Might want try looking on amazon.com. They have some with reviews. I haven't tried them though. Looks like it would be fun to have! Good luck.

My company bought one from one of the club stores, it is on wheels, is little and works great. Was not terrribly expensive.

From reading on a home theater forum, you need a warming tray (the bottom is heated). This drys out the popcorn after it is popped.
Good luck

Not sure about taste or quality but I saw one at Sam's last night for $199.00.

Good questions. I've seen them on the internet for sale but never bought one. Are they really worth the hassel over just using the microwave?

I own one of the ones that are featured at Sams/Costco/etc. The brand and model is Nostalgia Electrics CCP-509.

The kettle is a 4oz size which pops roughly 1.5 times the amount normally yielded by microwave popcorn bags. But it is very easy to just pop several batches in a row and let them sit in the base of the unit where the warming tray is located. Popcorn tastes better if it has a chance to thoroughly dry out all the steam involved in the popping process. The warming tray helps in that regard.

It's (obviously) more "hassle" than microwave, but the finished product in my opinion tastes better, and let's face it...it's fun to have your own popper, particularly if you have a dedicated home theatre.

The usual price for this model is around $250 but if you hunt around you can find them for less than that (try amazon, which is where mine came from). There is one at Costco supposedly without the wheeled cart/stand that is around $169, so if you don't need a stand, that might be an option. Of course, there are better quality models (read higher-priced) out there but I've been very pleased with the quality of mine, especially considering the price.

I participate in a Home Theatre forum on the web that has lots of discussion of Poppers, but I don't want to overstep the local rules here by sharing that address. Hope this post provided some helpful info.

we also have a media room and wanted a popcorn machine, however, a decorator told me that the oil and popcorn smell will get into the fabric in the room and you cannot get the smell out. just be careful. we just microwave the popcorn

well well mjrdolfan nice to see ya over here LOL

We have a popper - haven't noticed smell/oil permeation but the unit sits tucked away around the corner from the home theater, in the bar.

We have quite a few parties that we use our popcorn machine for, so we needed the larger size than most of the 'sold to the public' kind, but couldn't believe the cost of one. We ended up calling a local company that rents them out to large events and does repairs on them and he had one that had just been refurbished that he sold to us for less than half the price of a new one. It works fantastic. The trick to really good flavor is really good popcorn, so try some different brands until you find one you like. It turns out SO MUCH BETTER than microwave popcorn and feeds a large crowd quicker. We have leather couches, so there was no issue with residual smell or oil splattering.

We don't have room in our media/pub for a machine, but on this rainy day in So California, it would be really cool!