I know there is a tone of content on here for this product but there doesnt seem to be too much for us novices.

Is there a thread to some basic questions? What I am most concerned with is after my installers set everything up and leave, can I operate this system without being a technical guy or is the Popcorn Hour more for technical "geeks" and those that understand all of this videophile stuff? I just want to have an ice user interface like the new ones that are out there for Popcorn hour and be able to play the DVDs i own.

PCH is not for you.

PCH is not for you.

Any recommendations of what is for me?

I'm not sure there is anything really made to be simple like you desire.

Personally I'm enjoying the PCH and also a Mac Mini with Plex (awesome) but then again I fall into the enthusiast crowd and still haven't figured it all out yet.

I do not have a recommendation for your either on a simple device, but have some general comments. The technology world is constantly changing, and various items will go through a technical phase and may eventually end up being fairly user friendly. right now the PCH is still in the technical phase.

The PCH is not unlike a PC, just that it is unfamiliar to you. Try giving a new PC, router, and modem to someone who is not familiar with them (hard to find these days). Now ask them to get it connected, install a firewall and antivirus software, rip a DVD, setup a podcast catcher, download some torrents, and watch some YouTube videos.

If this does not scare you, then hop over to the Network Media Tank and start reading the wiki's. It may feel like a firehouse at the start, but if you have time it will be just fine.

I know there is a tone of content on here for this product but there doesnt seem to be too much for us novices.

Is there a thread to some basic questions? What I am most concerned with is after my installers set everything up and leave, can I operate this system without being a technical guy or is the Popcorn Hour more for technical "geeks" and those that understand all of this videophile stuff? I just want to have an ice user interface like the new ones that are out there for Popcorn hour and be able to play the DVDs i own.

I'm the same as you. I don't think PCH is for the both of us. As you can tell by the first reply to you, the PCH community are a bunch of high tech geeks who have a "chip on their shoulder". They don't want to help you. I bought one, and now I'm regretting it, because I don't think of the nerds want to help. But anyway, an Appletv for novices may be great. I have that, but I also bought a WDtV, it is awesome in that it can playback any file.

Mo

I'm the same as you. I don't think PCH is for the both of us. As you can tell by the first reply to you, the PCH community are a bunch of high tech geeks who have a "chip on their shoulder". They don't want to help you. I bought one, and now I'm regretting it, because I don't think of the nerds want to help. But anyway, an Appletv for novices may be great. I have that, but I also bought a WDtV, it is awesome in that it can playback any file.

Mo

Wow I've gotten all the help I wanted and more. Not pointing this at you but when people ask stupid questions that have been answered hundreds of times they get sick of answering them.

Dont know if the help you needed fell into that category. But imo if you really wanted to get it working all the help you need is out there.

I have to throw in my two cents and agree with the sentiment posted here. I, too, bought a PCH about a month ago and frankly think it was a big mistake. The PCH is absolutely a device for the tinkerers and seriously-computer-literate crowd. There are no out-of-the-box solutions and just getting it to play video will take you several days of frustration. To date, I'm completely unable to generate an audio playlist, figure out how to get torrents or even launch a slideshow of JPEGs.

What I've been using it for is movie playback, and once I figured out the best method of ripping my DVDs (I was doing it "wrong" as far as the PCH was concerned), it's worked pretty well so far. The problem is trying to get a straight answer out of the guys on the NMT site. I can't tell you how many times I've asked basic questions, gotten a terse answer that was barely understandable and left to splash around on my own.

In short, this is 100% NOT the device for someone who just wants to come home, push a couple of buttons and play a movie, listen to an album or random playlist or watch the latest downloaded torrent.

I'd gladly have paid an extra $20 for a full manual or even another $100 for a well-thought-out interface. There's absolutely no way my wife can understand how to use it, which really IS a shame. Why the big name companies can't come out with a similar device is beyond me. There's serious money to be made here!

