The best media streamer or HTPC discussion thread

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

I couldn't find any forum category for media streamer or HTPC devices, so here is a discussion thread for it.

I just read your media streamer review, but so as not to go off topic to other products, i made this thread to discuss some likely better alternatives in regards to media streamer devices.




How does your new media streamer compare to the king of the media streamer category the Popcornhour (in particular the C-200 that has good blueray implementation added)

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=productcompare



C-200 specs

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=productspec&item_id=12

Connectivity

Bonjour
UPnP SSDP
UPnP AV
Windows Media Connect
Windows Media Player NSS
Samba
NFS

Media Servers: myiHome, myiHomeLite, myiHomeMS (UPnP), MSP Portal
Third-party media servers: WizD, SwissCenter, Llink, GB-PVR

BitTorrent P2P
Usenet downloader

NAS Access : SMB, NFS, FTP

Casgle iDVR RSS feed downloader
Web Services*

Video : Revision 3, Videocast, CNET TV, Mediafly, Mevio, Bliptv, Break Podcast, CBS Evening News, CNN Anderson Cooper 360 Daily, CNN The Larry King Podcast, NBC Today Show, The CNN Daily, CNN In Case You Missed It, NBC Nightly News, NBC Meet The Press, CBS Face the Nation, Podfinder UK, Motorz

Audio : Jamendo, iPodcast, BBC Podcast, Indiefeed, CNN News, ABC News

Photos : Flickr, Picasaweb, Pikeo, 23, Photobucket, SmugMug

RSS feed : Yahoo! Weather, NMT Forum, Bloglines, Cinecast, MSNBC News, Traffice Condition, Yahoo! Traffic Alerts, Yahoo! News, Weather Bug

Peer-to-peer TV : SayaTV

Internet Radio : SHOUTcast™ Radio, Radiobox, Live365 Radio



Supported Media File Formats

Video containers:
MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)
MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB)
MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)
AVI, ASF, WMV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Video Decoders:
XVID SD/HD
MPEG-1
MPEG-2 MP@HL
MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC
MPEG-4.10 (H.264) : BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0, HP@L4.1
WMV9 : MP@HL
SMPTE 421M (VC-1) : MP@HL, AP@L3

Audio Containers:
AAC, M4A
MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)
WAV
WMA
FLAC
OGG

Audio Decoders:
Dolby Digital
DTS
WMA, WMA Pro
MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3
MPEG-4 AAC-LC
MPEG-4 HE-AAC
MPEG-4 BSAC
LPCM
FLAC
Vorbis

Audio Pass-Through:
DTS, DTS-HD HR, DTS-HD MA
Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD

Other Formats:
ISO, IFO navigation
AVCHD navigation
Blu-ray** ready (requires addition of compatible BD-ROM and at least 2GB USB memory stick)

Photo Formats:
JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, TIFF

Subtitle Formats:
SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX
DRM

Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)
Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD)



Chipset

Sigma Designs SMP8643, 667MHz CPU with floating point coprocessor.
Memory

512MB DDR2 DRAM, 256MB NAND Flash
Audio/Video Outputs

HDMI v1.3a with CEC, 36bpp deep color, 12-bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 content protection
Component Video
S-Video
Composite Video
Stereo Analog Audio
S/PDIF Optical and Coaxial Digital Audio
Other Interface

192x64 dots white text on blue background LCD display, with software adjustable brightness
Power button with standby, reset and full power down
2x USB 2.0 host at the front
2x USB 2.0 host at the back
1x USB 2.0 internal
2x SATA (one occupied by HDD tray)
3.5" HDD tray
Internal mounting for 2.5" HDD
2.4GHz RF Remote Control
Infra-Red Remote Control port (Infra-Red Remote Control optional)
Network

Ethernet 10/100/1000
miniPCI MII interface for 11n WiFi card (optional)
Power

100~240V AC, 50~60 Hz, max 2.5A
typical: 13 W (no additional device installed/attached)
maximum: 70 W
Footprint

Width x Depth x Height : 425mm x 290mm x 80mm (16.73" x 11.42" x 3.15")
Weight

3.7kg (8lbs 3oz)
Package Content

Popcorn Hour C-200 (HDD not included)
IEC 60320 C13 power cord
1.5M length HDMI cable
RF Remote Control with 2 "AAA" batteries
Quick start guide

Dolby Digital: "Dolby" and the double-D symbol are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories.

** Commercial DVD or Blu-ray Disc playback are NOT applicable for Composite output

So from what i can see, the popcornhour C-200 probably has more completeness of features then any other media streamer available.

It isn't perfect though because the SSA subtitle implementation is a crude method to stripe the text but not the effects.

And another thing is the price. Their first product the A100 which i have was famous for being a cheap media streamer device with many features. Although the C-200 has made those features including hardware aspects much better, so has the price risen as well.


It is no wonder that people are thinking it may be better to just get an Atom mini-itx / nvidia ion HTPC with either XBMC or Boxee media center software.


http://lifehacker.com/5406563/build-a-cheap-but-powerful-boxee-media-center



It would have all the support including the important SSA and you don't have to worry about raw power

[tipstir]

I use SageTV MC HD on AMD X4 X64 on Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit for my 6th HTPC system. For streaming to network media I use 8 Hauppuage MediaMVP where one is MediaMVP HD. I never bother with the OPlay!, WD Live Player or Popcorn. MediaMVP has been rock solid but for it to do what the others do you use to use SageTV MVP Client. Except for the MediaMVP HD though.

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Myka Ion, this looks like a good HTPC atom mini-itx based system.
http://myka.tv/myka-ion.html

They configured all the hardware and software for you, so it just works out of the box. But it's kinda pricey. But if your a newbie, this might be a better buy considering features, performance and ease of use.

I would say Myka Ion is the best out there. Of course you could build your own htpc and it probably will outperform it, but for one already setup for you, this is probably the best







Theres a very good article here discussing a roundup between HTPC and media streamer devices.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3767/media-streamer-platforms-roundup/1

[tipstir]

Myka Ion, this looks like a good HTPC atom mini-itx based system.
http://myka.tv/myka-ion.html

They configured all the hardware and software for you, so it just works out of the box. But it's kinda pricey. But if your a newbie, this might be a better buy considering features, performance and ease of use.

I would say Myka Ion is the best out there. Of course you could build your own htpc and it probably will outperform it, but for one already setup for you, this is probably the best







Theres a very good article here discussing a roundup between HTPC and media streamer devices.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3767/media-streamer-platforms-roundup/1

I've looked at them, but the the system I use which is new now supports Blue-Ray but I really don't use it as much as I thought I would. I even got Blue-Ray on my new laptop. But on the desktop tower runs AMD X4 X64 II with SageTV in 1080p connected to Sharp 1080p 46" LCD HDTV and I use Lenovo below: