Popcorn Hour Vs Freecom Media Drive

iMax

Guys,

Just wondering if one of you can offer some advice... I'm wondering wether the freecom media streamer would be a better option to a popcorn hour device ?

I've just got an invite to buy one of the popcorn hour systems but when you add shipping etc the price works out pretty much the same.

Popcorn hour plays pretty much anything but doesn't have wireless, freecom does but is more restrictive on what it plays (but looks a whole lot better)

Any thoughts ?

keith_d99

I have the Popcorn hour and would wholeheartedly recommend it!!
It's has a couple of bugs - but there are firmware updates on a monthly basis, and a great community (forum) for any issues. This gadget will be around for a long time!

It plays absolutely everything - from blu-ray rips to ISO files etc. Anything that I have thrown at it, it plays.

It also works as a NAS

It has its own BitTorrent Client - no need to leave PC/laptop on for downloads

HDMI output - finally get to see proper HD on HD tv.

YouTube, Google Video - and quality is actually good - even on a 42inch screen

You can stream media from anywhere on your network.

Any questions - just ask

Wireless will be supported in next firmware, I use homeplugs and they work well.

Keith

iMax

Keith, how much did it cost all in (delivered into your sweaty little mitts) ?

I'm just after ordering a freecom HDD/streamer, because I missed my window on this but I may resubmit for one if it's *that* good.

keith_d99

It cost me €140 plus €17 customs - so 157 all in.

I need to move my media from full laptop - so I put a WD 250gb hard drive into it also - that was just under €100

What Freecom product did you get? Send us a link

Spocker

I second what Keith said; I have one too and they are the business, hasn't refused to play a file yet.

It's a whole heap of steps better than the Netgear EVA700 I had before , although I still use it in the Kitchen, using the Popcorns built in media player, meaning I don't have to have the PC on.

Price wise, it cost me €130 delivered to my Sister in the States, who brought it home at Xmas, and another €160 odd for a 750Gb drive for it (and I've less than 100Gb spare )

Theres a Popcorn for sale on Adverts: http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=51754

iMax

Got this one

keith_d99

The Freecom looks good too!
It has the Sigma chip, HMDI and wireless.
I suppose the main thing is how well it's supported? Will there be many firmware updates, to support new codecs etc? Will it play all files - for instance .mkv files (which seem to be the best file format for HD)

That Popcorn hour sold for 295 on adverts - not so bad - since it included hard drive

iMax

Well I just got an email to say that my drive (among other stuff) should be here today or tomorrow (hopefully today because I'm out tomorrow).

Spocker

Funnily enough, I just got this email:

popcornhour.com wrote:

We are pleased to inform you that you can now place your pre-order for the
Popcorn Hour A-100.

Your credit card will only be charged few days before the shipping date.
Depending on which batch your order falls into, your credit card will be
charged accordingly. We will process the orders based on the "first come,
first serve" basis and will update the pre-order status for each batch at
http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewforum.php?f=18

Please give us around 1 week lead time to process the shipping list before
we update shipping info in your Google Checkout account.

There may be a slight delay of a few days in providing the tracking
information to shipping addresses inside the United States and Canada. The
reason for this is that our office in China will first ship to our
California (US) office where it will be processed and dispatched. Orders
from all other countries are shipped directly from our China office.

Please note that Google Checkout will perform an "Auth" operation on your
credit card when you place the order. Google will hold the sum listed
solely to confirm that your credit card is valid. Popcorn Hour will not
have made any charges to your credit card yet at this point.

Thank you for your support,
The Popcorn Hour Sales Team

i.e. anyone can order it now without having to sit on the list....

keith_d99

iMax, let us know how you get on with that Freecom gadget!

iMax

Will do. Just got it together & formatting drive now.

iMax

OK initially this seems like a great piece of kit. Sturdy great remote & interface, however, major bad point, although it has a network port, you cannot copy across the network. Only stream. You can use FTP but that's not what I wanted to do. Apparently the previous model the 350 you could do this, but it doesn't come with a HDMI connection or upscale, which this does, but I haven't used yet.

