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A Cheap and Easy Network Digital Media Player?

Posted by Cliff on from the so-easy-your-cat-can-use-it dept.

hethatishere asks: "Does such a thing exist? Better yet, is it easy enough for my parents to use? PRISMIQ seems to offer a pretty good one, but it has very limited codec support. D-Link also offers a wireless Media player, but it too struggles with the copious number of codecs available. So is there a cheap and affordable Wireless Networked Media Player, that supports most if not all common and advanced codecs (DivX, XviD, and various wrappers like MKV and OGG, etc), or is this still a pipe dream?"

3 of 59 comments (clear)

  1. MediaMVP by Jjeff1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    I hear the MediaMVP from hauppauge is really nice, especially for 99$ US. A friend of mine has one and streams all his movies from a PC in his house. It does music, video (including divx) and stills. You can skin the interface if you don't like the canned one.
    On the downside, it requires you to install software on your PC, which I think is windows only, don't know if there is a OSS server yet for it. Also, if you intend to watch divx movies, you'll need a 1.8 Ghz CPU or better. Apparently the box is some type of VNC client, and the software turns your PC into a VNC server.

  2. Squeeze Box by MJArrison · · Score: 3, Interesting
    A Squeeze Box is exactly what you're looking for. I got one a few months ago. It is a god send. Both wired and wireless versions are available. It's a little more expensive than the major brand counterparts that you mentioned, but it is:
    • totally open sourced
    • served with perl
    • capable of every codec imaginary
    • capable of digital and analog output

    I love it!
    1. Re:Squeeze Box by Khakionion · · Score: 3, Funny

      capable of every codec imaginary

      Damn, I've got to get me some of that.

      --
      OMG! Wau!