Popcorn Hour plays high resolution HD content without any slowdowns or issues. Even MKV files!
Popcorn Hour networked media tank is a product for a nerd like me liking to be in control. This is not a product made by Apple but I feel this article have some value to this website anyway.
If I have a video clip I want to play on my TV, worrying about the format on the video file should not bother me at all in my opinion. Popcorn Hour let me play almost every kind of video format available. And not only that, I can also play high resolution HD content without any slowdowns or issues. Even MKV files!
Apple TV doesn't do this, only if you hack the Apple TV you can play other video files but my comparison now only focuses on the devices in their respective original state.
Apple TV focuses on simplicity, it just works. Works with iTunes that is. All your media have to be playable in iTunes if you want it to play on the Apple TV. For many people this might be alright and the Apple TV should be a sufficient buy for them.
If you have media not playable by iTunes there are ways to re encode video files so it plays correctly. In the end this takes time that could be used doing something else.
For me this was not the way I wanted this to work, even if I hacked the Apple TV it would not play all HD content I had. With the Popcorn Hour this problem simply dont exist.
It has a few drawbacks though. It is not as simple to set up as the Apple TV. You need to have some kind of network knowledge to get it set up correctly. General PC knowledge will help too.
To get all functionality out of the box you would want to install a hard drive in it. Just about any 2,5 or 3,5 SATA drive will work. I got myself a cheap 250GB drive and installed that one. What this does is enabling the Popcorn Hour to run a few server applications on the box so you have a few options on how to transfer media to the box. It can also download files via bittorrent for you if you want!
Video is what this box handles the best. It is not good for music because it lacks a good cataloging interface for all music files. The interface is rather slow to navigate through too but it works okay. If you prioritize video, you should go for the Popcorn Hour. If you instead prioritize music the popcorn hour will only irritate you. For music the Apple TV should be alright.
It is bit of a shame that this box doesn't handle music that well. And by that I mean the user interface, it plays music alright. And it sounds really good too. But it is just a pain to navigate through.
There is so much more to talk about regarding this box, I recommend you to check out the official website if you want to read more. http://www.popcornhour.com
In the end, I do recommend the purchase. With regular firmware updates this device will only get better and better as the time goes.
Options exist of course. You can take a look at a media-center solution called Plex. It is developed for Mac OS X Leopard and above. This will run perfectly on the new Mac Minis released in 2009!. And the software is free. Check out Plex here: http://plexapp.com/
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