The Winner of our HDX 1000 Drawing is...

The winner of our HDX 1000 drawing is Henry Beecher.

Frankly speaking, we are always nervious about the drawing result. We have a random number generator to pick the winner. However, we only have the winner's name and email address. We don't know if the winner will response to our notification email, nor do we know if the winner is serious about trying out the HDX 1000.

This time, when we see Henry's response, we know the unit goes to a good hand. we were literally blown away with his setup picture.



As Henry discribed:

"In the wooden cabinet is a Vizio VW26L HD LCD TV displaying a YAMJ menu screen.

The sound system on top of the cabinet is a SoundMatters MainStageHD configured with a SubStage100 subwoofer (concealed under the cabinet) and a pair of Polk Atrium 45p rear-channel speakers (not in photo).

An Acer ASX1200 located on the bottom of the AV rack serves as an 64bit Vista HTPC running Orb, TVersity and PlayOn as well as Hauppauge HD PVR software and various video transcoding applications.

To the immediate left of the HTPC, and partialy obscured, is a Linksys NSLU2 (with unslung firmware) running TwonkyMedia which serves as a NAS and is configured with a 1TB SATA drive in an Antec MX-1 enclosure (standing vertically on the outside lower-right of the cabinet). A Hauppauge HD PVR1212 is just below the Antec enclosure. A Neuros OSD (SD PVR) is located under the lower-right corner of the LCD TV.

There are three internet set-top boxes: a Roku N1000 located under the lower-left corner of the LCD TV; a Vudu BX100 located on top of the HTPC; and a Verismo VuNow Pod configured with a 128GB SATA drive in AnyWare Xpress enclosure, both standing vertically between the Antec enclosure and the Linksys NAS (above the PVR1212).

There are thee digital media players: a Klegg MediaShareMega standing vertically to the lower left of the LCD TV (on top of the Roku); the HDX1000 configured with a 64GB SSD SATA drive stands vertically on top of the Klegg; and a D-Link DSM520 sandwiched horizontally on top of a Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-ray player and under a Sony RDR-GXD455 DVD recorder (all three in the mid-section of the AV rack).

Six devices (BD player, DSM520, DVD recorder, Roku, HDX1000, and Vudu) are connected via component, composite and HDMI switches. The VuNow Pod and Klegg are only connected via HDMI. These three types of switches are located on the top level of the AV rack as follows: top-most are two PylePro 4x1 HDMI switches connecting 4 devices each to the 2 HDMI ports on the LCD TV; under the HDMI switches is a MCM Electronics matrix 6x2 composite switch connecting 6 devices (listed above) to the Neuros OSD and DVD recorder; lastly, under the composite switch is an Impact Accoustics matrix 6x2 component switch connecting the same 6 devices to the HD PVR1212 and the LCD TV.

The DVD recorder is not ethernet capable. The VuNow POD connects wirelessly to the home network. All the other devices are wired with CAT5 RJ45 cable."

Item	Manufacturer	Model	Comment
HD LCD TV	Vizio	VW26L	Displaying YAMJ Screen
Sound System	SoundMatters	MainStageHD	Concealed under cabinet and not in the photo
Subwoofer	SoundMatters	SubStage100
Rear Speakers	Polk	Atrium 45p
HTPC	Acer	ASX1200	Running Orb, TVersity, PlayOn
NAS	Linksys	NSLU2	Flashed with unslung firmware
Drive enclosure	Antec	MX-1	1TB SATA drive
HD PVR	Hauppauge	HD PVR1212
SD PVR	Neuros Technology	Neuros OSD
Internet STB #1	Vudu	BX100
Internet STB #2	Verismo	VuNow Pod	w 128GB SATA in AnyWare Xpress
Internet STB #3	Roku	N100
Digital Media Player #1	Klegg	MediaShareMega
Digital Media Player #2	Digitech	HDX 1000	w 64GB SSD SATA drive
Digital Media Player #3	D-Link	DSM 520
BlueRay Player	Samsung	BD-P1400
DVD Recorder	Sony	RDR-GXD455
HDMI switch X2	Pylepro	4X1
Component switch #1	MCM Electronics	matrix 6 X 2
Composite switch #2	Impact Accoustics	matrix 6 X 2

Thank you, Henry, for such a detailed explanation of your setup. Hope you enjoy your HDX 1000. And, remember to tell your insurance agent the HDX 1000 worth $1000 dollars!

Interesting HDX 1000 Marketing Survey Result

Thanks for all the participants in our marketing survey. There are total 105 current or possible future HDX 1000 owners turning in their answers in that short one week period. Here I want to share the result with you.

1. How do you plan to connect the HDX 1000 to the Network?

In the 105 survey participants, 74 people (70%) use (or will use) a Ethernet cable to connect the HDX 1000 to the LAN. 26 people (25%) use wireless connection. 2 people use power-line Ethernet. Apparently, most people realize the wire connection can achieve the better data transfer rate. They also have a network port available near their TV.



There are still 25% of the participants using (or wanting to use) wireless connection. According to my personal experience, the wireless connection works ok in playing 720p content. If you have a lot of 1080p content, it is recommended to switch to the wire connection for better playback quality. Besides, 25% is really higher than my expectation. Maybe I need to go source the TP-Link TL-821N wifi adapter and make it available on AmperorDirect.