I'm particularly annoyed at this as it even says on the box "Network Media Drive". As said though interface & remote are great. I think I probably should have bought the popcorn, but for now will do with this one.

keith_d99

That's poor enough about the network copying!
I store my iTunes music on the Popcorn Hour internal drive - and it works fine - via a mapped drive
But as far as I know iMax there is some ftp app that you can get which that tricks XP into thinking it's a mapped drive.

iMax

Interesting. Know the name for it by chance ?

keith_d99

Webdrive

http://www.southrivertech.com/products/webdrive/index.html

iMax

Thank you muchly kind sir !

keith_d99

No bother!!

Hope it sorts out your frustrations!
I remember when I was thinking of going down the xbmc route - I was going to use that to snyc my iPod

joebre

Hi Keith d99

The charge by Customs seems quite low. Any idea how it was calculated ?
What are your opinions on the device after a couple of months now ?

joebre.

keith_d99

Hi Jobre,

No idea how the customs is calculated to be honest - a % of the value I guess.
Opinions? I love it I must say - great little device - and great value for the amount of functionality it delivers. I use it as my media store with the internal drive, also as a backup device for photos.

There is a new model available - with some hardware extras like HDMI 1.3 and being able to plug the device in as a usb slave (if you have the internal drive). This would be useful alright - but you can still transfer files over your network.

Keith.

joebre wrote: »

Hi Keith d99

The charge by Customs seems quite low. Any idea how it was calculated ?
What are your opinions on the device after a couple of months now ?

joebre.

stackeye

At the moment I have an Argosy 500 gig media Hard Drive, I was thinking of replacing it with the Popcorn hour due to the Network Port, can I put the argosy hard drive in the popcorn and copy all my movies across from my main PC? is this allowed? a few posts back it says there is no copying only streaming if thats the case then how do you put movies on this drive?

squibs

Does a device exist with a hdd, the ability to stream media from wi-fi network AND ability to record a sky box signal to the internal hdd. I've never seen all those features in one box.

Michael Collins

squibs wrote: »

Does a device exist with a hdd, the ability to stream media from wi-fi network AND ability to record a sky box signal to the internal hdd. I've never seen all those features in one box.

Ditto. Never seen such a device myself either, despite a lot of searching. Fancy setting up a business squibs!? There's a definite gap in the market here.

keith_d99

The Popcorn hour does indeed take a hard drive - a 3.5 or 2.5 (with adapter) SATA drive - You can copy whatever you like to that drive as it is accessibe over the network

The Argosy? Not sure what type of drive is in that, but worse case you can plug that directly into the USB port of the popcorn hour and play anything from it

stackeye wrote: »

At the moment I have an Argosy 500 gig media Hard Drive, I was thinking of replacing it with the Popcorn hour due to the Network Port, can I put the argosy hard drive in the popcorn and copy all my movies across from my main PC? is this allowed? a few posts back it says there is no copying only streaming if thats the case then how do you put movies on this drive?

keith_d99

The Popcorn hour can do that - you can buy a wireless adapter for it - and stream media over wifi from anywhere. I use it with a wired network (with homeplugs)

As for Sky? Sky+ will do that - as for getting stuff from Sky+ drive to somewhere else - can't be done as data is encrypted. Only way to record a sky signal is to put output (scart) into a DVD recorder (with hard drive if you like)

Most TV programmes are downloadable these days (even in HD format)

Michael Collins wrote: »

Ditto. Never seen such a device myself either, despite a lot of searching. Fancy setting up a business squibs!? There's a definite gap in the market here.

JDxtra

Where can you buy these Popcorn Hour devices? They don't seem to be freely available in the UK/Ireland.

keith_d99

http://www.popcornhour.com

JDxtra wrote: »

Where can you buy these Popcorn Hour devices? They don't seem to be freely available in the UK/Ireland.

Michael Collins

keith_d99 wrote: »

The Popcorn hour can do that - you can buy a wireless adapter for it - and stream media over wifi from anywhere. I use it with a wired network (with homeplugs)

As for Sky? Sky+ will do that - as for getting stuff from Sky+ drive to somewhere else - can't be done as data is encrypted. Only way to record a sky signal is to put output (scart) into a DVD recorder (with hard drive if you like)

Most TV programmes are downloadable these days (even in HD format)

Just an analogue solution, like a TV capture card in the device that could connect to a Sky Digibox using the SCART, record whatever is on, and then allow that recording e.g. as an MPEG file, to be taken off to the device in order to edit / adjust and burn to DVD on a PC. That's all I'm looking for, but such a device doesn't seem to exist. The only way to get recordings off any of the Hard Disk recorders seems to be via DVD...

