Author Topic: Popcorn Hour A-200! Jukebox, Apps Market, Torrent Downloader,3D,Facebook  (Read 155865 times)

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Offline gaol

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On the question of reasonable profit. Magkano nga ba dapat? 

9900 = $215 = 19.45% over the list price.  The number looks "reasonable" enough for me.  Why? 

Because I suppose

1. seller has to spend money on his store
2. seller has to pay wages of his staff
3. seller has to deal with all kinds of kups and hassles during all sorts of formalities.  How much price do you put on headache?   ;D
4. seller has to spend valuable time doing business
5. ang INIT sa Pilipinas - so kelangan ng aircon sa opis at kotse.   ;D
6. seller has to buy a burger or fried chicken or pizza.   ;D  - wouldn't you?

Of course, sellers are wise enough to reduce their cost as much as reasonably possible.  Eh diskarte na nila yon sempre.   ;)









Naku! baka itaas ni bitstream and distro ng WDTV Live etc yung prices nila, pambili ng burger .... hehe  ;D

Cheers!  ;D

Offline Clondalkin

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Naku! baka itaas ni bitstream and distro ng WDTV Live etc yung prices nila, pambili ng burger .... hehe  ;D

Cheers!  ;D

They probably would have or could have if:

1.  They knew from the start that their product was capable of something that other players could only dream of yet.   

2.  They had a preceding product that was well accepted by the market.


Offline ert

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Review for A200

PopCorn Hour sure goes back to its roots bringing an affordable system that might easily bring them out on top again of the competition in this price range comparing features and the eventual price tag designated to fit the A-200.

http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/links/showlink.php?do=goto&l=182&linkurl=http://www.mpcclub.com/download.php?f=review_popcorn_a200.pdf

Offline Arnel E.

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Can't wait to see the upcoming Rich UI in March.  But until then, I'm not yet decided on dumping my Xtreamer for this one.

I would still get this unit for the Rich UI alone, though.  :D
HT: Kodi on HTPC -> Marantz 6008 -> B&W MT | V: Sony W904A tv, Epson 8350 pj | controlled by Harmony

Offline ert

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Can't wait to see the upcoming Rich UI in March.  But until then, I'm not yet decided on dumping my Xtreamer for this one.

I would still get this unit for the Rich UI alone, though.  :D

yup me too looks exciting  ;D

Offline ert

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by the way, a200 is already available for those who are asking via pm thanks! :)

Offline scifi-fan

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by the way, a200 is already available for those who are asking via pm thanks! :)

Thanks for the A-200 :)


Offline eksi

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Thanks for the A-200 :)



how's the performance of a-200 bro?

Offline scifi-fan

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how's the performance of a-200 bro?

My initial impressions are;

- plastic case looks weird (parang tupperware na naarawan at medyo natunaw ha ha ha).
- I love the illuminated remote. Also it doesn't need to be pointed straight at the unit to work.
- It really is a lot faster than last year's Sigma based NMTs (chip is 2x the speed of the old one)
- noise from the fan is a non-issue, mas maingay pa xtreamer fan set to medium.
- very refined na yung interface (info screen, music, pictures).
- ethernet performance was amazing.
- my torrents max out my DSL connection (much better built-in BT client).
- 1080p streaming works

Some of the things I wanna try are;

- attaching a USB external BD-Rom drive


Offline iiinas

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My initial impressions are;

- plastic case looks weird (parang tupperware na naarawan at medyo natunaw ha ha ha).
- I love the illuminated remote. Also it doesn't need to be pointed straight at the unit to work.
- It really is a lot faster than last year's Sigma based NMTs (chip is 2x the speed of the old one)
- noise from the fan is a non-issue, mas maingay pa xtreamer fan set to medium.
- very refined na yung interface (info screen, music, pictures).
- ethernet performance was amazing.
- my torrents max out my DSL connection (much better built-in BT client).
- 1080p streaming works

Some of the things I wanna try are;

- attaching a USB external BD-Rom drive



wow, pretty good initial impression.  :D

Offline Beefy

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My initial impressions are;

- plastic case looks weird (parang tupperware na naarawan at medyo natunaw ha ha ha).
- I love the illuminated remote. Also it doesn't need to be pointed straight at the unit to work.
- It really is a lot faster than last year's Sigma based NMTs (chip is 2x the speed of the old one)
- noise from the fan is a non-issue, mas maingay pa xtreamer fan set to medium.
- very refined na yung interface (info screen, music, pictures).
- ethernet performance was amazing.
- my torrents max out my DSL connection (much better built-in BT client).
- 1080p streaming works

Some of the things I wanna try are;

- attaching a USB external BD-Rom drive



Could you expound on the ethernet performance? Transfer rate? and Are you using gigabit connection?