BTW, I’m pretty interesting in those 2 people who are using the power-line Ethernet connection. I’ll contact them to get some real user experience.

2. What kind of the video format do you plan to play via the HDX 1000?

The top five video format people play via the HDX 1000 are: mkv (59%), avi (56%), mpeg (41%), iso (39%) and wmv (24%). The .m2ts, .mov, .vob, .mpeg4 and other popular formats are also been used by people. A person claims that he can connect an external DVD-ROM directly to the HDX 1000 USB port and use the HDX 1000 to playback the movie in the DVD-ROM. I need to try this myself. (If you have the similar setup on your HDX 1000, please let me know.)

3. Do you plan to install an internal HDD? If so, what’s the preferred HDD capacity?

Surprisingly, 84 people mention that they plan to equip an internal HDD in their HDX 1000. That equals 80% of the total 105 survey participants! Too bad I didn’t put down the question right. I should ask people to reveal if they have already installed the HDD or not. If most of them have installed the HDD, I wonder if the big argument on the NMT official forum: the heat generated from the internal HDD might affect the performance, can be true. (To me, I’ve never encountered any heat issue created by the Western Digital 1TB Green Caviar HDD WD10EADS installed in my HDX 1000.)

For all the 84 people who plan to install the internal HDD, 17% prefer 1.5TB or higher capacity HDD, 55% prefer 1TB or 750GB, 12% prefer capacity under or equal 500GB. 15% didn’t reveal their preference. More than half of them prefers a larger HDD (>= 1TB).



4. Any suggestion to AmperorDirect?

I really appreciate people who take time to write down good suggestions. The most mentioned complain is for the bad manual / setup guide included in the package. I’ll let Digitech know about the issue and see if they can do any improvements. I’ve also began to construct quick installation guide and firmware updating procedure on Youtube. Hope eventually everybody can have simple and clear instruction to setup their HDX 1000.

Some people ask for more available options, such as different capacity HDD and cable, to bundle with the product. Some ask for where to find better looking GUI and plug-ins. Some ask to enable the .rm and .rmvb playback capability. Next week, I’ll address each issue with the individual who asked the question.

Again, thanks for all the survey participants. Your efforts really help us to plan for our next move. We have marked down the HDX 1000 price to $224.88 (including shipping to 48 US states) in our Easter Egg Hunt Sale. If you have monitored our offering constantly, you would know that we seldom bring down the price to this level. Therefore, to those people who complain about the price in the above 4th survey question, it is a good time to take your action…

PS. I have not forgot the most important thing: announce the drawing winner. I’ll start to contact the winner and will post the name at here after I got the response from the winner.

Happy Easter!

HDX 1000 Firmware Update released - 3/6/2009

As title.

Go here to get your new firmware.

If you need help updating your firmware, click here.

The fix in this version includes:

1. Requires NMT apps 00-17-090115-15-HDD-403
2. Browser / System
- Improvement on font engine character rendering (30% speed up)
- faster navigation on local drives
- Use numeric key to input item number to jump to the page where item is located
- Improved fileplayer speed
- Fixed HDMI display output blackout issue for auto EDID
- Discrete RC (Logitech) scancode fix
- Updated network share and webservices language packs.
- Removed EXT2 option for NMT installation
- Note: due to long term reliability issue with EXT2 on device that is frequently turned off abruptly
- Additional symbols can be input from "1" key
- HTTP download manager (only works with links with special "download" attributes.
- File player hide Recycle Bin folder
- Fixed 'TV MODE' + '3' key handling bug
- Fixed recovery kernel no red screen displayed
- Browser image caching fix, should fix some YAMJ crashes or no image issue.
- Fixed HDD spin-up during standby
- Fixed slow loading of HTML pages
3. Web Services
- New UI
- customizable icon feature with browse image utility (need NMT apps)
- bug fixes on customizable service icon with browse feature.
- Web Services page modification
- Fixed a "save/remove service" bug
- Now able to customise JPG/BMP icon
- Fixed slow IR response while playback Internet Radio
- Immediate response to STOP during Internet video streaming
- Fine-tune Web Service UI
4. Network
- Improved SMB server startup time
- Improved browsing time for SMB client
- Atheros USB WiFi stability fixes
- Fixed SMB client hostname resolution picked up wrong IP address from the IP list
- Fixed file copy failed from HDD to SMB/NFS with names containing whitespace
- Fixed UPnP AV server playall issue broken in previous release
- Fixed Samba server halts after device name change
- Torrent client is now by default Transmission (btpd removed)
**** IMPORTANT NOTE: Please ensure completion with previous downloads with BTPD, as new Transmission client cannot inherit previous downloads.
- Fixed torrent schedule page not working
- Fixed occasionally newly created SMB/NFS shares doesn't show up in media source list
- Atheros USB WiFi added support for TP-Link v2 stick
- Fixed persistent private IP when DHCP server unavailable (e.g. cross-cable connection etc)
5. Playback
- Bookmark/resume for single playback
- 10 bookmarks available now
- Press stop to bookmark the last video playback
- Press enter / play with focus on bookmarked clip to resume
- Press "0" to start from beginning of clip
- Auto framerate synchronisation
- Framerate sync function in ISO playback, only for 50,60Hz modes (PAL/NTSC)
- switch to NTSC(60Hz) when selected mode not applicable.(previously, it will follow TV mode selected)
- Use 59.94 for NTSC when matching content detected.
- Fixed incorrect data shown on infobar.
- Fixed after ISO playback, screen goes blank when framerate sync kicks in
- Improved info display
- Disable incorrect video MPEG1/2 VBR display.
- Fixed incorrect framerate info for video playback (*.mov, *.mp4).
- Fixed video bitrate calculation error (less 1 packet every second)
- Modified infobar UI (height, spacing and text displayed)
- Fixed info bar losing text after paused
- Improved accuracy of mpeg1/2 bitrate information
- Photo app
- Fixed JPEG (PNG / TIFF transcode) from myiHome server cannot be displayed
- Fade-In Fade-out effect added for photo transition
- Enable large jpeg rotation. (downscale before rotate)
- Fixed faded color for jpeg at 360-deg rotation
- TV Type setting for DVD playback
- the TV type setting is now working for DVD video playback (4:3 and 16:9 only, 16:10 will treat as 16:9)
- DVD Menu
- new popup menu if MENU key on PCH remote controller is pressed
- user can select to jump to ROOT, TITLE, CHAPTER.... etc from the menu
- Modified progressive zoom and pan in ISO/IFO playback
- Removed up/down keys as prev/next track/td>
- VCD *.DAT playback fixed using soft demux
- Fixed "repeat" keypress in myiHome when playback audio caused picture playback to halt
- Improved handling of MKV H.264 profile and vlevel.
- Fixed cannot stream MPEG from UPnP AV server, liveTV
- Fixed .pls file unable to start when playback locally (HDD/SMB/NFS)
- *.m3u playlist supported.
- Fixed TS with stream6 as teletext playback cause out of memoryFixed MKV H264 L4.1 pixelated video issue
- Fixed MKV H264 L4.1 pixelated video issue
- Fixed ISO over SMB stutter issue, when no HDD attached
6. Subtitle
- Fixed subtitle parsing with BOM (UTF8 support only)
- Fixed wrong character rendered in Thai subtitle
- Changed default subtitle font size to 28 and Y offset to 10
- Exception handling in SSA subtitle parsing
- Slight adjustment of subtitle position

