STB recommendations?

M

Mohonri

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 29, 2005
Messages
5,772
Up until recently, I've had my HTPC hooked up to our TV, almost exclusively playing movies from a file server (samba share). I'd like to replace it with something smaller and less power-hungry. Several months ago, I was looking at the WD TV Live Plus, but is there a better or cheaper alternative out there? Here's what I need:

--play xvid, mkv, h264, etc (the more codecs, the better)
--decode 1080p
--pull movies across the network
--hulu (required) capability

bonus features (i.e. great if I can get them) would include
--Netflix watch instantly
--bittorrent client

features I don't care about
--local storage

Should I go ahead and get the WD TV Live Plus, or is there a better option?
 
I just got, and Rooted an Apple TV2 , slapped XBMC on it and it works better than any $99 STB ive ever use. The WDTV has a slow and clunky interface, and coming form a HTPC you will find this even more painfully slow. You still retain netflix capability on the ATV2 with a root, and it plays great over a 10/100 network. If you dont want to mess with rooting a device, (which is very easy) get a boxee box.
 
Forgot to mention... The Apple TV2 will decode 1080p but will only output 720p, still looks beautiful to me, but if that's important to you, definitely a limitation.
 
I've heard good things about the WDTV - mainly that it can play almost anything. So it's higher price may be worthwhile if that is something you are looking for.
 
MrSmegzabush said:
Forgot to mention... The Apple TV2 will decode 1080p but will only output 720p, still looks beautiful to me, but if that's important to you, definitely a limitation.
Click to expand...
Oh! I didn't know that--I was under the impression that ATV2 output 1080p. While that's not an issue right now (no HDTV yet), that could well become an issue in the not-too-distant future.
guachi said:
I've heard good things about the WDTV - mainly that it can play almost anything. So it's higher price may be worthwhile if that is something you are looking for.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's the big selling point for me so far as well--its wide array of formats. So WD still have done nothing to improve the performance of its UI?
 
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