Reddit reviews WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-BD-C6500-1080p-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B00365EVW4

Or if you don't want BD Live memory and wireless built in (both can be added externally to this one):

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-BD-C5500-1080p-Blu-ray-Player/dp/B000B60H0G

There's a Samsung Hulu app, not certain if it's in there or gets added as an update or what. It's got Youtube and Netflix for sure though.

Other stuff:

http://www.amazon.com/Roku-XDS-Streaming-Player-1080p/dp/B00426C57O/
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MC572LL-A-TV/dp/B001FA1NK0/
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-1080p-Media-Player/dp/B003MVZ60I/
http://www.amazon.com/D-Link-DSM-380-Boxee-Box-by/dp/B0038JE07O/
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SMP-N100-Network-Media-Player/dp/B0042SDDXM/
http://www.amazon.com/Viewsonic-NexTV-VMP75-Network-Player/dp/B003JQLI9O/
http://www.amazon.com/Roku-HD1000-High-Definition-Digital-Player/dp/B0000DH8HH/ (an early Roku device, still kinda neat but limited)

Roku is more of an Internet streaming device and less of a local-file playing device. Instead I'd recommend the Western Digital WDTV boxes. You can pick up a WD TV Live Plus 1080p for about $85 on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-1080p-Media-Player/dp/B003MVZ60I, it is DLNA and can play pretty much any file type you throw at it. WD makes a newer model that adds a few new features but I have a few friends that use this model and it works well for them. I have the original version of the WDTV and I love it, but mine isn't a network capable model.

The only hiccup I can see is that you're asking for HDMI-CEC control, and I doubt the WD TV will do that. Unfortunately, CEC is a relatively new technology and getting one brand of device to work with another brand is probably not going to happen just yet. I'd recommend giving the technology a few more years to get better before I'd expect it to work reliably.

You can pick up the WDTV live plus HD refurbished for ~60 bucks.

Many newer cars have bluetooth audio streaming, which is supported in WP7.5. Other than that an auxillery (3.5mm) audio cable would work. For home the Samsung Focus S can run Samsung's AllShare application, which is a DLNA control point. That will allow you to wirelessly browse your home media and stream it to your TV or stereo (assuming your equipment all supports DLNA). If your AV equipment does not support DLNA then check out the Western Digital HD Media Player. Windows 7 can act as a DLNA media server and media player as well.

Well I've just recently purchased a TV after never having one and when I ordered my Pi I was like "wtf am I going to do with it!?" So I decided on a media streamer, since I've got lots of cough digital files. Started with Raspbmc. Install and setup process was super simple, but it crashed all of the time, wouldn't save my video settings and I couldn't play any media local or remote.

So... I switched to OpenELEC. Instant improvement. It liked my SD cards better, saved my settings, install wasn't too difficult (but it does require Linux). Yet it would still constantly crash whenever I tried to open anything.

Tired of constantly dicking around, I ordered an older modeled WD TV Live Plus to use with WDLXTV. To my knowledge the boxes have Netflix licensing and still work even after being flashed with custom firmware. I don't have a Netflix account so it hasn't really been my priority. My main thing is getting something that will play all sorts of files off of NFS in my network.

I'll try to remember and report back ;-)

Enjoy the Cinavia.

On a less depressing note, I just purchased a WDTV Live Plus from Amazon for $90. It does Netflix, Pandora, Flingo, etc... AND... (wait for it)... MKV! (plus a shit tonne of other codecs).

I have been hopelessly waiting for ages for MKV support on my PS3. Rather than add anything, they just keep stripping away my ability to use my PS3 hardware. Fuck Sony. Oh, yeah, and also, Fuck Sony.

What's the point of media centers, htpc's, when they have standalone devices for that that probably use up much less electricity?
wd live hub with 1tb hd

wd tv live plus. can attach fat/ntfs hard drive to this, or stream off the network/internet

This 9/10 plug and play, came with batteries. Not very good for music and photos.

You can stream from the network if you get the WDTV Live+.

Looks like it has even gone down in price since i got mine. Starting at $89... you can't beat that!

(Apologies for being late to this thread)

Not only does Roku not play .avi files, but it has trouble playing the files it is said to be compatible with. I've noticed many of the TV shows in mkv or mp4 play with high success, but 90% of the movie files (even in mp4/mkv/m4v with aac/mp3 audio) still don't play. I get that annoying "retrieving" & "loading" bar that doesn't seem to ever end.

If that wasn't bad enough, ROKU is slow as all heck. Compared to the Apple TV, the ROKU processor speed is like that of an iPhone vs a cheap knock off of the same.

Also Roku doesn't support Youtube anymore. Youtube sent them a c&d letter causing them to pull their channel. There are a couple 3rd party channels that claim to offer some youtube services, but it's super super limited in it's function and content.

Roku's only pros are that it supports 1080p & works with Netflix quite well. So if all you are looking for is streaming movies from your instant que, then Roku will be fine; but if you want to watch videos from your network or USB drive, then be prepared to pull out your hair.

EDIT: Just noticed WD TV LIVE PLUS is selling at Amazon, Newegg, bhphotovideo, and other sites for $89.99 (+freeshipping.) Which is incredibly cheaper than Seagate GoFlex TV $129.99. Plus you can buy a wireless adapter which is fairly cheap using the ethernet/usb where WD TV LIVE PLUS has 2 USB ports; Seagate only has one and they want you to buy their usb wireless adapter for $39.99. Also, reviews for Seagate aren't so good. Lots of bugs & performance issues. Were as WD's reviews have been much more positive.

I came here too say this, right now the WD Live Plus is going for $90. With some custom firmware and an external hard drive, you can make this your torrent and usenet box as well.

I've got an older version than what's currently available, but I doubt they'd remove some thing like that, and no UPNP at all in my setup.

I second this, I use it constantly. Reads SMB shares from my PC and does DLNA out of the box. Has a USB port to plug an external HDD in so you don't even need a NAS. I used a 500mb laptop drive in an enclosure that did not need extra power to operate. Works great.

Side note, it is super low power. I've read it uses under 15w during streaming. Had to look this up because I set it up to control my UPS and turn on my TV when I turned on the WDTV Live. Used so little power the UPS wouldn't detect that it was turned on unless I had a USB drive plugged in.

This Is the one I have, which is now discontinued. Have not tried the new WD TV Live Streaming Player or the cheaper WD TV Play.