Media players. Help!

[mikeey01]

In a sea full of shite there must be some good ones in my price range, but which one?

I'm in the market for an HDMI Media Player and I'd like it to have;
- HDMI output
- 100mb nic
- usb 2.0 HDD support
- internal hdd is not that important but it would be nice to have a free bay for either 2.5 or lrg sata hdd.

I've looked at the specs on the "Noontec MovieHome V8 Pro" the "A C Ryan PlayOn! HD" to name but a few....
I'm stuffed if I can sort the wheat from the ......

So if you had a max of $300 which media player would you get and why that one?

[pete376403]

http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?ItemID=382843

looks ok and has positive reviews. If I hadn't alread bought a cheap-ass MP from catch-of-the-day I'd give this consideration.

[ttnz]

I currently use an chipped xbox (original) running 720p composite cable and optical audio, and stream video and music from the pc

its not just about what you can play its the interface and being able to have your video library and covers automatically added with XBMC http://xbmc.org/

unfortunately the old xbox struggles hardware wise to keep up with the visual performance.

Dlink are about to release in november in the US and Aus the BOXEE which runs a modified version of XBMC also free software you can use on a pc or media pc

this will have the added HD capabilities and able to stream direct from the web youtube hulu etc and will access twitter and facebook as an add on app and will retail for $200 US http://www.boxee.tv/box



this is what i will update to as soon as available.

download bothe