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 Post subject: Popcorn Media Streamer
PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:50 am 
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Just got the email about the pre-order now due on 30th March so have gone and ordered..works out at about £111 inc postage..anyone using one with the MSS ??


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:34 am 
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I couldn't wait for my e-mail so i purchased the IStar HD unit. It is the same hardware as the Popcorn Hour just no HD (didn't need one since streaming from my MSS). I love it! Works great with my MSS. I am mainly streaming 1080p MKV's with no issues. You can also install the MyIHome http streaming software on the MSS itself.

Funny thing is, I just got my e-mail that I can pre-order my popcorn hour now.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:39 am 
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Thats good to hear


i still can't believe the price its working out at... :)


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:47 pm 
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I guess they've ramped up production because I got my invitation and made my pre-order today. I'm hoping I can make it into the March 30th batch.

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:49 pm 
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Thats crap...I didnt get mine yet!!!!!

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:56 pm 
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JesD wrote:
Thats crap...I didnt get mine yet!!!!!


Check your SPAM box.

What's your user ID number on popcornhour.com. You can view this by going into EDIT PROFILE once you login. This could give you an indication where you are in the queue or if you missed the email.

My user ID is: 118xx


Yakuza or Cougar: Perhaps we can move this to the OFF-TOPIC section so that we can talk about the Popcorn Hour some more since it's not directly related to the MSS?

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PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:59 pm 
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ahhh...thanks alot...Ill check!

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 6:48 am 
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i'm 9848 :)


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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:15 am 
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Ultimately my goal with the Popcorn Hour is to stream HD content. If not for HD content, I would continue to use my 2 original XBoxes that I have running XBMC which is running quite admirably with all the media formats.

With HD-DVD dead, my intent was to find a *practical* way for converting my HD-DVD media to x.264/MKV, storing on the MSS, and stream using the Popcorn Hour.

I've figured out how to extract the HD-DVD data using AnyDVD-HD but after that, I'm at a total lost at how to convert this to x.264/MKV. The instructions that I've found on google require several tools and is convulated.

If anyone has found a practical way to do this and wants to share their experiences, please do. It'll allow my HD-DVD movies to have a life after death on my MSS. :)

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:47 pm 
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[quote="All4Fun"]
With HD-DVD dead, my intent was to find a *practical* way for converting my HD-DVD media to x.264/MKV, storing on the MSS, and stream using the Popcorn Hour.

[quote]

lol...please let me know how you are going about ripping HDDVDs to your hard drive then converting to h.264...

Man I was reading up on that...theres like a million and one steps!!!!!!!

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:12 pm 
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JesD wrote:
All4Fun wrote:
With HD-DVD dead, my intent was to find a *practical* way for converting my HD-DVD media to x.264/MKV, storing on the MSS, and stream using the Popcorn Hour.

Quote:

lol...please let me know how you are going about ripping HDDVDs to your hard drive then converting to h.264...

Man I was reading up on that...theres like a million and one steps!!!!!!!


Like I said, I'm looking for a *practical* way to do this. I agree, the steps currently involved makes it not worthwhile.

If this can be figured out though with a 1 or 2 step solution, it'll at least extend the life of of HD-DVDs for streaming.

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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 1:09 am 
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got the google email thru..its been shipped :)


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:36 am 
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Popcorn Hour A-100 Review

I finally received my Popcorn Hour (PCH) and have had it now for 1 week at the time I'm writing this review. I tend to type novels so I'll try and put everything in point form and will respond to any further questions that you have afterwards.

My incentive for getting the PCH was to play HD videos that my aging XBoxes with XBMC couldn't play and that my 360 and PS3 consoles didn't play without a lot of effort to put them into a video format that they would understand. As well, I had a bunch of HD-DVDs that I wanted to convert to HD format without encoding and losing video/audio quality so that I can stream them extending the life of my HD-DVD titles without being dependant on an HD-DVD player.

I previously looked at the Apple TV. While a great device in its own right, I didn't want to go through the time consuming effort of converting all of my movies and videos to MP4/AVC format which is the only thing that the ATV understands. The PCH is $179 U.S. I thought it was worth it vs. the time and headache to perform video conversions to a lossy compression format (although, admittedly MP4/AVC is pretty damn good and the conversion is likely indistinguishable to most)

With the PCH, I access one of my video files and it just plays.


Pros
- The PCH can handle just about any video file that you can throw at it including including MKV, M2TS, TS, etc. HD formats
- In addition to its video streaming capabilities, the PCH also supports a Media Service Portal (MSP) which allows you to watch video and audio podcasts directly from the PCH. I've already used the PCH to watch shows like DL.TV and Cranky Geeks to name a few plus it supports YouTube (it is grainy but is there). It also has portals to Picasa Web and other worthwhile portals.
- It can support the addition of a PATA (IDE) hard drive internal to the PCH. I won't be using this feature of the PCH as all of my movies and video will be streamed directly from the MSS.
- Lot of community support via http://www.networkedmediatank.com/



Cons
- You still need to have a certain level of technical know-how to use this device. It's no Apple TV. IMO, I don't believe the device is ready for the mainstream consumer to figure out and use. It's still a little rough around the edges in terms of usability.
- The photo viewing and music streaming applications in the PCH are very weak. It's there but there are more feature rich options available if this is the sole reason for getting the PCH.
- There are a few HD MKV's encoded with the VC-1 format that I still struggle with. I have found a workflow to mux them (not re-encode) them to the .m2ts format that will still allow me to stream them with video and audio intact. With the exception of Transformers, the majority of my HD-DVDs were encoded with the VC-1 video format. I don't know if this is a true con because there is a workaround and every other media streamer has similar problems.



Side Note: There is another device called the iStar HD which uses the same chipset as the PCH. The only difference is that the iSTAR supports an external SATA drive while the PCH supports an internal PATA drive. I didn't learn about the iSTAR HD until I had already placed my order for the PCH. Ironically enough, I probably would have chosen the iSTAR HD over the PCH because it's form-factor is smaller because it doesn't support an internal drive. Since I'm streaming from the MSS, I didn't need this support anyway. Plus, if I did want to add another hard drive, it supports adding an external SATA HDD which are easier to find in larger capacities over PATA drives.

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PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 1:27 pm 
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Thanks for the great review. I am thinking of getting a dedicated media streamer since the 360 is so limited on the codecs (all that power, so little codecs...).

The iStar looks good but I worry about support. Popcorn Hour looks ok too. I'll just keep my eye on the pricing.


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 Post subject: This looks interesting
PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2008 9:41 am 
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Hauppauge HD PVR


http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html


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