The Popcorn Hour C-300 has been designed very much in line with the hybrid PCH C-200 Blu-ray player plus media centre and the electronics and software are strictly speaking identical to the A-300. So what’s new? The colour LCD screen on the front of course!
As we’ve said the Popcorn Hour A-300 and C-300 share the same components and internal software. We’re not going to repeat everything we’ve already said in our test for the A-300 and refer you to that for a breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of the flash interface, which includes a universal jukebox and an applications market.
In this article we’re going to concentrate on the colour LCD screen on the front. To summarise rapidly: it left us wanting more. Given its size and the fact that it’s a colour screen we expected it to be a true secondary display, giving access to information and features that would either be new or complementary to those displayed by the television or projector.
Thus, in almost all cases, this screen simply gives a zoom of a part of the screen displayed on the television. This means you can browse the menus when the TV is off, notably in ‘tree’ mode (see illustration).
In jukebox mode (NMJ), we were hoping for something from the screen with audio playback, where the TV isn’t used. The screen then fulfils its role though browsing is slightly slow - it takes a second for a request for an action to be implemented.
You browse by viewing album covers. Where an album or a song doesn’t have a cover, you press on the ‘i’ button for more info. This is a shame as it would have been preferable to see this information appear directly on-screen. You can then listen to the whole album or a single track. It’s a shame that tracks with titles that have 15 letters or more are truncated. This is down to the ‘zoom’ tool used and could have been avoided using a different screen display system. Once playback is underway, the album cover and tags are displayed.
In photo mode, the screen displays the name of the file as well as the date it was taken but no more. For videos there’s not much more: you get just the name of the file and a time bar. It would have been nice to see, say, the film/series poster in the background. Sure, you won’t be looking at the screen on the Popcorn Hour C-300 when you’re playing a film, but there has obviously been a lack of attention to detail in the way the screen has been set up.
As we’ve said the Popcorn Hour A-300 and C-300 share the same components and internal software. We’re not going to repeat everything we’ve already said in our test for the A-300 and refer you to that for a breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of the flash interface, which includes a universal jukebox and an applications market.
The home opens with the applications store
In this article we’re going to concentrate on the colour LCD screen on the front. To summarise rapidly: it left us wanting more. Given its size and the fact that it’s a colour screen we expected it to be a true secondary display, giving access to information and features that would either be new or complementary to those displayed by the television or projector.
Display of folders in list/tree mode
Thus, in almost all cases, this screen simply gives a zoom of a part of the screen displayed on the television. This means you can browse the menus when the TV is off, notably in ‘tree’ mode (see illustration).
In jukebox mode (NMJ), we were hoping for something from the screen with audio playback, where the TV isn’t used. The screen then fulfils its role though browsing is slightly slow - it takes a second for a request for an action to be implemented.
Display of album covers / Long titles truncated
Display during playback: you need to know
what you’re looking for to make sense of it
You browse by viewing album covers. Where an album or a song doesn’t have a cover, you press on the ‘i’ button for more info. This is a shame as it would have been preferable to see this information appear directly on-screen. You can then listen to the whole album or a single track. It’s a shame that tracks with titles that have 15 letters or more are truncated. This is down to the ‘zoom’ tool used and could have been avoided using a different screen display system. Once playback is underway, the album cover and tags are displayed.
Photo display: not much point
In photo mode, the screen displays the name of the file as well as the date it was taken but no more. For videos there’s not much more: you get just the name of the file and a time bar. It would have been nice to see, say, the film/series poster in the background. Sure, you won’t be looking at the screen on the Popcorn Hour C-300 when you’re playing a film, but there has obviously been a lack of attention to detail in the way the screen has been set up.
The display during film playback is minimalist and the text very small
Pros
- Multimedia compatibility
- Intuitive, attractive interface
- Built-in video jukebox
- Applications market adapted to TV usage
- Advanced options / high-end remote
Cons
- No memory card reader
- No VOD, nor TV catch-up service
- Slowdowns in Blu-ray menus
- The screen integration needs revisiting
- Adding a Blu-ray player is costly
Conclusion
We like the hybrid concept but it works out too expensive for most. The addition of the colour LCD screen doesn’t as yet add much to what you get with the C-200. From a purely technical point of view, this is a very good piece of hardware and this is why it gets a 5-star rating and while not much more than a simple refresh on the previous model, the innovations are there and the built-in jukebox is a real added value.
OUR SCORE
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