Wireless Media Player

[Jolard]

I am looking for some suggestions for a purchase. I really want to buy a Wireless Networked media player that will hook into my TV and Stereo, and will access my media files on my PC, all accessed over my Wifi a or g network.

Some I have seen online seem pretty good (PRISMIQ) until I find out that in order to play DVIX and XVID you have to re-encode in MPEG to get any consistent playback. Others I have seen have no AVI support at all, or limited support at best. It seems it shouldn't be that hard. My PC has enough power and bandwidth to do any encoding necessary on the fly, and then the software should be able to send the re-encoded stream to the box (whatever it is) without too much hassle. But from what I have seen this is a pipe dream still.

Any suggestions? I really would rather spend less than $200, but if there are only more expensive options I will consider them. I need:

801.11a or 802.11g wireless network at 54 or better 108 mps.
DVIX and XVID support
JPEG Support for picture viewing
MP3 support for music playback over stereo.
Reasonable interface.

Any suggestions? It just doesn't seem like anyone has got this right yet. They could make a killing if they got their act together.

[thegrinch]

I have a D-Link 320 media server. It will stream video in xvid but not sure about Divx. It will play music files and photos also. It will not stream live TV.
Another one to look at is a Buffalo Media servier. I think it streams both XVID and DIVX. Someone makes one that streams live tv but not media files.

[Jolard]

I checked ou the D-link, it seemed a lot of people had problems playing DIVX and XVID files, although glad to hear you didn't have a problem.

The Buffalo actually looks promising, although it is still really expensive. Thanks for the suggestions. Any more??

[OvERaCiD23]

Get an Xbox, mod it (flash the TSOP and it's free) and run XBMC. Get a wireless network bridge and you're set. $100-$150 for the Xbox, ~$50-$75 for the wireless bridge. You might be able to get these cheaper or hell, you might already have an Xbox. I don't think you'll beat the functionality of Xbox Media Center (XBMC). And if you wanted, the Xbox even does other things (emulators, games, run Linux). ;)

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi Jolard,

I run (from time-to-time) an ADS Media-Link. It can be connected wirelessly or via an ethernet network.

But for more information about such devices look here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=87751).

And as many of these devices seem to be fitted with Sigma's EM8551 chip-set here's some more info (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=91444) for you to chew over ;)


Cheers