PopcornHour's latest C-200 media box is Blu-ray (& anything else) ready

The followup to the popular PopcornHour media streamer series has finally been announced, and the list of features makes it look worth the wait. Revealed in a post on the Networked Media Tank forums the C-200 contains an upgraded Sigma SMP8643 667 Mhz processor, HDMI 1.3 out, two SATA slots, a drive bay for mounting your own HDD, DVD or even Blu-ray drive (requires internal HDD or 1GB USB stick) and supports a list of networking standards, codecs and containers far too long to recount here. At first glance, only DivX jumps out as missing from the list, have a look at the forum posting and let us know if you spot. Of course, there's already a video unboxing available, seen after the break (along with the copied list of specs) or check out the full Google translated early hands on impressions from HomeTheater.co.il. The most pressing questions of when will these be available and for how much, will have to be answered at another time.

[Via HomeTheater.co.il & Geek Tonic]

Specification

Connectivity

Bonjour
UPnP SSDP
UPnP AV
Windows Media Connect
Windows Media Player NSS
Samba
NFS
Media servers: myiHome, myiHomeLite, myiHomeMS (UPnP), MSP Portal
Third party media servers: WizD, SwissCenter, Llink, GB-PVR
BitTorrent P2P
Usenet downloader
NAS access: SMB, NFS, FTP

Web services

Video: YouTube, Vuze, Revision 3, Videocast, CNET TV, Mediafly, Veoh, Mevio, Bliptv, Break Podcast, CBS Evening News, CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Daily, CNN The Larry King Podcast, NBC Today Show, The CNN Daily, CNN In Case You Missed It, NBC Nightly News, NBC Meet The Press, CBS Face the Nation, Podfinder UK
Audio: Jamendo, iPodcast, BBC Podcast, Indiefeed, CNN News, ABC News
Photo: Flickr Photo, Picasaweb Photo, Pikeo, 23
RSS feed: Yahoo! Weather, NMT Forum, Bloglines, Cinecast, MSNBC News, Traffice Condition, Yahoo! Traffic Alerts, Yahoo! News, Weather Bug
Peer-to-peer TV: SayaTV
Internet Radio: Radio box, Live365 Radio

Media files supported

Video containers:
MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB)
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
AVI, ASF, WMV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Video decoder:
XVID SD/HD
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 MP@HL
MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
MPEG-4.10 (H.264)
BP@L3
MP@L4.0
HP@L4.0
HP@L4.1
WMV9
MP@HL
SMPTE 421M (VC-1)
MP@HL
AP@L3

Audio containers:
AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV
WMA
FLAC
OGG

Audio decoder:
Dolby Digital
DTS
WMA, WMA Pro
MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3
MPEG-4 AAC-LC
MPEG-4 HE-AAC
MPEG-4 BSAC
LPCM
FLAC
Vorbis

Audio pass-through:
DTS, DTS-HD HR, DTS-HD MA
Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD

Other formats:
ISO, IFO navigation
Rich Object Based Interactive Graphics
AVCHD navigation
Blu-ray ready (requires addition of compatible BD-ROM and at least 1GB USB stick or internal HDD)

Photo formats:
JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

Subtitle formats:
SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX

DRM
Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD)

Chipset
Sigma Designs SMP8643, 667MHz CPU with floating point coprocessor.
Memory
512MB DDR2 DRAM, 256MB NAND Flash

Audio/Video outputs
HDMI v1.3a with CEC, 36bpp deep color, 12-bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 content protection
Component Video
S-Video
Composite Video
Stereo Analog Audio
S/PDIF Optical and Coaxial Digital Audio

Other Interface
192x64 dots white text on blue background LCD display, with software adjustable brightness and power off
Power button with standby, reset and full power down
2x USB 2.0 host at the front
2x USB 2.0 host at the back
1x USB 2.0 internal
2x SATA (one occupied by HDD tray)
3.5" HDD tray
Internal mounting for 2.5" HDD
2.4GHz RF Remote Control
Infra-Red Remote Control port (Infra-Red Remote Control optional)

Network
Ethernet 10/100/1000
miniPCI MII interface for 11n WiFi card (optional)

Power
100~240V AC, 50~60 Hz, max 2.5A
typical: 13 W (no additional device installed/attached)
maximum: 70 W

Dimension
Width x Depth x Height : 425mm x 290mm x 80mm (16.73" x 11.42" x 3.14")

Weight
3.7kg (8.3 lbs)

Package Content
Popcorn Hour C-200 (HDD not included)

IEC 60320 C13 power cord
1.5M length HDMI cable
RF Remote Control with 2 "AAA" batteries
Quick start guide

[Mr.GiGs @ Jun 16th 2009 3:37PM]

The C200 will support DivX, I imagine they don't want to pay licensing to use the DivX name or have the device certified.

The A-110/A-100 also doesn't mention DivX support, but it does play and support all variants of the format (including the .divx specific format)

[iofthestorm @ Jun 16th 2009 5:29PM]

Yeah, I would imagine that if it supports Xvid it should support DivX.

