Popcorn Hour VS Other Multimedia Drives

hollywoodhoppy

:oLads,

Before you laugh in disgust at my incompetence, I’m not gonna lie I’m pretty confused. I’ve been looking at buying a Multimedia Hard Drive for a long time now, I’ve been put off by certain models just missing certain features (such as the Lacie and Iomega models but I realise they are very popular) but now a few months later I’ve been on the lookout again and there seems to be a few new items on the market that i am really interested in.
I want the following features:

1. HDMI (because i will be hooking this up to HD TV and have a certain amount of TV shows in HD at the mo)
2. OPTICAL OUTPUT (for surround sound)
3. If at all possible to use the drive out of my Western Digital if it saves a few pound but if it doesn’t I’m not gonna worry about it(I think its a SATA drive in it but i could stand corrected)
4. Plays mp4 format (as i have lots of movies in this format, stupid question but IS mp4 the same as mpeg4)
5. An ethernet cable/some kind of networking would be an advantage also

Anyway I have put together the following options, if anyone could guide me on any of these i would be truly grateful:

Option 1 (Random drive on ebay, don’t know a whole pile about it, seems like the kinda thing one would get in Maplins)

http://cgi.ebay.ie/750GB-LAN-Hard-Drive-Media-Player-Recorder-unit-HDMI-HD_W0QQitemZ330273854953QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item330273854953&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Option 2 (Icy Box from ebay-Anybody got one of these, have not read any reviews)

http://cgi.ebay.ie/500GB-Wireless-Network-Media-Player-Hard-Drive-HDMI_W0QQitemZ230294619963QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item230294619963&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A3%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Option 3 (Pop Corn Hour- Bear in mind I already have a Western Digital MyBook Essential Ed. 500GB USB Hard Drive and would love to use it if i was getting this if i cant can you direct me to a drive i could buy with it

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog&task=info&item_id=6&main_id=0&category_id

Option 4 (Random one i found, think it can record TV tho which is a nice feature)

http://www.pacificgeek.com/product.asp?id=51569

Can you anyone help me. By the way i have read any other relevant threads on the forum

keith_d99

I was looking for quite a while - I would stay away from less known products - you don't know what you are getting

I have the Popcorn hour and would wholeheartedly recommend it!!
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


Keith

MediaTank

The products you mention other that the PCH do not support the latest HD formats. The best they do is 1080i and they do not support either the VC1 or H.264 codecs or the MKV container format. If 1080p is for you then go with the PCH or other NMT player.

If your exisiting disk srive is SATA then you can reuse it in the PCH but you will need to reformat it.

And yes mp4 is MPEG4, however that's a container and not strictly a codec.

MT

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

hollywoodhoppy

Lads, thanks for clearing that up for me, i appreciate yere replies

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Dave, i have the same question myself, the A110 is on back order for the next 4 weeks on the official website, must check out the price of shipping also!

keith_d99

Lads I would say the official site www.popcornhour.com
Defo the cheapest anyhow - as retailers seem to add their cut

karltimber

I got rid of my media=pc under the tv and got the A-100
a bit fiddely at the start with Ip's etc but nothing too bad.

The reason I got it was to stream full HD camcorder movies from a nas or pc.
And to stream normal avi films plus HD films.
It does all this perfectly.
The torrent part is great and I pull in 350kb/s on it compared to my pc which was/is crap at d/l-ing.

K

MediaTank

daveirl wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

www.mpcclub.com often has group buys, it's worth checking out. Or you could consider another NMT player such as the iStar which is cheaper than the PCH.