hdtv fans

[bart]

what kind of setups do you guys with hdtv's run? hdtv aside, so far i have been downloading bluray rips from newsgroups (with shaw i-xtreme they fly, 1.3mb/s), but only so far have been streaming 720p from my comp through xbox360. the downside is that xbox doesn't support ac3/dts, so you must reconvert the audio stream. nor does it play 1080p smoothly.

i'm thinking about getting a popcorn hour a-110 http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinesto...0&category_id=

it plays anything you can think of (including 1080p rips), and it has a decent price. with firmware updates, it will probably last forever, until a new form of HD is made.

you can play media through usb, network or buy and insert a hard drive into it. for those less computer savvy, it has built in torrent prog, so you can download rips directly through that. but torrents are slow ass, shaw probably throttles that anyway. thats why i pay $15 for a newsgroup account, it's definitely worth it.

-bart

[R_Ethug]

Re: hdtv fans

i still download everything to my good old xbox 1.. including rips of everything i don't bother with blue ray rips or anything..

although that popcorn unit looks pretty good!

[Khyron]

Re: hdtv fans

Same - I still have my xbox 1 as media center. That popcorn unit totally looks interesting, yet I'm not sure I'd bother with the ultra quality rips yet.

[popp]

Re: hdtv fans

that's a good price for the popcorn, but another option for you would be buy a mac mini or smaller pc cpu and run it through your TV. That's what I do and I have a terabyte time capsule which holds all my movies which I just watch right off the computer. I don't have 1080p output but it wouldn't be a hard upgrade to be able to.

[bart]

Re: hdtv fans

i am pretty sure the mac mini will skip outputting 1080p (it has no hardware HD acceleration) 720p plays fine on most modern laptops and desktops now.

thats why this popcorn hour is a good bang for your buck.

[R_Ethug]

Re: hdtv fans

i'm actually tempted to buy that popcorn unit and replace my xbox1

it looks sick if you can do 1080p output on it.. since i have to buy a new TV once i get back this would be a good solution

whats the menus/interface like on it? how do you upload? ftp?

[bart]

Re: hdtv fans

ya i'm getting a new tv now too, so i'm gonna get that thing.

i havent read everything it can do yet, but it does a lot! firmware upgrades for new codecs and fixes are just done automatically (you connect the thing to the internet), no more burning flash files to bootable cd-roms haha

you copy stuff to it over your network from a PC or mac, store on its internal hd (buy seperately) or stream directly me thinks

[James]

Re: hdtv fans

Buddy of mine at work has one of them popcorn units, raves about it non stop

[Vulcan]

Re: hdtv fans

I had never heard of the Popcorn unit before....I read about a half dozen reviews and it is all very positive. I think that I will get one as well.

[R_Ethug]

Re: hdtv fans

where can you buy that joint in town?


i guess only downside it seems you have to put in your own HD? which isn't a big deal since hard drives are cheap nowadays anyways

[Vulcan]

Re: hdtv fans

I found it online in Canada at http://www.onlybestrated.com/
They have flat rate shipping of $15 on orders over $100.

[RONDAL]

Re: hdtv fans

i run a HTPC alongside my HDTV. it fucking rocks.

i have 2TB of storage available, and torrent EVERYTHING. i am a member on two big tv and movie torrent sites, so i can download everything as soon as it finishes airing on the east cost in true 720p (not the junk we get here) as well as download 1080p movies.
Building an HTPC was also the most cost effective way of getting a blu-ray player, and i lucked out and got one that can read HD-DVD as well so ive been buying up cheap movies from rogers video as they are slowly getting rid of their HD DVDs.

the benefit is i can also surf the web and work from home from the couch....which i love