I already have 2 BLTs running and looking to get a third player. Before I get the third player I would like to know which player has the best set of features.
Example would be the BLT will not skip to % or resume a movie . It looks like the ShowCenter will. What player(s) do you have and what features do you like?
I bought the BLT because of the built-in DVD player. This was before I knew about SwissCenter.
Thanks for the info in advance.
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admin
Admin
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Re: Which player to use? - 2007/11/10 07:05Personally, I like the look of the Network Media Tank that has just been released by Syabas (the company behind the BLT, Showcenter, etc). The only problem is that it is not immediately available... but it looks like it might be worth holding off any purchase decisions for a while!
It looks to have a very good feature set, and is even advertised as compatible with SwissCenter
I'll hopefully be getting a test machine in the next month or two, so if/when I do then I'll be able to post a review and confirm what features are available.
Rob Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet) Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).
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didierm
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Posts: 58
Re: Which player to use? - 2007/11/17 16:44According to http://www.mpcclub.com (media player enthousiasts), Syabas' NMT is very well worth a look, compared to all other vendors on the market (mainly due to the implementation of Sigma Designs latest chip set , combined with a very competitive price) : review on http://www.mpcclub.com/banner_log.php?id=5049 .
Taking into account discussions and feedback on http://www.networkedmediatank.com/index.php, Syabas seems to be *extremely* responsive to (potential) customers concerns, and very quick with firmware updates.
Currently, NMT is my main preference for my next player purchase (with support for H264, MKV and off course SwissCenter ).
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/03/28 18:54admin wrote: Personally, I like the look of the Network Media Tank that has just been released by Syabas (the company behind the BLT, Showcenter, etc). The only problem is that it is not immediately available... but it looks like it might be worth holding off any purchase decisions for a while!
It looks to have a very good feature set, and is even advertised as compatible with SwissCenter Since SwissCenter is now supporting this player and it appears to play pretty much anything you throw at it, I've gone ahead and put my name on the list (probably be a month or two before I can even pre-order the thing and you guys should have all the kinks worked out) Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/04/21 14:12Just to let ya'll know...
Folks are selling Popcorn hours on ebay at greatly inflated prices and even selling the invitations to pre-order the item. I put my name on the list per the date in the message above and today placed the order:
"Thanks for buying from Popcorn Hour using Google Checkout! Popcorn Hour will charge and ship your order soon"
The expected ship date is around the end of the month so it doesn't take anywhere near as long as folks are claiming.Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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xbrscott
Visitor
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/04/21 16:46I got my invitation this morning and placed my order as well. Look forward to playing in the popcorn.
A little FYI about my BLTs, when playing DVDs it now has lines in the playback. These lines are not in the net play.
The other unit powers down when I press any buttons on the front. It works for a while after I unplug it and plug it back in.
During the waranty period with Buffalo, I did return two units to them. One with a bad firmware update and the other with the same power down problem. They were good about getting replacements out to me.
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/04/23 12:37While I am certainly excited about getting a Popcorn Hour player, the fact that it won't display a now playing screen (if what I read is correct) will keep it out of the media room. This is a key feature for me.
Since it can't sync a now playing screen with the music, I assume that music with photos is also a no go.
Hopefully, they (the popcorn folks) will get this working in a future firmware update.Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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admin
Admin
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/04/23 17:30While I am certainly excited about getting a Popcorn Hour player, the fact that it won't display a now playing screen (if what I read is correct) will keep it out of the media room. This is a key feature for me. Me too.
Until Syabas add the necessary code to the firmware my Popcorn will remain hooked up to the computer as my "sometimes" development/test player and not in the main room.
Since it can't sync a now playing screen with the music, I assume that music with photos is also a no go. Ah, now that is supported!
The difference (from a technical point of view) is that you can have music and photos displaying at the same time, and you can instruct the player to change either the track or the photo when the >> or << buttons are pressed. However, you can't tell it to change both at the same time.
Rob Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet) Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/04/30 15:58Does the Last.FM artwork display or is that a no go?Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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xbrscott
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Posts: 7
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/03 10:55FYI for PCH orders in the USA.
This was my questions that I sent to sales at PCH on 5/02/08.