I have to throw in my two cents and agree with the sentiment posted here. I, too, bought a PCH about a month ago and frankly think it was a big mistake. The PCH is absolutely a device for the tinkerers and seriously-computer-literate crowd. There are no out-of-the-box solutions and just getting it to play video will take you several days of frustration. To date, I'm completely unable to generate an audio playlist, figure out how to get torrents or even launch a slideshow of JPEGs.

What I've been using it for is movie playback, and once I figured out the best method of ripping my DVDs (I was doing it "wrong" as far as the PCH was concerned), it's worked pretty well so far. The problem is trying to get a straight answer out of the guys on the NMT site. I can't tell you how many times I've asked basic questions, gotten a terse answer that was barely understandable and left to splash around on my own.

In short, this is 100% NOT the device for someone who just wants to come home, push a couple of buttons and play a movie, listen to an album or random playlist or watch the latest downloaded torrent.

I'd gladly have paid an extra $20 for a full manual or even another $100 for a well-thought-out interface. There's absolutely no way my wife can understand how to use it, which really IS a shame. Why the big name companies can't come out with a similar device is beyond me. There's serious money to be made here!
Wow that does sound pretty lame, you guys should get the WDTV then. Yes it has to ethernet support, but all you need to do is plug a hard drive into it and enjoy your movies. No fussing around with anything.

This is one of the main reasons I went with WDTV. Although I love tinkering and would have had some fun figuring some things out, I knew that my wife would never be happy using it and would probably end up forcing me to buy the WDTV anyway. I can't speak from experience with the PCH but as far as plug-and-playability the WDTV has got to be as close to unbeatable as it can get in this realm of devices.

Wow that does sound pretty lame, you guys should get the WDTV then. Yes it has to ethernet support, but all you need to do is plug a hard drive into it and enjoy your movies. No fussing around with anything.

For what it's worth I had the WD and the PCH. Neither is more difficult than the other, but I had much better success with the PCH actually playing all my media, while I found the WD device to be picky. I'm sure it's getting better as the firmware matures but in the meantime I didn't want to wait and hope.

I'll spare you yet another terse response, but here is probably why you're getting them...you're operating under a huge misnomer about the PCH; that it has a poor GUI. Sure, the stock GUI is nothing to write home about, but any PCH user worth his weight installs YAMJ, or a similar jukebox interface. Think your wives could use a remote to arrow to a movie poster and press Play?

Don't get me wrong, words like easy and hard are about as relative as they come. The PCH is relatively easy, IMO, for a digital device. But sure, if you don't know anything about ripping, codecs, networking, FTP, etc., you will likely find some challenges along the way.

On the plus side, because the PCH has a pretty good following, I don't think there's any aspect of it that isn't documented, between the Wiki, NMT, and here. No, if you have to have a paper manual in your hand, look elsewhere. But if you're willing to do a little bit of work, again, depending on your existing skill level, you get a heck of a box for $215. I bought it just for BD rips, and my .m2ts streams look amazing on my Kuro; so good in fact, that I'm ready to try another one on the big screen of my HT. And my wife has no trouble finding her favorite movie poster and pressing Play. :D

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee136/CDLehner/500px-ScreenShot_MainIndex.jpg

CD

I have to throw in my two cents and agree with the sentiment posted here. I, too, bought a PCH about a month ago and frankly think it was a big mistake. The PCH is absolutely a device for the tinkerers and seriously-computer-literate crowd. There are no out-of-the-box solutions and just getting it to play video will take you several days of frustration. To date, I'm completely unable to generate an audio playlist, figure out how to get torrents or even launch a slideshow of JPEGs.

I got my PCH about 6 weeks ago, after a month of research to find what was going to be best for me. The research made it clear that this was not a plug-n-play device. Once you have figured out how to do something it is really quite easy. Have you tried using the wiki. It has sections for playlists, torrents, and slideshows. A better alternative for playlists would be one of the JukeBox apps.