Also, have you tried bluray rips(iso and bdmv structures)? HD audio?

On NMT forum, they noticed that this unit gets hot especially the upper left top part of the case.

Offline scifi-fan

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Could you expound on the ethernet performance? Transfer rate? and Are you using gigabit connection?

Also, have you tried bluray rips(iso and bdmv structures)? HD audio?

On NMT forum, they noticed that this unit gets hot especially the upper left top part of the case.

I am aware of the problems with the Gigabit port so I have set it only to 10/100 until it's sorted out.

I guess what I'm trying to drive at is that due to the big difference between processors used in the 200 series, it can easily handle multiple tasks simultaneously much better. As a server guy, I am quite intimate sa knowledge of running multiple tasks simultaneously in linux systems. On the 100 series, I could easily bog down the CPU load by running all the NMT apps and it would "choke" the unit whether it be transferring files or streaming videos. It got so bad sometimes that I would lock up the unit from stuck processes requiring a reboot. On the A-200, all the Apps are on and I am sure I can stuff more background processes like YAMJ, Rapidshare downloader and other CPU intensive tasks I wasn't capable with on the 100 series.

Remember the 100 series is also the same Sigma chip used in other acclaimed players like the TVICO M6500 and the HDX-1000. The A-200 is one of the first attempts to make the higher more powerful chip available for a lower price point.

I do have some mkv's with DD-TrueHD & DTS-MA that would work (AVR recognizes and decodes the HD Audio streams) with the A-110. In the A-200 they automatically get downmixed to DD/DTS only. I am also aware that the current firmware doesn't passthrough HD-Audio encoded in single .mkv/m2ts files.

If somebody is willing to provide me some BDRips I can test it because from what I know they should work without requiring special muxing software.

I was able to find a supplier for a USB BD-Rom drive but it's quite pricey so I will have to budget for it next time while my wallet recovers.

As for the Heat issue...

I have to trust the designers of these gadgets that they must employ some form of beta testing on their part and if they make it a certain way, I will believe it's working properly until it fails. That's why whether I feel the unit is hot or not is irrelevant, what matters is if it will continue working and not fail. That's what the warranty is for.

« Last Edit: Feb 11, 2010 at 06:55 PM by scifi-fan »

Offline scifi-fan

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As a primer... I forgot to state why I'm so obsessed with licking 1080p streaming via wireless..

My other hobby is photography and one of the things my cohorts need to do is to stream 12-20MP (megapixel) files across churches and isolated functions.

New Full Frame 21MP DSLRS can produce 1080p video files easily and for a wedding photographer, the shots need to be transferred to some on-site video production facility where we can make a finished video by the time the function ends (imagine ninyo weddings now).

If it's possible I would probably have the finished videos in the car where a wifi router can stream it across to the function room where there would be an A-200 or xTreamer + barco projector on the other end showing the finished product without stuttering ha ha ha.
« Last Edit: Feb 11, 2010 at 07:09 PM by scifi-fan »

Offline Beefy

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how many apps are you running? I've got 3 apps, myihome, NFS, samba and ftp server,  plus yamj and my unit is running it's movies of a server(NAS) via NFS with no problems on the old sigma chip.

AFAIK, no nmt can play MKVs encoded with HD audio. Maybe you're talking about m2ts files?

Post your feedback when you get to try bdmv structures or bluray iso's. I'm interested in this unit but still waiting for them to sort out these problems. BTW, send me a PM when you get these type of files as I may have something which might interest you  8)
« Last Edit: Feb 11, 2010 at 07:16 PM by Beefy »

Offline scifi-fan

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how many apps are you running? I've got 3 apps plus yamj and my unit is running it's movies of a server(NAS) via NFS with no problems on the old sigma chip.

AFAIK, no nmt can play MKVs encoded with HD audio. Maybe you're talking about m2ts files?

Post your feedback when you get to try bdmv structures or bluray iso's. I'm interested in this unit but still waiting for them to sort out these problems. BTW, send me a PM when you get these type of files as I may have something which might interest you  8)

I also run telnet and 2 web servers in the background. I once tried running cover art on the A-100 while running torrents. I couldn't for the life of me finish a 1080p movie without it stuttering once in a while.

