HD200 vs. Popcorn Hour A-100

[moothekow]

Hi everyone. I'm looking to jump into the world of media extenders and am trying to decide between the Popcorn Hour A-100 and HD200. Basically my needs are pretty simply - I want to use the box to access video files on a network share (computer running Vista Media Center Edition at the moment). In other words - would only probably use the SD200 in stand-alone mode. I'm been browsing through the forums a while and searching the net for reviews - but I haven't found much good information on a couple areas I'm interested.

Does anyone know how browsing file directories compares between the HD200 and Popcorn hour speed-wise? (or even just info on how quickly/easy it is to browse through files period on the HD200 would be nice).

How well does navigating within movies work on the HD200? Are their long buffer times? Does it have 30 second skips? Does anyone have any experience with both the HD200 and A-100 and can offer any insight into which works better?

Anyone have any general opinions on which way I should go based on my fairly simple needs? I have no real solid reason for it at this point - but I guess I'm leaning towards the HD200 at this point.

Thanks in advance everyone :-).

(edit: Not sure that it matters.. but I'm hooking it directly to a TV that (i think) supports DTS decoding). Basically looking to hook the box up to the TV in my bedroom :-)).

[FreshOne]

Well, I am not a Popcorn Hour user, but I can give some basic feedback based on my 2 weeks of usage of HD200 in standalone mode.

Originally Posted by moothekow

(or even just info on how quickly/easy it is to browse through files period on the HD200 would be nice).

I find scrolling through the file listings on the HD200 be be fairly snappy (my largest video dir has 85 movies in it). Using the FileSystem browser, I can scroll through that list of 85 movies (10 to a page) in around 10 seconds. The number of files dislayed per page in the FileSystem browser can be set in the FileSystem Browser Options menu.

Originally Posted by moothekow

How well does navigating within movies work on the HD200? Are their long buffer times? Does it have 30 second skips?

It takes 2-3 seconds for a movie to start playing. Skip ahead and back in XVIDs and MKVs is pretty much instant (I have seen some 2-3 second lags when skipping forward inside HD OTA .TS files [which doesn't happen in Extender mode, which is weird].

There are 2 back skip times (Rewind and Rewind 2) and 2 forward skip times. The timespan of each of the 4 skips can be independantly configured in Options / Customize / Fast Forward and Rewind Times menu.

There are some things (like cover art) that work in Extender mode but not in standalone, but the only way to figure it out is to just play with the UI in each mode. It would be nice if Sage had more extensive documentation on the standalone menu structure and standalone config options.

Overall, I have been VERY happy with the performance of the HD200 in standalone mode for viewing movies and TV shows recorded outside SageTV software.

[Lucas]

One thing to consider is that the HD200 has better hardware than the A100 as such it can play most of the HD content out there.

A more appropriate comparison is HD200 vs A110.

[Beefcake550]

Lucas...quite true.

One caviat is that the A-110 has an HDMI 1.3 conncection as can therefore bitstrem TrueHD and DTS-MA whereas the HD200 can't. Heck, the HD200 currently doesn't output ANY kind of HD audio even if it's LPCM.

[moothekow]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

Lucas...quite true.

One caviat is that the A-110 has an HDMI 1.3 conncection as can therefore bitstrem TrueHD and DTS-MA whereas the HD200 can't. Heck, the HD200 currently doesn't output ANY kind of HD audio even if it's LPCM.

Does the HD2000 just downsample whatever audio the video is using? I'm not hugely concerned with HD Audio or anything. Like I said in the post - just want to use the device to hook up and view stuff in my bedroom (which just uses my TVs built in speakers).

[Beefcake550]

The HD200 can't take HD Audio as an input. It can't downsample it and can't do anythign with it. If the video has an AC3 or DTS soundtrack, it can downmix that to 2ch stereo.

DVD rips will be fine and BluRay rips wil eb fien as long as they contain either an AC3 or DTS track (which they should).

-B

[moothekow]

Good to know. Is that a hardware or firmware limitation at this point?

[stanger89]

Bitstreaming is hardware, TrueHD/DTS-HD -> PCM is software/firmware AFAIK.

[stuckless]

I haven't used the HD200, yet... but I have used the A110. I wrote a short overview of my experience in my blog.

To save you some reading.... Overall, the A110 was a very good box. It could play anything I thew at it. My biggest fault about the unit was that the UI felt sluggish. I had it lock up on me once. I also have an issue on my bother-in-law's TV where the unit will play any media file fine, but online videos have no audio. THis is related to HDMI, and when I hook it up using component video, audio and video is fine.

Also many of the youtube videos fail to play at all.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by Lucas

One thing to consider is that the HD200 has better hardware than the A100 as such it can play most of the HD content out there.

A more appropriate comparison is HD200 vs A110.