What I've been using it for is movie playback, and once I figured out the best method of ripping my DVDs (I was doing it "wrong" as far as the PCH was concerned), it's worked pretty well so far.

There is some trial and error if the guide for ripping DVD is not used. It is very detailed and states what software is required, but there are alternatives.

In short, this is 100% NOT the device for someone who just wants to come home, push a couple of buttons and play a movie, listen to an album or random playlist or watch the latest downloaded torrent.

I disagree, but would say that this device is not for someone who is not prepared to spend some time getting it setup for their needs. After that it is certainly "come home and push a few buttons".

I'd gladly have paid an extra $20 for a full manual or even another $100 for a well-thought-out interface. There's absolutely no way my wife can understand how to use it, which really IS a shame. Why the big name companies can't come out with a similar device is beyond me. There's serious money to be made here!

A manual would be nice, but it would be the size of one of the "xxx for Dummies" books. The wiki should provide 75% of the answers. The rest for experimenting and asking questions. There is a 99% chance that you wife can understand how to use it, IF you set it up with some nice skins and JukeBoxes. Go to any bookstore and see all the material on software products, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc. The PCH is in the same category. People have also complained about I-drive in top end BMW's. There is a common theme here.

As you can tell by the first reply to you, the PCH community are a bunch of high tech geeks who have a "chip on their shoulder". They don't want to help you. I bought one, and now I'm regretting it, because I don't think of the nerds want to help.

That's quite a sense of entitlement that you've got there. You're too lazy to do a little searching and research on the web to find the answers to questions that have been asked AND answered a hundred times before, so it's our fault you're unable to get your PCH to work the way you'd like.

I've written wiki articles and helped lots of people with complex technical issues over on networkedmediatank.com - hell, I'm the one who spent the time to figure out the code changes needed to get wizd to support the PCH. Until you've made the same contributions to the community, why don't you STFU?

That's quite a sense of entitlement that you've got there. You're too lazy to do a little searching and research on the web to find the answers to questions that have been asked AND answered a hundred times before, so it's our fault you're unable to get your PCH to work the way you'd like.

I've written wiki articles and helped lots of people with complex technical issues over on networkedmediatank.com - hell, I'm the one who spent the time to figure out the code changes needed to get wizd to support the PCH. Until you've made the same contributions to the community, why don't you STFU?

Here here! I'd like to add a link to the rant I recently posted regarding pretty much the same thing http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16344868#post16344868. This is over in the Official PCH thread...which is why none of the newbies ever see it. :rolleyes:

CD

I see both sides of this issue. First off, I do not own a PCH, NMT, or WDTV. To me it seems many users on this forum who are prospecting a purchase of an NMT are looking for a setup similar to an iPod and iTunes configuration. What I mean by that is with an iPod and iTunes, for for most part you just plug it in, pop a cd into the computer, and boom, its synched and loaded onto the player. It would be great if with an NMT, a user was able to pop a BD disc into a drive and a ripping program goes to work then after a good chunk of time the movie is loaded over the network on the player - and to boot the cover art data is scraped by YAMJ automatically.
Is this ease of use a pipe dream? I would suspect so (that is rhetorical - not trying ask a dumb question). And I get that. But I would suspect a lot of consumers are shocked that for $200+ that functionality is not readily available. Especially when it comes to "the wife test", where if it takes more tinkering initially than plug in, install software, push power and go, then it is more of an annoyance than a luxury.

I for one am hoping larger consumer electronics companies like Samsung, Linksys (Cisco), LG etc come out with a Blu Ray deck that streams formats, containers, network sources in way similar to an NMT.