Granted I don't know who all the authors are of the apps I run on the PCH so there maybe lousy code in there somewhere causing memory leaks and stuff that just eats up all the resources (not releasing them properly) that slowly makes the unit bog down.

Ganyan talaga buhay ng geeks ha ha ha

As for mkv's encodded with TrueHD/DTS-MA.. I was able to find some on the networkmediatank.com forum and was successful running them on the A-110 with a Denon receiver. I forgot whether they were m2ts or mkv  ???

Here's the link to the sample files;

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=14051
« Last Edit: Feb 11, 2010 at 07:21 PM by scifi-fan »

Offline Beefy

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Link you posted were for m2ts and ts files  ::)

Offline scifi-fan

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Link you posted were for m2ts and ts files  ::)

My bad :)

Offline eksi

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thanks bro scifi for sharing...
i wonder why a200 can pass through HD audio while the a110 can?
im expecting a200 can pass through and down mix HD audio, as well as the non-HD audio, already

Offline vx2

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MediaSmartServer has a pretty good review:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/04/review-popcorn-hour-a-200/

One more thing regarding HD Audio. For me, if a media player cannot bitstream HD Audio from standalone files then it is completely useless in my Home Theatre. For some players such as the PCH C-200 and A-200 (assuming this feature gets fixed) there are ways to get around this by converting the standalone files into a Blu Ray structure, but for me this is just not practical nor do I have a desire to waste time going through my entire video collection. So FOR ME, I would not even consider the C-200 or A-200 for my home theater until standalone bitstreaming is added. However, many other people use Blu Ray structures and the PCH works perfect for their home theater. And lets not forget there is another group who could care less about HD audio. My point here is that don’t just go by what someone says about a product, do your research, figure out what features are most important to you, and then make your decision.

Offline Tempter

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MediaSmartServer has a pretty good review:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/04/review-popcorn-hour-a-200/

One more thing regarding HD Audio. For me, if a media player cannot bitstream HD Audio from standalone files then it is completely useless in my Home Theatre. For some players such as the PCH C-200 and A-200 (assuming this feature gets fixed) there are ways to get around this by converting the standalone files into a Blu Ray structure, but for me this is just not practical nor do I have a desire to waste time going through my entire video collection. So FOR ME, I would not even consider the C-200 or A-200 for my home theater until standalone bitstreaming is added. However, many other people use Blu Ray structures and the PCH works perfect for their home theater. And lets not forget there is another group who could care less about HD audio. My point here is that don’t just go by what someone says about a product, do your research, figure out what features are most important to you, and then make your decision.

Yeah, that should be your consideration when looking for an nmt. Do research and base your decision on the features that "WOULD BE" useful to you and not because some *&%*%@# told you that this player is capable/incapable of this and that. OT hehe!!!
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people."

Offline scifi-fan

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I forgot about that review...

I wanna playing around with that version of YAMJ this weekend for fun :)

Offline scifi-fan

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Update:

After a couple of weeks of use now I've gotten more time using it and have the following observations;

- CSI (Community Software Installer) doesn't work yet for the A-200.

The CSI allows PCH owners to personalize their units to their tastes, it's kinda like an installer to allow users to add features they want that doesn't come out of the box.

- HD Audio for single files (m2ts, mkv) will not yet work.

After trying various files, the only way to get HD Audio to bitstream is the files are in a Blu-ray formatted directory structure. The large uncompressed media presents new problems though because the only way I can get these kinds of large files to work is to have them ON the internal hard drive. Streaming large ISOs on a fixed ethernet works occasionally but reliability isn't good enough to recommend streaming blu-ray ISOs with HD Audio over a network.

- Intermittent problems requiring reboot

I also had this with ANY NMT and I expect buggy firmware mature into a rock solid one within a couple of months. I also noticed I would get the NMT into an unreliable state after playing files I know weren't compatible with it yet (like BD rips)

- YAMJ+Aeon Movie Jukeboxes

I finally gave the YAMJ a go and unlike the Oversight jukebox I used to have on the A-110, YAMJ is pretty complicated to setup properly. All in all to get YAMJ to work to my satisfaction took the whole weekend of tinkering with various settings. Oversight is a simpler solution however it really took a lot of CPU processing time (sometimes it hung my A-110). I would like to try Oversight on the A-200 but until the community software installer supports the A-200, it will have to wait.

