Media Player

Icemanbrfc

Icemanbrfc

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i know this has been covered alot, but im in 2 minds about something. I have a choice between a 2010 popcorn hour C200 or a Mede8er 250x. I dont care about wifi, streaming etc, just as long as i can play all formats etc. From what i have read, the Popcorn hour C200 even being a 4 year old player, still gets regular firmware updates and has quite a big community. The Mede8er seems a cool player, but i dont know too much about it. Does anybody have any of these players, and can give advice. I qyite like the look of the popcorn hour, even though its big and bulky, and that it has physical buttons on the player along with and lcd showing whats playing. But, would it be wise to go for that?
 
How much are you paying for the devices? The processors in both of these players are practically obsolete now. The Mede8er 250X uses the Realtek RTD1055 - Realtek stopped development of this processor about two years ago! If you want a really cheap media player with exactly the same playback capabilities as the Mede8er 250X then look at either the AC Ryan Essential from Esquire (often sell for R499 on their regular sales) or the Mecer MP1055 - they both use the same RTD1055 processor. If you want something with much better capabilities such as a web browser, Netflix, Hulu, XBMC etc. then take a look at one of the android media players from www.avsupply.co.za.
http://shop.esquire.co.za/SearchResults.aspx
http://www.bonanzatech.co.za/index.php?id_product=5251&controller=product
http://www.avsupply.co.za/product_info.php/droidtv-media-player-with-android-422-and-xbmc-p-437
 
can get the C200 for around R700. Why i want the C200 is for its physical buttons on the player itself. Ive also checked the formats it plays, and plays most of the popular ones by the looks of it. Im not interested in wifi or streaming capabilities etc.
C-200 Technical Specifications 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, Motorz
Audio : Jamendo, iPodcast, BBC Podcast,
Indiefeed, CNN News, ABC News
Photos : Flickr, Picasaweb, Pikeo, 23,
Photobucket, SmugMug
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 : Radiobox, Live365
Radio Supported Media File Formats
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 Decoders:
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, [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]
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 Decoders:
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 AVCHD navigation
Blu-ray ready (requires addition of
compatible BD-ROM and at least 1GB
USB memory stick)
Photo Formats:
Hardware accelerated JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
Subtitle Formats:
SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX
DRM
Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD) 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
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
Footprint Width x Depth x Height : 425mm x
290mm x 80mm (16.73" x 11.42" x
3.15")
Weight
3.7kg (8lbs 3oz)
Dolby Digital: "Dolby" and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby
Laboratories. Manufactured under
license from Dolby Laboratories.
Pony tail speak below... Press Release. Versatile Popcorn C-200 now features
Blu-ray playback support, a front panel
LCD and removable drive bay for either
a hard disk drive or Blu-ray player
FREMONT, Calif., June 17, 2009 - Syabas,
a leading provider of over-the-top settop software and hardware and
makers of the award winning Popcorn
Hour A-110, today announced the
Popcorn C-200, a next-generation
Internet settop box that streams digital
content from the Internet or its internal hard drive to your television set and
home stereo.¹ Unlike competing
Internet settop boxes that support a
limited number of Internet audio and
video file types, the C-200 supports
more than 30, including MPEG 1, 2, 4, AVI, H.264, Xvid, MKV, Windows Media
and others.
“In today’s tough economic
times, there are people facing the
decision to either cancel their cable
subscription or their Internet connection to make ends meet,†said
Syabas COO, Alex Limberis. “With a
C-200, people can experience the best
of both worlds, as a lot of compelling
content is freely available on the
Internet. Today, consumers want to watch programs when they want them,
not when a network or cable company
tells them it’s okay.â€
Like its predecessor, the Popcorn Hour
A-110, the C-200 streams news and
entertainment content from a number video partner sites such as YouTube,
Vuze, Revision 3, CNET TV, Veoh, Blip.tv,
NBC, CBS, CNN and BBC and Internet
radio sites, such as Radio box and
Live365 Radio. Additionally, the C-200
can stream still image content from Flickr, Pikeo and Picasa.
Additional new features of the C-200
include:
* A redesigned external shell, which
helps the unit better integrate into
existing entertainment component stacks
* Wireless RF remote control
* An LCD display for quickly searching,
streaming and/or downloading content,
which is useful when listening to music
without having the TV on * A gigabit Ethernet connection for
lightning-fast file transfers
* A front-loading drive bay that can be
used to install a hard drive for storing
and playing back downloaded content
* The ability to add a Blu-ray drive with full support for Blu-ray navigation and
Blu-ray Live
* AVCHD format and navigation for
displaying home video content from
AVC format HD cameras
The C-200 includes component and HDMI out for high definition playback
on today’s HDTVs. And for audio
purists, the device features an optical
line out, for playing back content thatâ
€™s been encoded in Dolby Digital or
DTS. The box also plays Wave, AAC and MP3 audio files, among others.
“Unlike competing new media
streamers that have been around for
less than a year and can require
someone to hack a product’s
operating system to get them to work, Syabas has been happily shipping
media streaming products to satisfied
customers around the world for several
years,†said Alex Limberis, chief
operating officer of Syabas.â€
Availability The Popcorn C-200 is expected to be
available in July for $299 from www.popcornhour.com. The package includes the C-200, an HDMI cable, RF
remote control, quick start guide and
installation software. Complete product
specifications can be found at: www.popcornhour.com . About Syabas
Syabas, headquartered in Fremont,
California and with facilities in China
and Malaysia, is a leading software
developer for inexpensive wired/
wireless digital home entertainment products. Syabas products enable users
to access content such as high- and
standard-definition video, music,
photos and services, such as YouTube,
Veoh and Vuze, over a local network
and the Internet.
 
