Official Popcorn Hour A-110 Owners Thread - Page 22

Wow.. from $17.00 for the 1.1 to $600 for the 2.0 compliant! I check a few Chinese suppliers and the link above was the only ones I could find. Someone has to have a cheaper set of 2.0's as I can't believe it costs that much more to manufacture the cables for the 2.0 compliant adapters

Thanks tlogank.
How much you pay for that WD Green 1TB? And where may I ask?

hmm - I would think the length of USB cables would be unlimited and there'd be no problem finding 100' cables. Not sure. Other options could include a NAS.

Or just put the towerraid next to the PCH and hook up the computer when you need to transfer files.

$105 @ newegg with free s/h.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136151

you could add some 20 bucks and get the same drive, different model, but with 32MB memory.

If I store movies into an external harddrive and connect to the popcorn, will it play properly? is it necessary to have a internal harddrive? I am not going to stream anything from the computer to the player, but only from an external harddrive. Please inform me I am able to place an order

Yes, movies will play fine from an ext hd.

Yeah, I bought two of the new version (WD10EADS, instead of WD10EACS) from buy.com. Looks like they are out of them though.

Besides twice the cache, it uses 3 x ~333GB platters, instead of 4 x 250GB platters. This translates a bit better read/write speeds, as well as slighty less power consumption.




BTW - tlogank, irrc they aren't necessarily 5400rpm, they are variable.

The PH can currently support drive up to 1.5TB but take a look at the following link...

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/sh...d.php?tid=7735

This is a list of the compatible HDD for the PH....

If I have my computer and PCH connected by a crossover ethernet cable directly to each other (no router, no hub - I don't need internet access for my PCH) will I be able to use use YAMJ? And will I be able to use it for the media files on the external drives connected to the PCH?

Very simple question, already tried to search google and here so either it's not possible or the terms are too common:

Question - Is the PH capable to taking the new HD audio codecs and downmixing into DD5.1 for optical output (similar to standalone players) or does not decode and only pass these through HDMI?

Thanks in advance.

Put three different ways the 110 does not decode HD audio, it passes "raw", it bitstreams.

Can PCH A110 play many small .ts files smoothly/joined without any short black out in between?

Received my first NMT (A-110) yesterday and am fairly happy with it. No complaints, really. Found it easy to setup: installed internal 60GB 2.5" drive I had sitting around; installed MyiHome with YAMJ plugin on my media server PC, and everything worked as expected. I'm in the process of archiving my DVDs (~800) right now, using a mix of mp4 and mkv containers with various audio codecs and bitrates. The NMT certainly does seem quite capable in terms of file formats and codecs, but the user interface leaves something to be desired. Until now I've been streaming movies from my media server to my TV via my PS3, using the Java PS3 media server, which works very well -- with the added benefit of the PS3's "pretty" interface. I really like the PS3's Display feature, which provides realtime information about audio and video codec/bitrate while a movie is streaming. The NMT does offer something similar with the Info button on the remote, but it ain't nearly as pretty to look at.

So I suppose my complaints are mostly cosmetic. Looking forward to playing around with the NMT some more, and hopefully it will improve/expand with future firmware updates. Overall, I like the NMT because it feels more "open" than the PS3 in terms of the formats it will play and also in its ability to be customized/tinkered with by the user. I'd give it an 8/10 now, and doubtless it will only get better!

iwanrs - internal drives can run hot, and one or two users I've come across on the official Popcorn Hour forums have had their A-100s and A-110s fail due to this. Some resort to fitting a fan, like so:

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/sh...d.php?tid=8924


Personally, I stick to external USB drives. But if you're dead set on using an internal one, arguably better to use drives that run comparatively cool - like 2.5" (laptop) drives, or, if you need greater capacity, maybe the 3.5" 1TB WD Caviar Green that has a variable spin-speed, and probably won't run above 5400rpm for video playback.

EDIT: Another benefit of 2.5" drives is that they're typically quieter than their larger counterparts. And when I was running my A-110 with a 3.5" internal drive, I must admit, the persistent 'ticking' really pissed me off... but then, maybe others aren't so bothered by such things.

danggang - I used to use a PS3 for media playback before I bought my A-110. It hasn't had a look in, since.

The PS3's a great upscaling DVD and Blu-ray player but, in my opinion, it absolutely blows for all other media playback. Maybe it's more versatile as a network device, but as a standalone player, it's awful.

I spent hundreds of hours trying to get my DVD rips working on that thing, and 40% of them had defects of one kind or another - around a third of them lost their anamorphism, and another twenty or so had broken timecodes and bad audio-sync. And then there was that goddamn 4GB file size limit for external USB drives... oh, and how could I forget that dreadful directory structure...?! It was a disaster.

The A-110's been harder to set-up, for sure. And it's not without its quirks. But it's so, so much better... and if the interface bothers you, look into YAMJ. I love it.

There is a lot being done by 3rd parties to make the PH look pretty. Check out the official PH forums and see how easy it is to change the skins for the device, especially since you have an internal HDD and it does make it easier that you are using MyIhome. With this software it is just a matter of copying files to the appropriate directory and selecting the themes..... Many of the 3rd party skins are also offering more functionality... Check them out.

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/

Hi,

I finally ordered my PCH A-110 thru the official PCH web site on the 01/05, but according to the http://www.networkedmediatank.com's preorder status, it won't be shipped until 02/09. Is it normal for that waiting time? I think I have to cancel the order and go thru ebay to get it faster.

QX

Thanks! I've already located a couple of skins for the NMT that look much better (IMO) than the original, but haven't quite figured out how to load them yet. Will work on it this weekend.