The speed of the processor is apparent though. Running the jukebox was effortless. It was fast and generating the screens was like running them on a PC.

- HEAT

I've kept the A-200 with a 3.5" SATA drive on all the time and I'm still waiting for the unit to fail from supposed excessive heat reported on the net. Warranty is my ally so I will keep the unit running in a room that doesn't have air conditioning all day until something breaks.

- NMT Apps

Torrent application is still maxing out my DSL connection given I choose content with good seeders. I now have to enter schedules to deliberately slow it down so as not to piss off other members of my household using the internet :)

- CAVEATS

In other forums, some have tried flashing the A-200 with C-200 firmware. The reason for doing so is to see if one can get the firmware capability of the C-200 in the A-200 sans the cost. I tried it and yes I was able to get full Blu-ray ISOs to load complete with java menus working. DVD ISOs also work with full navigation (not lite menus). I had to go back to original A-200 firmware though because there are some differences in the hardware of the A-200 and C-200 namely the USB ports which would become erratic with the cross-flashing process.
« Last Edit: Feb 22, 2010 at 02:43 PM by scifi-fan »

Online anya618

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question sa mga me A-200, what's the longest time youve used ur unit?
gumagana din ba dito ung jukebox na gamit ko for pch A110?
viber/cp# 09175040694 (PLS INDICATE USERNAME)

Offline scifi-fan

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Longest for me is 1 whole Sunday.

As for movie jukeboxes... yes pwede rin Oversight.

Now that nagamit ko na Oversight (A-100/A-110) and YAMJ, I appreciate the YAMJ method now.

It's so versatile that it allows me to have my content scattered over different drives (internal, USB, NAS) and displayed on just 1 jukebox.

Online anya618

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Longest for me is 1 whole Sunday.

As for movie jukeboxes... yes pwede rin Oversight.

Now that nagamit ko na Oversight (A-100/A-110) and YAMJ, I appreciate the YAMJ method now.

It's so versatile that it allows me to have my content scattered over different drives (internal, USB, NAS) and displayed on just 1 jukebox.

di ba masyado mainit sir ung unit considering hindi siya aluminum case?
viber/cp# 09175040694 (PLS INDICATE USERNAME)

Offline scifi-fan

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di ba masyado mainit sir ung unit considering hindi siya aluminum case?

We'll see.

So far so good :)


Offline ert

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New Firmware is out!  ;)

Release date : 24 February 2010
Firmware version : 02-02-100208-19-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
   - Fixed short audio mute issue when resume from bookmark for DVD content playback
   - For AudioCD/DVD/AVCHD, Right/Left key will do +/- 30 seconds skip
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)
   - Enable 7.1 support for flac, vorbis and also mkv-flac mkv-vorbis
   - Fixed error in MKV embedded subtitle language code display causing disappearing menu
   - Fixed MKV aspect ratio error
   - Fixed some internet radio links cannot stream with MMS protocol.
   - PGS subtitle support for MKV
     - May have time offset issue depending on muxer software.
   - Workaround to overcome some m2ts stream with incorrect PTS causing subtitle to show up for
     1~100ms then dissapear (Bug #5000395)
   - Workaround to output M2TS TrueHD as Dolby Digital where applicable
   - Added manual audio sync support to compensate HDMI audio sync issue
     (press SETUP during video playback)
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
   - minor graphical adjustment for Info bar
   - Show decimal fraction for disk info (Bug #5000392)
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

continuation

Offline ert

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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
    - Enable system font
    - New Revision3 app
    - Handle volume up/down
    - Shoutcast app reenabled

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

download here http://www.popcornhour.com/download/A200/firmware-A200.html

Offline ditoy_eagle

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Hi ert, I am interested to get this one for my new studio.  I am canvassing already for a 2TB hard drive to be placed inside the A200. The low powered ones like the WDC Green series are cheaper but only at 5400rpm vs the better but more pricier 7200rpm models.  Do you think 5400rpm is sufficient already to play bluray rip movies? These are usually huge .mts/.ts files in their native bluray folders, which retain the HD audio streams. This is basically the reason why I am attracted with the A200.
« Last Edit: Feb 25, 2010 at 06:02 PM by ditoy_eagle »
Thanks to the PMPC for the award - Digital Movie Sound Engineer of the year in the 28th Star Awards!

Offline gaol

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New Firmware is out!  ;)

Release date : 24 February 2010
Firmware version : 02-02-100208-19-POP-411-000



Thanks, Eric!  :)