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*Official* Popcorn Hour PCH-C200 Owners Thread

post #1 of 543
10/15/10 at 10:30am
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Since there is no official PCH C-200 thread, ask all your PCH C-200 questions here.
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post #2 of 543
10/15/10 at 10:31am
Newest public firmware was released October 8th.

Get it while it's hot!!! http://www.popcornhour.com/download/...ware-C200.html

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post #3 of 543
10/15/10 at 10:33am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin_HT View Post

Newest public firmware was released October 8th.

Get it while it's hot!!! http://www.popcornhour.com/download/...ware-C200.html


I think this fw was released to bring the C-200 up to speed with the A-200, which just had a fw update last month (Ironic, C-200 being brought up to speed of the A-200!)
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post #4 of 543
10/16/10 at 2:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

I think this fw was released to bring the C-200 up to speed with the A-200, which just had a fw update last month (Ironic, C-200 being brought up to speed of the A-200!)

I usually jump at these, but I got an uneasy feeling reading the NMT forums about this release. Have you tried it? There were reports of some people having hdmi problems after the release as well as difficulty installing the update ( something to do with certain services not quitting properly).

Mine is working great now and they still have yet to introduce their new GUI so perhaps there is no rush.

philip
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post #5 of 543
10/16/10 at 3:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

I usually jump at these, but I got an uneasy feeling reading the NMT forums about this release. Have you tried it? There were reports of some people having hdmi problems after the release as well as difficulty installing the update ( something to do with certain services not quitting properly).

Mine is working great now and they still have yet to introduce their new GUI so perhaps there is no rush.

philip

I did the update last night online and it went silky smooth. I haven't noticed any issues so far. Also, I am a beta tester so I am usually running fw different from the public version (although right now I am running the latest public)
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post #6 of 543
10/16/10 at 12:07pm
I installed mine last night and watched How To Train Your Dragon from a BD drive attached by USB. It worked great.

One question I have is about bookmarks. Last night was the exception. 99.9% of the time I'm watching a movie over my network.
I have an internal 500GB hard drive in my unit which has the NMT applications on it. Which I never use.

But what do I need to do to get bookmarks to work properly? They will always work while the ISO is loaded, but if I stop and load it again, they will be gone.
I usually shut my C200 down completely when not in use. But even when still on the bookmarks don't stick.
This is the one thing with my C200 that I have never been able to get to work properly.

Do I need to install an internal USB drive?
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post #7 of 543
10/16/10 at 12:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post

I installed mine last night and watched How To Train Your Dragon from a BD drive attached by USB. It worked great.

One question I have is about bookmarks. Last night was the exception. 99.9% of the time I'm watching a movie over my network.
I have an internal 500GB hard drive in my unit which has the NMT applications on it. Which I never use.

But what do I need to do to get bookmarks to work properly? They will always work while the ISO is loaded, but if I stop and load it again, they will be gone.
I usually shut my C200 down completely when not in use. But even when still on the bookmarks don't stick.
This is the one thing with my C200 that I have never been able to get to work properly.

Do I need to install an internal USB drive?

If you power all the way down it gets rid of your bookmarks. In stand-by mode it keeps your bookmarks, and if you clear the cache it will also get rid of your bookmarks.

Hope this helps
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post #8 of 543
10/16/10 at 2:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post


I did the update last night online and it went silky smooth. I haven't noticed any issues so far. Also, I am a beta tester so I am usually running fw different from the public version (although right now I am running the latest public)

Nice to hear. I did read the release notes, but the changes seemed very subtle. Is there anything major in the new release for someone not using Blu-Ray images/disks?

While I am at it, is there a silent physical Blu-Ray player that can go into the removable space? Do you also need to plug in a USB stick to benefit from the drive? I removed a hard drive from that space. I still have an internal 2.5" drive for running the NMT apps but it really is not being used otherwise since I got a WHS.

Finally, how safe would it be to install iTunes on the WHS ( yes I know this is verging on blasphemy)?