[Gilberto @ Jun 16th 2009 3:38PM]

Now thats a media center... Why sony dont just update the PS3 to do this kind of thing? But it seems more plausible that the Popcorn Hour are going to update its device untill it can play next gen games... Sad world...

[gb @ Jun 16th 2009 3:38PM]

I have the previous popcorn hour. It's a beast. It doesn't talk with Macs as well as PCs though, so I lose a bit of functionality. But I never intended to to use it to watch Youtube or CNN larry king podcasts or whatever. Torrenting would be nice (it can, but i've yet to put in the effort to really get it up and running). But I've yet to throw something at it that it can't play. Only real drawback is that it weirdly doesn't recognize all external USB drives.

[ET @ Jun 16th 2009 3:42PM]

rmvb is always missing, I'll pass

[Tin @ Jun 17th 2009 11:10AM]

Who still uses rmvb ??

[kjb434 @ Jun 16th 2009 4:53PM]

That's what I was thinking! No one uses that!

[Chip @ Jun 16th 2009 5:20PM]

It doesn't support Indeo video files either, but since it's not 1997 any more, I don't think that will be an issue. Real video has been outmoded for a decade. Stop using it.

[Tin @ Jun 16th 2009 3:43PM]

Is there anything it can't play/do? May be you can just list those.

[Mr.GiGs @ Jun 16th 2009 3:54PM]

Definately wont work: RM, RMVB, SACD, OGM
Might not be implemented: Multi Channel FLAC,

[fairlight @ Jun 16th 2009 4:01PM]

@Mr.GiGs:
seriously.. who uses RM and/or RMVB?

[Mr.GiGs @ Jun 16th 2009 4:07PM]

@fairlight
No-one important, h264 > rm/rmvb tbh. But they're always be those 3 or 4 people clinging to their beloved format hoping that someone hears there cries. Course, most of us ditched most every other digital format when h264 came out, so ::Shrug::

[K-Canuck @ Jun 16th 2009 6:22PM]

MiniDisc?
Betamax?
Laserdisc?
8-track?
45's?

How about at least MJPEG!? You know, that format that almost every digital camera uses?

Maybe it's on the list and I just can't decipher it...

[Jeremy @ Jun 16th 2009 3:43PM]

Will it play blu-ray .ISOs?

[Templarian @ Jun 16th 2009 4:04PM]

You rip Blu-ray 720p and 1080p to MKV normally.

[jimmy @ Jun 16th 2009 4:28PM]

good question, i have the a110 and it plays DVD iso's, haven't tried bluray isos. I'd guess it'll play a decrypted ISO before it'll play an encrypted disc...

I don't know if this will trounce my HTPC setup for my projector movie room. the A110 got demoted to my bedroom for a few reasons, occasionally i had issues with certain videos (a few that were remedied by firmware updates, a few that are still there) and of course I needed a blu ray player.. and the web services like youtube were unusably slow...

I like my a110 alot, unfortunately its not the end-all be-all. but its as close to it as i've seen. looking forward to seeing what this box an do

[hulse_kevin @ Jun 16th 2009 4:49PM]

Nevermind the ISO, howabout the main feature (m2ts)?

[Jon @ Jun 16th 2009 6:47PM]

Any version can play .M2TS bluray backups perfect ... and the A-110 can pass through HD audio .. I have been using the A-100 for years and it plays back all my backups perfect

But .ISO support would be perfect for menus etc

[k-y @ Jun 17th 2009 3:28AM]

.ISO works fine on the existing PCHs if you use SMB

[Michael @ Jun 16th 2009 3:44PM]

Wait, it COMES with an HDMI cable? I guess I can skip going to Monster Cable now!

[naz @ Jun 16th 2009 4:00PM]

you just saved $100

[paperless @ Jun 16th 2009 3:45PM]

What a wonderful machine.

[Michael @ Jun 16th 2009 3:47PM]

Maybe if you knew Hebrew, you would...

The video is from an Israeli website :)

[Gipionocheiyort @ Jun 16th 2009 3:47PM]

I've been trying to justify upgrading from my WDTV....this may be the box that does it.

[AlexNC @ Jun 16th 2009 3:49PM]

Still no Flash support? That was the reason I sold my A110. I figured this one would allow flash, but I guess not. That is a deal breaker for many people ... it means no ability to write plugings for web site support; such as Hulu.

[A non eMous @ Jun 16th 2009 4:02PM]

Exactly, if it could stream Hulu and was under $300 I'd order it now

[Chip @ Jun 16th 2009 5:20PM]

It supports a dozen flash-based websites, so the codec isn't the problem. This won't work with Hulu for the same reason Boxee doesn't - Hulu goes out of their way to block "non-PCs" from accessing their content. There will probably be an unofficial workaround in short order, but these guys can't claim Hulu support without risking some idiotic legal action.

