Popcorn Hour A-500 Media Player - Black

As a Popcorn lover I have owned models like A110, C200, A400 and A410. I hate to say it but this model is not good. If you desperately need 4k, atmos and dts:x then you might be able to suffer it. This model feels like a step forward in terms of keeping up with the latest technological formats but at a cost of hardware which appears slower and less responsive than previous models. It feels like you take a step backward, accessing my NAS was slower, so was using the A500 as a NAS for other popcorns to stream from. The slow responsiveness through the jukebox/menus make you feel like you have purchased an inferior product. It could play the 4k video I tested but there where some dodgy moments with HVEC and audio codecs which it couldnt play leaving no sound - this was always the best selling point of a Popcorn that it could play anything you threw at it. The ethernet port on the rear stopped working, which from what I can see on Networkmediatank forum is a common problem.I like the brand but with this model the theory is nice but in practice doesn't work out well. I wont be buying any other A500 range model and will wait to see if these issues are resolved in a A510 or just wait to see what happens for an A600. If that doesnt come in time to upgrade then Im going else where.

I've owned an A500 for three months and have just requested a replacement for a faulty unit. Unfortunately the support from Cloud Media was nothing less than abysmal - I was never authorised to post on their support forums nor did they ever respond to two RMA requests. Thankfully Amazon were exemplary in how they dealt with the return.In short, my A500 user experience was:+ Simple UI and easy to use+ Played non-4K files without issues, although some files displayed stuttering.- Struggled with all 4K files I tried- Incessant network/IP address issues- Lousy manufacturer support- Required frequent full reboots (not standby)I would advise potential buyers to think twice about an A500 purchase. Future firmware upgrades may fix its inconsistent performance.

This unit is significantly more expensive than the Shield and other Android boxes but I feel I've had value. To start with the negatives, It wouldn't play a couple of "bad" mkv rips that the Shield managed to. Also it takes more than 50 seconds to boot to a useable home screen and is not the snappiest player around menus I've ever had. Once you get used to how the menu system works it's fine, but not exactly intuitive.All that aside picture quality is great with full support for Atmos and DTSx. I generally play mkv bluray rips over the network that are 20gb plus without issue. The internal jukebox scraped my files well enough and it's a real boon that the iPad app is so functional. It's the best app I've seen on a video streamer. Build quality is good too and I've used it all day without even getting warm. No fan so it's quiet.All in all I'm very happy and it would get five stars but for the minor niggles I noted at the beginning.Edit - with further use it became clear that the player was not good with 4K, fussy about playing mkv and the weather widget on the front screen was sometimes there, sometimes not. So I sent back.

I didn't by this product off Amazon, but a local PC shop called Scan in Bolton.I have to say, i was very suprised to see the poor reviews for this product, i must be lucky. The Popcorn Hour A500 is expensive, but a quality product. Excellent video quality with very good codec support. The Audio is audiophile quality too. I have the unit connected to my Yamaha Cinema amp and also connected to my Yamaha AS 500 hifi Amp, which is used for the front left and right channels in movies, and stereo output when playing music. The popcorn A500 plays SACD audio files and any other format ive managed to download. It can be used in full Jukebox mode and does a reasonably job of downloading artwork for movie and music files. It can also be used in straight folder mode which I prefer from time to time. If needed a seperate NMJ editing program can be downloaded to correct tags. The unit supports several users streaming content at the same time without lag. If you have an android tablet you can download NMJ sofware enabling you to view your movie/tv show collection box artwork on the tablet. Click any artwork image and you can see series info, episodes. synopsis etc. Click 'play' button on the image and your selection begins to play on the TV. If you want to watch on the tablet instead simply use something like VLC and browse to the PCH-500 Upnp AV server. Click 'LAN' in VLC and it finds the POPCORN 500 immediately. You can then browse all your folders as usual, adding folders to favs within VLC will leave them at the top of the VLC menu. If you want a fully networked media box solution, you wont go wrong with this.

Having owned A110 / C200 and now A500.1st box worked ok but locked up after 24hrs on standby, then the LAN port died 100%Had to take apart and send the mainboard to the USA, the USA then sent to China, China then sent to the USA and then I got replaced in the UK (*AT MY EXPENSE!!!!!).New repaired box locked up after 15 - 20 mins playing, contacted China they took back for repair.... Now locks up in 10 Mins!!! Good going guys.Refuses to revert to rescue firmware.Sent board to China, new board arrives, 100% the same EXCEPT i can now revert to default firmware that locks up in 10 mins, they suggested upgrading to latest firmware.... guess what???? It locks up in 10 mins.Tried multiple hard drives, multiple wipes, default settings, correct settings.... just locks up.This was the worst item I have ever purchased!!!! Excepting a few terrible restaurants offerings.SO ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!