Moth3r said:
Considered getting a WDTV and modding it with a firmware to allow it to play disc-based media off a compatible USB optical drive. However, the price is comparable to a standalone BD player with MKV support, which would also have the advantage of being able to play original DVDs and BDs without having to rip/decrypt first.
sadly you wont have menu support for bd discs. but dvd menus will work. the wdtv modders are always improving who knows maybe 1 day. a modded wdtv is the cheapest best alternative to an htpc running a media center. from organizing playlists to moviesheet presentation. but i am a little confused what you meant moth3r. if you are playing a disc from an external optical drive there is no need to rip first. you would rip the disc for storing and playback from an external hard drive. though i see little need for an external optical drive when using a wdtv. most people would own a dvd or bd player already for playing discs. the grand purpose of a wdtv is for media playback from an external hard drive. rip your dvd/bd collection to a hard drive organize by genre or alphabetic folders however you prefer. now there are a few ways to use your hard drive with the wdtv. you can hook up 2 hard drives direct to the player. or more with the usb hub support that comes with the wdlxtv custom firmware. or you can hook all your drives up to your computer and stream media to the player through the use of a wireless router. this is cool feature because you can have a wdtv in every room of the house and stream media to any room in the house from your computer. also i dont know much about the wireless side of the wdtv but it does have support for apps like facebook and others. also the wdtv can be a separate torrent downloader. there are so many functions for wireless networking a wdtv live i dont even know what all it can do. there may be some newer media players that have these functions but i wouldnt know because i have never needed anything more then my wdtv. im starting to feel like a wdtv commercial but i just hate to see people go out and spend way more money for players that can not even compare to a modded wdtv. good luck guys.