HDX 1000 Video Guide #2: Firmware Updating Process

The 2nd part of the HDX 1000 Video Guide is to present the firmware updating process.

I've tried to change my screen resolution from 1024 x 768 to 800x600, and record the TV screen via composite output. However, the result is not what I expect to have - the words are still too small.

Just in case you cannot read it (who can...?). Here are the steps in writing.

1. At the HDX 1000, go to Setup > Maintenance and write down the firmware version. The 3rd section of the version number represent the date code yy/mm/dd. For example, 080812 means 2008/08/12.

2. Go to Digitech's website. Click on the "Download" button on the top of the web page. Then, select: "HDX 1000 Download Section" > "HDX 1000 Firmware".

3. The first firmware listed is the latest version. Compare your version wrote down in step 1. and download the firmware if you don't have the latest version.

4. Unzip the downloaded file to the root directory of a USB drive. (There should be 5 files created after the unzip process.)

5. Plug in the USB drive to the USB port right above the LAN port.

6. At your HDX 1000, click on the "Media Source". Click on the USB drive and click on the "Document" icon.

7. Run the "usbupdate.html" file. The updating process will begin. The whole process takes around 5 mins to complete.

8. Optional: if you have the internal SATA HDD installed, the NMT application will be updated as well after the firmware updating process.

HDX 1000 Video Guide #1: Quick Installation

This is the first part of the HDX 1000 video guide. I'm going to go over the installation process from opening the box, connecting the cables, accessing the library resided in PC, browsing the library and do a high definition content playback.

Some computer screen shoots are surprisingly small after doing the video format converting. I'll try to see if there is any way to enlarge the screen shoots.

Gap Issue -1

As you might have already known, the latest HDX 1000 related news is about a gap existing between the CPU heatsink and the bottom case in some users’ machine. A user, Black6spdz, first reported this issue at NMT forum, and several people observed the same thing in their machines as well.


The Gap between CPU heatsink and the case

Just in case you haven’t heard about this, in the following is a recap from another HDX 1000 user, ydrol. Thanks for his permission of letting me use his summary article posted at the HDX official forum. He has spent quite some time on this issue and brought us some good pictures to better illustrate the gap. (He also writes some 3rd part software plug-in for the NMT application. Please see the link at http://prodynamic.co.uk/nzbget/index.html for his works.)

“I recently bought 3 HDX boxes in January.

Prior to this 'gap' issue: Two units appeared to be working OK. (though bad cooling can affect longevity of electronics)

One unit was exhibiting random Ethernet drops, and I raised a support ticket to this effect. I was trying to troubleshoot the ethernet issue, and had just moved to doing some more intensive testing (*) but upon seeing the post in the NMT forums I opened the faulty unit and noticed the gap and thermal pad placement. I trimmed down the stand-offs(+), applied some thermal paste and made sure the heat-spreader was in direct contact with the cover when re-assembled.

I had not completed testing of my Ethernet issue before making this change, so I cannot say for certain whether cooling was the root cause. I know the issue has gone away though.

I opened my working HDX box and noticed the same thing, so I changed that also.

Some observations and acknowledgements: - Thanks to Black6spdZ for spotting this issue.
- Thanks to Alex of HDX for timely response on this issue. - Thanks to Doom for some balance & sanity check

- The HDX case is very nice as we all know, and overall appears well designed. I would still recommend them over other models in terms of looks and cooling potential. My only real concern regarding recommending HDX, was general responsiveness from HDX support in the new year, but in this particular matter - I've no complaints.

- My thermal pad placement, appears to be a fairly isolated incident, judging by other posts on other forums. My HDX was ordered 7th Jan 2009 and received 15th Jan. Serial HDX1K00835*. I should really open the 3rd HDX, (which was ordered for a friend, esp has he has a proper HD setup, I'm a CRT man). But before I do, I will try my paper test (**) and report back.

- The gap issue appears to be more widespread. There is suggestion that the gap is closed when the unit is assembled and only appears when disassembled. If so, this would be solely due to pressure from the AV sockets and the 3 screws on the AV panel. I'm sceptical of this , but one user 'doom' has reported that the gap is closed (thermal paste was transferred from the pad to the heatspreader just by them re-assembling their unit)

- HDX have been quite responsive on this issue thus far, offering to send me thermal paste etc. My only experience of them has been since the new year, so I wasn't expecting this much response so soon.”

On the Network dropping issue, he also reported:

"I put the unit back together, and after a while the network dropped (this unit was working OK before this!). The LAN light on my router was flashing about 10 times a second , but the ethernet lights on the HDX appeared stable.

On further examination it looks like the component legs of the ethernet and av sockets, have scratched through the paintwork of the AV panel and shorting on the case!

I will have to revist the other boxes and make sure the component legs are not touching the AV panel."

Yesterday, I randomly picked three HDX 1000 units from my inventory and found the gap existed in one of them. In addition to ydrol’s summary, I want to add in one more observation.

During the dis-assembly process, I found the PCB is tight down to the bottom case using two mechanisms.

1. The two screws / standoffs, covered by the green glue in the below picture, help to secure the PCB’s non AV panel side to the bottom case.



2. After the AV panel is assembled onto the case wall, it then be tight down to the bottom case by the screws indicated by green color on the other side walls.



There are several screw holes reserved, but not used in the design. For examples, the screw between X4 and X7, and the two screws on the AV panel wall are not installed.






In order to observe the gap, we need to disassemble the side walls. However, when doing so, it removes the 2nd mechanism mentioned above. We all know it needs three or more screws to hold two plains together. With only two screws at work, it would exaggerate the gap.

I then push the AV panel and the bottom case together by hand. I can see the gap diminished, but still existed. However, it is not as large as I originally observed. With the gap in this size, I think applying thermal paste to the CPU heatsink to make sure the good contact between the silicon pad and the heatsink itself can be a good solution to close the gap.

Digitech (HDX) is willing to help on the issue. They are going to send me some silicon pad and the thermal paste. For our existing customers and the HDX 1000 users in US, if you want to apply the paste onto your machine, please send me an email. I’ll send a pack of silicon pad and paste to you for free. If you are not in US and didn’t bought the HDX 1000 from AmperorDirect, we will charge the shipping fee if you want us to ship the pack to you. (You can always contact Alex @ hdx1080.com for this, too. I think he will ship you the pack for free.)

I’m trying to ask Digitech to publish an official paste applying procedure. I’ll post the procedure at here when it is available.

Again, thanks ydrol for the work. The pictures in this post are all from him. Please visit his site if you want to explore the potentials to use HDX 1000 with nzbget.

Please visit AmperorDirect for our HDX 1000 product page.

To all who have concerns about Digitech / HDX

In order to find out whether Digitech / HDX is still alive or not, yesterday afternoon, we sent our top secret agent, Kevin, to their headquarters in ShenZhen, China, to perform an inspection. This is actually the first time we paid them a visit after they moved to the new office. Kevin told me that he was very nervous while driving because of the current fiasco going on over the Internet. He just doesn’t want to see Digitech moving from a penthouse executive suite, to a dark basement room (which also happens to be the boss’ kitchen and bedroom). This will prove that everybody’s guess is right!

The following is a picture taken when Kevin was stopped in traffic. This position is very close to Digitech’s new office. If you have not visited ShenZhen for a long time, you would be totally amazed by the modernization of the city.




The “Cyber Square” building is the building where the new Digitech / HDX office is located. On the lower floors of this building, there is a huge computer and consumer electronics shopping mall. If you live in ShenZhen and are a computer geek like me, this is the place which is the closest mimic to heaven.




Digitech’s office is located on the upper floor. Right before entering their office, you can see the HDX logo we all familiar with.




Besides, just to prove that the office is not in the basement, Kevin took a picture to show us the view of looking outside through their office window.




OK, let’s start by introducing the important people. The first one is their sales VP, Wood Liu. He travels a lot to develop China’s domestic market. We were so lucky to catch him during this visit. In the picture you can see his signature “buddhistic” smile and his precious baby: Mac book. He is also the first batch of people in China adapting to the iPhone.




The person in the next picture is their engineering VP, Sam Cui. He was trying to answer the interview questions while Kevin was taking the picture. You can also see that he still keeps a HDX 900 on his desktop.