The problem with these old media players is that they often don't recognise large modern hard drives and the web sites like YouTube, Veoh, Vuze etc. undergo extensive changes over the years so the software on the media player can no longer access them. The modern ARM processors can be as much as 10 times faster than something from 2009/2010. Most of the modern media players can play most of the formats that are used for normal video downloads. It is possible that the PCH C-200 can do a few things that might not be supported on a modern player but unless you have special requirements I would at least look at some other options before you decide on the PCH.

Here are a few videos which show what the latest media players can do and see how it compares with the PCH. A machine like the one shown in the videos costs around R1300.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw--cBwO_fI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euIyyipiFQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmSflCMN9Ls

Netflix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NmPXrqzPcI
Hulu (now available free of charge on android)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhoVRGfafTM
 
like i said, wifi and streaming are not important as a player that will handle most formats. This is where im stumped, as alot of the media players just look flimsy. Or am i just being picky here?
 
Icemanbrfc said:
like i said, wifi and streaming are not important as a player that will handle most formats. This is where im stumped, as alot of the media players just look flimsy. Or am i just being picky here?
Click to expand...

@Icemanbrfc: You may decide that in a few months it will be a lot easier to stream most of your content via Netflix or the free Hulu service and then you will need to purchase another machine in addition to the PCH.

What video formats are you wanting to play? You generally don't have to worry that the files that you are downloading will not play. I haven't downloaded anything yet that the DroidTV MX cannot decode.
 
yeh my needs are not streaming etc... My needs are basically to play the normal formats like avi, divx, xvid, mkv, vob, ts, mpeg 1,2,4, bluray iso etc.. From looking at the 2010 PCH 200, it can handle these files, but my question centered more around will it play everything, or will there be issues with certain codecs of 2014 not being able to play? Or something like that.
 
It won't be able to play h.265 or HEVC (high efficiency video coding) which should be available on the Amlogic S805 and S812 processors very soon. This is the latest video compression technology but may still take time to become widespread. Here are a few sample files that you can test.
http://vcodex.blogspot.com/2013/04/comparing-hevc-and-h264-quality-using.html
http://xhevc.com/en/hevc/encoder/videoShow.jsp
http://www.elecard.com/en/download/videos.html
http://www.mediaentertainmentinfo.c...between-hevc-h-265-and-h-264-mpeg-4-avc.html/
 
Also in the market for a player. Biggest requirement is to play network files. Anything else is a bonus.
 
Last edited:
@acidman1: The networking performance on the Amlogic S802 based machines is apparently amongst the best for any SoC based media player. I have seen reports of 85Mbps via lan cable which is a lot better than many of the other devices on the market. The Amlogic processors that will supposedly support gigabit networking (S812, S805??? - doubtful) are still a few months away from being launched.
http://www.cnx-software.com/2014/04/25/amlogic-stb-socs-comparison-aml8726-mx-s802-s805-and-s812/
 
SirFooK'nG said:
I'll never waste money on any media player ever again ... Raspberry Pi with XBMC ... nuff said.
Click to expand...

thats all good and well, but alot of people dont have all that time to configure the Raspberry, and mess around with it. I just want something that will play things, without having to tinker with it all the time.
 
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