???. The A100 and the HD200 are actually the closer comparison, don't be fooled by model numbers. The A100 might be able to do DRM better because it supports HDCP and it does provide for an internal IDE drive. The HD200 might be able to support HDMI 1.2 CEC in the future.

The difference in the cost is $20 which isn't bad for a Placeshifter license though.

OP, if you want to be able to listen to DTS audio track on a TV without transcoding neither of them will do it.

Martin

[FreshOne]

Originally Posted by Beefcake550

If the video has an AC3 or DTS soundtrack, it can downmix that to 2ch stereo.-B

Pretty sure DTS on the HD200 is passthru ONLY.

[thatdude90210]

Originally Posted by emveepee

The difference in the cost is $20 which isn't bad for a Placeshifter license though.

The HD200 doesn't come with a placeshifter license.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by thatdude90210

The HD200 doesn't come with a placeshifter license.

Sorry, I meant the equivalent of a client license. Same difference paying $20 instead of $30.

Martin

[itsab67]

Originally Posted by moothekow

Hi everyone. I'm looking to jump into the world of media extenders and am trying to decide between the Popcorn Hour A-100 and HD200. Basically my needs are pretty simply - I want to use the box to access video files on a network share (computer running Vista Media Center Edition at the moment). In other words - would only probably use the SD200 in stand-alone mode. I'm been browsing through the forums a while and searching the net for reviews - but I haven't found much good information on a couple areas I'm interested.

Does anyone know how browsing file directories compares between the HD200 and Popcorn hour speed-wise? (or even just info on how quickly/easy it is to browse through files period on the HD200 would be nice).

How well does navigating within movies work on the HD200? Are their long buffer times? Does it have 30 second skips? Does anyone have any experience with both the HD200 and A-100 and can offer any insight into which works better?

Anyone have any general opinions on which way I should go based on my fairly simple needs? I have no real solid reason for it at this point - but I guess I'm leaning towards the HD200 at this point.

Thanks in advance everyone :-).

(edit: Not sure that it matters.. but I'm hooking it directly to a TV that (i think) supports DTS decoding). Basically looking to hook the box up to the TV in my bedroom :-)).

id stay away from the popcorn hour, its menu system is slow and crummy. It also has very bad sound quality in my opinion.

[emveepee]

Originally Posted by itsab67

id stay away from the popcorn hour, its menu system is slow and crummy. It also has very bad sound quality in my opinion.

I totally agree on the menu that is why many people use alternate interfaces. I am dieing to see a YouTube video of the HD200 interface running at a good speed. The PCH audio will be distorted because Syabas made the stupid decision to allow the volume control to overload audio. Lowering the volume to 0 (or below) fixes this for most people.

Martin

[dgeezer]

Martin, here is a quickly made video of me navigating the menus on my HD200.
It is definitely much faster in extender mode running SageMC than in standalone mode. The sameMC menu navigation seems almost as fast, or maybe the same as on my PC client.

However, I didn't give standalone mode time to load all the thumbnails before trying to move about the menus. Also, I don't ever use standalone so I don't know what I'm doing and hesitated a little at times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj16qZko9L4

[emveepee]

Thanks a lot dgeezer. The "stock" standalone player screens certainly look more polished on the HD200 then the A100. I wouldn't say either the A100 or the HD200 are speed demons because of the limits of graphics processing capability of the Sigma chip. The demo also show me that the value is with the SageTV bundle.

Martin

[dgeezer]

I'm glad you found that useful. Just let me know if you want me to run any other tests on my HD200.

I was running GBpvr and tried to get the popcornhour client running about a year ago. I quickly ran up against my own limits of time and technical knowledge. From what I see it appears that the current integration with GBpvr is much better and simpler to set up.

I ended up making the switch to SageTV because of the HD extenders. My wife and daughter have been much happier with Sage because I don't do any messing about with client pc's in the living room, no codec issues, etc.

[Beefcake550]

I really think the choice is easy.

If you don't really care about LPCM, True-HD, and DTS-MA playback (bitstream or not), then go for Sage HD Theater (HD200). If you want LPCM, True-HD, and DTS-MA bitstreaming, then the A-110 is the way to go.

Finally, if you really want a PVR and also want LPCM, True-HD, and DTS-MA playback, do what I do and get BOTH.

I have (had) a dedicated HTPC that I finally got working pretty well, expect for no bitstreaming. So, for the price of a sound card that could, I got the A-110. WAF was dipping a little on the HTPC because "something" would happen when I am not around. So, I got the HD200 to get the WAF back up because it just works.

Now, the footprint of those two devices is still less than 50% of just the HTPC.

Life couldn't be better for me.

[stanger89]

HD200 should (hopefully) get TrueHD/DTS-HD decoding.