Adding a Popcorn Hour to my Squeeze system

**twylie** · 2009-01-05, 21:38

Haven't tried the A-110 yet, but I have 3 of the original A-100 I use for ISO streaming as well as DIVX files. Overall works pretty well, but I've had to RMA all of my popcornhour units for various reasons. They come back with new main boards in a week or two and have been fine since the RMAs.

I also have an early AppleTV which, now that it's running XBMC, is a far better interface IMHO than the PopcornHour units. The Apple TV can be hacked with a thumb drive now, eliminating telnet and command line fixes. This is my recommended solution as it does video and music much better than the PCH. I still use my SB3's for music, but the XBMC interface is much better when compared to the PCH. The PCH may do true HD video better(I don't know as I don't need it yet); but I'm only streaming regular DVD ISO's thusfar.

If you go with the PCH units, I'd stick your video drive in the server rather than have it at the PCH unit. My PCH units are now driveless for noise and heat reasons. Much more "Slim" like.

**bklaas** · 2009-01-05, 22:15

Twylie, you just basically hit on every major question I have in my head regarding PCH v. some-kind-of-XBMC solution. HD is important to me (considering that I already run an XBMC Xbox, and love it except for no HD, it's really the only reason I'm thinking about a change)...would be interested to know how XBMC+AppleTV handles HD content, including 1080p.

fwiw, I'd agree with Twylie's point on putting the PCH drive internal vs. attached to the server. Could be that PCH runs better when files are not coming across the ethernet wire, but I'd rather administer digital stuff centrally. Plus putting the noise of the drive in a closet is always a good thing.

cheers,
#!/ben

**twylie** · 2009-01-06, 01:21

Apparently the AppleTV can have issues at higher bitrates due to hardware limitations. I'll go find some 720p and 1080i content and do some testing later this week with my setups.

recent review between the 2:

http://www.trick77.com/2008/12/30/review-popcorn-hour-a-110-vs-xbmc-appletv/

edit: one "con" mentioned in the review is that the PCH unit doesn't do resume. While true, it does offer the ability to jump to 10% 20% 30% etc by pressing the 1 2 3 etc keys on the remote. I do like the actual resume feature under XBMC, but the PCH workaround is decent and nice for scanning thru. The overall review comments about PCH hardware and firmware being beta is an accurate assessment IMO. XBMC on ATV feels much more like a finished consumer product. I'll likely be setting my parents up with a video streamer now that they are comfortable streaming music. I'll definitely be sending them a hacked ATV w/ XBMC over the PCH unit. True HD not important enough to them to make them suffer daily usage of the PCH. It's fine if you don't mind fiddling with it, but definitely not prime time CE.

**twylie** · 2009-01-06, 02:05

Quick and dirty testing results:

I pulled down the first 3 HD files from here:

Page Not Found - NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/index.html

Night Launch of STS-126. Actually, I am glad I went looking for HD content - my dad and I were on the causeway to view this launch, so I'm pretty happy to have found some really good footage. :-)

PCH A-100 (I have the old model, not the 110) - Handled the 480p and 1080i files without any noticeable problems. The 720p file stuttered early on and I noticed the bitrate spiked to over 27Mbps briefly during the jerkiness. No dropouts and no black frames due to trying to recover.

AppleTV - 480p no issues, 1080i and 720p were visibly degraded or jerky during anything over 8+Mbps

Hope this is helpful, but may not have provided a clear winner for you. It looks like if you need HD, the ATV isn't going to make you happy, but if your content is DVD ISO and DIVX, it's a clearer choice for now.

**Mark Lanctot** · 2009-01-06, 16:26

Originally posted by ptrainer

Also, though I only own a few Blu-Ray DVDs now, I plan on purchasing all new releases in BD format. I’m sure I’ll need to purchase a BD drive for my main desk computer to rip the discs to the hard drive. Any suggestions on the best drive to get? And will I need to get software such as SlySoft’s AnyDVD or CloneDVD or something else to do this (or is there freeware available?)

Can you rip Blu-Ray? I'm pretty sure Sony poured millions into making sure you can't.

**Gibbo** · 2009-01-06, 16:45

I currently have an A110 and 2 SB's, use the A110 with an internal 1TB 3.5 drive. Great system. People do say that 2.5 drives run slightly cooler but in all honesty the case on the A110 is designed as a heat sink so its fine for it to get warm.

I don't stream anything to the A110, but have it connected to my network wirelessly via the SB as a bridge, this does well for internet content, firmware upgrades, and moviejukebox modifications.

The A110 is a wondrous device, and for the price much better than XBMC which to do the same and provide the same quality (I've been told) would cost a lot more.

Have a browse round the PCH forum, a lot of very helpfull stuff in the wiki and through searching.

As for BD rips, I think its possible, anyDVD although not free is a great program (I've paid for it rather than use the free fabDVD) and anyDVD has an HD version, there is a FAQ on the forum I think for ripping BD.

**ptrainer** · 2009-01-06, 19:59

Thanks for all of the input. True HD is very important to me so I think I'll be willing to sacrifice the improved interface of XBMC. I won't be using it at all for music either since I'm perfectly happy using the SBRs for that and I don't really listen to music that much in the home theater anyway, it's usually only when I'm whole-house syncing that it's on in there.

twylie, thanks for running the tests. With the PCH you said you had some stuttering and jerkiness with 720p. Is that perhaps where putting the drive in the PCH case will improve over accessing across ethernet? Also, does anyone know what res a ripped Blu-Ray is anyway?

