Popcorn Hour's Networked Media Tank seen early

If you're scouting a decent media server that just so happens to double as a NAS drive and BitTorrent server, we'd probably wait out this weekend. Apparently, the Popcorn Hour website is set to go live in T-minus two days, but an eagle-eyed individual managed to pull down what appears to be a screenshot of the firm's forthcoming Networked Media Tank. The NMT reportedly enables users to "watch, store and share digital content on your home network," and it also allows for "seamless integration between your digital media and your entertainment system." Best of all, buyers can toss in a hard drive of their choosing, and the 1080p output is sure to please the HD buffs. According to the capture (shown in full after the jump), all this functionality will only run you $179 (sans an HDD), but we'll out find out for certain in a matter of hours.

UPDATE: Seems this could be a rebadge of another product -- guess we'll wait and see, eh? Thanks for the update, Gabriel M.

[Thanks, Johan W.]

[Mike @ Oct 12th 2007 11:09AM]

Is it just me or does that UI look a heck of a lot like Windows Media Center?

[Matt B @ Oct 12th 2007 11:34AM]

Or the PS3 and PSP XMB.

[Bobs @ Oct 14th 2007 6:25AM]

no, im positive that looks a hell of a lot like windows media, i should know, its on my laptop, and someone stole the idea from it to make a mame emulater, XMB looks nothing like this

[John Doe @ Oct 12th 2007 11:12AM]

That's all kinds of sold when it comes out. Plus you have the added benefit that you aren't contributing to Apple's inflated arrogance.

[tony @ Oct 12th 2007 12:31PM]

What a douchey comment. Life must suck being such a hater.

[John Doe @ Oct 12th 2007 2:01PM]

Nope. You just have problems facing reality, and the reality is that Apple is the most arrogant, we-can-do-whatever-the-hell-we-want-and-you-will-buy-it, company on the market today. Sorry if the truth stings a bit, but there it is. Deal with it. Or don’t. I don’t care.

[Bliss @ Oct 12th 2007 5:41PM]

Wait - are you talking Apple, or oh-so-pro-consumer Micro$oft?

[ear @ Oct 12th 2007 11:21AM]

Why don't they ever add newgroups downloading to these things? I'd much rather grab my tv shows from newsgroups rather than bittorrent.

[Typhoid Mary @ Oct 12th 2007 11:24AM]

At that price it looks very nice but I think I'll wait and see what media this thing REALLY plays (especially if it handles ISOs with menus). Guess I will have to wait for release and reviews to find out as manufactures tend to LIE a bit (like netgear and its EVA8000, which I still consider a BETA product).

Also specs on what size HD this thing can handle and if it has any ports for additional HD happiness would be nice too. Oh, and if it does have a gigabit port they lost one sale.

[Typhoid Mary @ Oct 13th 2007 11:22PM]

I knew you meant hard drives:) The product is my geared to people who are upgrading their media server or buying their first one and the NAS seems like a bit of an extra.

Thanks for the other info. I'll check out the router as I am looking for a NAS. I really like the Thecus 5200 pro and would love to mate it with 5 TB HDs but alas the TB drives are still out of reach for me, especially 5 of them. So perhaps your setup may work for me as long as XBMC can see the drives. I'll have to get the NAS eventually though as I have "too much stuff" (over 13 TBs and counting)...I'm a collector of sorts with a bad addition to everything it seems :)

[dataminer49er @ Oct 12th 2007 11:34AM]

I just don't see the need to buy something like this when you can buy a few 500gb HDs and enclosures.

[Mark @ Oct 12th 2007 12:22PM]

Can anyone recommend a good/cheap HD enclosure with TV output?

[dataminer49er @ Oct 12th 2007 12:51PM]

I have only seen enclosures that have USB 2.0 and firewire connections. Whatever enclosure you get you will want one that is solid aluminum and also has a built in cooling fan. My first enclosure did not have either of these features and it fried itself within 3 months. My rig runs through a Linksys WRT350N router and when I get some cash together I'll get a D-Link Media Lounge to connect to the TV, but without that I can watch movies on my laptop anywhere in the condo.

[Typhoid Mary @ Oct 12th 2007 3:56PM]

I would like to know what sort of HD enclosures you know of that play video files. I would love to get a few!

Im guessing you dont think a NAS is of much use either...

