Popcorn Hour C-200 | Reviews | Techie.com.ph
12:22 PM | Monday | 23 August 2020

What a difference a month makes. In that short time, the recently reviewed Kaiboer NMT ruled supreme as our favorite media player after knocking the popular Popcorn Hour A-110 off its perch by making small improvements on virtually everything it does. Now Popcorn Hour returns with vengeance and one-ups Kaiboer with the C-200, a media player with an optional Blu-ray drive. Don't you just love competition?

Media player for dummies

Chances are you've heard of neither Popcorn Hour nor Kaiboer, so just in case, here's a list of this media player's super powers:

• Play all those AVI files on your TV instead of your computer. In fact, there's precious few file formats that this sucker won't play. Subtitles in SUB format are the only thing Popcorn Hour choked on of all the formats we threw at it.

• You can play the movies from a hard drive inside the Popcorn Hour, or you can stream it from your computer. You can network the two together yourself or download a little program for your PC called iHome by Syabas. Either way, it's simple and easy if you know anything about computers. Wireless comes as an option.

• You can also stream content from networks on the Internet. So prepare to waste more hours on YouTube.

• Pirates usually download torrents straight to Popcorn Hour if you loaded it with a hard drive.
  

Playing Blu-ray movies was perhaps the only thing we could think of that Popcorn Hour didn't do. And now it does that, too.

All grown up

Like the Kaiboer before it, the Popcorn Hour C-200 graduates into the world of  "mature" media players. It will stand proud beside your Harman Kardon AV Receiver despite the awkward branding (because movies are typically two hours long, shouldn't it be called the Popcorn Two Hours?).

Most prominent among the grown-up changes is the big blue LCD screen on the face of the C-200. This shows you where you are in the menu, as well as what's playing – a welcome feature any way you look at it.

Sound and video quality are up to audiophile (and cinephile) levels. 1080p movies played with no problems whatsoever. Mind you, there's some tweaking involved, but pass on all your audio to your receiver (and you'll have to for DTS soundtracks) and you won't be disappointed.

Inside, the Popcorn Hour can be loaded with a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive, and there's a tray that lets you swap 3.5-inch SATA hard drives or a Blu-ray drive, or both. This suits both movie junkies with terabytes and terabytes of movies or Blu-ray addicts. Yes, all five of them.

One small step

As a media player, or Network Media Tank as its known, this is as good as it gets. It's essentially the same as previous models like the A-110, but it's simply better in a lot of small ways. For starters, it takes the newer NMT firmware which gives it a snazzier interface reminiscent of Windows Media Player. We know that's not necessarily a good thing, but it works. The remote control is now backlit – perfect for watching scary movies with all the lights out. Finally, you get all the connections you could possibly need: four USB slots, HDMI, component video, optical and coaxial audio.

Blue about Blu-ray

We were excited about the Popcorn Hour's newfangled Blu-ray abilities. It promised access to BD Live and a Blu-ray experience with no compromises. And yes, it's all true, but we experienced severely long loading times even when just playing a disc. At times, navigation even caused the movie to hang. In contrast to the PS3 – and the C-200's BD drive does put it in that league – playing Blu-ray movies just isn't a silky smooth experience. And the PS3 has some video processing that the Popcorn Hour doesn't have – if that kind of thing is to your taste.

Rating conundrum

As a media player, the Popcorn Hour C-200 is the bomb. At its most basic level, it will let you play all your movies, music, and pictures without a hitch. Now that it has the drive-swapping yumminess that the Kaiboer NMT had before it, the Popcorn Hour is complete and perfect, deserving five Techie stars. Well, almost.

What spoils the party is the flawed Blu-ray experience. If Blu-ray is your reason for getting this device, you'll be better off getting a PS3 Slim, keeping in mind that the PS3 is picky with playback of streaming file formats. The C-200 just isn't our first choice for a Blu-ray player. For the occasional Blu-ray movie viewer, however, don't hesitate. The Popcorn Hour C-200 is worth its weight in gold.

Click here to see the Popcorn Hour C-200 in the Buyer's Guide. Drop by Popcorn Hour's booth at the Consumer Electronics Live! Manila on November 13-15, 2009, at the World Trade Center.