In your preorder invite it says "credit card will only be charged when the product is available and ready for shipping" and in the shipping policy it states "Orders within the United States and Canada will be shipped from the California office". My credit card was billed on 4/24/08....What is the real status of my order?
PCH Sales reply: Your order already shipped by 28th Apr from China and we already initiated the charges to your credit card.
For US and Canada customer orders, all the shipment will ship from China office to Fremont, US office and they will dispatch immediately by USPS once received the shipment from our China office.
I think they need to rewrite the invite and shipping policy.
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/03 18:07My Popcorn hour arrived today...
Really need someone to tell me if the Last.FM screens work. If it doesn't, it is going to stay in the box and may wind up on ebay...Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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admin
Admin
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/04 03:28Just done a little test with my PCH and Last.FM. You might want to leave it in the box for a bit...
I have emailed them again regarding the sync'd playback of music and photos because I was told this would be incorporated into the firmware. However, it's not been listed in any of the change logs so far.
Rob Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet) Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/04 13:17admin wrote: You might want to leave it in the box for a bit... In the words of Eric Cartman.. I am so pi***d off right now.
It seems to me that the Popcorn Hour is being developed specifically for the torrent crowd with a lot of attention being paid to MKV etc with little thought to the other media functions. For instance, the most widely requested feature is RAR support.. gosh, I wonder why? While this is great if your focus is "sharing" HD video, it really sucs if you really count on the other features which seem to be an after thought.
Well.. it's staying in the box and they have a firmware or two to fix it otherwise it will wind up on ebay with the rest of the junk.
Sorry for my rant... just wish somebody could get it right...Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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admin
Admin
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/04 14:19Sorry for my rant... just wish somebody could get it right...
Hey, no problem. I feel your pain...
Might be a good idea to go and rant on the PCH forums though... you never know, they might actually pay attention! Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet) Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/04 16:59admin wrote: Might be a good idea to go and rant on the PCH forums though I did post over there but you gotta be careful as those forums are clearly moderated by someone other than syabas and the popcorn hour is more like a religion than a media player.
I've posted in the feature request area and have also sent a message directly to syabas support (never got a respons). I can only hope...Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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xbrscott
Visitor
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 01:40Ok, got the PCH on Saturday and played with it a little bit today. I am mostly going to use it for movie playback. Here are some of the items that I found.
VOB files - using SC or SMB share to playback rewind does not work, this is a know issue they are working on there is a 30 seconds skipback that skips to a random part of the movie resume did not work Number keys skip to % of movie, ex 1 skipped to 10% on the movie
IFO files - using SMB share to playback controls worked as if the DVD was in the player would only play title 1 audio dropped out on one file, tried a second it worked fine DVD menu worked no resume
ISO files - using SMB share to playback functions as if the DVD was in the player, this I like all functions that I tried worked, including chapters, fast forward and rewind. The downside, you have to use SMB share to use the ISOs and not SC. no resume
I'll add to this as I continue to use the PCH.
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CyberChris
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Posts: 8
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 13:25Well I recently sold my Popcorn Hour and purchased another Showcenter (250HD).
While the Popcorn Hour is technically superior to the Showcenter it just can not match it's ease of use.
The Popcorn Hour used to lock up and you have to power it off (remove power cable) and on again before it would respond, never happens with the Showcenter.
Also you can just switch the Showcenter on and go where as the Popcorn Hour you have to navigate to the Web Services menu and then select Swisscenter.
The music playback as well is just rubbish without using Swisscenter.
I must admit I have tried just about every media player out there now and I keep going back to the Showcenter, it is just rock solid.
Finally the wife and kids can work the Showcenter without issue, my six year old son has one in his room and manages fine to switch it on, browse to his programmes and watch them.
Pinnacle support for the Showcenter may be non-existant but I would gladly have a Showcenter over any other media player on the market at the moment (although give me a few months and I will be trying something else).
Chris.Pinnacle ShowCentre 200 Pinnacle ShowCentre 250HD MiniITX Arch Linux Server 667MHz / 1GB / 500GB
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admin
Admin
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 13:35Well I recently sold my Popcorn Hour and purchased another Showcenter (250HD). The showcenters are very reliable - it would be nice if they supported a few more formats though.
The Popcorn Hour used to lock up and you have to power it off (remove power cable) and on again before it would respond, never happens with the Showcenter. There is a hidden feature (no idea why they don't tell you) where if you press the power button (and release it) then quickly press the eject button then the popcorn will reset. Saves the unplugging routine.
Also you can just switch the Showcenter on and go where as the Popcorn Hour you have to navigate to the Web Services menu and then select Swisscenter. This is something that I do not like either... I always want to load swisscenter immediately
The music playback as well is just rubbish without using Swisscenter. To be honest, the music playback is a bit rubbish when using swisscenter - until they get sync'd music/photos working there isn't any way to have a !Now Playing" screen.
Finally the wife and kids can work the Showcenter without issue, my six year old son has one in his room and manages fine to switch it on, browse to his programmes and watch them. Ease of use is the most important feature of the swisscenter - it's supposed to follow the principle of least surprise (ie: the user shouldn't be suddenly surprised by the outcome of their action)!
I think there's a little scope for improving the interface in a few of the newer features - most obvious being that the menu items shouldn't be present if there's nothing to display (eg: "Browse the web" shouldn't be selectable if you don't have any bookmarks).
Rob Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet) Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1377
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 14:26CyberChris wrote: where as the Popcorn Hour you have to navigate to the Web Services menu and then select Swisscenter. <shaking head>
The news just keeps getting worse...Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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TrevorH
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Posts: 25
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 15:27admin wrote: until they get sync'd music/photos working there isn't any way to have a !Now Playing" screen.
There's an item in the latest PCH beta changelog that looks like it might be this.
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1377
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 17:564. Browser fixes - fixed myiHomeLite hangs when certain filename listed - improved memory clearing, reduce time from 390ms to few milliseconds - fixed bug where links with #xxx does not work when page is with OnLoad - added image changing and on-the-fly loading feature - added menu frames for file operation UI - fixed problem changing TV mode when URL prompt is turned on
_________________________
Hey Rob.. any hope in the above?Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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xbrscott
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Posts: 7
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/05 18:25Stu2j wrote: CyberChris wrote: where as the Popcorn Hour you have to navigate to the Web Services menu and then select Swisscenter. <shaking head>
The news just keeps getting worse...
From the Media Source page on the PCH I select the Simese server and it stays logged on until I press the source button and change. In any menu in SC pressing the Home button takes me back to the SC main menu.
I did not have to go the Web Services at all.
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CyberChris
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Posts: 8
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/07 15:21From the Media Source page on the PCH I select the Simese server and it stays logged on until I press the source button and change. In any menu in SC pressing the Home button takes me back to the SC main menu.
I did not have to go the Web Services at all.
I run a Linux based server so while this was true for the Samba share it was not true for Swisscenter, never really used the Simese version so I can not comment on that.Pinnacle ShowCentre 200 Pinnacle ShowCentre 250HD MiniITX Arch Linux Server 667MHz / 1GB / 500GB
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Sparky
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Posts: 64
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/08 04:39xbrscott wrote:
From the Media Source page on the PCH I select the Simese server and it stays logged on until I press the source button and change. In any menu in SC pressing the Home button takes me back to the SC main menu.
I did not have to go the Web Services at all.
Same for me, I find it's actually quicker getting to the Swisscenter main menu with the Popcorn Hour than the Showcenter as the Popcorn Hour doesn't really turn off. You can even leave it on a particular menu, turn it off, come back the next day, turn it on and it's still at that same menu.
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/09 03:33Well I finally got this set up and as expected for everything it added it seemed to break something.
Of course it broke the music screens and last,fm which is a real bummer and photo slideshows are just painful to watch so for music and photos, this thing gets bad marks.
It plays pretty much any podcast you throw at it so it will really enhance the RSS area and the kids will like having youtube videos available. While it is supposed to have awesome video support, some of my HD WMV videos had problems. Otherwise, video was fine.
It was nice to see that the color keys on the remote matched swiss and the remote in general is pretty easy to use. I would like to have it automatically load Swiss on startup but this isn't a big deal as the player never gets shut off (it doesn't even have a power button).
