We reviewed the Popcorn Hour A-100 a few months back and were blown away. It was an impressive device, because for around £150 you got a media streamer that can play virtually every video format under the Sun and has enormous flexibility.
Now Popcorn Hour has tweaked the hardware and added some new features for the A-110. We won't duplicate what we wrote in the original review -- instead we'd suggest you read that first, then come back here and discover what the A-110 adds.
The A-110 costs $215 (£115). You can pre-order it direct from the US (you'll have to pay duty on top of that), or buy it from a European retailer, although the exchange rate might make this more expensive. Expect to part with around £185.
Design
The A-110 uses largely the same chassis as the A-100, although there are some small changes that improve the machine considerably. Firstly, one of the USB sockets that was on the front panel has been moved to the back of the machine. This is a good decision, in our opinion. The rear socket would suit things that are plugged in all the time, such as an external hard drive or one of the Popcorn Hour-approved 802.11n Wi-Fi adaptors.
The status LEDs have also been vastly improved. Before, the illumination was unclear, and it was hard to tell what mode the machine was in. There are now three more distinct LEDs that give a clearer indication of when the machine is on, off or in USB slave mode. The network activity LED has gone.
You also now get a reset switch, which is handy if the machine crashes. The only problems we've had with the A-100 or its successor have been when we've been using the Web services, such as the YouTube plug-in. We've been using the A-100 now for some time, and our box has never crashed when we've been using it to watch video.
At the back you get a USB target connector. This allows the A-110 to be connected to a PC, and the internal hard drive -- if you chose to fit one -- to be accessed. This feature might appeal to some, but generally we think you'll find it more convenient to use the built-in FTP server or the UPNP network access to put files on the unit.
The other significant change is that the digital audio output has been switched to optical from coaxial. This might cause some people problems, but in reality most AV receivers have both, and if yours doesn't or all your optical sockets are in use, you can get a converter for less than £10 online.
Features
There are two key additions to the A-110 that deserve a special mention. The first is the addition of DTS decoding. On the A-100 this wasn't included because the licence to do so is quite expensive. Indeed, according to the Popcorn Hour forums, DTS decoding is responsible for most of the cost increase between the A-100 and the A-110 -- around $35. Still, anyone who's tried to watch a DTS video clip on the A-100 without using an AV receiver will be pleased to hear of its inclusion here, although not so pleased the option won't be made available for the A-100.
The other major change is the switch to HDMI 1.3a, which now means the A-110 is technically capable of sending DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD to a compatible decoder. It can't decode these formats internally however, so make sure your AV equipment can before you get too excited. HDMI 1.3 also makes the A-110 deep colour capable, which might be useful if you have material that takes advantage of the format.
The A-110 has also switched from IDE to SATA support -- we fitted an SATA drive to test the machine fully, and it couldn't have been easier. You simply slide the hard disk on to the connector and then secure it with some mounting screws from the underside of the case. Screws are supplied with the machine, so if you have a drive, you won't need anything else to get it up and running.
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User reviews6
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tommyvitikka 29 May 2011
Good: LOTS AND LOTS OF POSSIBILITIES AND GREAT PICTURE AND AUDIO!
Comment: LOTS AND LOTS OF POSSIBILITIES AND GREAT PICTURE AND AUDIO!
frankvw 4 March 2010
Good: All your media conveniently in one box
Bad: The on-board software looks like it was made by apes
Comment: The concept of the A110 - a network media tank - is fine. It lets you put all your media (audio, video, stills) in one box, and play it in your living room, or on other devices across the network, while it will also play media stored on those devices.
The implementation, however, leaves much to be desired. The user interface is stupid - for example, before playing an MP3 file one must go to the "home page" and select the music player, and before playing a movie one must select the video player. Associating a file type with an application so that a audio file is handled by an audio player and an image file by an image viewer is something we had 20 years ago in MS-DOS, but the Popcorn A-100 cannot do it.
Features are rudimentary at best - for example, there are no playlists. Let me repeat that: THERE ARE NO PLAYLISTS. One can point the player at an entire subdirectory with media files, all of which are then played in the order in which they appear, or one can play individual files by selecting them manually one at at time and playing them one at at time. And that's it.
Worst of all, the software is not stable. Which the manufacturer "solved" by fitting it with a reset button on the front panel. I have now had the A-110 for quite some time now, and it is clear that future software updates that really fix this problem are not to be expected. When playing a DVD from the internal harddisk (which lacks any cooling and runs hot enough to keep a pot of coffee warm, by the way) the A-110 will sometimes just freeze (it looks like it's doing that when it switches from one chapter or VOB file to the next, but I'm not sure) and this is not only the case with dubious "rips" obtained illegally, but also with a proper copy of a legitimate DVD, which plays fine on any other devices except on the A-110.
The idea of having the user community "contribute" is fine - this has resulted in some fine applications for the A-110, but in this case the manufacturer appears to use it as a substitute for releasing a proper product and supporting it properly.
In short, the A-110 is hackish, kludgy and unfinished, and the manufacturer not only has shown no intention to remedy this, but appears to rely on the user community to support itself.
At this time of writing, the A-110 has been superceded by newer models. Personally I would not consider buying any of these, unless I was very sure that the attitude that produced the A-100 and its many shortcomings has been scrapped and replaced with an entirely new set of design and production ethics - which in my experience is extremely unlikely.
I wish I had known all this before, so I could have steered clear of the A-110 and bought something better instead. As it is, I am seriously considering scrapping it and replacing it with a system based on a Micro-ITX mainboard, the A-110 s internal harddisk, and a few other odds and ends, on which I will then install the free Open Source XBMC software, which frankly makes the A-110 (which is NOT a cheap device!) look pathetic.
In closing, I would advise anyone to thoroughly investigate any relevant user reviews and peruse the various user community forums before considering buying any product from this manufacturer (Syabas Technology) now or in the future.
ogi da pogi 22 July 2009
Good: nice features
Bad: pricey for its features
Comment: You say that A-110 costs US$215. I own a Mvix Ultio that I got for only US$169 with almost the same features a your PCH-A110. With a built-in 1-TB hard drive, Mvix Ultio comes with a price tag of just US$259. It also has a SAMBA client and a SAMBA server which I did not see on your list. My Mvix Ultio also came with a HDMI cable included in the package, which gave me another $10-$50 savings. I wonder if I can get that in your PCH-A110 package.
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