There are also others. Just to show you how crowded a typical Chinese office setting can be, Kevin randomly picked a cubical to take this picture.




Here are the questions we asked them:

Q1. What is the initial design idea and expectation behind the HDX series?

Wood: We want to have a dedicated, cost effective and user friendly unit to playback high definition media content.

Q2: Reliability and sustainability always come into play while people are looking into all kinds of different NMT. Could you give us more details about how the HDX is manufactured and how the quality control (QC) is handled at your manufacturing site?

Wood: We can provide you some pictures of our production line (in the following). Increasing reliability and sustainability is the most important concept in our design. That is why we chose the thickest (compared to the NMT competitors) sheet metal as the HDX 1000 case material. Our factory uses the industry standard quality control procedures to make sure we can ship out good quality products. We also save the QC data for any future improvement purposes. We have high confidence in the HDX 1000. That’s why we are willing to set you (AmperorDirect) up and support you as our North American repair center. We don’t think the chance to perform repairs is high.


The serial number label attaching and final packaging station


Testing Stations


WIP (half assembly) units in transit


Boxes and boxes of HDX 1000 waiting to go out

Q3: What is the HDX capable of? Could you provide a detailed list of what can be played directly or indirectly through the HDX (e.g. H.264, M-Jpeg…etc.)

Sam: Mzts, ts, mpg, trp, tp, vob, wmv, mkv, avi, mp3, flac, wma, ogg, mp4, wav, mov... The detailed list can be found at NMTWiki.

Q4: Some people are still having issues updating their HDX firmware through the Internet. What’s your recommendation on how to perform the update?

Sam: The online update method should be available now as we are talking. If people have trouble connecting to the server, they can download the firmware and the NMT application, put them in a USB drive and update the system from there.

Q5: People are having HDD compatibility issues. Can you recommend certain brands/criteria when selecting an HDD to work with the HDX?

Sam: I personally like the Western Digital Caviar Green series. They are the most efficient models I know on the market and can dissipate less heat while it is installed inside the HDX 1000. A detailed compatibility list can be found at NMTWiki.

Q6: Could you provide detailed, step by step instructions on how to perform the recovery when the system is Frozen? Is there a way to reset the HDX-1000 back to factory settings by just using the remote?

Sam: On the remote control, you can hit “TV” and then hit “0”. It should reset your machine.

(Howard: I’m not very sure about this sequence. If anybody can try it, please let me know about the result. )

Q7: What is the schedule to get the DTS license to enable the dts down-mixing capability on the HDX?

Wood: At this point, I am sorry I cannot give you an accurate schedule. However, please believe me that Sam and Wood are the two people on earth who want to see the DTS license for HDX 1000 most. Getting the license is our highest work priority. We will again have another meeting with DTS tomorrow. We hope we can give you a more confirmed schedule by then.

Q8: Do you know about the current rumor floating around the Internet about Digitech going out of business? Do you wish to address this rumor?

Wood: First of all, the rumor is wrong. Digitech is still alive. The disaster is triggered after Alex booked a trip to China. He has experienced an under-staffing issue and two rounds of hacker attack. The delay in getting DTS license also disappoints people. We apologize for the inconvenience and we have surely learned a lesson. I know you (AmperorDirect) have people browsing through different discussion forums periodically. Next time, please inform us as soon as you hear something wrong on the Internet. We’ll surely take the appropriate action early.

(Howard: I don’t know when Wood and Sam started to realize about the communication issue.)

Q9: What does the future hold as far as the HDX series or other NMT development?

Sam: We expect to see the next generation NMT player has the ability to playback Bluray discs. For the Chinese domestic market, we want to have a unit which can decode the DMB-TH TV signal.

Before leaving, Kevin took another picture with Wood and Sam. In this picture, you can see the typical figure of salesman, procurement and engineer. Sales person is always trying to be friendly. Hence, he will have the arm around the other people. Procurement is always the king. They will stand in the middle of the photo. And, the engineer is always the shy guy standing at the side. But, don’t be fooled by Sam’s appearance. After he opens ups, it is not easy to stop him… :)



Check out HDX 1000 on AmperorDirect website

Popcornhour A-110 Review #4 - Conclusions

Better Firmware on Popcornhour A-110?

One more thing to mention before we get into the conclusion section: people always ask if the Popcornhour A-110 has the better firmware installed. Since Popcornhour is Syabas' own brand, the firmware of the Popcornhour A-110 is maintained by the original design team. People think the original design team should know better about the code and could make the firmware work better. Is this assumption correct?


The Popcornhour A-110

The answer is no and yes. From my understanding, Digitech does not have the software programing capability yet. They still relay on Syabas to maintain the firmware on the HDX 1000. In addition, they have the agreement signed to keep up with the latest NMT software revision. There should really be no difference between the firmware on the two machines.

However, according to the history, there is still a little difference in the firmware update speed. The latest A-110 firmware update (01-17-081023-15-POP-403) happened on 11/4/2008. The latest of the Hdx 1000 (50-17-081023-15-HDD-403-000) happened on 11/11/2008. There exist a one-week delay on the HDX 1000 side. But, you can see two firmwares are both in the 081023 version. Eventually, they will become identical.


