I'm scratching my head.

With the exception that it records HD video from your setup box in AVCHD format and allows you to store and play it back on your PC (and I guess the Popcorn Hour), how does the device above relate to the Popcorn Hour?

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

I don't understand this device. No network jack so I assume that it needs to be plugged into a computer via USB?

It does have component output and a remote so you can "control" and "view" it on a TV but what is the point if it has to be connected to a computer?

If I had a computer next to my TV then this device is pointless.

What am I missing?

EDIT: Yeah...What All4 said!

Just ordered my Popcorn Hour as I need a streaming device for my bedroom TV. Will be interesting to see how well it works.
$197 total with shipping at the popcorn hour web page:
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/
Still showing preorders rather than orders...

Reviews are very good and sounds like the firmware is being tweaked. Support sounds spotty but as long as it works...

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

The Popcorn Hour is a great device. I have the iSTAR HD (same hardware as the Popcorn Hour just no Hard Drive) and it works great. Not as "wife/girlfriend friendly" as say an Apple TV, but a lot more flexible. It will basically play anything you throw at it.

There are a couple of us here in the forums that have either the Popcorn Hour or iSTAR working with our WHS, so if you have any questions on setup just ask.

Color me impressed! I just threw a few Video files that the PS3 and XBox360 would not play and they worked fine on the Popcorn Hour. Will try .iso files next.

Comes without a hard drive. going to just buy a 200GB ide drive. Was going to get an adapter but they cost half as much as just the hard drive!

Will do edits to this post as I make progress.

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

Let me know which media software you end up using. I went from MyiHome, to SwissCenter, to GBPVR, and know I am messing around with a html "Movie Jukebox". Trying to find the best, most consistent software.

Why buy a drive for the PCH? Just stream from the MSS. I don't see the sense in storing media all over the place when you own an MSS. Invest in SATA drives for your MSS if it's not already full and store your media there and stream to the PCH.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

So far, I've kind of remained with SwissCenter and once configured have left it alone for a few months now. If there's something better, I'll entertain the idea but things are kind of steady state now but not as perfect as it could be.

All of this is still emerging. Can't wait till there's a reliable product that can be used for streaming MKV HD content and ISOs.

EDIT: My last sentence refers to software. The PCH can be used to stream this kind of content already.

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

the reason for a drive? Well $60 for a 360 GB drive is one
I have some serious downloads of TV shows that I am wading through and the PH would be as good a place as any to store them.
I am also curious as to its other capabilities and that always needs to be scratched.
Also, my older gear inevitably ends up at one of my relatives houses. Older computer builds, 8 monitors, graphics cards, hard drives, switches, and routers have all found a good home with my sisters, sons, nephews and niece, and in-laws. They won't have a MSS. Right now I have over 10 computers that have transistioned over to family and each of these have had at least one upgrade from me.

Say a good Xmas present!

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

Well, I sat down last night and tried to get an .iso file to stream. Never did get it figured out. Anyone know how?

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewtopic.php?t=4817

shows a whole bunch of stuff that not only works with the PCH but with the PS3 as well.

I am impressed with the box. It is Linux based and the software/firmware developers are a separate team than the manufacturers. There are numerous updates that are slowing reducing the number of bugs in this open source project. I guess it was really rough around the edges when it first came out. Working well for me though. Lots of stuff on the web on how to use it which offsets the poor instruction manual.

I tried two different streamers, myihome and Llink.
MyIHome is very similar to PV connect (which we all now have!).
LLink is a lot different beast and is a Linux scrip that has to be modified and unfirewalled and the port need to be changed to 8001 and added to the servers firewall. Then I had to edit the path to my videos. Eventually I got the videos to show (including the .isos!) but could not get them to run...

The PCH has a lot more sound codecs built in so some of my downloaded TV shows would play sounds that the PS3 and XBox360 could not.

Waiting for a hard drive to arrive as I think that is the way to get .isos to play.

PCH has a lot of web links to streaming media. They all ran very smoothly and looked better than did the PV ones. Buffering is very quick too.