Philip
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post #9 of 543
10/16/10 at 3:50pm
I have mine for about 4 months or so. I experimented with a lot of different setups, until I finally installed 2 Western Digital Hard Drives in it. (2x2 TB).
It was a hassle, since the NMT doesn't like all models of the 2 TB line.
Any of you ran into this problem? Othere than that, I am a happy Camper with this Unit.
The only two options I would like to see in the Future is support for true Gigabit speed and Netflix, of course.
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post #10 of 543
10/16/10 at 3:52pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deja-vue View Post

I have mine for about 4 months or so. I experimented with a lot of different setups, until I finally installed 2 Western Digital Hard Drives in it. (2x2 TB).
It was a hassle, since the NMT doesn't like all models of the 2 TB line.
Any of you ran into this problem? Othere than that, I am a happy Camper with this Unit.
The only two options I would like to see in the Future is support for true Gigabit speed and Netflix, of course.

What WD drives? I imagine the drives that have been causing issues are the Advanced format drives
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post #11 of 543
10/16/10 at 3:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

Nice to hear. I did read the release notes, but the changes seemed very subtle. Is there anything major in the new release for someone not using Blu-Ray images/disks?

While I am at it, is there a silent physical Blu-Ray player that can go into the removable space? Do you also need to plug in a USB stick to benefit from the drive? I removed a hard drive from that space. I still have an internal 2.5" drive for running the NMT apps but it really is not being used otherwise since I got a WHS.

Finally, how safe would it be to install iTunes on the WHS ( yes I know this is verging on blasphemy)?

Philip

I have a BluRay Rom drive and a 2.5" HDD in mine. My BluRay drive though is not silent by any means, it is a PC drive that I pulled out from one of my HTPCs. I also have a USB drive installed internally

Yes, you can install iTunes in WHS. There is a bunch of iTunes talk here:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/foru...0&hilit=iTunes
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post #12 of 543
10/16/10 at 3:59pm
Damian, it was the WD20EARS, 2 TB, around a $100. Gave me all kinds of problems. Over at the NMT Forum they suggest to format it to NTFS first, no quick-format. Still problems. Copied 10-12 Blu-Ray images on it, and when I re-booted the NMT it simply refused to recognize the Drive.
Since I replaced them with the WD20EVDS and have no more problems.
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post #13 of 543
10/16/10 at 4:04pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deja-vue View Post

Damian, it was the WD20EARS, 2 TB, around a $100. Gave me all kinds of problems. Over at the NMT Forum they suggest to format it to NTFS first, no quick-format. Still problems. Copied 10-12 Blu-Ray images on it, and when I re-booted the NMT it simply refused to recognize the Drive.
Since I replaced them with the WD20EVDS and have no more problems.

Yup, the EARS are the advanced format drives. I make sure to stay away from those for now, which is why your EVDS works fine. I have a bunch of EADS which work fine as well.
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post #14 of 543
10/16/10 at 8:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin_HT View Post

Newest public firmware was released October 8th.

Get it while it's hot!!! http://www.popcornhour.com/download/...ware-C200.html


I noticed after updating my player last month to the August 21st firmware that none of my BD-R backups using BD Rebuilder would play anymore. The player just gets stuck trying to read them. I updated to the Oct 8 firmware and had the same problem. I reverted back to the May firmware and now the player will read the backups again. I don't know what they did with the last 2 firmware updates that prevent my player from being able to read and play the BD-R backups?
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post #15 of 543
10/17/10 at 8:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by cbohlman View Post

If you power all the way down it gets rid of your bookmarks. In stand-by mode it keeps your bookmarks, and if you clear the cache it will also get rid of your bookmarks.

Hope this helps

Well i guess that has always bee the issue then. I have always powered down the unit when not in use. This weekend is the first time I've used standby mode.

There must have been a reason I started doing this. Is the hard drive always spinning in standby mode?

I probably should just remove the hard drive since I never use it. But that was the first thing I did when I received my C200, so if it doesn't spin during standby I might as well leave in in there.
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post #16 of 543
10/17/10 at 8:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post

Well i guess that has always bee the issue then. I have always powered down the unit when not in use. This weekend is the first time I've used standby mode.