When I put it in 720p mode it works fine but the Swiss menus get tiled on the screen making it a real mess. Have no idea what that's about (setting it back to auto fixes it). Also, it seems to have a problem generating the new TV banners.
Still playing with it....
Edit later: Much as expected, this unit is not ready for prime time and will be pulled from the media room and replaced with a Showcenter. I've decided to keep the Popcorn as it shows promise and one day maybe they will get it all sorted out. For now, it will find its way into a bedroom where video is pretty much the only thing required of it.
Edit update: The more I use the Popcorn Hour, the less I like it. With the ShowCenter, you select a movie and it starts playing. With the Popcorn Hour, you have to sit through a "buffering" screen for what seems like forever. For some reason, when you select anything a spinning "working" dial appears which really gets annoying. More video problems have surfaced with some movie rips and the resume feature doesn't work. Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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fnemec
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Posts: 5
Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/09 21:31Hi CyberChris! Do you know (you certainly know) if Showcenter does support to MPEG4? I did some searchs but I couldn't know for sure if SC does or not. Thank you!
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admin
Admin
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/10 03:00Do you know (you certainly know) if Showcenter does support to MPEG4? Unfortunately, there isn't a straight yes/no answer to that question. Below is a definition of MPEG-4 taken from wikipedia:
MPEG-4 is a collection of methods defining compression of audio and visual (AV) digital data. It was introduced in late 1998 and designated a standard for a group of audio and video coding formats and related technology agreed upon by the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) under the formal standard ISO/IEC 14496. Uses of MPEG-4 include compression of AV data for web (streaming media) and CD distribution, voice (telephone, videophone) and broadcast television applications.
MPEG-4 absorbs many of the features of MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and other related standards, adding new features such as (extended) VRML support for 3D rendering, object-oriented composite files (including audio, video and VRML objects), support for externally-specified Digital Rights Management and various types of interactivity. AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) was standardized as an adjunct to MPEG-2 (as Part 7) before MPEG-4 was issued.
MPEG-4 is still a developing standard and is divided into a number of parts. The companies promoting MPEG-4 compatibility do not always clearly state which "part" level compatibility. The key parts to be aware of are MPEG-4 part 2 (MPEG-4 SP/ASP, used by codecs such as DivX, Xvid, Nero Digital and 3ivx and by Quicktime 6) and MPEG-4 part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, used by the x264 codec, by Nero Digital AVC, by Quicktime 7, and by next-gen DVD formats like HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc).
Most of the features included in MPEG-4 are left to individual developers to decide whether to implement them. This means that there are probably no complete implementations of the entire MPEG-4 set of standards. To deal with this, the standard includes the concept of "profiles" and "levels", allowing a specific set of capabilities to be defined in a manner appropriate for a subset of applications.
Initially, MPEG-4 was aimed primarily at low bit-rate video communications; however, its scope was later expanded to be much more of a multimedia coding standard. MPEG-4 is efficient across a variety of bit-rates ranging from a few kilobits per second to tens of megabits per second. MPEG-4 provides the following functionalities:
The Showcenter definitely supports MPEG-4 part 2 as the DivX and Xvid codecs are supported, but it doesn't support MPEG-4 part 10 as media encoded with G.264 doesn't play.
Rob Player : Pinnacle Showcenter 200 (wired ethernet) Server : HP MediaSmart EX470 NAS (Windows Home Server / Sempron CPU / 2Gb RAM / 2.0 Tb Storage).
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fnemec
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/05/12 09:40Right you are, Rob. I did my homework and notice how messy is the MPEG4 supportable definition...
Well, at least SC supports Divx and Xvid as you said, so I can still watch my tv shows if I buy one of that.
Thank you, Rob!
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Stu2j
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Re: Which player to use? - 2008/08/04 08:55Popcorn Hour released a new player today. the A110.
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/Showcenters 1000g/200/250HD Popcorn Hour A-100 Netgear HDX101 Powerline Adapters Windows XP Simese 2.07 running latest SVN NAS Server IBM NetVista 900Mhz/256RAM
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Forums 
. It looks like the ShowCenter will. What player(s) do you have and what features do you like?
).