Gibbo, is the noise of the internal drive noticeable? My Comcast DVR has an internal drive and it make a negligible amount of noise. In fact I never notice it. I will look into AnyDVD. If anyone who reads this has actually used it for Blu-Ray ripping please let me know how it has worked for you.

**YeeeHaaa** · 2009-01-06, 20:46

I have a PCH A100 and I just love it.
I have no internal drive as I stream all video from my server. I have never had any problems with it really, streaming HD 1080p works like a charm. I have a wired connection though.

I used to have a internal drive in the PCH, but I put it in my server after a while as I never used it. It was a quiet disk, and even if I'm rather sensitive to noice it never really bothered me.

ISOs and IMGs plays within a few seconds, so does HD (.mkv) material. I have never experienced lag or stuttering.

**agillis** · 2009-01-06, 21:45

I have been thinking of by passing the whole issue and getting a DLNA capable TV. That way I can stream media right to the TV and I don't need a player. Has anybody look at this solution yet? There are quite a few DLNA TVs on the market right now.

**bklaas** · 2009-01-06, 21:57

Originally posted by YeeeHaaa

I have a PCH A100 and I just love it.
I have no internal drive as I stream all video from my server. I have never had any problems with it really, streaming HD 1080p works like a charm. I have a wired connection though.

I used to have a internal drive in the PCH, but I put it in my server after a while as I never used it. It was a quiet disk, and even if I'm rather sensitive to noice it never really bothered me.

ISOs and IMGs plays within a few seconds, so does HD (.mkv) material. I have never experienced lag or stuttering.

Good to hear someone is getting 1080p from PCH. I perused the forum a bit and there are lots of people with 1080p troubles. Like Squeeze devices I suppose, everything depends on network conditions

cheers,
#!/ben

**bklaas** · 2009-01-06, 22:01

Originally posted by agillis

I have been thinking of by passing the whole issue and getting a DLNA capable TV. That way I can stream media right to the TV and I don't need a player. Has anybody look at this solution yet? There are quite a few DLNA TVs on the market right now.

that's not an appealing solution to me for a variety of reasons:

1. I highly doubt DLNA capable TVs will be very flexible in terms of supported codecs
2. DLNA TV: upgradeable? Maybe, but simply...I doubt it.
3. PCH and XBMC are both highly extendable (Hulu, NetFlix on demand, YouTube anyone?)
4. TV goes down, so does the streamer. Separate components have their advantages...

cheers,
#!/ben

**Gibbo** · 2009-01-07, 09:02

Drive noise is negligible from the PCH, I have a 1TB samsung drive, sitting 10' away I can hear the difference between the drive being up or down, but not to the extent that it would bother me in the slightest afterall you can hear a DVD spin up. And it's pretty much silent when a film is on.

HD streaming is a tricky one. 720 is generally fine, but as said 1080 is not perfect, even with wireless N it can be hit and miss.

For me though copying files via USB to the internal drive is a simple solution. The egreat m31B runs on the same software and has an esata port which obviously gives faster transfer rates. This has an internal fan and is very slightly noisier. Plus the firmware is built by syabas who make the PCH and so it could be seen that the PCH gets faster and better updates.

btw none of them will guarantee to play anything HD over format level 4.1 or 4 reframes. They play some but can sometimes get a little bogged down with it. This should never be a problem though really.

**twylie** · 2009-01-07, 12:52

Originally posted by YeeeHaaa

I have a PCH A100 and I just love it.
I have no internal drive as I stream all video from my server. I have never had any problems with it really, streaming HD 1080p works like a charm. I have a wired connection though.

I used to have a internal drive in the PCH, but I put it in my server after a while as I never used it. It was a quiet disk, and even if I'm rather sensitive to noice it never really bothered me.

ISOs and IMGs plays within a few seconds, so does HD (.mkv) material. I have never experienced lag or stuttering.

Would you download the files in the nasa.gov link I posted and see how they run on your setup? They are only 2+ min long and the jerkiness I noticed was in the first 20 sec when the bitrate spiked. My server is a Thecus N5200 with fast Seagate drives in RAID5, so it should handle it fine, but if they play seamlessly on your setup, I'll do some more testing.

Originally posted by bklaas

Good to hear someone is getting 1080p from PCH. I perused the forum a bit and there are lots of people with 1080p troubles. Like Squeeze devices I suppose, everything depends on network conditions

my network is robust, but I do have a linksys router neutered to a switch in the path I tested with. I'll pull that and try again. Also, can test with the files on something other than the Thecus, but it should have plenty of throughput to stream the files.

I like the PCH, for the price it's hard to beat and the user community is pretty strong. I doubt you'd lose much $ if you bought one and had to resell it later.

**YeeeHaaa** · 2009-01-07, 20:46

I actually experienced some stuttering in the beginning when playing the 720p file...
I have seen many 720p and 1080p movies on it and never had any issues before. Perhaps this one was extremly detailed with higher bitrate than "normal" full length movies?

I have an old desktop (1.2 Ghz) with 320MB RAM running on Ubuntu (Linux) as server (single disk), works like a charm.

Adding a Popcorn Hour to my Squeeze system

Adding a Popcorn Hour to my Squeeze system

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