There must have been a reason I started doing this. Is the hard drive always spinning in standby mode?

I probably should just remove the hard drive since I never use it. But that was the first thing I did when I received my C200, so if it doesn't spin during standby I might as well leave in in there.

The hard drive shouldn't spin in stand-by mode. In your case i would use a internal usb to install the NMT apps on.
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post #17 of 543
10/17/10 at 2:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

Yup, the EARS are the advanced format drives. I make sure to stay away from those for now, which is why your EVDS works fine. I have a bunch of EADS which work fine as well.

I have an EARS 2tb drive formatted to NTFS and haven't had any problms with it internally. I also have an EADS and no problem with it either.
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post #18 of 543
10/17/10 at 2:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cbohlman View Post

The hard drive shouldn't spin in stand-by mode. In your case i would use a internal usb to install the NMT apps on.

I was leaving my internally stored WD EADS 2tb drive in standby mode when I first got the c-200. It got so hot the drive started acting weird (I could see my list of movies but none of them would play). Once I let the drive cool down it was back to normal. This led me to believe that my hard drive was at work while in standby mode.

I've both installed an internal fan and switched to doing a complete shut off ever since. Even with the internal fan my drive gets pretty hot after watching just on movie. My c-200 is in an enclosed case but I do have two 120mm fans blowing air in & out whenever my system is on, so for an enclosed entertainment center it's got decent ventilation.
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post #19 of 543
10/17/10 at 2:40pm
I have a question about getting ripped movies from my PC to my c-200's internal drive. At this point I have to constantly take out my internal drive and hook it up to my PC to copy them over. I tried getting my FTP setup going but the first thing I tried to copy was a DVD ISO and it said it was going to take 6 hours to copy it. I have FIOS fiber optic internet with 30mb up and 30 mb download so my internet is faster than 99% of the general public in this country. My point being that my internet shouldn't be the bottleneck. I've either done something wrong or this option isn't really an option for me at this speed.

Can I hook my PC up to the c-200 directly via USB and have it show up as a hard drive? Or is there a quicker way to get my rips from my laptop PC to my c-200's internal drive?
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post #20 of 543
10/17/10 at 3:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fsrenduro View Post

I have a question about getting ripped movies from my PC to my c-200's internal drive. At this point I have to constantly take out my internal drive and hook it up to my PC to copy them over. I tried getting my FTP setup going but the first thing I tried to copy was a DVD ISO and it said it was going to take 6 hours to copy it. I have FIOS fiber optic internet with 30mb up and 30 mb download so my internet is faster than 99% of the general public in this country. My point being that my internet shouldn't be the bottleneck. I've either done something wrong or this option isn't really an option for me at this speed.

Can I hook my PC up to the c-200 directly via USB and have it show up as a hard drive? Or is there a quicker way to get my rips from my laptop PC to my c-200's internal drive?

Your Internet Speed has nothing to do with your internal Network Speed.
The fastest way is to attach the USB Drive to the NMT and thenn go into Fliemode and copy it over.
I usually copy a Blu-Ray Image (45 GB) from my PC over the Network in just over one Hour, but I use Gigabit Routers.
That is fast enough for me.
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post #21 of 543
10/17/10 at 3:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by fsrenduro View Post


I have an EARS 2tb drive formatted to NTFS and haven't had any problms with it internally. I also have an EADS and no problem with it either.

I had a 2.5" internal drive for the nmt apps and I used an EARS drive in the removable bay. That drive was formatted on a Linux system. It always worked great, no heat at all and I never had need for a fan. But people say that after time the EARS drive would eventually cause problems as the drive wasn't supported in the Linux kernel. Perhaps now it is? You can put a jumper on the EARS drives to make them compatible with systems that don't support the 4k sectors. By now I would have thought most Linux kernels would have. My Drobos do.

If it's not supported in the C200 kernel I would not risk keeping a lot of stuff on it. 2TB's is a lot to lose.

