

+1 sa 8.5k!

[ert]

But most probably it won't be in the 8k range..it could be a bit lower than the A-110..and since the $180 still doesn't include the shipping cost from DHL which is $50 plus taxes and duties when it arrives here, that is if you order online..pero lets see

[cHess]

hopefully around 8K, malaman best seller ito......wishful thinking.....

[gaol]

But most probably it won't be in the 8k range..it could be a bit lower than the A-110..and since the $180 still doesn't include the shipping cost from DHL which is $50 plus taxes and duties when it arrives here, that is if you order online..pero lets see

Of course, if you buy it individually at retail. Besides there are cheaper options to bring it here like Johnny Air.

As most people are saying here mahirap na i-justify a pricing that's just about the price of the old A110 or slightly lower.

The market has moved on. When the A110 came out and eventually ruled the NMT market, there was basically  only the WDTV that was cheaper, but it didn't have networking and all its attendant features. All the others were priced like the A110 or even more expensive (but worth it) like the Tvix boxes. So the normal price then for an NMT was in the P12K and above range.

Now almost all of the features (I may be wrong, but that is my general impression) of the A110 and even the upcoming A200 can be had for around P6k plus or more minus a few thousand, in other words, the normal price for a full-featured NMT with the latest powerful chips are in the P5k-P8k range. And they can play most of the high bitrate files that are coming out.

You want internal 3.5 storage? There's the Mede8er (and even the HD Pro)
You want network and internet bells and whistles? There's the Xtreamer.
You want a sigma chip similar to the one in the A200? There's the WD TV Live.
And so on...

So the question most of us will be asking: what feature or features in the A200 will justify paying nearly twice as much as the other NMTs? And is it worth paying that premium if it's priced that way?

One last point:

The SRP of the xtreamer on its website is 99euros or around P6,400. Local price is anywhere from less than P6k to P7k.

The SRP of the WDTV Live on its website is $150 or around P7k. Local price is around P6.5K to P7k.

The SRP of the A200 is $179 or around P8400. So local price would be ...