The Digitech HDX 1000

Well, don't begin to throw rocks on me. I know HDX 1000 still cannot do dts downmixing. I've heard several versions of the reasons. The only thing I can be sure of is they will eventually have that activated on the HDX 1000 (via firmware update). The estimated time for that to happen is at Jan, 2009.

Conclusion

Again, the Popcornhour A-110 has almost identical function set as the Digitech HDX 1000. They stock very similar components on the PCBs and are installed with the same NMT software. The known issues and workarounds listed for the HDX 1000 can still be applied to the A-110. I think the look and the thermal performance are the two main decision points to make if you want to pick one machine out of these two.

In the following you can see the list of all the major differences between the A-110 and the HDX 1000.

• The Look: The A-110 looks more trendy. The HDX 1000 looks more sturdy.

• The Weight: The A-110 weights 1.5 pounds. The HDX 1000 weights 2.5 pounds.

• The Size: The A-110 is 10.5" x 5" x 1.5". The HDX 1000 is 8" x 8" x 2".

• Case Sheet Metal Thickness: The A-110 uses 0.06" sheet metal on the case. The HDX 1000 uses 0.09".

• Sheet Metal Painting: The HDX 1000 is easy to collect finger prints. The A-110 is not.

• Output Interface Options: Both have very similar options, such as the HDMI 1.3v. The only difference is the A-110 has S-Video output. The HDX 1000 has optical audio output.

• I/O Interface Option at the Front Panel: The A-110 has USB port at the front panel. The HDX 1000 has 3-in-1 card reader.

• AC Power Adapter: The A-110 AC power adapter is more efficient. The HDX 1000 power adapter outputs less noise & ripple.

• Thermal Performance: The HDX 1000 is designed with better heat management mechanism.

• DRAM Size: No difference.

• Battery on PCB: The A-110 has the watch battery installed on PCB. The HDX 1000 does not.

Check out the HDX 1000 on AmperorDirect Website

Popcornhour A-110 Review #3 - Peek inside the Box

Introduction

Part #3 of the Popcornhour A-110 review will take you on a journey traveling inside the A-110. The trip starts from disassembling the A-110’s well designed mechanical case. Then, the secret and the benefits of the A-110’s miniature design will be revealed. At the end, we are going to compare the A-110 with the HDX 1000, again, down to the component level inside the case.


Ready to open the case?

Good Mechanical Design

While disassembling the A-110 case, I realize Popcornhour must have spent quite some time on the mechanical design. Many details are thought out in the R&D process. As a customer, I have the feeling of being very well taken care of.

On the four corners of the top cover, you will see four big thumb screws. There is no need to grab a screw driver if you just want to lift off the cover. The shining thumb screws also serve for cosmetic purposes. They take away that monotonic and computer device type feeling and create a trendy appearance.


The Shining Thumb Screws at the Four Corners

There are slots constructed on the four corner supports. You can slide the four side walls into these slots. This preformed-metal-design reduces the screw usage and guarantees an easy assembling / disassembling experience.


Slide out the Rear Panel

Two of the four side walls have venting holes built-in, to improve the A-110’s convection cooling performance.


Two Side Walls Equipped w Venting Holes

The bottom case is equipped with two long narrow-shape stand-offs. It assures that there is enough clearance between the internal SATA HDD and the bottom case (if you want to put one in). Besides, the internal HDD can be directly connected to the SATA connector on the PCB. There won’t be a long, messy SATA cable hanging around inside the case.


Room Reserved to Install SATA HDD

Miniature Footprint

The small footprint of the A-110 is achieved by a jam packed PCB design. Popcornhour’s engineer has made use of every spot on both sides of the PCB and has successfully kept the distance between parts, short. The size of the A-110 PCB is 3.5” x 5”. Compared to the HDX 1000’s main PCB: 5.5” x 5.5”, it is relatively small. If it was not necessary to reserve a space inside the case for the installation of an internal SATA HDD, Popcornhour A-110 could really be as small as an IstarHD Mini.


HDX 1000 Main PCB (left) & A-110 Main PCB + Output Interface Daughter Board (right)

The A-110 internal layout design is really compact. Components, including the main PCB, output interface daughter board and the optional SATA HDD, are arranged to sit side by side, but in a very clean and neat way. The only thing I don’t like in this arrangement is the long on/off switch cable running across the output interface daughter board. This long cable can work as an antenna and pick up noise from the busy output interface.


See the Red and Black Cables Running Across the Output Section?

A-110 vs. HDX 1000

After carefully observing the PCBs from both vendors, I found that they use identical parts on the PCBs in many positions. For example, they both use Sigma’s SMP8635 as the main processor, Silicon Image’s SiI9134 as the HDMI 1.3 transmitter chip and Nanya’s NT5DS32M16CS as the DRAM. It makes me wonder if there is a reference design published by Sigma or Syabas. With the identical hardware components and the NMT software installed, you can expect to have a very similar experience when using Popcornhour A-110 and Digitech HDX 1000. (They are even produced by the same factory!)

The most significant difference between the two machines is on the heat management mechanism implemented. This is where the HDX 1000 excels. Except the thicker sheet metal and the larger metal surface area mentioned in the previous post, the larger PCB footprint on the HDX 1000 helps to improve the thermal performance, too. The big components (usually the heat generating sources) are placed further apart on the PCB. Thus, the heat density is lower in the HDX 1000 machine.

