The key to perfect cinema is Popcorn!

We should start our present article similarly with our previous test on this topic. Recently, multimedia structures with (or even without) storage have taken a huge toll, with a myriad of products from many manufacturers to choose from. There are no more or two such devices on our pages, most recently those whose multimedia knowledge is already mixed with networking capabilities. On the other hand, we can say that these players have been in the lower and middle categories so far, but now we are lucky enough to announce a product whose knowledge and quality is clearly in the upper category, and he is none other than Popcorn Hour Networked Media Tank A -110!

The Popcorn Hour NMT A-110 is the company's second-generation product, the successor to the A-100. It is capable of full HD resolution (1920 × 1080), has an ethernet controller and handles both external/internal (USB and SATA/ATA) hard drives. In this sense, we can talk about a network media player equipped with the latest Sigma Designs SMP8635 ("mkv-s") chip. We are not forced to compromise on connectors either, the A-110 is equipped with HDMI, component, S-video and composite image as well as stereo analog and digital audio outputs. Before we delve into the external examination and the analysis of the contents of the package, we summarize all the parameters and characteristics that can be said about the device's capabilities. The list will not be short...

Popcorn Hour media player features:

Network Connections:

• Hello
• UPnP SSDP
• DLNA
• Windows Media Connect
• Windows Media Player NSS
• SMB
• NFS
• HTTP server programs: myiHome, WizD, SwissCenter, MSP Portal
• BitTorrent application (2 types)
• Newsgroup download application
• NAS server: SMB, NFS, FTP, UPnP

Web services:

• Video: YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, VideoCast, DL.TV, Cranky Geeks
• Audio: iPodcast, Radiobox, ABC News, Jamendo
• Image: Flickr, Picasa
• RSS feed: Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Traffic alerts, Yahoo! Stock, Cinecast, Traffic Conditions
• Peer-to-peer TV: SayaTV
• Internet Radio: Shoutcast

Supported media files:

• Video container formats:

  o MPEG1 / 2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
  o MPEG1 / 2 PS (M2P, MPG)
  o MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
  o VOB
  o AVI, ASF, WMV
  o Matroska (MKV)
  o MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

• Video codec:

  o XviD SD / HD
  o MPEG-1
  o MPEG-2
  + MP @ HL
  o MPEG-4.2
  + ASP @ L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
  o WMV9
  + MP @ HL
  o H.264
  + BP @ L3
  + [email protected]
  + [email protected]
  + [email protected]
  o VC-1
  + MP @ HL
  + AP @ L3

• Audio container formats:

  o AAC, M4A
  o MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
  or WAV
  o WMA

• Audio codec:

  o FLAC
  o WMA, WMA Pro
  o AAC
  o MP1, MP2, MP3
  o LPCM

• Surround sound on digital and HDMI output: DTS, AC3, DTS HD-HR, DTS HD-MA, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD
  
• Photo formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF
  
• Other formats: ISO, IFO
  
• Subtitle formats: SRT, SMI, SUB, SSA (with size, color, position, time shift setting)

DRMs:

• Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)

Chipset:

• Sigma Designs SMP8635

Memory:

• 256 MB DDR SDRAM, 32 MB Flash

Audio / Video outputs:

• HDMI output (up to 1080p): HDMI v1.3 [AC3, DTS, DTS HD-HR, DTS HD-MA, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD transmission]
• Component Video (up to 1080p)
• S-Video
• Composite Video (RCA)
• Stereo analog audio output (RCA)
• Digital audio output: Toslink optical output

I attach:

• USB 2.0: 2 × USB 2.0 host (front and rear) and 1 × USB 2.0 slave (rear)
• Hard disk (optional): Serial ATA 3,5 ″ or 2,5 ″

Network:

• Ethernet 10/100 Mbit / s

Power supply:

• 12 V DC, with 3 A external adapter

Sizes:

• 270 mm × 132 mm × 32 mm (width × depth × height)

Crowd:

• 1 kg (with power supply)