[dataminer49er @ Oct 12th 2007 4:18PM]

Well in HD I mean hard drive. I use a NAS to warehouse my iTunes library, some DVD titles and photos. When I run out I just need to buy another enclosure ($30.00) and a new 500gb hard drive ($100ish). The real key was the router. After looking up the specs the one I picked up (WRT350N) has a USB 2.0 port and seemed to be optimized for broadcasting massive amounts of data i.e. movies. Plus the router has settings for NAS drive management where others at the time did not have such a thing. I also have a DVD "backup" program which really helps out a lot.

[Redstripe @ Oct 12th 2007 11:46AM]

video_ts with automatic cover downloads or no deal!

[Typhoid Mary @ Oct 12th 2007 11:48AM]

Well I'm not expecting godliness myself...I'm sure it won't be close to XBMC :)

[Richad @ Oct 12th 2007 12:53PM]

That box looks remarcably like the Neuston box of a couple of years back, although it didnt have integral Hard isk driveback then. See http://www.neuston.com/Images/MC500/MC500_in_15.jpg

Completely different looking interface though

Richard

[therealcmj @ Oct 12th 2007 12:13PM]

Looks like another Syabas based product. Even the NMT name matches up to the name Syabas uses for that sort of product. Check out the specs on Syabas' site for more details and specs on this device before Popcorn Hour releases them.

I have a few players from Syabas and they're actually fairly decent devices. For $179 they'll probably do OK since there aren't many competitive products in the space at that price point.

[HexusOdy @ Oct 12th 2007 12:13PM]

I can tell you exactly what the spec will be....

Variety of video/audio output options
Video Output - Composite/S-Video, Component Video (Progressive and Interlace) and HDMI
Audio Output - SPDIF, Coaxial and Analog Stereo



Network connectivity
LAN 10/100Mbps
Wireless 802.11n


Network Protocol
HTTP
RTSP


IDE interface
Hard disk drive (optional)
Memory Card Reader - Compact Flash, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC, SD, Smart Media and xD (optional)


USB 2.0 support
USB Command Block Specification - SCSI Transparent Command Set and SFF8070i
Mass Storage Devices - Compact Flash, IBM Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MMC, SD, Smart Media, xD and Hard-disk
File System - FAT-12, FAT-16, FAT-32 and NTFS


Supported media formats
Video - MPEG1/2/4, Open DivX-HD, Xvid-HD and WMV9-HD, H.264

Audio - MP1/2/3, WMA, WMA Pro, Ogg Vorbis, AAC, AC3, PCM, WAV and FLAC

Photo - JPEG, Animated GIF89a, BMP and PNG
Subtitle - MicroDVD (*.sub), SubRip (*.srt), Sub Station Alpha (*.ssa), Microsoft's Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange - SAMI (*.smi)




HTML browser
HTML 3.2 compliant and partial HTML 4.0 support
Partial Javascript 1.5 support
Partial CSS2 support
Proprietary Consumer HTML support to ease navigation using a remote control
Partial Cascading Style Sheet (CSS1)
Partial Netscape and IE extensions including exception handling
Syabas HTML extensions to ease web page design
Syabas HTML extensions to provide simple startup of media streaming features
Cookies function support
Full graphical frames
Local file system implemented as disk on RAM and/or flash memory
Fast HTML page and downloaded files caching in RAM disk
Automatic local time synchronization with server time
GIF87, Animated GIF89a, JPEG, and progressive JPEG image files support
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) image files support
Ability to support double byte character sets for internationalization effort. Current supported character sets: English, Chinese Simplified (GB2312), Chinese Traditional (Big5), Japanese (ISO-2022JP, Shift-JIS, EUC-JP), Korean (EUC-KR), Hebrew (no right to left alignment)
Secure Sockets Layer 2.0/3.0, TLSv1 40-bit and 128-bit encryption for secure online transaction
Javascript/ECMAScript (ECMA-262) support


Compliance with Industry Standard
UPnP AV / NMPR v2.1 - a Universal Plug n Play standard for audio / video streaming devices
DLNA compliant
myiHome Lite - Proprietary HTML based UI server for content streaming
Apple's Bonjour - Apple's network device discovery protocol for Mac OS
Windows Vista and WMP 11 - Seamless support for Windows Vista and Windows XP Media Player 11 built-in media server




Premium content
Broadcasting - Internet TV, Podcasting, Internet Radio
Online videos - Google Video search, Yahoo! Video search
Photo sharing - Flickr Photo, SONY Image Station



