Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/17 04:40I'm starting this thread to track known issues and their status regarding compatibility with the Popcorn A-100 (and other NMT).
Please only post here with new found issues or if you have further comments on something already listed.
1. Blocky artifacts when playing videos - requires Simese 2.02
2. TV banners do not show - fixed for 1.21
3. Music Now Playing screen does not work - fixed for 1.21 - requires firmware 080812
4. Black screen between photos in slide shows - requires firmware 080822
5. DVD ISO-Playback not supported by SwissCenter - added for 1.21
6. Font sizes - fixed for 1.21
7. Browse the Web doesn't work well - some pages fail whilst others are corrupted
8. Last.FM not working - under investigationPlayer : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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grovve
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Posts: 101
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/17 05:044. Black screen between photos in slide shows - known firmware issue
5. DVD ISO-Playback not supported by SwissCenter - simply activating the extension does not work as ISO playback is not supported via HTTP, this would require a redirection to a NFS/SMB share hosting the ISO
6. Strange font sizes - I do not have an other media player to compare, but I cannot imagine that the font sizes shown on the PCH are designed that way - hard to read even on a 46'' TV
Regarding #2: if "TV banners" are the horizontal images shown in the TV episode area on top of the screen - this works fine on my PCH (could depend on the size of the graphics - I have X-Files, Simpsons and Monty Python's Flying Circus on my PCH, images retrieved automatically from TVDPlayer : NMT A-100 "Popcorn Hour" Server : Debian Linux 2.6.24, XAMPP, SwissCenter 1.21, TwonkyMedia UPnP Server Specs: PIII 700 MHz, 576 MB RAM, 2.5 TB Storage Network: MSI ePower 200AV Powerline Adapters
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ISO playback would be a new feature to be looked into.
I'm using the PCH on my PC's 19" LCD for development and I admit fonts look smaller than expected but have not seen them on an actual TV. The Netgear (and other older players?) seem to have larger default fonts.
So you're saying you see the TV banners across the top of the TV pages? They don't show on my setup and I remember Stu2j mentioning this briefy elsewhere.Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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grovve
User
Posts: 101
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/17 06:31Pernod wrote: I'm using the PCH on my PC's 19" LCD for development and I admit fonts look smaller than expected but have not seen them on an actual TV.
If I would sit only half as close to my TV as I sit to my development machine's 24'' LCD I would not care at all about small font sizes, but it is a REAL problem at normal viewing distances.
Pernod wrote: So you're saying you see the TV banners across the top of the TV pages? They don't show on my setup and I remember Stu2j mentioning this briefy elsewhere.
Just rechecked this, I can see them on ALL series pages (X-Files, Simpsons, Futurama, Monty Python).
Maybe this depends on the screen resolution? My PCH is set to 16:9, running at 1280/720, 60 Hz, connected with HDMI.Player : NMT A-100 "Popcorn Hour" Server : Debian Linux 2.6.24, XAMPP, SwissCenter 1.21, TwonkyMedia UPnP Server Specs: PIII 700 MHz, 576 MB RAM, 2.5 TB Storage Network: MSI ePower 200AV Powerline Adapters
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Pernod
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Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/17 06:43Maybe this depends on the screen resolution? My PCH is set to 16:9, running at 1280/720, 60 Hz, connected with HDMI. I'm also running at 1280/720, 60 Hz, connected with HDMI to DVI.Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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grovve
User
Posts: 101
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/17 06:58Could this depend on the skin you are using? I am not using the default skin, but a skin called "SyKik".
I have attached a screenshot of a TV-Series page, taken from the PC browser, but it looks exactly the same on my PCH.
- Chris Player : NMT A-100 "Popcorn Hour" Server : Debian Linux 2.6.24, XAMPP, SwissCenter 1.21, TwonkyMedia UPnP Server Specs: PIII 700 MHz, 576 MB RAM, 2.5 TB Storage Network: MSI ePower 200AV Powerline Adapters
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Pernod
Admin
Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/19 15:25I've found the cause of my banner issue. It looks like the HTML background tag being sent to the player is too long:
This works on my Netgear player, but not on the PCH!!Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Is it everything or just certain areas like the search keypad?
Are the synopsis and menu items readable for you?Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Now that you have a PCH.. wouldn't it be simple to at least get music working by checking to see if it is a PCH and instead of trying to display the album art just toss up a screen similar to that being used for Internet radio?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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Now that you have a PCH.. wouldn't it be simple to at least get music working by checking to see if it is a PCH and instead of trying to display the album art just toss up a screen similar to that being used for Internet radio?
I described a small patch to one of the PHP files here in the forum (http://www.swisscenter.co.uk/component/option,com_simpleboard/Itemid,42/func,view/id,9537/catid,10) which makes music work on the PCH - no image or album art, just a black screen, but at least it works fine, including playlists and MusicIP.
