Hi everyone,

I am in the process of securing a reseller contract with popcorn hour to sell here in NZ. I am very interested in hearing your opinion of the product and if you would support a local NZ supplier.

for everyone not sure what a Popcorn hour is check out www.popcornhour.com

One thing I can say is there are three new models begin released In the very near future, including a WIFI version. Approx cost for the new models in NZD not USD is $250 plus gst. At this time this is only an estimate of the price 

If there is enough interest I will continue with the reseller process and start taking orders very shortly. There will be a NZ web site including support and forum that will cover NZ issues.

Kev

What do the new models have that the current one doesnt? Possibilities of a sata connector rather than IDE? Gigabit ethernet? I could be interested. $200NZD is a very good price.

OOPS i did not do the currency conversion correctly it should be $250  I have changed my post. Sorry for that.

These specs have not been 100% confirmed and may change.
Here are some of the spec's

Sorry Spec's for the new models have been removed until released by Popcorn Hour

In all options DTS decoding may be included for a small cost (This has NOT been confirmed)

I don't see gigabit there.
But i hope for whoever gets it that the mini-pci slot can take a network card instead.

this would be a good idear, however i brought mine 2 weeks ago , i asked nearly every pc shop here about them but none of them have heard of the popcorn only sum had known the tvix box........keeping them cheap is the big bonus for the popcorn

Yeah if I was to buy one an ethernet port is really a must. Do these still feature the ethernet or not?

yeah they have ethernet port as i am streaming media from pc to the popcorn via a cat5 cable works brillant

Although not right now medium term I will be looking at one of these.

This is really looking like a possibility for me but in all honesty, why would anyone get option A when option B has better features without a price difference.

During your negotiations with them you should push them to add support of the HE-AAC audio standard used on our DVB-T system. Having support for this would make the device much more valuable in our market. They've indicated they hope to in the future, but the more people that mention it to them, the more chance that it'll actually happen.

Without HE-AAC support these devices are still pretty nice, but adding HE-AAC support would really make them a great device for NZ. Without this I get a great picture playing Freeview|HD recordings, but no sound.

(BTW, I'm the author of GB-PVR, which has a client that works nicely on the PCH: http://www.networkedmediatank.com/viewtopic.php?t=2424)

Hi Sub

Correct me if i am wrong but without HE-AAC we are unable to play Freeview HD.

I will contact Popcorn and find out what the situation is with HE-AAC support

Kev

Are there any dates for the websites? This could be rather successful. Well done!

Hi TameIti

I am looking for a good NZ based hosting company then dev the site possibly using Zen Cart or something similar, so may be a couple of weeks away yet. However I can still take orders for the current model A-100. At this stage I do not have stock however if enough people (min 10) place orders I will get Popcorn to ship sooner. I will confirm shipping dates and NZ pricing for the A-100

 

In the mean time if you which to email me I will accept your orders

  

Kev

For the audio streams check out: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?ForumId=88&TopicId=20548&page_no=2

I believe they are looking at a June firmware release to fix the problem. lchiu7 has been pushing for the audio support on the NMT forums.

Great we have our own forumn.  I have had my PCh for 2 months now - Love it.  Been able to play 99% of all files I have thrown at it so far.  I did not play the .avi files I converted from .flv files yet. But other than that it has been very good.

Hi kev

I used a company called EDIY software based in Chch for my website/ecomerce site. (www.city2surf.co.nz)
Their website is www.ediy.co.nz

PM if you want to know any other info about them. 

Be great to have a Kiwi reseller of PCH I have created a bit of interest thru friends who have seen it action so far.

Cheers

Yes, thats pretty much what I said.

Its still a decent device if the user wants to download movies from the internet and watch them, but no good for playing back Freeview HD recordings. You get excellent video but no audio.