I see both sides of this issue. First off, I do not own a PCH, NMT, or WDTV. To me it seems many users on this forum who are prospecting a purchase of an NMT are looking for a setup similar to an iPod and iTunes configuration. What I mean by that is with an iPod and iTunes, for for most part you just plug it in, pop a cd into the computer, and boom, its synched and loaded onto the player. It would be great if with an NMT, a user was able to pop a BD disc into a drive and a ripping program goes to work then after a good chunk of time the movie is loaded over the network on the player - and to boot the cover art data is scraped by YAMJ automatically.
Is this ease of use a pipe dream? I would suspect so (that is rhetorical - not trying ask a dumb question). And I get that. But I would suspect a lot of consumers are shocked that for $200+ that functionality is not readily available. Especially when it comes to "the wife test", where if it takes more tinkering initially than plug in, install software, push power and go, then it is more of an annoyance than a luxury.

I for one am hoping larger consumer electronics companies like Samsung, Linksys (Cisco), LG etc come out with a Blu Ray deck that streams formats, containers, network sources in way similar to an NMT.

WC, no offense, but your post is kind of hilarious. You say you can't believe for $200+ there isn't a streaming device that you simply pop a disc in, it rips for you, stores the file on a hard drive, automatically gathers file info and cover art, etc. Actually, there is such a system...it's called Kaleidescape...and it costs about $10,000, can only be installed by a professional, and will only do DVDs. NO ONE is going to have a device that easily rips BDs soon, as there are all kinds of legal and licensing issues involved (do you really think a movie studio is going to allow a $200 box where you just borrow a BD from a friend, or rent like 30 a month for $20 from Netflix, and you never have to buy a BD from them again??).

As for a "larger consumer electronics company" getting in the game, Linksys tried to recently; they tried a digital audio streamer, to compete with the Squeezebox and Sonos of the world...http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WirelessHomeAudio...and it got thrashed. I saw another newbie the other day saying "I can't wait until Sony gets in the game, and makes a digital streamer". Of course I replied back "they did...it's called the PS3", which is an average streamer at best.

I think that's why newbies trash the PCH unfairly; their expectations are WAY too high. You think for $200 you should get all-in-one, plays everything, rips itself? That's a little unrealistic.

CD

WC, no offense, but your post is kind of hilarious. You say you can't believe for $200+ there isn't a streaming device that you simply pop a disc in, it rips for you, stores the file on a hard drive, automatically gathers file info and cover art, etc.

He never said that HE didnt believe but that non tech inclined consumers might


You think for $200 you should get all-in-one, plays everything, rips itself? That's a little unrealistic.


Its not to the average consumer used to ripping CDs with itunes or any other simple media program :)

I see both sides of this issue. First off, I do not own a PCH, NMT, or WDTV. To me it seems many users on this forum who are prospecting a purchase of an NMT are looking for a setup similar to an iPod and iTunes configuration. What I mean by that is with an iPod and iTunes, for for most part you just plug it in, pop a cd into the computer, and boom, its synched and loaded onto the player. It would be great if with an NMT, a user was able to pop a BD disc into a drive and a ripping program goes to work then after a good chunk of time the movie is loaded over the network on the player - and to boot the cover art data is scraped by YAMJ automatically.
Is this ease of use a pipe dream? I would suspect so (that is rhetorical - not trying ask a dumb question). And I get that. But I would suspect a lot of consumers are shocked that for $200+ that functionality is not readily available. Especially when it comes to "the wife test", where if it takes more tinkering initially than plug in, install software, push power and go, then it is more of an annoyance than a luxury.

I for one am hoping larger consumer electronics companies like Samsung, Linksys (Cisco), LG etc come out with a Blu Ray deck that streams formats, containers, network sources in way similar to an NMT.

It is interesting that the latest Samsung plasmas and LCDs incorporate a media player function.

