Iomega Screenplay Pro HD vs Popcorn Hour A110

JohnDigital

Hi Guys, I’m new in here, I’ve been lurking and reading lots of posts here for a few days, but I’ve been around Boards ages.

I’m in a bit of a quandary with regard to which media player to choose for our house. I’ve narrowed down to the two in the title. While I’m really excited about the spec of the A110 the new Screenplay Pro HD seems like it might be the more user friendly option for the household because it will work out of the box and I don’t need to add a HDD and tinker with it to get it up and running. (I’m looking for reliability, not a hobby!)

I’m really struggling to find any decent independent (owner) reviews of the Screenplay Pro HD, but obviously there is a fantastic community around the Popcorn Hour that has me nearly sold on it.

The units will mainly be used for playing home movies of the kids and downloaded content from the net and rips DVDs of the kid’s stuff. Really I’m looking for something that is as easy to navigate and use as Sky+ as my wife is not overly tech friendly. My eircom Netopia Router is right beside the TV so I have easy wired networking right from there that can let my laptop work with either over WiFi, so I don’t actually need the unit to be WiFi enabled itself but I note that both of these can if you add the right adapter.

One option on the Iomega unit that I like is its ability to record from another source, so I can use it to archive some things from Sky+.

But one thing that is pushing me away from the Iomega unit is the remote, now I’ve only seen images of it not actually used it, but I can’t bear poor quality remotes and this one looks pretty shabby. The popcorn hour remote seems to be quite well laid out and user friendly and has a more appealing form factor.

The easy availability of the Iomega unit here and easy access for warranty returns etc that comes with an over the counter retail purchase nearly has my decision made for me.

Does anyone have experience of both?

I guess the questions I’m really looking to get answered are:

What is the Iomega remote like to use?
How easy is the user interface of both to navigate for a techy novice like my Mrs?
Is the Iomega unit going to be a pain trying to play different file types, I don’t want to spend forever converting files to play on it, I note it seems to have a problem with mkv’s
Does the European Spec Iomega have Scart? Some posts I’ve read have said is does, but I can’t find any spec listing scart (it’s not really a problem either way as I will be HDMI with the new 1080p TV that I’m also picking up in a few months)
Are there any other Network media tanks that have an easier navigate-able interface that is similar to Sky+ that I should consider?

Thanks guys.

John

MediaTank

While I have no experience with the Iomega Screenplay Pro HD, I've extensive experiemce with the NMT units. Checking the tech. spec. of the Iomega shows that it is rather limited in what video it can playback. It can't do real HD i.e. 1080P not does it support the very popular H.264 media codec. For these reasons alone I'd steer clear of it.

As regards usuability, the PCH is very easy to use once you install one if the many jukebox apps on it. YAMJ is a very good example. The jukebox displays all of the media using poster art, DVD covers etc and is very user friendly.

MT

JohnDigital

Thanks MediaTank. Ive been looking at the Jukebox apps and comparing spec more closely. I totally missed that the Iomega was 1080i. You've helped me make my mind up, Im off to buy a Popcorn Hour

Cheers.