Via CNXSoft we’ve learned a new Popcorn Hour A-410 networked media jukebox is now available for pre-order at $260. It’s been a several years since I’ve personally heard from from Syabas, when they attempted to take a run at the Rokus of the world with Popbox – a simple media streamer with fresh UI. Unfortunately, they failed to set the world afire and clearly gave up on Popbox company branding, as they now go by Cloud Media.
Like the prior generation “media tank” line, the new Popcorn Hour is geared towards the power user possessing a large media library, with beefy specs and support for all sorts of codecs. Further, the A-410 features an updated interface, including Bitorrent & usenet clients, along with a companion iPad app. In terms of storage, bring your own 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA drive. Of course, external drives and NAS capabilities are also available.
A subset of specs from the fanless design:
Chipset:
Sigma Designs SMP8911 Dual-Core 800Mhz with 512KB L2 Cache with VXP Video Processor
Memory:
1024MB DDR2, 256MB SLC NAND Flash
Audio/Video:
HDMI, Component, CVBS, Stereo Audio, S/PDIF, Digital Optical
The Bay Trail NUC and Brix devices are being introduced around $140. Add $50 for 4GB RAM and you end up at $190 for a real computer. Obviously another $100 on top of that for the hard drive, but the new popcornhour doesn’t come with a disk either so that’s fair.
The Bay Trail atoms perform essentially equivalently to a 2012 celeron, but are super cheap and low power. They are fast enough to play 1080p h.264 in software, although they come with intel GPUs so you can offload it anyway.
In an age when you can put together a full featured HTPC and run XBMC or Plex for literally 35% less money, and when you can install XBMC so easily with something like openELEC, why would anyone in the world deign purchase the popcornhour? I can’t think of a single reason.,
I have no desire to use an HTPC. I used them from 2001 to 2006 but I have not used them in along time and have no desire to go back. I want a device that I can just plugin and go. And that can also play my 1000+ BD ISOs from my unRAID servers. And the PCH products have always done that very well.
I have two A-400 models I got in 2012 and have been very pleased with them. I don’t see how the A-410 will do anything better than my A-400. It has double them memory but my A-400 doesn’t have any memory issues. I guessed if I used NMJ on screen then the extra memory might be useful. But I use NMJ from tablets.
But at least i see that DiamondHomeDesign has the A-410 up for pre-order here in the US. Cloud media didn’t have a way to get an A-410 shipped to the US. At least they didn’t when I checked a few days ago.
I just ordered one from the Cloud Media website yesterday, they are taking orders for a January 30th shipment date so I would say they have sorted out their distribution problems. Looking forward to getting mine.
Ill give you the reason Rodalpho why i still go back to those expensive players instead of building my own htpc (i work as a system admin so i have all the experience i need)
Reason is universal compatibility INCLUDING 3D movies
Yes XBMC can play everything but for 3D you must use external player and its a huge mess
With a popcorn its truely plug and play and never have to worry about it. Which bring me to my second point, family proof! I can be confident that all my family will learn how to use it while with xbmc they will always have issue with windows related problems
Its worth the piece of mine for me for those two reasons
I’ve had an a400 since its release. Plagued with network and playback problems across the board. While I appreciate frquent attempts to address these issues via constant firmware updates, it seems the newest updates have only re-introduced problems previous ones fixed (i.e. mkv playback freezing).
Will the a410 be launched with the latest a400 firmware or will new customers be expected to be beta testers for this product as well?
Tried to order a popcorn hour a400 and the “cart” had shipping cost of $9,999.00, email from cloud media said that they were unable to ship to the USA, they are trying to rectify the situation, but have no time frame.
Finally said screw them and bought a kdlinks, better machine outperforms popcorn hour and is way cheaper and tech support is great, reasons very very fast