IPTV standard
WMS HTTP / RTSP Streaming Technology
Microsoft / Cisco Multicast Streaming Technology
ISMAv1 RTSP Streaming Technology
Multicast Streaming Technology
H.264 / WMV9 HD Streaming and MPEG4 SD format
WMV9 High / Standard Definition Streaming with Janus DRM (silent type) capability


Remote Control Support
NEC IR protocol Transmission Format with Carrier Frequency @ 38 Khz

[Zach @ Oct 12th 2007 1:16PM]

Hex, where'd you get those stats? They look mighty impressive... this might be the box I'm looking for. I really want something to play my divx and H.264 (mkv) files. Hopefully this will do it and have all those specs to boot. That'll be really sweet if it does.

[Typhoid Mary @ Oct 12th 2007 2:49PM]

Any word on the highest bit rate on these "supported" video formats? H.264 HDef stuff can get extremely high and many players just choke on them (ex:eva8000).

[glide @ Oct 12th 2007 3:57PM]

If this thing does everything it claims I'm all over it.

[deepstore @ Oct 13th 2007 3:54AM]

the picture is for sure a neuston box i still use in my car now

[HexusOdy @ Oct 12th 2007 2:01PM]

Exactly, its going to be the exact same box Syabas make. The name Network Media Tank and the abbreviation NMT are exactly the same as one of their units.

Even so its still a mightly spec. I live in the UK and might have to get one sent over.

[Aldo @ Oct 12th 2007 2:27PM]

Yes this plays mkv files, even the hi-def ones :-)

[Scott @ Oct 12th 2007 2:53PM]

So if you had a ripped DVD somewhere on your network, could this thing snag a .VOB and play it, or would it have to be renamed to .MPG ?

[Aldo @ Oct 12th 2007 4:51PM]

Yes it plays both .vob and .ISO images from DVD !

[Scott @ Oct 13th 2007 12:02AM]

Cool!

[Aldo @ Oct 12th 2007 2:53PM]

Yes this plays mkv files, even the hi-def ones :-)

[Mark @ Oct 12th 2007 4:02PM]

No DVD-Vob files or Iso?...garbage..

[Chris Russell @ Oct 12th 2007 7:03PM]

That’s the same casing as the Neuston MC500 which I have, and I might add, was ahead of its time

[ryos @ Oct 12th 2007 9:52PM]

I could be wrong, but I think I have a predecessor model by a Singapore company called Neuton or something like that. It's the crappiest networked media player ever, but comes with Mac and Windows server written in Java that worked with iTunes.... sorta.

[Hi-Jack @ Oct 13th 2007 1:03AM]

It's the wrong image. The design has changed but can't be revealed. We are launching pictures of the mini design board today (internal board) which are real. We can't yet release the design though.

Even if this design had been used before, the internals are different so you can't judge on external esign what a player will become ryos...

Hi-Jack
www.mpcclub.com

[victor @ Oct 13th 2007 9:17PM]

I have this device.

http://webpro.com.tw/iTHEATER120.htm

Same enclosure, same board, the internal IDE connector isn't populated on my board though.

It's a UPnPAV box running Syabas firmware. Mine currently runs the DigitalRise Xstream firmware, because they made their updates downloadable online rather than through the device only - pop .bin on a flash drive with an HTML that links to the .bin on the drive, and it updates from the flash drive.

I'd like for these mediabank folks to make their .bin available, and I'd keep updating. Shoot, I might even get motivated and populate the connector and drive in mine.

[victor @ Oct 14th 2007 6:14PM]

scratch my earlier comment. Same box, different board.

HiJack knows everything there is to know about these sigma based boards.

[TestSubject86 @ Oct 15th 2007 5:13AM]

I've been looking for a Network Media Player that can handle HD H.264 for about 6 months now. I guess I don't mind waiting another 2 weeks. From their site "Due to casing manufacturing delays, we will not have available stock until 30th Oct 2007."

I was so close to spending $500 on the cheapest PS3 on the market instead of waiting 6 weeks for hope of a $400 version. It was either that or just buy a laptop for my living room and have to deal with crappy video out.

The only question I have is will this require server software on the host PC or can it read windows file shares like XBMC?

[TestSubject86 @ Oct 15th 2007 5:15AM]

The site says it supports SMB, so I think we're good.