The Popcorn Hour

emerald007 · 30-11-2009 06:45PM

I'm having some trouble with the transmission bittorrent client - it has just stopped downling for me. I'm wondering has anybody had any luck installing anyother bit torrent clients onto their popcorn hour?

MediaTank · 01-12-2009 11:21AM

emerald007 wrote: »

I'm having some trouble with the transmission bittorrent client - it has just stopped downling for me. I'm wondering has anybody had any luck installing anyother bit torrent clients onto their popcorn hour?

Make sure you have the latest version (shipped with the latest NMT apps). Alternatively you could install Clutch which by all accounts is a far better bittortent client.

emerald007 · 03-12-2009 12:44AM

humm - used the NMT Community Installer to drop transmission 1.76 onto my box, the install works since i can access http://pch-a110:9091/transmission/web/ via browser. I tweaked the network setting to ensure an opendns dns ip is used (in an attempt to avoid an issue my broadband has!) but still not getting any peers, my pc can connect to the same t*&%$££. what default port setting are people using for transmission?

sparkthatbled · 31-01-2010 06:29PM

I was thinking of getting one of these ( A200 model ), but can anyone answer me a few questions first?

What format/type of HDD works best?
If you order from the US does it come with a uk/ireland power adapter or do you need to get one separately? If it's separate, where can one be ordered?
Can you record direct from a HD tv or is it only from like a Sky+ HD box? Does the tv need a usb connection?

allybhoy · 31-01-2010 08:08PM

sparkthatbled wrote: »

I was thinking of getting one of these ( A200 model ), but can anyone answer me a few questions first?

What format/type of HDD works best?
If you order from the US does it come with a uk/ireland power adapter or do you need to get one separately? If it's separate, where can one be ordered?
Can you record direct from a HD tv or is it only from like a Sky+ HD box? Does the tv need a usb connection?

The format they use is either ext3 or ext2 (linux). Drive wise it depends on your budget but it takes 3.5" SATA disks, or you can physically connect usb drives up to it or playback other media files on your network.

Ive never ordered from the US but instead use this site.
http://www.popcornhour.es/
The reason being shipping takes less time and as far as I know as it comes from the EU you will be less likely to be asked to pay duty although this is just only on personal experience. Ive never seen an A200 but the A-110's come with a PSU which uses a standard 3pin kettle lead, the one that comes shipped is not compatible with our sockets but you can pick up a kettle lead from most hardware\electronics stores for around 2euro.

As for recording from a tv, the A-110 doesnt support this, I havent enough knowledge on the A200 to say whether it does or not.

MediaTank · 01-02-2010 10:54AM

allybhoy wrote: »

As for recording from a tv, the A-110 doesnt support this, I havent enough knowledge on the A200 to say whether it does or not.

None of the Popcorn Hour models support recording. They are media playback devices only.

youcancallmeal · 23-03-2010 10:45AM

A quick question for anyone with the A-200. If you have an internal 3.5" drive installed and you also have the wireless dongle add on is there an option in the UI to transfer files from your home PC to the internal hard drive? Or does it have be managed from your home PC?

Also is http://www.popcornhour.es/ still the best place to get it?

MediaTank · 23-03-2010 11:10AM

youcancallme>al wrote: »

A quick question for anyone with the A-200. If you have an internal 3.5" drive installed and you also have the wireless dongle add on is there an option in the UI to transfer files from your home PC to the internal hard drive? Or does it have be managed from your home PC?

Also is http://www.popcornhour.es/ still the best place to get it?

Home PC I'm afraid. It's easier to connect the unit via the USB slave socket to the PC and much faster too.

Yes, to avoid import duty popcornhour.es is one of the better places to buy from. Amazon.co.uk is worth a look too.

youcancallmeal · 23-03-2010 11:35AM

MediaTank wrote: »

Home PC I'm afraid. It's easier to connect the unit via the USB slave socket to the PC and much faster too.

Yes, to avoid import duty popcornhour.es is one of the better places to buy from. Amazon.co.uk is worth a look too.

Unfortunately my television is nowhere near my PC so my ideal setup will be to transfer the files from my PC to the hard drive wirelessly as I need them. Managing things through my home PC shouldnt be too bad. Should I expect a long wait if I order an A-200, seems to be a backlog from looking at the NMT forums?

MediaTank · 26-03-2010 08:10AM

They have the C200 for €249!

Mod comment:
Copied here for info.

Ritz.

OneWayBet · 24-04-2010 10:57PM

I have been using the A-110 for over a year and it has been the dogs bolXXXs!

Most of my content is directly downloaded on the internal 750GB disk using Transmission 1.92, mostly HD content from thebox.bz (brilliant private tracker site covering pretty much everything that is at least 60% produced in the UK, including all BBC productions etc). There's a lot of incredible nature productions waiting to be tapped and the new stuff is coming so fast I'm continuously downloading with a queue of content to watch.

Now I have also got SopCast working so I can watch PL games live on Shanghai Sports and the like (using Compbiz). So far picture quality is excellent and with Chinese commentary it's almost a relief to take a break from Andy Gray cliches

My A-110 is also a long distance from my PC through concrete walls so I switched from wireless to HomePlug. I can stream from my Buffalo LinkStation Mini but as most content is already on the A-110 I usually just watch local content.

I also have nightly backup scripts doing 2-way rsync backups between the A-110 and the Buffalo LS Mini upstairs.