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/28 16:30It appears that the "browse the web" feature does not work with the PCH. Is this correct and can it be fixed?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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Pernod
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Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/28 16:51It appears that the "browse the web" feature does not work with the PCH. It's not something that I use but I've just confirmed that some pages completely fail whilst others are displayed but are corrupted.
I'll add it to the list.
NigelPlayer : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/28 17:48Tell you what I'm looking for here:
Youtube has a mobile site "m.youtube.com" that you can browse with SwissCenter. My understanding is that the PCH can play Youtube videos. Thus, I could get youtube videos via the SwissCenter interface and not have to back out of SwissCenter into that weird Media Portal thing.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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Pernod
Admin
Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/29 10:02Have you tried adding m.youtube.com to the Web Services menu on the PCH?Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/29 10:09Pernod wrote: Have you tried adding m.youtube.com to the Web Services menu on the PCH? Yes. I can't get any of the web services links to work. On the Showcenter, the youtube link works just fine. However, the ShowCenter can't play the videos.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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Pernod
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Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/07/29 10:37I'm suspecting this to be a PCH issue but will have to experiment some more to determine the exact cause, probably something on the page that the PCH doesn't understand.
I'd prefer to have a YouTube plugin similar to what they have in MSP. I've almost finished my Flickr plugin so could do one for YouTube next. I noticed that YouTube already has a PHP API so not too much work should be involved.
Could you add it to the Suggestions forum and define the functionality required.Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Pernod
Admin
Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/01 06:44Updated status at top of thread for a couple of items.Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Stu2j
User
Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/21 11:44Any word on the outstanding issues such as Last.FM? Rumor has it that Popcorn is looking to release the new firmware tomorrow (8/22) and I would like to move the PCH to the media room and swap everything to HDMI. Can't do it without Last.fm 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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Pernod
Admin
Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/21 11:51Yes new firmware is still scheduled for tomorrow (some ppl claim the update check will get it now).
I've not had much spare time recently to look at LastFM, so there's no news yet.Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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is it safe to upgrade to the PCH's new firmware to be released today without updating to the planned but not yet available 1.21 release of swisscenter at the same time?
I have made a couple of patches for PCH compatibility manually, if these don't break by the update, I would probably wait for the official release of 1.21.
By the way, is it safe to update (after a backup, of course) an existing swisscenter installation from the SVN tree at "http://tools.assembla.com/svn/swiss/trunk/swisscenter/" or are there some files or directories I have to leave out when updating manually?
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Pernod
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Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/22 06:22There will be no problems updating your firmware. We intend to release 1.21 this weekend anyway.
If you're currently using 1.20 then updating to the current SVN will give you better compatibility with the PCH. What are the patches that you've made? They should be in SVN anyway. It is safe to update to SVN (all files) if you wish to do so.
NigelPlayer : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/22 09:32The new Popcorn Hour firmware is indeed available. I just updated my system. Nice to see the music features working properly once again. That was a biggy. Other problems still exist such as the long delay between photos in slideshows and last.fm giving the "cannot play" messages.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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Pernod
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Posts: 1335
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/25 20:34You'll be pleased to know that the new beta firmware 080822 fixes the blank screen issue during slideshows Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/08/25 21:52That's great news indeed! Now if we can get last.fm working, I can finally give the PCH a shot at the media room. 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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BenF
Visitor
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/09/06 03:00Pernod wrote: You'll be pleased to know that the new beta firmware 080822 fixes the blank screen issue during slideshows
When reading this - I assumed that gapless transition between photos was now in place. This however was not the case with my box and also in the PCH forums it is said to be "worked on" for the next release to follow 080822 (my setup is "no effect/4s" on PCH and "no effect/5s"in SC).
Do you have a different setup that eliminates this annoying issue?
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Pernod
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Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/09/06 12:03Are you using the beta firmware 080822? If yes then you should see that it is fixed, otherwise you'll have to wait for the next public release of the firmware.Player : Netgear EVA700 & Popcorn A-100 (081106) Server : Vista SP1 Home Premium (Simese 2.07, SwissCenter current SVN) Spec : Intel C2Q Q6600, 2GB RAM, 1Tb storage.
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BenF
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Posts: 12
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/09/06 13:00Pernod wrote: Are you using the beta firmware 080822? No you're right - I'm not. It took your replyt and a double check to figure it out though as I had the version (080812) confused with the release date (080822).Player: ShowCenter 1000g (wired) + PopcornHour A-100 Server: Windows XP (SwissCenter)
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Stu2j
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Posts: 1234
Re: Popcorn A-100 Compatibility Issues - 2008/10/11 23:24Is there any hope of getting Last.fm working with the PCH?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 
Other problems still exist such as the long delay between photos in slideshows and last.fm giving the "cannot play" messages.
It took your replyt and a double check to figure it out though as I had the version (080812) confused with the release date (080822).