Network Media Players

[Therac-25]

Now that I've got some unlimited internet going, and a rube goldberg setup to get content, burning things to DVDs is getting... tiring.

So, I'm looking for recommendations on UPnP MediaRenderers that anyone might have any experience with. I'll be accessing content over an internal GB network, and there are CAT-6 drops in the wall behind my TV, so wireless is a non-issue.

I've briefly looked at the D-Link ones, but they all seem to focus on Wireless, which seems like a waste.

Any recommendations in this department?

[Fender]

edit: wrong product see below

[Therac-25]

I tossed around buying one of these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817716028

Umm, that either looks like the wrong link, an intentional non-sequitur, or a failure on my part to communicate what I'm talking about.

I'm looking for a media player for the living room, that I can plug into the network, and it can access my stuff over the network. Either through mounting network filesystems, or UPnP, or whatever (just not USB). DLink has a few, but I was just hitting people up for opinions on awesome ones or crappy ones before I go hunting. Ideally I'd like something with solid Ethernet hardware, so streaming HD content doesn't hurt.

[Fender]

my bad, wrong product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822344001
http://www.galaxymetalgear.com/products ... r_pro.html

UPnP and Bonjour servers and BitTorrent client

[Therac-25]

my bad, wrong product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822344001
http://www.galaxymetalgear.com/products ... r_pro.html

UPnP and Bonjour servers and BitTorrent client

I've got access to a UPnP server, I'm looking for a Media Player that can be a UPnP client.

[Fender]

Oh...

hack an old xbox or get a 360 or PS3?

[Therac-25]

Oh...

hack an old xbox or get a 360 or PS3?

Yeah, I'm thinking about that. I don't have an old xbox, so if I had to get something, I could just go with the PS3. I was hoping to find something a bit less conspicuous, though :-) I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with that class of devices beyond the obvious.

[Fender]

How powerful are the micro/nano/pico-ITX boards now? Could you build something small and silent that will still do HD?
Claims this will do full 1080p HD @ 30% CPU: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=34#jnc62k
~$250 for MB, CPU and memory, no PSU, HD or case...

[Therac-25]

How powerful are the micro/nano/pico-ITX boards now? Could you build something small and silent that will still do HD?
Claims this will do full 1080p HD @ 30% CPU: http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=34#jnc62k
~$250 for MB, CPU and memory, no PSU, HD or case...

Was thinking about that in a discussion with a coworker today. I realized that half the stuff I download are in mkv files, with different audio/subtitle streams, etc, etc. I can't just assume everything will be in one codec, so I don't know how useful an off-the-shelf solution is going to be anyways.

I didn't especially feel like building another box, but I'll take a look at the options. That's a pretty sweet looking board, mini-itx quad core phenom? I'd rather spend the money on more storage, though. It's going to be >$500 before everything's done, after case, psu, cpu, ram, blu-ray drive etc. I can get away without a drive on it, boot from a flash drive and get media from the network.

Thanks for the link, I might have to wait a while before I get to that, though. I'll live with burning Xvids to DVD for now.