I've been using a couple of Apple TVs that I hacked to mount an NFS share and play a variety of video formats. Of course, both of my Apple TVs died and now I'm looking for replacements. I thoughts that the Popcorn Hour might be a nice replacement since it supports everything out of the box. I don't mind SSH or getting down and dirty at the command line, but I figure why not support a company that is working hard to provide everything.
What do you think of the interface on the Popcorn Hour? It makes me nervous when a company doesn't put a video or at least screen shots of the interface on their website. I don't want to buy this thing and find out that the interface is brutal.
Discussion about
User Interface good or busted?
The interface for local content on your home network is excellent. Quick access and excellent codec support. I stream over SMB and upnp. The online videos to sites such C-net, Revision 3, and the like are totally busted, and should not even be bothered with. They work about 30% of the time. I love my popcorn hour, but know that you will need a media server to get the most out of it.
Hm, the video podcasting was one of the things I liked quite a bit about the Apple TV. That is something that is good to keep in mind. Thanks CelShader.
If you've ever used XBMC, you know what this is like. You can add shortcuts to your media on the homescreen. Other than that, you just browse your network, find where your media is and stream away. Its very basic and functional. The only thing I miss from XBMC is playlists. It adds Youtube, web widgets, and limited web surfing to make up for it though. Originally, I got it so I could use something other than my original modded Xbox to watch TV and DVD rips and to do it using very little power. This accomplishes that and then some. No pc necessary even; its just NAS drives full of content and a sub-8 Watt media player that will play ANY format. It's the best streaming 1080p has ever looked!
I didn't realize this was based off of XBMC. That gives me a good frame of reference for the interface.
The standard interface is alright. However if you want to get a real cool interface, have a look at www.lundman.net/wiki/index.php/Llink this is streamer software which runs on your PC / Mac / Linux and allows you to customize each skin and even use external sources for movie information about the movies you have sotred on your pc
OK I've had a Popcornhour for almost a couple of years now. It works great, the interface is functional and easy to use, but vey plain and boring. I didn't really care, because my main focus was ease of use and broad file support.
About a year ago I messed around with adding jukeboxes/skins to my Popcornhour, but with mixed results. Last weekend, I revisited this. Things have gotten better! Thanks to the enthusiasts out there who write these apps and skins, you can now have a VERY nice looking Popcornhour interface.
You don't have to be a tech expert (I'm certainly not!), but you do have to be the type thats not afraid to jump in, tinker and learn a bit about how it all works. Here are some screenshots of my end result:
Movies
pix.1box.cc/PopMov1.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopMov2.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopMov3.jpg
TV
pix.1box.cc/PopTV1.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopTV2.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopTV3.jpg
I'm particularly blown away by how nice/usfeul the interface for TV shows is now (see the last screenshot above).
About a year ago I messed around with adding jukeboxes/skins to my Popcornhour, but with mixed results. Last weekend, I revisited this. Things have gotten better! Thanks to the enthusiasts out there who write these apps and skins, you can now have a VERY nice looking Popcornhour interface.
You don't have to be a tech expert (I'm certainly not!), but you do have to be the type thats not afraid to jump in, tinker and learn a bit about how it all works. Here are some screenshots of my end result:
Movies
pix.1box.cc/PopMov1.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopMov2.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopMov3.jpg
TV
pix.1box.cc/PopTV1.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopTV2.jpg
pix.1box.cc/PopTV3.jpg
I'm particularly blown away by how nice/usfeul the interface for TV shows is now (see the last screenshot above).
Thanks Musketeer! That is a big upgrade over the standard UI from what I can tell. It is reminiscent of one of the nicer XBMC skins that I was considering.
I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. The recent Media Center news (improved cable card tuners and SDV support) has made me curious as to whether I can get everything working within that framework.
I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. The recent Media Center news (improved cable card tuners and SDV support) has made me curious as to whether I can get everything working within that framework.
No problem.
For flexibility and functionality, you're never going to beat a full Media Center PC. That will give you a lot of other features (like being a TV/DVR, web browser etc...).
Areas where something like the Popcornhour wins over a MCPC is that its completely silent (no fans and even no hard drive if you stream from your network), it turns on from standby as instantly as a light switch and its really cheap to buy.
Kinda depends what you are looking for.
For flexibility and functionality, you're never going to beat a full Media Center PC. That will give you a lot of other features (like being a TV/DVR, web browser etc...).
Areas where something like the Popcornhour wins over a MCPC is that its completely silent (no fans and even no hard drive if you stream from your network), it turns on from standby as instantly as a light switch and its really cheap to buy.
Kinda depends what you are looking for.