In addition, on the HDX 1000, the hottest part: Sigma SMP8635, is attached to the case through a flat aluminum heat-sink (equal to the chip size) and the white thermal grease. From my previous life as a power supply design engineer, I used to have this argument with the production engineers about the thermal grease. They always complain that the grease is too messy to use on the production line and want to replace the grease by silicon pad. But, I always find the grease ensures better contact between two hard objects and helps to drain the heat faster. Guess what... Silicon pad is what they use on the A-110 to connect the SMP8635 heatsink to the case. This is another reason why I think the HDX 1000 can have better thermal performance than the A-110.


The White Thermal Grease used on the SMP8635 Heat-sink in HDX 1000


The Silicon Pad used on the SMP8635 Heat-sink in A-110

There is also a myth about the memory size. According to the manufacturers’ website, the A-110 has 256MB and the HDX 1000 has 512Mb DRAM installed. It makes some people think that the HDX 1000 provides more memory. However, when I opened up the machines, I found both machines are equipped with 4pcs of Nanya 512Mb DRAM. What Digitech puts on their website is the DRAM type (512Mbits) they use in the HDX 1000. What Popcornhour lists is the total memory size (512Mbits x 4) / 8 = 256Mbytes in the A-110. The two machines actually carry the same amount of the DRAM, and both vendors are telling the truth. However, I found the information on the Digitech website is a little misleading.


#1 and #2 Nanya DRAM on the A-110 PCB component side (You can also see the heat-sink on SMP8635)


#3 and #4 Nanya DRAM on the A-110 PCB Solder Side


All four Nanya DRAM on the HDX 1000 PCB

The other minor dissimilarity to mention is that the HDX 1000 does not have the watch battery installed on the PCB. (The A-110 does.) According to Digitech, the battery is used to provide time information to the machine. Considering there is no time shift or advanced recording functions offered by the NMT player, the time information actually has little use. The lack of the watch battery on the HDX 1000 PCB won’t affect its performance.


Watch Battery Installed on the A-110 PCB


Battery not Installed on the HDX 1000 PCB

Check out the HDX 1000 Product Page on AmperorDirect

Popcornhour A-110 Review #2 - A-110 vs. HDX 1000 Round One

Introduction

In this article, we are going to run through a detailed comparison between Popcornhour A-110 and Digitech HDX 1000. The major differences are the look, the case material used, the available A/V interface options and the AC power adapter provided. As we mentioned in the previous post, both the A-110 and the HDX 1000 use Syabas NMT software. Therefore, the user interface and the functions offered are almost identical.


HDX 1000 & A-110: Front View

The Look, the Weight and the Size (What do you think I'm talking about...:p)

Placing Popcornhour A-110 and Digitech HDX 1000 side by side, you can easily notice the difference. The A-110 has that trendy type appearance. It reminds me of the look of the new computer gadgets you usually see spread unorganized around a computer wizard kid’s PC. On the other hand, the HDX 1000 looks like an old fashion sturdy machine. It is obvious to me that Digitech wants a design of which most people won’t have issues to place it on their entertainment rack in the living room.


HDX 1000 & A-110: Rear View

The A-110 weighs around 1.5 pounds and measures 10.5” x 5” x 1.5” in size. It is wider than the HDX 1000. The HDX 1000 weights around 2.5 pounds and measures as 8” x 8” x 2”. It is 1 pound heavier than the A-110.

Case Material

The sheet metal used by two vendors to build the case is different in thickness. According to my caliper, the thickness of the A-110 case measures around 0.06 inches. On the HDX 1000, it is measured around 0.09 inches. This is one reason why the A-110 weighs less than the HDX 1000. For the A-110, the major advantage of using a thinner sheet metal is they can better control both material and shipping costs. On the Popcornhour website, the transportation cost to ship A-110 from the Far East to the US is $20. (I know they have an office in California. But, the receipt in the box shows the unit went through the custom.) On Digitech’s website, it is $50 to transfer HDX 1000.


A-110 Sheet Metal Thickness: 0.061"

However, the thicker sheet metal and the larger total metal surface area on the HDX 1000 case can definitely help to transfer the heat out of the box faster. Thus, the heat accumulated in the box during the long-period-of usage will be reduced and the life of the components in the box will be prolonged. Here is a testimonial for HDX 900 on Digitech’s website: “Leaving both the players turned on for nearly 6 hours, the Popcorn Hour is almost scorching hot to the hand test while the HDX 900 felt warm; it is still cooler compared to the Popcorn Hour.” Although the testimonial is for the previous generation machine, there is not that much change between the generations. It should still be true for the HDX 1000.


HDX 1000 Sheet Metal Thickness: 0.095"

There is one more finding I want to mention about the HDX 1000 case: the paint material they use on the case makes it easy to collect finger prints. I don’t see the same thing happening on Popcornhour A-110.

Interface Options

Two models offer similar sets of the interface options. They all have HDMI 1.3v output for HD content playback and the component video and stereo audio output for analog content. The minor differences are: the Popcornhour A-110 has two USB ports (HDX 1000 has only one) and a S-Video output (HDX 1000 has none). The HDX 1000 has a 3-in-1 card reader and an optical audio output (A-110 has none).


