Hands-on with the Popcorn Hour C-200, the biggest Network Media Tank yet

Few jukebox products have as fervent a fan base as those from Popcorn Hour. Built around a simple user interface and an accommodating approach to file formats, models like the A-110, and the HDX-1000 variant from HD Digitech, are fan favourites. Dubbed Network Media Tanks, they’ve set the bar for the growing new area of network-savvy, media-streaming home cinema kit.

So when news of the latest model came through, the C-200, I was suitably excited. But having used one for a month or more, I’m guessing that the new model (which sells for around £300 without hard drive) perhaps won’t elicit quite the enthusiasm of its predecessors. The competition for this kind of device is getting pretty fierce, particularly from devices like the WDTV Live, which offer aspects of the same functionality.

Substantial streamer
Perhaps the most obvious first point of difference over previous Popcorn Hour NMTs is the size of the unit. The C-200 is as wide as a standard DVD player and in some cases taller. It also ships with a multifunction drive bay. Users can plug in either a hard drive for local storage or a Blu-ray drive. Shipped diskless, I installed a Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive into our review sample. 1TB drives have fallen rapidly in price of late, and offer more than enough storage for general use. 

Also supplied is the provision of both IR and RF controllers. System integrators may well find the RF zapper of use, although for many of us it’s likely to be unused.
The heavy metal chassis inspires confidence and component quality is high. Beneath the lid is a Sigma Designs SMP8643 chipset with 667MHz CPU, allied to 512MB of DD2 DRAM and 256MB of NAND flash memory. Backside connectivity comprises a bunch of stuff, but you only really need to use the HDMI connection and Gigabit Ethernet. There’s also a helpful dot matrix LCD status display window on the front fascia.

In addition to file playback and NAS storage, you can use the device to view IPTV content. But this should not be taken for granted. During the audition process, access to YouTube was lost when YouTube owners Google decided to cut access to unlicensed devices.  

What the Flac?
File playback is good. Video containers like MKC, MOV H.264, AVI and MPEG transport streams and VOBs are supported and there are decoders for most MPEG flavours and WMVs. Sonically, it’s equally happy with AAC, MP3, OGG.  FLAC audio file support, while claimed, proved problematic. The unit refuse to play any of mine – regardless whether they were on its own hard drive or a networked device.
To help you acquire content in these formats, there’s a P2P utility as well as a Usenet downloader. The former is part of the web interface and relatively straightforward to use, however the latter is treated more like an Easter Egg than a regular feature.

Network communication is great. The C-200 is DNLA/UPnP/Samba/Bonjour compliant, and so should turn up on anything you have connected – from PCs to games consoles.

Conclusion
Overall, this is a solid product, that performed (perhaps ) surprisingly well in the HCC Tech Labs (look out for the full review in #178). But it lacks the charisma of previous iterations, and I’m left with the feeling that the boffins at Popcorn Hour have tried too hard to pack everything possible in. In some cases less might well have been more...

HCC VERDICT: 4/5