[b @ Jun 17th 2009 6:56AM]

I paid for a PlayOn license - this enables me to stream both HULU & NETFLIX to my PCH

[Adam Zey @ Jun 16th 2009 3:51PM]

The big question for a lot of users will be, is the SSA support actually working this time around? PopcornHour's previous products claimed to support SSA (the subtitle format used by virtually everyone in the Anime fansub community). In fact, it was a hack that just parsed out the timecodes and text from the file, ignoring any styles, effects, animations, or even multiple lines of text at the same time. So typesetting and placement was messed up (translation under a sign? Forget about it.) and it couldn't display two lines at the same time (translator's notes? Two people talking at the same time? Transcriptions of background dialogue? Forget about it).

In other words, it didn't really work for anything but the most basic text.

Let's hope they fixed that this time around.

[Mr.GiGs @ Jun 16th 2009 3:58PM]

I believe this is because of a decoding issue, word is that the next ''major'' firmware will support .sub/.idx, and alot of Anime uses that format. Also SSA is supported on the PCH, just, only really in .ISO's, so technically ...

[Verythrax @ Jun 16th 2009 3:54PM]

All hail Popcorn Hour!

Gimme a price and I'll order it in a heartbeat.

[Mohulis @ Jun 16th 2009 5:22PM]

$1100

Payable to me of course. I'll see that you get one... promise!

[Eric H @ Jun 16th 2009 3:57PM]

How will it play blu-ray?

[Flaystus @ Jun 16th 2009 3:59PM]

By decoding it.



sorry... Far as I can tell it can play Bluray but cannot play encrypted movies. So it would have to be like a bluray ISO or reburned disk I guess.

[m2h @ Jun 16th 2009 4:38PM]

No no, re read the article. Engadge mention if you put in a BluRay drive, you need at least 1GB of HDD or Flash... so possibly there is something more involved.

[kjb434 @ Jun 16th 2009 4:57PM]

You install a Blu-Ray drive and the accompanying software needed. They won't support it natively if you don't have the drive. If they supported natively without the drive, then that means you could be viewing copied discs.

[zargon @ Jun 16th 2009 5:34PM]

The 1 GB flash drive would be to meet the Profile 2.0 spec. I think it comes down to the licensing fee, if it is included in the price of the unit, that the end user has to pay for it or non-existent (meaning it won't work).

[David Young @ Jun 16th 2009 4:02PM]

Just pop an IDE or SATA drive inside of the front of the unit..to handle blu-ray dvd...I am guessing you need the usb stick or internal hd to handle the blu-ray software required...

[sam @ Jun 16th 2009 4:14PM]

yep, just buy a £50 bluray Sata 5.25" drive and slot it in, would be very nice indeed.

[Tanzania -tiper @ Jun 16th 2009 4:05PM]

there is a short review with the video in the next link:
http://www.hometheater.co.il/article01524.%D7%A7%D7%91%D7%9C%D7%95-%D7%90%D7%AA-%D7%94-C-200-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%96%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%93%D7%99%D7%94

[AnnoyingPoster @ Jun 16th 2009 4:14PM]

"MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC"

divx is an implemenation of mpeg4 asp.

mpeg4 avc is a different layer of mpeg4 is where h.264 video is used.

so glad we have tech savvy journalists writing our tech articles every day.

[Sebastien @ Jun 16th 2009 4:25PM]

They should just do a very compact version of their A110.
Mine is installed out of its casing, on its own motherboard (its very compact, with hdmi / power / ethernet connections and irDA)

[kjb434 @ Jun 16th 2009 4:58PM]

I hear case mod in your future!

[Marcus @ Jun 16th 2009 4:45PM]

price?

[Marcus @ Jun 16th 2009 4:57PM]

so, why would this be more attractive than a ~$400 HTPC?

[nVidiot @ Jun 16th 2009 5:01PM]

You probably won't build an HTPC that is as quiet and cool temperature wise as the Popcorn Hour. Or as small for that price.

[Alan Strangis @ Jun 16th 2009 5:05PM]

Good question. I want to see what performance/price differentials this will have compared to something like the Revo or the announce EEE Box with the beefy ATI card.

I'm not worried about storage, as I have a Windows Home Server handling all my podcast/video downloads in the background and I just want to avoid the (admittedly somewhat minor) problem of using Transcode 360 to play back some through the 360 extender - which I prefer over the native 360 file browser, though that might be solved by the time DivX 7 and and Windows 7 are released properly.

[Alan Strangis @ Jun 16th 2009 5:09PM]

@nVidiot: take a look at the Acer Revo or the newer EEE Boxes with Radeon cards. Though the EEEs will probably be a couple hundred more than the Popcorn Hour, if they handle Flash properly, they'll be a great option (especially since Boxee gets its public version for Windows out in just a couple of weeks).

[Evan @ Jun 16th 2009 5:47PM]

Most $400 PCs can't decode 1080p video without dropping frames. And you've got to add-on some sort of wireless remote or mouse, with many of the better controller options costing as much as an entire Popcorn Hour A-100!

[no thanks @ Jun 16th 2009 9:47PM]

no but you can buy one easily......

it's called a Dell studio Hybrid with the Blu Ray drive in it from the Dell Outlet.

I got mine for sub $450.

it plays BR discs perfectly via HDMI with sound (or via Optical if you prefer for the Audio).


not that the popcorn hour is bad, but the DSH isnt a bad option either and much more full featured.