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Indeed. Give me a normal BT client, The Pirate Bay, and VLC any day. I don't need everything running at once, and BT is slow as hell, so I won't be watching my shows for a long time anyway. Actually, I usually DL them to a NAS and watch them on the TV with one of these. It works quite well.

There are at least FIVE DVD players capable of playing high definition video from regular red laser DVD*Rs in MPEG-2 (including ATSC/DVB-T), DivX, WMV, and MPEG-4 (some models), in addition to standard DVDs. Street prices range from about $250 to $430:

IOData AVeL LinkPlayer2
Buffalo LinkTheater
JVC SRDVD-100U
DVICO TVIX-HD M-5000
Zensonic Z500

Most have DVI or HDMI, and all have digital audio outputs.

Most interestingly, these players all have networking included (this is why Fry's has theirs in the network section instead of the DVD section), and some include wireless. So you can play your streams directly from your PC (for example, if you have an ATSC/QAM tuner card) without burning anything!

Inexpensive players! Plentiful burners! Cheap media! Networked playback! HD!

Who needs HD-DVD or Blu-ray!?

Xesdeeni

It already has caught on in a big way for some. I use XBMC to stream audio and video from a media server, and there are other devices out there built to do the same, like MediaMVP, Avel LinkPlayer, D-link DSM-520, and many others. Heck, there's even an entire forum dedicated to such devices over at avsforum.

You might want to consider a networked media player such as the I-O Data AVeL LinkPlayer ProHD. It has CAT5 and I have tested my friend's on my projector and Mac. I did test sending a MPEG2 TS file to the player over ethernet. No problems.

If you are looking at Gigabit Ethernet products, consider the I-O Data UHDL-G400U. It supports larger jumbo frames (the Buffalo can do only up to 7k I believe), has a faster CPU which leads to much faster transfers. It has been available in Japan for a while. Their usa web site list the product, but their web shop is not selling it yet it seems.

If you are looking at Gigabit Ethernet products, consider the I-O Data UHDL-G400U. It supports larger jumbo frames (the Buffalo can do only up to 7k I believe), has a faster CPU which leads to much faster transfers. It has been available in Japan for a while. Their usa web site list the product, but their web shop is not selling it yet it seems.

Then I highly suggest you pick up an AVeL Linkplayer2, supports Divx-HD, and some WM9HD. It can play files either on disc or via networked PCs.

You can find more information at http://www.iodata.com/products/products.php?cat=HN P&sc=AVEL&pId=AVLP2%2FDVDLA&ts=2&tsc=15

From the product page:

"And DHCP server function help you to setup IP address automatically.We guarantee you, your familiy or your guest have an exciting time!"

"Oustside enjoy listening music or shooting photos, and then after going back home, you just insert your gadjet to this USB port. LinkPlayer can pickup inside any files for your relax time."

"LinkPlayer remote controller is not normal. Many buttons for your convinience."

"We will keep to make much effort for your satisfaction. Now the following certifications have already been passed. Also we'll update more after finish. Don't miss anymore."

From the iodata product page:
Supported Video MPEG-1/MPEG-2/DivX® VIDEO/XviD/WMV9

I would wait to see how the reviews pan out with this thing. Besides the very bad english on their product page (here) players like these don't always work up to spec (obvious but still needs to be said at least once). A fact I found very interesting was the "(Testing)" entry next to their DivX support halfway down the page.

Here's what you are looking for. However, it is not available on their store.

I don't know, I have a few IO-Data and Lexar memory sticks for my Clie.

I'm using this product: IDSC21-E. The current price at DeviceNet-USA is $68.00 USD.