There’s a further USB 2.0 port at the rear next to the HDMI 1.4 connection which neighbours the component video outputs and a pair of stereo out jacks. That’s not a problem for us as we only use wired connections for media playback but it will be an issue for some. Next to that is a Gigabit LAN port note, the A-500 doesn’t have built-in Wi-Fi but you can buy a wireless AC module should you wish.
Around the rear we have a USB 3.0 slave port, which might come in handy for transferring large amounts of data between the A-500 and a PC, or to hook up to an external optical drive although we currently have no details on driver support.
Below that is a full-sized SD Card slot and to its right a USB 2.0 port. There’s a ‘quick docking’ SATA hard drive bay to the right, which can be locked in place, and can accommodate 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives. The build quality of the A-500 is excellent with its brushed, black aluminium casing both looking and feeling the part. All of that functionality comes at a price, of course, with the Popcorn Hour A-500 available for around £168 - so it’s not the cheapest - but if it does all that it says on the spec sheet, it’s a sure fire winner and a more plug 'n' play alternative to boxes using KODI as a media player and organiser. On paper, the A-500 is a near holy grail of a product for those that like to stream their locally stored media collections with support for 4K and 3D video, including menus and subtitles, HD audio passthrough and gapless hi-res audio playback among the feature set. The product reviewed here is not to be confused with the A-500 Pro, which recently came to market on the back of Kickstarter campaign although they do share many of the same credentials. It offers up outstanding quality (720p or 1080p) and useful features like subtitles and searching.The Popcorn Hour A-500 is a Linux based media streamer and a follow up to the company’s VTEN device which, in itself, was the latest in a long line of media players, given that manufacturer Cloud Media (formally Syabas) have been in this product sector almost since the beginning. Popcorn Time is an excellent tool for watching streaming movies. Best of all, you can skip forward or back in your viewing without affecting the quality of the stream.
Once you've selected a movie to watch, it will take somewhere between thirty and sixty seconds to load. You can even adjust the size of the subtitles. Just activate the corresponding option and choose your language. And, of course, you can use the search function to find a specific movie if you have one in mind.Īlmost all of the films on Popcorn Time come with subtitles in various languages. You can filter movies by genre and search for animated films, sci-fi, spy thrillers, comedies, action, and more.
That basically means that the first movies that you'll see when you open the app are new releases in 720p and 1080p quality.īut there is more than just new releases available to you with Popcorn Time. In the main window of Popcorn Time you'll see the most popular movies of the service, which typically includes new DVD and Bluray releases.
The difference is that with this app, you don't have to download a thing.
Popcorn Time is an app that enables you to watch tons of streaming movies - from classics to new releases - by using the traditional Torrent file interchange service.