Regarding the PS3 as a media player: I have no idea how it handles locally-stored media, since the only way I've used it is to stream media from another computer. Having said that, have you guys tried the (IMO quite brilliant) PS3 Java media server that shagrath78 released a couple of months ago? I'm not here as an advertisement for it, since I have nothing to do with its development. But if you have any interest whatsover in streaming media through your PS3, just try PMS and you'll see what I mean. (Yes, the acronym is somewhat awkward.)

Back to playing with my NMT now...

I that case, I better use external HDD instead, it also save the trouble to transfer files into PCH internal HDD.

Thanks dh2005.

BTW, Can we put any 2.5" HDD into a 3.5" casing or computer space provided for 3.5" HDD?

I've had my PCH A-110 for about a month, playing around with it, reading, figuring out how I want to set it up. I have no interest in using it for internet access and I've decided against streaming, so I'm not going to network it at all. I'll be getting a 1 or 2 GB CF card and adapter and use that as my internal hd. This will be formatted EXT 3 thru the PCH, which will allow me to use the cool-looking skins that are available to improve the interface and give it some variety.

All my media will be on ext hd's, which will be used for storage, backup, and streaming. I plan to buy the USB Sans Digital 4 Bay TowerRaid discussed earlier in this thread and fill it with 1 TB hd's as I need them. I'll buy 2 at a time and either mirror them or sync them so my files are backed up. I like this unit because it automatically powers down the hd's when the PCH is turned off. When that tower gets filled, I'll get another one for the second USB port.

I may use YAMJ if it's possible w/this setup, but I doubt it. Instead I have the Movie Collector program on my computer, this gives me all the info I need and is customizable. For instance I have one column for Last View Date and another for which PCH hd the movie is on. This way I can just look at a list of movies I haven't seen in X amount of time (or haven't seen at all) and then go to that hd on my PCH. To make maneuvering thru so many movies as simple as possible I will have each hd divided into 11 folders (0-9, A-B, C-D, E-F, G-H-I, etc) so all folders will fit on one page. So there should only be 1 to 3 pages of movies at the most per folder. I also have two buttons on my remote setup as macros that step up and down 5 files on the page at a time. (I'm big on macros!) For my tv files, I won't have nearly as many of them, they'll be divided into folders such as Comedy, Drama, Mini-Series, BBC, Documentary, etc.

With this setup I don't have to worry about heat issues or hi-def streaming issues. I'll have virtually unlimited storage, secure backup, and quick and easy access to my files.

it would be a great player if it didn't mangle the quality of video so badly when scaling. I've done a direct comparison between a PCH and PS3 and the PS3 scaling on video is atrocious. Its "normal" mode also will cut some of the image sometimes to do a vertical fit instead of a straight fit to screen with both horizontal/vertical & black bars in all cases (like PCH and other players).

I wrote a post a few pages back asking about the 360 video quality but didn't receiver an answer so I guess I'll follow that up myself with a PCH/360 comparison when I get it (soon).

Yes, the PCH machines scale video files much, much better than the PS3 does it. On the PS3 they came out looking dark and smeared. Again, not impressive.

Maybe there's been a firmware update or so in the last few months, but the PS3 was useless for me because it couldn't play DVDs in video_ts format, and playing .ISOs wasn't even a possibility because of the 4GB file size limit.

Good Tip! I'm just in the early stages of setup, so this is a good idea. (EDIT: If you are using YAMJ, is this an issue or does YAMJ do all the organizing for you?)

I'm still torn on what to do about my hard-drive(s). There seems to be a lot of concern about the noise and heat internal drives generate. I don't think noise will be an issue ( as the PCH will be 15' away ), however the heat does raise some concerns. You would think that the makers of the PCH have considered heat issues. Electronics can withstand pretty hot temperatures ( too hot to touch ), yet still be within its safe operating temperature. Are people just getting overly paranoid? Has their been a lot of reported failures from over-heating?

Sounds like a lot of work to me. I'd rather just hang a bunch of 1Tb USBs on hubs and YAMJ them.

YAMJ organizes your collection (mostly) automatically. It sorts in two ways. It shows you various categories (comedy, drama, HD, sci-fi, etc.), which I believe it gets from IMDB. It also has a 0 - 9, A - Z list which is hyperlinked so that you don't have to scroll through your entire collection.

My take on the HDD issue. I have a 1 TB WD green drive in the PCH and it is neither loud nor hot. It is audible if you put your head right down by it but no reason to do that. It gets warm but not hot to touch.

I am not able to use all the way CAT5 wired connection to my PCH (i'm using powerline) so streaming of HD content not really an option, so having a HDD on the PCH makes sense. I keep my HD media on the PCH and my music and SD media on the HP Media Smart Server upstairs in the study. Works fine and YAMJ brings it all together seamlessly.

USB attached HDD's would work as well, they are just more unsightly than having an internal HDD--installation of the internal SATA HDD took literally less than 5 minutes.

A lot of work? Guffaw! Yeah, enter the movie name in Movie Collector, let it dl the info from IMDB while I copy the movie from my PC to my PCH via USB.

My god, I'm exhausted! I'm too tired to watch the movie. I'm going to bed.

Noise isn't an issue but there's discussion all over the NMT board about "what is hot and what's not". I just don't need the aggravation, all I want is the capability to change skins, I'll have all the storage space I need and then some w/the ext drives. The CF card will do fine, so it's not even an issue w/my setup.

I noticed that the specs state that it supports ftp. Is that as a client or a server?

What I would like to do is put a hard drive in a a-110 and be able to download from another location across the internet. I already have an ftp server so that would be the easiest way but I am willing to set up any other server necessary.