It also does a nice job of fitting video to the screen and looks better than the PV version. May be some upconverting going on. Checking with the PCH community to see if that is true...

So far, I am still impressed.

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/ ... php?t=1835

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewt ... 2411#52411

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

I finally got an .iso to run. Loaded the movie onto the hard drive (you THINK that they would include the user name and password for the drive share in the directions! Had to go online!).BTW nmt and 1234

Just like playing the DVD when doing the .iso. Very nice output at 1080P and sound is very good. No hiccups and the remote works like a remote should on a DVD player (almost!).

Nice to have this option now.

Drive is very quiet and runs pretty cool -lot cooler than the CPU heatsink..

Other interesting thing is that I now have the MSS directly downloading some .iso files to the PCH without my PC intervening..

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

I noticed you have a MSS and a Popcorn Hour. Do you have a Vista PC with Media Center ?

I am trying to figure out the best way to rip my DVD's onto my MSS WHS so that I can you see the DVD icons in MCE and have access to them on the popcorn. I would like to use My Movies 2..

Are you using NFS sharing with the Popcorn Hour ? I have set up NFS sharing on the WHS, but how can I tell if the popcorn is accessing this files ?

On the WHS, one of the folders is shared as NFS_DVD_ISO. How do I access this from the PC-100 ?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Thanks for the questions.

The only way I have found to play a regular DVD on the PCH so far is using an .iso file created on my computer and MOVED to the hard drive. I also found that I can play a .ts Blu-Ray movie form the hard drive too.

I CANNOT see an .iso file on the PCH that is on the MSS or my Media Center from my computer. Still working on that.

As for Network File Sharing, yes, since I have a hard drive on the PCH, I can turn on Samba, NFS, FTP, and a few other things. BUT it really only means that I can access the hard drive on the PCH from my computer is all.

The Samba server shows up on my computers network page as a MCE server, just like the MSS.

Really, with the hard drive running and the services all turned on, the PCH looks just like the MSS as far as streaming stuff. They both have three share folders, Pictures, Music, Video. I can move files to my computer directly to both of their hard drives. Shoot, I can move files directly from the MSS to the PCH via remote Desktop into the MSS. Both show up on the PS3 as servers.

I HAVE NOT figured out how to rip and stream a movie from the MSS to the PCH ... yet

I guess we both need help on that last point... I will try to yodel up some support..

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John E Pombrio
Do not meddle in the affair of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

I've been summoned to offer any help I can provide. This is what I'm doing in integrating the MSS and the PCH in my home environment.

1. For DVDs, I use DVD Decrypter to create a single VOB file with no file splitting. I find it easier to manipulate a single file of the movie. These files can go in your VIDEO share.
2. I use PVConnect (formerly using Twonky - same functionaly) setup on my MSS to stream via DLNA to the PCH.
3. I've also installed NFS on my MSS included with Services for UNIX for Windows. With the exception of HTTP, NFS streams faster than SAMBA (normal network sharing). The install of NFS is especially critical for high bitrate HD movies normally distributed in MKV format.
4. I've been using Swisscenter and hacked it somewhat in order to support the streaming of ISO files. I would need to search for the link for instructions on the configuration changes necessary in Swisscenter to make this work.

It's only out of time and laziness that I haven't pursued anything that may be better than Swisscenter. For the most part, my needs have been met so didn't see the need to tinker more. However, if there is an application that is supposed to be better than Swisscenter, then please offer your suggestions.

A lot of my information comes from trolling the networkmediatank.com website. There's a lot of information there although I haven't been there in several weeks.

I hope this has helped.

- Richard

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Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com

Here's a forum link that I saved with instructions for installing NFS using Windows Services for UNIX.

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewtopic.php?t=1558

Let me see if I can still find the link for setting up Swisscenter for supporting ISO files.

I have a question myself. Does anyone have instructions or can post a link for ripping a Blu-Ray disk? I've done it already with the few HD-DVDs that I had and I think I may want to attempt doing this if it makes sense.

The bottom line for me is that I want to use the MSS as the central hub for streaming all media in my household, if practical.

_________________
Richard

My gadget blog: http://www.gadgetinsane.com