Popcornhour A-110 Rear View

In addition, the A-110 has put one of its two USB ports at the front panel for easy-external-HDD-connection. The 3-in-1 card reader of the HDX 1000 is located at the front panel so that users can easily plug in their SD memory from their camera so that they can share the pictures with friends on the big screen.

AC Power Adapter

Here is my favorite part. I have worked for a power supply company for almost 10 years now so I can really go on for 10 pages describing my findings. However, I don’t think that will excite anybody…:)

Both Popcornhour and Digitech are out-sourcing the AC power adapter. In the below picture you can see the AC power adapter of the A-110 on the right hand side. It is bigger in size and uses a three prong power cord. Both AC adapters are rated to provide up to 12V, 3A output. They can accept a wide-range 100VAC ~ 240VAC input. If you can find a plug adapter, both units can be used overseas.


HDX 1000 (left) and A-110's AC Power Adapter

After some further checking, I found the AC adapter comes with the A-110 is more efficient. At nominal load condition, it is 86% (comparing to 82% of the adapter from HDX 1000). It is an expectable result because it has a bigger footprint. Usually, a larger AC adapter can cope better with the heat generated and lose less power inside the adapter. It is just interesting to see that Popcornhour decided to use a larger footprint AC adapter with their relatively smaller sized A-110 and Digitech does the opposite.

The only potential issue I see with the A-110 AC power adapter is the high ripple and noise sitting on the output. In the computer world, we usually expect to see the ripple and noise amplitude to be limited at 1% of the rated output voltage. The bad news is, I see a 120mV ripple and noise on the A-110 power adapter’s 12V output while it is running in full load. It is right on that 1% limit. Maybe, on the A-110’s PCB, there is another stage of the on-board regulator or filter, to filter out the noise. However, higher ripple and noise usually tends to shorten the life-span of the parts inside the adapter. (On the HDX 1000 adapter, the highest noise I can see is 30mV.)


The 120mV noise sitting on the 12V output of A-110's AC Power Adapter

Read the #3 Part of the Popcornhour A-110 Review

Popcornhour A-110 Review #1 - A Bad First Impression turns out to be OK

Introduction

The Popcornhour A-110 provides almost the identical functions and features list as the HDX 1000. I will focus on the unique things I discovered on the A-110 and run through a comparison between the A-110 and the HDX 1000. If you are interested in the A-110’s basic functions / storage options / web services information, you can click on the listed hyperlinks. The links will point you to the related review sections of the HDX 1000. As I mentioned at the beginning, they work almost identical in these areas.


Popcornhour A-110 Front View

Waiting Period for my Popcornhour A-110

I placed my order at the Popcornhour website around October 30th. How soon did I receive my A-110? In about two and a half weeks. Compared to the ridiculous waiting period it took to get the previous version: A-100, the order fulfillment speed was actually very impressive at this time.


Popcornhour A-110 Rear View

Many Networked Media Tank sellers, including Popcornhour and iStarHD, have a bad reputation of charging customers’ credit cards first and delivering machines a month later. One reason that I know for this to happen is they don’t have enough capital to buy materials up front. If you are lucky to place the order at the time when they have already gathered enough orders / money to do a production run, you might be able to get your NMT player soon. Otherwise, you might need to wait. The other reason is those Asian sellers are more like “a manufacturer equipped with an e-commerce website” than a true marketing entity. Sometimes, they are not accustomed to demand forecasting. Sometimes, they simply don’t want to produce enough machines to meet the forecast because of the risk involved to keep a large quantity of stock on hand.

This is where AmperorDirect.com can help. Before NMT can get popular enough to be carried by BestBuy or Amazon, we want to become the place to stock enough inventory and be able ship units within 24 Hrs after receiving orders. We also have a phone number for customers to call to ask questions and will establish ourselves as the RMA and repair center if something within the unit goes wrong.

A Bad First Impression Turns out to be OK

I was not very impressed when I first received my Popcornhour A-110. It arrived by DHL , in a thin plastic bag similar to the below picture. It makes me wonder how my unit survived the international shipment.


DHL Plastic Bag

Inside the plastic bag, there was a box wrapped by a big black nylon-like cover. Usually, this kind of the cover is used on an idling device to keep dust away, not for protection purposes.


The big black nylon-like cover

Sure enough, when I pulled out the package, I noticed a dent on the box. My worries about receiving a damaged A-110 has climbed up to a sky high level.


This is the Condition of the Box I Received


Dents on the corners

When I opened the box, I finally realized the reason behind only using the DHL thin plastic bag for packaging. In the following picture you can see the built-in protection in the box (the white buffering section). Popcornhour must believe the box by itself is strong enough to survive international transportation.


Popcornhour A-110 in the Retail Box w White Buffering Section

I’m not here to complain. My A-110 did arrive without being damaged. However, it is just so different from the now-a-day standard online shopping experience. Pretend you are currently opening a delivery from Amazon.com. No matter how strong the product package is, you can expect to find it sitting securely inside another brown shipping box surrounded by bubble wrap. We customers have been educated so well by this scene that our brain can immediately release an anxiety relaxing signal after seeing it. Although we still have not physically finished tearing up the box, we can now switch our mind set in planning how to enjoy the product.


Shipping Method

Besides, the package itself is a part of the product. If I want to give this out as a gift, I would prefer not to see any dent on package.

Click Here to Read the #2 of the Popcornhour A-110 Review