As we mentioned before, the A-110 has a USB target connector, specifically designed to copy files to the machine, as you would with any external hard drive. There is one slight difficulty you will run into with this. Because the A-110 is a Linux device it uses the EXT3 filing system, which means that if you plug it into a non-Linux machine, it won't initially be able to read or write data to the drive. Luckily there are EXT2/3 drivers available for Windows and OS X, and these will let you mount the disk on your computer.
There is another option, however -- instead of letting the Popcorn Hour format its own disk, you can simply feed it a FAT 32- or NTFS-formatted drive, which will show up under Windows with no problem. You will not be able to use the built-in Torrent client, however, because the A-110 will lose the ability to save data to the disk.
Performance
There isn't really very much to say that's changed from the A-100 in terms of performance.
You can still expect the same great picture quality, and sound either via the analogue or digital outputs is faithful to the original. We did notice that some material had quite low volume levels, which made us turn the TV up to compensate, but we suspect this is more a problem with the media than the box -- generally AC3 soundtracks seemed the quietist.
The menus are the same as those on the A-100. They're exceptionally easy to use, and although some have criticised the Popcorn Hour for being a little basic, we can't really see what the problem is. The basic user interface means anyone can operate it with minimal fuss. Setting up some of the more advanced features requires a little expertise, but that's to be expected.
Generally, getting the A-110 to stream media from your PC is a matter of installing a small piece of software on the computer. Nothing else needs to be done -- there's no configuration, apart from telling the application which folders to share out. The A-110 will simply find the shared content, and allow you to play it.
If you're slightly more technically minded, the FTP and BitTorrent features of the Popcorn Hour are all well designed, and actually surprisingly easy to use.
Conclusion
The A-110 offers a significant improvement over the A-100
without invalidating the usefulness of its predecessor. All of the
important elements such as usability, picture and sound quality remain
up to the same high standard. The A-110 does offer some extra features
that some will find useful -- the switch to SATA will please many, and
DTS audio decoding and HDMI 1.3 are a bonus.
In short, if you have an A-100, you don't need to feel left behind -- the A-110 is a worthy step forward, but not an essential one. Ultimately, if DTS downmix, HDMI 1.3 and SATA support aren't important to you, you should grab the cheaper A-100.
Edited by Nick Hide
on Home Cinema 
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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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