The only way to get it digitally is using a CAM type DVB-S card, and that's an expensive and messy solution.

Spocker

Popcorn A100 is todays (18.08.08) Ibood for €160 - > http://www.ibood.com/site/eu/iboodSpecs.php

Slaanesh

Does that look like a good deal on the ibood site? It really does seem like a great little device and I already have the external hard drives. Is it possible to install a hard drive into the device itself?

keith_d99

Think it's $205 to buy direct from Popcorn hour - cost me €17 in customs - so I think it's still cheaper to buy direct

You can indeed put a hard drive into it - Sata 3.5 (or 2.5 with an adapter) - You need the hard drive installed to have use of it's in-built torrent client - which is very handy as you don't need a pc running to do your downloads

Spocker

The A-100 (the one on iBood) is $179 + shipping + customs from popcorn themselves. It also only takes PATA drives, not SATA

Gerry1995

keith_d99 wrote: »

Think it's $205 to buy direct from Popcorn hour - cost me €17 in customs - so I think it's still cheaper to buy direct

You can indeed put a hard drive into it - Sata 3.5 (or 2.5 with an adapter) - You need the hard drive installed to have use of it's in-built torrent client - which is very handy as you don't need a pc running to do your downloads

Keith
When you play MP3 on these what is the performance like, i.e. playlists shuffle, etc. Iomega Screenplay very poor with MP3's takes forever between tracks using shuffle or playlists.

keith_d99

Hi Gerry,
Depends where your mp3s are stored.

Mine are stored on internal hard drive - so I have to use the basic player which doesn't support playlists or shuffle - yet! There is supoosed to be a re-vamp on the way in the future firmware updates. This is a long established weakness of the PCH - doesn't bother me really - as I am not into shuffling albums.

If your music is stored somewhere else on your network - such as a PC - you install an application called myiHome on the pc - this does indeed support playlists, shuffling etc. The PCH picks up the myiHome instance running on your pc.

Keith.

Gerry1995 wrote: »

Keith
When you play MP3 on these what is the performance like, i.e. playlists shuffle, etc. Iomega Screenplay very poor with MP3's takes forever between tracks using shuffle or playlists.

MediaTank

stackeye wrote: »

At the moment I have an Argosy 500 gig media Hard Drive, I was thinking of replacing it with the Popcorn hour due to the Network Port, can I put the argosy hard drive in the popcorn and copy all my movies across from my main PC? is this allowed? a few posts back it says there is no copying only streaming if thats the case then how do you put movies on this drive?

You can put a drive in the PCH or other NMT player, however each player supports different drive types for example the PCH does not support eSATA but the IstarHD does. Secondly, the NMT must format the drive into EXT2/3 (i.e. Linux format) in order to use it in the unit. If the drive is an external USB drive then you do not need to reformat it.

MT

MediaTank

keith_d99 wrote: »

Hi Gerry,
Depends where your mp3s are stored.

Mine are stored on internal hard drive - so I have to use the basic player which doesn't support playlists or shuffle - yet! There is supoosed to be a re-vamp on the way in the future firmware updates. This is a long established weakness of the PCH - doesn't bother me really - as I am not into shuffling albums.

If your music is stored somewhere else on your network - such as a PC - you install an application called myiHome on the pc - this does indeed support playlists, shuffling etc. The PCH picks up the myiHome instance running on your pc.

Keith.

If you install the NMT applications on the PCH internal drive then you get the myiHome functionality on the PCH too.

MT

Gerry1995

Ok, thanks guys seems like there is nothing to help on my Iomega Screenplay for MP3's, however I will invistigate the PCH and MyiHome.

MediaTank

Gerry1995 wrote: »

Ok, thanks guys seems like there is nothing to help on my Iomega Screenplay for MP3's, however I will invistigate the PCH and MyiHome.

Here's a good place to start www.networkedmediatank.com