WC, no offense, but your post is kind of hilarious. You say you can't believe for $200+ there isn't a streaming device that you simply pop a disc in, it rips for you, stores the file on a hard drive, automatically gathers file info and cover art, etc. Actually, there is such a system...it's called Kaleidescape...and it costs about $10,000, can only be installed by a professional, and will only do DVDs. NO ONE is going to have a device that easily rips BDs soon, as there are all kinds of legal and licensing issues involved (do you really think a movie studio is going to allow a $200 box where you just borrow a BD from a friend, or rent like 30 a month for $20 from Netflix, and you never have to buy a BD from them again??).

As for a "larger consumer electronics company" getting in the game, Linksys tried to recently; they tried a digital audio streamer, to compete with the Squeezebox and Sonos of the world...http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WirelessHomeAudio...and it got thrashed. I saw another newbie the other day saying "I can't wait until Sony gets in the game, and makes a digital streamer". Of course I replied back "they did...it's called the PS3", which is an average streamer at best.

I think that's why newbies trash the PCH unfairly; their expectations are WAY too high. You think for $200 you should get all-in-one, plays everything, rips itself? That's a little unrealistic.

CD

I found this an interesting topic and weighed in with a "devil's advocate" pov. I understand my analogy was unrealistic, the point was new people coming to this forum do not. In fact, many are investing in a HT and would be willing to pay for a PCH like device to come pre loaded. In fact, I bet there is money to be made selling pre-loaded digital storage devices for home theaters with DVD and BDs, much like a service like iPod miester (http://ipodmeister.com/) where a consumer wanting to get rid of the stacks and stacks of physical media send all their discs away to a company and in turn get a player back pre loaded with all the media ripped and ready. I bet someone could make a good chunk of change sending out PCH's with 2TB hd's and YAMJ pre loaded then selling the discs on ebay. Consumers want to get rid of the physical media attracting dust in their homes.
Clearly, DRM issues will be a stumbling block for quite some time.

He never said that HE didnt believe but that non tech inclined consumers might

Yeah, you might be right there.

Its not to the average consumer used to ripping CDs with itunes or any other simple media program :)

Yeah, I guess that's a big part of the problem. If you've ever tried your hand at ripping, you know there's a BIG gap between CD and DVD...and then another big gap between DVD and BD. I guess somehow the BB/CC, plug-it-in-and-go crowd is getting wind of this device (yeah, dude...there's this thing called the Popcorn Hour...and you can store all your movies on your computer and then just play them anytime you like), they come in her and ask if it is "easy"...which, comparitively so, it is...they buy one, get frustrated, and all of a sudden a guy who's never ripped a DVD or BD in his life is over his head, but trashing the PCH because it's too "technical".

I've had this rant elsewhere, so I'll cut this one short...but this is how misinformation gets started. Now all of a sudden the users with 20 posts are all convincing themselves that the only ones who can get these devices working are snotty-nose geeks, who live in their parents basements...lol. Their lose...more PCHs for the rest of us.

CD

I found this an interesting topic and weighed in with a "devil's advocate" pov. I understand my analogy was unrealistic, the point was new people coming to this forum do not. In fact, many are investing in a HT and would be willing to pay for a PCH like device to come pre loaded. In fact, I bet there is money to be made selling pre-loaded digital storage devices for home theaters with DVD and BDs, much like a service like iPod miester (http://ipodmeister.com/) where a consumer wanting to get rid of the stacks and stacks of physical media send all their discs away to a company and in turn get a player back pre loaded with all the media ripped and ready. I bet someone could make a good chunk of change sending out PCH's with 2TB hd's and YAMJ pre loaded then selling the discs on ebay. Consumers want to get rid of the physical media attracting dust in their homes.
Clearly, DRM issues will be a stumbling block for quite some time.

Well, WC, I think I can speak for the HT crowd, since I am...you know, building one myself...and a considerable contributor here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=19, in the Dedicated Theater Build forum.

Of course there would be a market for a "pre-loaded", rip itself, tag itself device. But didn't you get my point? There is one that exists, that is like $10,000! And it only does DVD so far, not even BD. Do you really think if it were possible someone wouldn't have already gone there? It's kinda like saying "I bet there would be a market for Ferrari's, if only they were $20,000".

