Pre Purchase Questions

[kturcotte]

I'm considering purchasing the Popcorn Hour C-300, but have some questions first. How much power does it draw? Can it play .vob files larger than 1 GB (Some are almost 15 GBs)? What I'd like to be able to do is have it connect to my NAS and play back audio/video files. On some of them, I'd like to just open a folder and have the device play them all back, but in a shuffle or random mode. Is this possible? Does it have any problem with .mt2s files? I like to rip my DVDs and Blu-Rays. Sometimes I rip just the movie and get the .vob or .m2ts file, and sometimes I rip the entire disc. With these, can it play them back just as if it were an actual DVD/Blu-Ray?
Any issues/bugs I should be aware of?

[stefpats]

my opinion.just don't buy,look elsewhere.the support is shit,there are problems all over the product and u surely feel robbed at the end.at least that s what i think and i own a C-300.

[Bazrah]

I stream 30Gb blu-ray rips with HD audio in mkv format from my WHS over a wired network to 2 different A300 with no problem at all.

It can play m2ts fine though I tend to go the mkv route nowadays to get rid of the extra audio tracks etc.

[chris57]

I dont have a C300 but I do have a A300 and a C200.

There are no problems with playing m2ts or vob files however I'm surprised that in this day and age you are still using m2ts and vob when you can remux into proper single file containers like MKV and loose no quality. Use makeMKV to rip your DVD and BD discs.

Playing my BD backups from my Synology NAS with no issues via SMB using the NMJ jukebox. Watched Game fo Thrones Bluray rips with full menus on the A300, full menus are shown as a bonus on some backups on the A series. Only the C series has the bluray license and will play with retails menu 100% of the time.

You can use makeMKV or AnyDVD-HD etc. to make 1:1 backups that on the C series will play. Disney are problematic and you are better removing the menu and going to movie only or AVCHD if episodes.

Playback of a folder is started by pressing 'play' not 'enter' on the traqck you want to start. Thereafter it plays the tracks in order. You can create playlists and play in whatever folder or order you want. You can add tracks or whole folders to a playlist.

[Gypsy]

i have recently brought the A-300 which i have to say is cracking and plays everything I throw at it

I dont have any issues with mine at all & chris is right just strip em to MKV I use a program called handbrake it's open source and works a treat for me

[kturcotte]

The problem with going with mkv is that it's just the files, and I want the entire menu structure. I want it to be just like I put a disc into a player. Is there anything other than the iso format that allows this, and will the C300 play it correctly?

[minazza]

if you remove AACS protection from retail BD they will play flawless also on A-300 PCH, there's no problem with ISO backup as someone said

[chris57]

Yep you can use DVD ISO, DVD ISO, DVD video_ts folders, and Bluray BDMV.

The A300 has no bluray license and so you'll need to remove encryption and other protection if applicable from backups. Backups in general should be done with encryption/protection removed as sometimes only disc playback can display menus and not backups with encryption. The A300 does nto guarantee original menus but it will give you the means to play extras and movie in this case.

[scottdca]

The only issue that I have with my A-300 is that NMJ doesn't support multiple file locations so I am still using YAMJ. It is fine but you lose some of the cool features of NMJ like updating using your remote and deleting items directly from the movie wall. But yamj works great. If you only have one file location than NMJ works.

[halfelite]

(08-10-2012 08:10 PM)scottdca Wrote:  The only issue that I have with my A-300 is that NMJ doesn't support multiple file locations so I am still using YAMJ. It is fine but you lose some of the cool features of NMJ like updating using your remote and deleting items directly from the movie wall. But yamj works great. If you only have one file location than NMJ works.

There are ways to make multiple locations work with NMJ just takes some tinkering

[scottdca]

I tried to make it work using some of the methods on this forum but really struck out. It seems like very few people have gotten it working on the A-300 or at least the ones that have aren't saying much.