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Popcorn Hour A-110: changes well worth extra $35

After Popcorn Hour announced an updated version of their media streamer, the A-110, we’ve been waiting to see if the changes really could make the great device any greater.  According to Crave UK, they have: for an extra $35 the biggest improvements are HMDI 1.3a, DTS downmixing and USB Target functionality.  In fact they describe the changes as “seriously worthwhile”.

popcorn_hour_a110_2

DTS downmixing, to be added to the new hardware in an imminent firmware update, will allow the A-110 to decode DTS surround sound and downmix it to stereo, suitable for output on any TV.  The HDMI 1.3a compatibility is what gets you the DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD output, and the USB Target port means you can plug the A-110 into your computer and have it show up as an external drive.  Should shave a fair bit of time off of transferring files versus doing it over your network.

If there’s a downside, it’s that the advertised SATA update (the A-100 only supported IDE drives in the internal bay) is in fact only a SATA bridge, and so there are no speed increases to be had.  Still, at $215 (with no internal drive) it looks to be even more of a bargain than before.


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Written by Chris Davies. Read more great feeds at is source WEBSITE

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