Personally the depth of the colors and blacks are a notch better in the normus, and yes it does have an HDMI 1.3 so that takes care of DTS tru HD pass through as well. As for the additional features the normus has inbuilt wifi which allows you to stream movies and music from your wifi network. Also it comes with an internet radio which has about some 20,000 odd free channels or something.
Where the Dvico actually scores on the Normus is that the interface of the Dvico is better than that of the Normus, the interface of the Normus feels a litle animated. The Dvico 6500 is priced at 26-27k from their india distri called Jay multimedia. The Normus9000 is at an mrp of 29000.
They both run on the same Sigma 8635 chipset, even after that picture quality deliverance on the Normus exceeds that of the Dvico.
Though the audio quality in a visibly better on the Dvico, overall i think its what you are looking for. If you want a full HD player with features like internet radio, wifi and small other features like playlist which by the way is not there in the Dvico. Ok another small up for the Dvico is that it can do coverart which is not in the Normus, which though is not really a feature it just makes your interface look better.
The pop corn hour is not officially available in India, yes you can buy it on ebay but if it conks, god help you, this is where you say what can go wrong in these boxes, id say if your unlucky enough ample...i find it safer to stick to what available here through a distri or company incase of issues.
Another box now in india is ellion from elliondigital.
Another box fyi is the HDX from europe, same/similar to the popcprn hour, i think they get made in the same factory, look at the March issue of the what hifi it has reviewed the appletv vs the popcorn hour vs hdx vs linksys. Look at the March issue of the AVmax for Normus reviw, its lower end product gets a best buy recomendation the hi end missed out that stamp due to vfm, overpriced they say.
As for the WD its just a sasta option, cant do much with it...6500 is again the grey market price onit, officially at 11,000 in bombay.
I have spent a lot of time on boxes right from the vidabox to the teatro to the Dune (oh yeah look at the dune too its from israel), and sunfire so i happen to know a litle on these, though not very technical i know a litle.
Everything here is in good vein....
Well no where it mentions that it has HMDI 1.3a specifications (the NTS 7500 mentions HDMI 1.1 - that means DTS - True HD audio passthrough HMDI is not allowed nor is high colour)
Audio : FLAC is not supported as of now
Overall experience: It does not have sufficient following like the Popcorn hour A110, Elektron 606, Dvico 6500/7000 or even the dragon tech 100HD (a very new entrant - a clone of the A110 + better specs).
VFM: We dont know the price yet
In india after shipping
the popcorn cor A110 should be around 15-16k (including 3k as customs)
Ditto for the dragon tech 100HD
Dvico 6500 should be around 23-24k, available in India for 26-28k from distributor.
NAS : Network array storage: Its nothing but a terminology that all (TVCIO it requires a lil more effort) network media tanks/players use to connect to other computers/servers/devices in a paritcular network using wifi or normal lan. All of then can connect to the net, view pictures/videos from youtube, picasa etc, watch free services like saya tv. Some of them can add on a digital tuner/receiver and function as a full function dvr.
So on what grounds do you claim that Normus is good - while all of the above i mentioned are manufactured in China as well all of them are decently built and have a great fan following. And though the dvico 6500 is expensive it is very versatile and i have seen the DVICO in action - its good. Though i am yet to see a popcorn hour in action.
PS: Next time you make a statement like this do weigh in the factors that made you make a tall claim such as this.
[/QUOTE]