CD

WC, no offense, but your post is kind of hilarious. You say you can't believe for $200+ there isn't a streaming device that you simply pop a disc in, it rips for you, stores the file on a hard drive, automatically gathers file info and cover art, etc. Actually, there is such a system...it's called Kaleidescape...and it costs about $10,000, can only be installed by a professional, and will only do DVDs. NO ONE is going to have a device that easily rips BDs soon, as there are all kinds of legal and licensing issues involved (do you really think a movie studio is going to allow a $200 box where you just borrow a BD from a friend, or rent like 30 a month for $20 from Netflix, and you never have to buy a BD from them again??).

As for a "larger consumer electronics company" getting in the game, Linksys tried to recently; they tried a digital audio streamer, to compete with the Squeezebox and Sonos of the world...http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WirelessHomeAudio...and it got thrashed. I saw another newbie the other day saying "I can't wait until Sony gets in the game, and makes a digital streamer". Of course I replied back "they did...it's called the PS3", which is an average streamer at best.

I think that's why newbies trash the PCH unfairly; their expectations are WAY too high. You think for $200 you should get all-in-one, plays everything, rips itself? That's a little unrealistic.

CD

I agree for the most part but if you ignore high def video you can buy a device that rips etc all in one box. Its called the xbox....I am not recommending a newbie go buy one but it is about the closest thing san HD video.


BTW: I saw this browsing the other day...

Nice to see...

more on the appliance side of things...

http://www.ripnas.com/

Sean

I agree for the most part but if you ignore high def video you can buy a device that rips etc all in one box. Its called the xbox....I am not recommending a newbie go buy one but it is about the closest thing san HD video.


BTW: I saw this browsing the other day...

Nice to see...

more on the appliance side of things...

http://www.ripnas.com/

Sean

Yeah Sean, those of us that use dbpoweramp (and shouldn't everyone), are of course familiar with that box. Not that ripping CDs is hard for the more experienced among us, but it is still a pretty sweet device. The thing I like best about it is it seems put together as if by experienced users themselves (which, based on its affiliation with Illustrate, it probably was); usually when you get a device like this, for the audiophile-not-technophile set, the hard drives are too small, they don't pay attention to tagging and metadata, and they usually tie you into one codec, and it's usually the wrong one (no FLAC). This thing, IMO, really got it right. Not that it's all that cheap...we can all still do our own thing for a lot less, but I can think of a few people I would whole-heartedly recommend this thing to.

As for the discussion we're having about a similar device for movies, of course the big difference has to do with legalities and licensing issues. I'm not going to broach the whole "why can you rip CDs, but not DVD/BDs" argument here, but we all know it's different; it's as if the cat has long been out of the bag for the music industry, so they shrug their shoulders and turn a blind eye...but the movie industry is still very much dug in on protecting their property. To have to go to Sony Pictures, Paramount, Universal, Disney, etc., and say "hey fellas...we wanna build this device, that will legally allow any Joe off the street to easily hook it up in their house, take any digital movie, whether it be DVD or your new beard-and-butter, BD...and make an exact, perfect digital copy for playback. It'll be great! They can borrow DVD or BDs from their friends, go to the library and rent them...hell, sign up for Netflix and copy all the DVDs and BDs they can manage in a month for a low fee! We're gonna make it real, real easy, so they'll never be a reason to buy or pay full price for a movie ever again. What do you say?". I'm sure the movie studios would be like "sure...you just need to pay us $9,000 for every device you sell there, chief". And that's probably why the Kaleidascape costs $10,000 and up, or whatever (I don't know the exact costs, as I am not in the market for one, but I may actually be low-balling it); it's probably $9,000 for licensing fees, and a $1,000 worth of hardware...and I just don't imagine that's going to change anytime soon.

CD