WD TV

WD TV Media Player

Hooks up to your TV.  Uses WD external hard drives or USB drives.

Anyone have one, or know someone who does?  Experiences, opinions?

Youd be better off with this

http://www.mpcclub.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=821

I have a Western Digital external and just use my wii via homebrew to play videos off it.  Crashes frequently, but it's much easier for me - if you already have a wii, you're set.

Nope, no Wii.  No PS3 or XBox either.  I do all my gaming on the computer which, while near the TV, isn't close enough to hook up a video cable easily.  Sound would also end up coming from the other side of the room, too.

I use my Xbox for this purpose, one of those would only cost you a little bit more ($199.99+the cost of an HDMI cable as opposed to $129.99, and it would give you a lot more options (play files from discs as well as the hard drive, stream content from your PC, play games, stream netflix if you have a netflix account. For even more options, the $299.99 PS3 gives you everything the Xbox offers, minus the netflix streaming, but plus a whole lot more including blu-ray.

My Xbox has always worked great with video playback, so far it has played all I have thrown at it, save for a few broken avi files (a quick run through divfix solved the problem everytime). A quick google search, however, seems to indicate that the 360 has trouble with .mkv files, which need to be converted to an mp4 container (can be done losslessly) in order to function.

I'm planning on getting a Blu-Ray player when the prices start coming down around or just after Christmas.  There are a few sub-$199 players out now and I figure they'll be down to the sub-$150 range by the holidays.

As far as using the game systems, any media file conversion they do is thrown in as a convenience.  Since I'm not going to use it AS a game system, it's a waste of money to me, and would take up more space than the WD TV anyway.

I also prefer to have all my system components be dedicated to what they were designed for.  I'd rather have four boxes that each do one thing well than one box that does four things half-ass.

Ziz said:

I also prefer to have all my system components be dedicated to what they were designed for.  I'd rather have four boxes that each do one thing well than one box that does four things half-ass.

I was trying to explain that the PS3 and 360 are absolutely brilliant in their video playback and streaming abilities, far from half-assed. In fact, the only thing I can think of that keeps these machines (especially the PS3) from being ideal media players is their lack in ability to record. But you are right about the extra money, if you can buy a little box that can do everything they can do just as well as they can for a few dollars less and a lot less shelf space, then that is clearly the way to go.

Yeah, as I said, I'm not doubting the game systems abilities, it's just that they're designed as gaming systems first, and that's primarily what you're paying for.  The rest is just a bonus.  Why spend $200 to $300 for the bonus features when I can get those same bonus features AS the main features for $100?

C3PX said:

I was trying to explain that the PS3 and 360 are absolutely brilliant in their video playback and streaming abilities, far from half-assed. In fact, the only thing I can think of that keeps these machines (especially the PS3) from being ideal media players is their lack in ability to record.

The PS3 can record. The PLAYTV USB add on turns the PS3 into a digital tv receiver and PVR.

PLAYTV