Networked media tanks (NMT) are becoming an integral part of any home theater setup. This has been brought about by the rising popularity of high definition media files – the quality of which is already perfect even for those who have demanding home theaters.
Popcorn Hour is one of the more established brands in the networked media tank market and you can usually rest assured that their products not only work well, compatibility with various media formats is also excellent.
One of the latest products in the Popcorn Hour line is the A210. This comes in a brushed aluminum body and has enough space inside to fit a 3.5” hard disk drive. It can accept drives up to 2 terabytes in capacity. The casing itself acts as some kind of heat sink, helping to draw away the heat generated by the hard disk.
The A210 allows for a wired connection and supports GigaBit LAN. For those who want a cleaner setup sans wires, there is an optional WiFi dongle that you can purchase to allow for connection to your wireless network.
Popcorn Hour’s user interface has been improved a lot. Navigation is easy and intuitive while not forgetting to put in some graphical snazziness to impress the users. The A210 has a Sigma chip that runs at 667 Mhz. It has a 512MB DDR2 DRAM and a 256MB NAND Flash.
Popcorn Hour has already built a reputation for minimizing file format incompatibilities and this is carried over to the A210. In fact, it now also reads BluRay ISO and MKV3D, a format that is used for 3D movies. This makes the A210 a future proof networked media tank. Popcorn Hour does provide periodic firmware updates to make sure compatibility is kept high with new incoming formats and also to provide additional stability to the unit.