New Popcorn Hour C-200: Quick Impressions

Got my new Popcorn C-200 (photos attached) on Friday and played with it over the weekend. While it has a few bugs and quirks, which are likely be resolved with upcoming firmware releases, I already like it enough to sell my A-110 and PS3. The C-200 looks to be a great all-in-one hi-def media player.

For background, I'm using a Panasonic AE3000U 1080p projector w/a 124" 2.37:1 scope Dalite High Power screen. I've used two Popcorn A-110 units so far (home theater and family room), as well as the WDTV media player. I have a 7.2 speaker system powered by an Onkyo TX-SR806.

The C-200 unit itself is a lot bigger than the A-110, in fact close in size to my Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player, which it sits in a rack over it. Build quality is better than the A-110; more sturdy, less cheap-looking. The included RF remote is nice. I also got the optional IR remote. The front LCD display is a welcome addition, but even when dimmed, it's still bright in a darkened home theater for my taste.

First thing I did after unboxing was open the unit and put in LG's new CH08-LS10 8x Blu-ray drive and a 40GB 2.5" SATA hard drive (didn't need a bigger internal drive as I'm using two 1TB USB drives with HD movies anyway). Included instructions are skimpy. The only way I knew how to install the drives was by watching the YouTube videos here. In fact, it's almost essential to look over threads at the official networkedmediatank.com. Why? As soon as I fired up the C-200, which is much faster than the A-110 by the way, the unit would not let me update to the new Beta firmware or play any DVDs/Blu-rays, nor would it let me format the internal hard drive. After asking for help in that forum, turns out I needed to first install a "stepping firmware", reboot, then the latest Beta firmware.

After latest firmware install, I needed to set my Blu-ray drive's DVD region (selected 1) and BD region (selected 1 for region A) before being able to play any commercial DVDs and Blu-rays. Blu-ray playback is excellent. The disc load and playback is very fast, even beating my PS3. My LG drive likely has something to do with this as well. Haven't tried BD-Live yet (not an interest to me), but everything else performed fine. DVD playback is also fine, but the C-200's upscaling can't match my Toshiba XA2's. It's good, but not great.

The C-200's UI is a noticeable improvement over the A-110, but it still looks too techie and dated. Navigation is faster however. Guess I'll once again have to rely on user-made skins and YAMJ. With its support for Flash, we'll hopefully see some really good user UI's.

Media playback is excellent as expected. Picture quality seems better than the A-110's. I only tried hi-def files (ts, m2ts, mkv and Blu-ray ISO). All worked fine, including sending 1080p/24 correctly to my projector. Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD bitstream also works fine. I still need to try playing mkv files, especially high bitrate ones, off burned DVDs.

Some bugs and quirks are there. The IR remote is not responsive for me. Still fiddling with it. I had a MKV file hiccup momentarily during playback. Gigabit ethernet connection isn't working yet from what I've read at networkedmediatank.com. I plan to try streaming hi-def files next, although I hardly stream as I prefer direct connection via USB hard drives for media file playback. I also plan on trying Netflix streaming via PlayOn, but I've read the C-200 may support direct Netflix streaming in the future. That would be great as the computer can be left off. The Media Service Portal (MSP) looks and works exactly the same way as with the A-110.

Overall, I'm happy enough to have a very good (hopefully even better with new firmwares) all-in-one hi-def media player that replaces the A-110 and PS3 in my home theater. Wish the total price had been a little cheaper (C-200 unit + IR remote + shipping), not to forget the Blu-ray drive cost ($104 for the LG I bought), but when you consider how versatile this thing is, it's a reasonable price. Nice job overall Syabas!

Update 1: DVD upscaling is much improved when you force a 1080p/24 output to display (or whatever your display's native resolution is).
Update 2: IR remote now working fine. Eye needs to be facing you, unobstructed. Harmony remote works fine using A-110 as device (C-200 not yet on Harmony's database).

It has a "auto" option for HDMI output, which is what I'm using. I assume it's the same as "source direct"? It sent 720p MKVs and 1080p/24 Blu-rays I tried correctly as those sources to my projector. And, yes, native Netflix support would be icing on the cake.

I'm sure they'll fix the network issues...it's a deal-breaker for many people. BTW, are you using their IR remote? Is it working okay for you? I have the eye's stereo-mic-like connector connected to the back and the eye/transmitter itself facing up about an inch from the LCD front panel, but the IR remote still doesn't seem responsive.

Looking forward to your review...

You're welcome. BD ISO plays similarly to DVD ISO. Takes a couple seconds and you see the FBI warning, movie starts playing, or it goes to the menu (depending on how original disc was authored). One cool thing I'm finding with commercial BDs is that you can skip FBI warning and UOP (user-operation prohibited) items my PS3 forced me to sit through.

True. These days, more electronics devices are like mini-computers and companies want to rush to market, so we become the real beta testers. Still, based on support Syabas has given to the A-110, I'm quite confident they'll continually provide fixes/improvements to the C-200. It's the price you pay for being an early adopter . Also, the C-200 works pretty well now with the current latest beta firmware. Nothing to be nervous about. I have a feeling they'll fix gigabit networking with the next firmware (due within the week from what I'm reading), as well as the other small issues in the coming weeks.

My receiver does 1080p upscaling via Faroujda's DCDi chip. Initially, I had set my C-200 to auto, so my PJ was just showing the native 480i picture I think. I then set the C-200 to force 1080p/24 and DVD upscaling looked much better. I used Spielberg's 'A.I.' DVD as a test. Re: the IR remote, I may be doing something wrong. Will fiddle with it this evening. The RF remote has been working just fine.

Excellent review Damian!

If your unit comes with the 090722 firmware as mine did, you'll need to install the "stepping firmware" here, reboot, then the latest Beta (same link). I did all this via a USB stick. Keeping the USB stick with the Beta files plugged in, I then went to Setup > Maintenance and followed instructions to do a fresh NMT apps installation (which formats the hard drive) by pointing to the USB stick (instead of online).

If anyone cares, my IR remote is now working fine. I didn't have the eye of the IR cable pointed toward me. In fact, I programmed my Harmony One w/the A-110 as the device and it works fine. The C-200 isn't on Harmony's database yet it seems.

Yes, it works pretty much like playing the actual disc. You get the menu, chapters, etc. I was mulling doing what you're planning, but I'd hate to have a hard drive full of backups die on me. Guess if they're truly backups, you could re-rip to another hard drive. People's preferences vary, but I like to keep my Blu-ray discs as is and use hard drives for MKVs, cable/satellite TS captures, etc.