Syabas launched the next generation member of their immensely popular Popcorn Hour A-series today.


The previous version were all based on Sigma's chipsets, and the A-300 is no different. It uses the SMP 8647 SoC with a 800 MHz MIPS CPU at the core. We finally get true GbE (part of the core SoC package) in a media streamer. The A-300 has an aluminium body and is also fanless, ensuring quiet operation. Best of all, Sigma is finally supporting Real Media decode in the 8647, and A-300 now gets the same codec compatibility as the countless other Realtek based media streamers. Like every other media streamer today, we also have an apps market for premium video services. Note that we still don't get HDMI 1.4 or 3D Blu-ray ISO because the SMP 8647 doesn't support it.

The A-300 is expected to ship on Oct 18th, 2011. Head on over to the source link for more information and videos of the UI in action.

Source: Networked Media Tank Forum

Comments Locked

13 Comments

View All Comments

  • QChronoD - Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - link

    I have an A-210, and getting it to access the files on my computer is a major pain in the ass. I've tried several different jukeboxes for it and none of them have good instructions (esp. not NMT's myiHome).

    They mention in the forum that the price will be comparable to the A-210, figure $200 or so. That's double what all the other apps based, streaming only players cost, so the only redeeming quality of this is going to be its support of all the non-mainstream geek formats and super hi bit-rate files like Bluray ISO w/ DTS-HD and the like. They really need to make the software for getting the box to be able to read your own files much better and easier to use.
  • Jkm3141 - Friday, October 7, 2011 - link

    Check out: http://xbmc.org/download/

    ~200 dollar SFF computer with that will solve your problem.
  • xpose2000 - Thursday, October 20, 2011 - link

    Care to provide a link on what kinda specs are needed? I presume as long as it has HDMI out and 1080p res with audio passthrough then it should be fine?

    I am nearly fed up with popcornhour myself but am a total n00b as to what it would take to make my own. I want it to be able to handle 3D blu-ray ISOs as well.
  • MGSsancho - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link

    I dont care about hdmi 1.4 or 3d anything. i want all the profiles under the h264 to work. still i love my A210 when it works. please more video support, that is all i ask.
  • ganeshts - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link

    Is there some profile that the A-210 doesn't support? Please let me know. We are in for a review unit...
  • saiga6360 - Friday, October 7, 2011 - link

    Try Hi10. Doubt any player on the planet can, or maybe somewhere in Asia.
  • antihero77 - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link

    This would be great if the software worked. I'll be excited if they ever announced it runs XBMC, Boxee, or even Plex.
  • QChronoD - Thursday, October 6, 2011 - link

    XBMC is working on a port to one of the Sigma chips but its a different one than whats going to be be in this.
  • saiga6360 - Friday, October 7, 2011 - link

    Better luck next year with XBMC.

    Doesn't this have a built-in scraper and jukebox? I thought YAMJ Eversion would also work on this. If not, wait for the Popbox V8.

    There's always the Boxee Box. Maybe Iomega can do better.
  • anoldnewb - Friday, October 7, 2011 - link

    This is SPAM S P A M

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now