I hope this helps anyone thinking about the possibilities, for me the Popcorn Hour is a silver bullet home media solution

:D. Don't hesitate in buying one. I bought mine direct from popcorn hour, it shipped from China and I had to pay import duties on accepting delivery.

Cheers,
OWB.

keith_d99 · 25-04-2010 12:16PM

Good Writeup OWB!!
Can you give us more details on how you got sopcast working with the PCH?

OneWayBet · 25-04-2010 01:14PM

keith_d99 wrote: »

Good Writeup OWB!!
Can you give us more details on how you got sopcast working with the PCH?

Easy when you know how:

Create a html page like this, for more channels just copy the line and change 6001 to the desired sopcast channel. Transfer the html file (using ftp, samba, nfs or if you have opened up telnet just create the file using vi).

<html>
<a href="dvbi://broker.sopcast.com:3912/6001" vod>Shanghai Sports</a><br>
</html>

I put the file in a Sopcast directory in the main directory along with my video files.

Now go to Sources / Hard Drive, select Others for the media type, then navigate to the html file and click on the channel link. It should show the buffering screen for about a minute and then show the screen. If it's not working check with Sopcast on your PC to make sure the channel is broadcasting.

Cheers,
OWB.

allybhoy · 25-04-2010 04:05PM

OneWayBet wrote: »

Easy when you know how:

Create a html page like this, for more channels just copy the line and change 6001 to the desired sopcast channel. Transfer the html file (using ftp, samba, nfs or if you have opened up telnet just create the file using vi).

<html>
<a href="dvbi://broker.sopcast.com:3912/6001" vod>Shanghai Sports</a><br>
</html>

I put the file in a Sopcast directory in the main directory along with my video files.

Now go to Sources / Hard Drive, select Others for the media type, then navigate to the html file and click on the channel link. It should show the buffering screen for about a minute and then show the screen. If it's not working check with Sopcast on your PC to make sure the channel is broadcasting.

Cheers,
OWB.

Is that it? jees that is simple! ill try it now and report back

EDIT:- Ok, that didnt work! I tried channel 6001 and it was offline, so I had a search and found channel 81774 playing the liverpool game perfectly. So edited the HTML file you had to the following:-

<html>
<a href="dvbi://broker.sopcast.com:3912/81774" vod>Shanghai Sports</a><br>
</html>

Saved it, reloaded, but still failed. Am i missing something simple? I havent a clue about HTML scripting btw!

DOUBLE EDIT! Got it working Just took agees to buffer up. Sweet thanks

OneWayBet · 25-04-2010 06:41PM

Glad you got it working, yes it takes a minute or two to buffer up but that's probably a good thing as I found that there is little or no stop/start problems when watching.

livEwirE · 05-05-2010 05:14PM

In case any of you missed the good news Youtube is coming to the C-200 series. http://www.networkedmediatank.com/showthread.php?tid=40083

I've got a C-200 and it rocks! Been waiting for this after youtube support was withdrawn a few months back

OneWayBet · 09-05-2010 11:08PM

Funny, watching YouTube on my TV is something that never really appealed to me!

GalwayGunner · 17-06-2011 05:23PM

Thinking of getting one of these:

is it worth getting the Wifi dongle with it??

OneWayBet · 17-06-2011 05:35PM

Depends really on whether or not you require wireless networking!

JohnDigital · 17-06-2011 08:56PM

And depends on whether you are going to be using it mostly for HD content or SD content. You will tire quickly of trying to transfer a 2GB file over WIFI.

I have mine networked through my router, as both are conveniently under the TV. But I transfer files using USB Slave as it’s much faster for getting content from the PC to the disc on the PCH.

Personally I wouldn’t bother with the WIFI dongle.

keith_d99 · 17-06-2011 09:17PM

JohnDigital wrote: »

And depends on whether you are going to be using it mostly for HD content or SD content. You will tire quickly of trying to transfer a 2GB file over WIFI.

I have mine networked through my router, as both are conveniently under the TV. But I transfer files using USB Slave as it’s much faster for getting content from the PC to the disc on the PCH.

Personally I wouldn’t bother with the WIFI dongle.

Totally in agreement!
Personally though I would go for an apple tv - jailbreak it and put on xbmc
Only around 100 for the apple tv. And I have the popcorn (albeit 1st gen - so I have to remove dts)

MediaTank · 20-06-2011 02:41PM

JohnDigital wrote: »

And depends on whether you are going to be using it mostly for HD content or SD content. You will tire quickly of trying to transfer a 2GB file over WIFI.

I have mine networked through my router, as both are conveniently under the TV. But I transfer files using USB Slave as it’s much faster for getting content from the PC to the disc on the PCH.

Personally I wouldn’t bother with the WIFI dongle.

Agreed. You only need WiFi or wired ethernet if you plan on straming content to/from other devices on your home network or if you plan on using the web services (YouTube, etc.) thay come with the unit.

OneWayBet · 20-06-2011 03:03PM

I would say you definitely need internet access on the device to get the most out of it. For example if you want to bittorrent directly onto the device.

Spocker · 27-06-2011 10:58AM

OneWayBet wrote: »

I would say you definitely need internet access on the device to get the most out of it. For example if you want to bittorrent directly onto the device.

+1 for this - it's a big plus to have internet access, even if it's just to get the firmware updates

The Popcorn Hour

Comments