Philip
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post #22 of 543
10/17/10 at 3:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post


Well i guess that has always bee the issue then. I have always powered down the unit when not in use. This weekend is the first time I've used standby mode.

There must have been a reason I started doing this. Is the hard drive always spinning in standby mode?

They spin down. The C200 uses under 18watts in standby mode. I never power mine down. You can even hot swap drives from the removable bay in standby.

Philip
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post #23 of 543
10/17/10 at 3:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pmcd View Post

They spin down. The C200 uses under 18watts in standby mode. I never power mine down. You can even hot swap drives from the removable bay in standby.

Philip

I'll have to keep mine in standby from now on. But is there any setup that allows the BD bookmarks to be remembered when the unit is powered down? With a typical BDplayer, I can come back to it two years later, after being unplugged for most of that time. And the bookmarks for dozens of titles are still intact.

If I were to use an internal USB flash drive instead, would that allow the BD bookmarks to be retained after powering down the C200?
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post #24 of 543
10/17/10 at 6:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin_HT View Post

Newest public firmware was released October 8th.

Get it while it's hot!!! http://www.popcornhour.com/download/...ware-C200.html


This new firmware killed my PlayOn and made my R3 run poorly. ( HD Nation) Had to downgrade to get it right????
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post #25 of 543
10/17/10 at 8:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

Since there is no official PCH C-200 thread, ask all your PCH C-200 questions here.

I am a PCH-A100 user here who has been thinking of upgrading to the C-200 for a while now.

1. One of my biggest peeves is having to turn the TV on when listening to music in order to navigate and see what is currently playing.

How enjoyable/useful is the LCD screen when it comes to listening to music?

2. My other peeve is the 30-second skip back when watching video. I have a lot of "What did they just say" or "What just happened" moments and having to wait 30 seconds + another couple of seconds for the network connection to reset is highly annoying.

Is this the same on the C-200?

3. My A-100 doesn't know the length [in time] that a VBR MP3 file has. Is this fixed in the C-200?

If anyone else has insights on how the C-200 experience differs from the A-100 I would appreciate it.
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post #26 of 543
10/19/10 at 11:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by OCSMITH View Post

This new firmware killed my PlayOn and made my R3 run poorly. ( HD Nation) Had to downgrade to get it right????

No issues with either app on the new firmware here. Might need to clear cache and reset to default
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post #27 of 543
10/19/10 at 3:55pm
I love this thread here at avs forum.
I have a BluRay Rom drive attached to my C-200.
When playback BDMVs or BD ISOs, my Onkyo AVR can automatically recognizes whether that movie carries DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD and plays flawlessly.
But when playback BD discs thru BluRay Rom drive, all I will have on AVR is multiple channels. Am I missing something?
Thanks for your prompt help.
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post #28 of 543
10/19/10 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Elpee View Post

I love this thread here at avs forum.
I have a BluRay Rom drive attached to my C-200.
When playback BDMVs or BD ISOs, my Onkyo AVR can automatically recognizes whether that movie carries DTS-HD Master Audio or Dolby TrueHD and plays flawlessly.
But when playback BD discs thru BluRay Rom drive, all I will have on AVR is multiple channels. Am I missing something?
Thanks for your prompt help.

When I've used a USB BD drive attached to my C200, and play a BD title, it's just like when I play a BD ISO over my network. It will bitstream the advanced codecs both ways for me.
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post #29 of 543
10/19/10 at 4:45pm
Thread Starter 
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Originally Posted by aaronwt View Post

When I've used a USB BD drive attached to my C200, and play a BD title, it's just like when I play a BD ISO over my network. It will bitstream the advanced codecs both ways for me.

I have also confirmed that if you have MakeMKV running on a PC with a BluRay Rom drive installed, you can play back that disc on the C200 (so the ability to play back a physical disc without needing a drive connected to your C200).
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post #30 of 543
10/19/10 at 4:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 View Post

I have also confirmed that if you have MakeMKV running on a PC with a BluRay Rom drive installed, you can play back that disc on the C200 (so the ability to play back a physical disc without needing a drive connected to your C200).

I'll need to try that out. That will come in handy
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