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Popcorn Hour A-200
The natural successor to the hugely successful A-100/110 is now upgraded with the same faster Sigma 8643 chip as the C-200. As such it will be one of the most powerful players around and benefits from decent format support. The main difference between this and the C-200 is the lack of Blu-Ray support. The A-200 supports playback of the files inside a BD-ISO but not commercial Blu-Ray and without any menus. The box itself is an unusual shape for a Popcorn Hour player and is plastic rather than the usual metal. It also utilises a cooling fan, which thankfully has been described as quiet.
The A-200 ships with a firmware very similar to the C-200. This is not a good thing since the current C-200 firmware is still unreliable and does not yet support full HD-Audio. These problems have transferred themselves across to the A-200. On the plus side, you can install NMT apps so the A-200 is very versatile. A new Flash based firmware is due any day now (now being 03-March) and promises to vastly improve the interface and hopefully finally iron out the bugs. Syabas have released a video preview of the new interface here: New Interface Video.
It is still impossible to give a proper assessment of the A-200 because the firmware on which so much rests has yet to be released. On the hardware side the A-200 is formidable and represents good value at the price. If you trust Syabas to eventually sort out the firmware (and we are inclined to) then the A-200 is potentially highly recommended. It has a much larger array of applications than any of the Realteks, is more powerful, promises full HD-Audio support, and is getting close to mid-range Realtek price levels.
  | Manufacturer: Syabas Technology Launch Date: January 2010 Target Price: $180 - €180 - £175  Chipset: Sigma 8643 Storage: Internal 3.5" SATA HDD(*1) USB(*2) Network: Ethernet 1000 Optional Wi-Fi(n) Fan: Yes Size: 270*150*50mm (2.03m³) Video Outputs: HDMI 1.3 Component Composite Audio Outputs: Stereo Analogue TOSLINK S/PDIF Coaxial S/PDIF S-Video On Demand: ? UPnP: Yes
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Links
• Official Website • Official Forums • Firmware Updates • AVSForum (USA) /A-200 • New Interface Video |
Reviews
• MPC Club |
Places to Buy
• Popcorn Hour Direct • Google Shopping    |
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Product Discussion There is 1 comment
January 15, 2010 - 09:30
If it won't stack I won't buy it. Leave a Comment
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Detailed Specification
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